RobzWorkz#1: CRASH and Body Repair

Sorry...haven't met George Riley...I work in the Cobb county research facility for GTRI...would like to meet though.

Thanks,

Rob.

 

Very nice job, very impressive work, from another GT guy. BME class of '92 and still living in Marietta. I hope to see your car out on the road soon!

 

I have finished the work on the body. All that's necessary is to finish the bumper and the spoiler over the engine. I drove today and all went well. I was test-driving to check the gearbox after freshening the shifter and shift shaft. I will be doing a thread on that soon.

BTW, the hole on top of the fender is access for the antenna.

Rob
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

haha

I actually talked to them after they did some insurance work to my wifes yellow dodge truck, some kid in a ford ranger smoked the passenger side of the truck and when i picked it up I asked the painter if he could do it and for how much and thats how it started.

He did alot of side work so it was a great deal for me.

 

Looking forward to seeing that. I like the RobzWorkz series so far -- keep em coming!

 

Wow - how did I miss this thread?!?

This is great stuff, Rob!

Show 'em how it's done!


I wonder how many times you walked back and forth from one side of the car to the other and moved your head around to see that reflections on both sides have the same shape and curvature . . .

Thanks for posting!


Best regards,

Tony K.

 

at least 300...

 

I just finished going through the whole thread... The results are amazing. I'm really impressed with the sheen/finish of the spray-can paint job!

 

Thought you'd say 328 times... exactly.

 

All,

Over the last few months, I have blend-painted, wet-sanded, and polished the body on my 328; I am fairly satisfied and think the paint will last several years, before I would want to strip and re-finish the entire car. The problem was, that, the re-paint of the 328 as received was inferior enough to cause me to have to strip areas and re-paint while blending the color. This was especially true for the intake ports in the doors/rear fenders.

Pic 1 shows that finished rear right quarter adjacent the right door, showing the improper paint match. I had to blend the paint to look good enough. This can be seen in pic 2. The paint is blended well-enough for enjoying the car for the next several years. The method used for paint improvement is disclosed in the following Meguiars video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPdShfeakzw

Note that I used Meguiars # 85, #84 and # 80 for this effort; I will apply actual wax after about a year to allow the fresh-paint to fully cure. The remaining pics were taken today and show the completed effort. They include various lighting conditions. The last ones are with my son, Matthew. Time to enjoy the car a little...
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thread of the year; really glad this worked out for you. Well done! I was sick seeing the damagae; what was your total time & costs to fix?
Kevin

 

Hey Rob, you should be very proud. Again, hats off to you. It looks great!

Even though your kid is cute, and I love pics of my kids around my car, please tell him to stop leaning on the car! He might somehow dent the door! I bet he doesn't he realize he might be a little accident prone like his old man! Doesn't he know how much time and energy you just put in to fixing the rear?!

 

Bravo- nicely done....

 

Amazing reconstruction results. Did you consider pulling out the metal under heat rather than removing pieces?

Also, did you take any pictures of the opposite offending object (what the car hit)? I keep looking in the pictures for evidence of damage to the garage and saw none.

 

I forgot to post this pic which best shows the blending of the paint.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Answer to Paul_308: I caused this crash all by myself It's posted up front.

Answer to Wolfgang 5150: I spent most of last winter learning techniques and fixing the body. I had everything painted last spring. Since the paint was insufficiently matched, I decided to go ahead and freshen all of the body with blending, wet-sanding and componding/buffing. I ran into a few snags because some areas of the former repaint were improperly adhered and I had to fix. The areas painted (some here, some there, and a little all over) should be fully cured by next summer; I will apply wax then; for now, the Speed Glaze is sufficient. Total cost for materials and tools was about 2K.

Answer to jgoodman: Thank You. My kid is awesomely-cute (especially when his hair grows out a little...he's buzzed right now); also, most of the areas on the car, being steel-bodied are not really affected with him leaning on it; I often had to lean on it to get up from work; the area most susceptable to being damaged is on the top areas of the front (fenders/wings and the aluminum front lid/bonnet)...avoid leaning here al all.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

You have done well for what you had to work with. You mention spending a considerable amount of time repairing the quarter. A significant reduction in this time could have been realized by welding/brazing a couple of small sheetmetal tabs to the primary impact points on the edge of the panel and pulling the panel back to shape. This pull if done properly would have eliminated or greatly reduced the need to cut and fabricate . If your looking for additional info on repairs or metalworking check out the metalshaping website at ,

http://metalmeet.com/forum

 

That's a reasonable point. I tried the slide hammer thing without success...there was just too much impact stress in that corner...no budging at all. I was hoping to fine a patch corner panel, but the only things available were the rear quarter and back panel, costing at least 3K to get delivered to me. Also, I would have had to deal with removing much more than I did just to get to the spot welds.

 

I just read through this thread in its entirety, and I have to commend you on your amazing work! I cannot even begin to fathom the craftsmanship involved in a project like this (I worry about door dings as if they're a huge fix!).

Congrats on getting her back to looking new!

Theo