1886 replies to this topic

[Heath]

Well, decided that the weather is improving so it's probably a good time to start hitting the LX with some bodywork. No garage to work in, so i decided to steal mum's carport

Here's the last time it will look like a real car for a fair while.



Plan is to strip her down, and bare metal anything suspicious or anything needing panel-beating/rust repairs etc obviously, and paint it in 2pac around Chrissy, to have it on Club rego for the start of the new year, or not too far into it anyway. *fingers crossed*

Gonna clean up the insides of the guards, doorjams, floorpan, boot etc, but the engine bay won't be touched until new motor goes in mid next year maybe? All depends on school and income.

My main challenge:

How she's looking now.

[Heath]

Yeah I'm kinda tempted to do that, and then respray it later on... I dunno.

Gotta get rid of the rust before it gets registered, but that is a tempting suggestion. I dunno

Wheels... well yeah I didn't want the car to actually look attractive from the street, so I left the stockies on that side

[racean69]

Plenty of work ahead of you there.

I too would suggest just fix what needs fixing don't make your job bigger than it needs to be and to easy to loss the momentum and get down hearted by the size of the job.
Just my 2c worth.

Good luck mate.

[MRLXSS]

Bout time u put some pics up heath! i had forgotten what your car looked like!

I say just do a quick paint job now then do the shmick job later on, thats what im planning to do, just have something respectable to drive around for the first few years!

Maybe u should spend less time on here and more on the car !

[Heath]

At the end of the day it needs to be painted. And I want to weld quite a few spots around the car, there is a lot of bodywork to do in different places around the whole thing.

There are dints everywhere that piss me off. Bog that has expanded over time and has made the panels look like shit. When I start bolting red doors on to get a straiter body, i'm gonna want to paint it badly, so I figure i should get it out of the way now...

I dunno, there are so many areas of the car i want to do attend to that I would end up "touching up" 2/3 of the bodywork area.

[MRLXSS]

You do have Two years though before you really want it on the road, so you might as well just get it out of the way now! I forgot that Sedan doors etc a cheap compared to hatch ones, so you could get perfect doors, gaurds etc and get a really neat job very easily! I had to work with what i had to make my car look ok! lol

[makka]

just give it a quick spray job like I did to mine, then when you get more time do a better job. I could respray my car in a couple of days now, as its straight, it would only need a quick rub then its ready to go.......

[Heath]

I've got plenty of time to prep it. Sadly I have no experience doing bodywork (if anyone wants me to teach me... ) but yeah hopefully I'll slowly work through it and get it pretty good by November or something, then paint it during the Holidays at some point (in VCE i have extended holidays - at least I think so).

It will never be perfect, but swapping panels over will get me a fair distance by itself. Pretty stripped for cash atm too... It'll work something out anyway

Edited by Heath, 06 September 2006 - 05:21 PM.

[RIM-010]

Lookin good Heath.

"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly."

I'd have a go at the full respray, it'll be easier in the long run.

Good luck with it all, whatever you do.

RIM

[Toranavista]

Keep the pics coming Heath. Mint julep always looks fresh. Mint julep is a great starting point.

[Heath]

That one will be on hold for a while. Early-mid next year I wanna get stuck into it, a lot of grinding and welding will be involved and I'm not really capable of that work just yet.

The Torana is the main priority atm, then school, then Torailer

[Heath]

Valid arguments, but:

Gonna clean up the insides of the guards, doorjams, floorpan, boot etc, but the engine bay won't be touched until new motor goes in mid next year

Won't be anything to be damaged. When the 202 comes out, nose cone and front guards will come off, I'll bare metal everything infront of the firewall and cut out rust, weld in replacements, smooth it all out and paint it in satin black (like it is now, only done properly), chuck the new donk in and then bolt the panels back on.

Zero risk of any damage occurring. Unless of course I do something stupid when the nice motor goes in.

[Heath]

hehe sadly it is a fair distance, thanks for the offer though.

I remember hearing something like all engine bays were satin black except for SS hatches.

Mine won't be anything like a factory car (visually; drivetrain won't be that hot) but I'm sticking with factory colours because I love them.

[Heath]

Don't have the skills, time or money to do a Bare Metal respray.

Whatever I need to bare-metal, I will do with a wire-brush drill attachment.
The labour, bog, thinners, primers and paints will cost me enough... Ontop of that I have to find people who will lend me their welding equipment for different sections etc.

Complicated and expensive enough as is, despite how tempting it is to do it 'properly'. Besides, sand-blasting costs like $800 or more which is close enough to the value of my car. The paintjob I do might stick around three to ten years in total.

Edited by Heath, 07 September 2006 - 07:28 PM.

[Joshua]

You should do it all the first time, because if you just patch it up and get it going, it'll suck to have to take it off the road just to do more work to it, especially if you sanding back parts of the car for rust repairing cause you'll just have to do it again for the spray painting

we'll thats what i recon anyway

Edited by Joshua, 07 September 2006 - 07:43 PM.