Project: Bodywork

[WE3RX7]

Although from like 50 ft away the body looks pretty good on my GSL-SE... but thats an illusion of duplicolor rattle can on the bad spots and the fact that the big dents blend away... the previous owner did some touch ups to make it look ok, but this SE, needs tons of work.

I want to start by saying I AM NOT A BODY GUY. I've dabbled in repairs before, but nothing to the extent this car is going to need. My goal is to get it done for DGRR and I'm traveling for business the next week and will be out of town for Easter the end of march, so I really only have two weekends, one in which I'll need to spray the car. Needless to say, my weeknights are going to be long and in the garage!

I started the body work off by what I perceive to be the biggest problem. The car looks like somebody backed into the drivers quarter panel making a ton of little dents and one big one. The problem is that its RIGHT on the bend of the fender where the metal has the most resistance.

I am going about this the old way since I dont have a stud welder or any fancy body work equipment. I'm using the old slide hammer and screw routine that will be followed up with body filler, etc.

I started tackling this tonight and could tell that this wasnt going to be easy. I'm happy with the results thus far and have faith that it will turn out alright, but its going to take a TON of patience (which I have) and time (which I have not). Here's hoping. And please, anybody w/ bodywork experience want to throw some pointers at me, go for it, lol...

[WE3RX7]

First pic is of the initial dent. Its big, its ugly and it has lots of little friends all around it that will make this a trick.

I started in the next series of pics by drilling the small hole to insert a screw that I could attach the slide hammer dent fitting to and gave some quick but precise yanks. The dent started to pull out, but was not "popping" back into its preformed shape. I guess its due to the location of the damage and how its RIGHT on that bend.

I continued with two more holes & yank combos 1" apart, trying not to get to close to each so that it doesnt weaken the metal. I feel I may get the general shape back, but will have to rely on the filler to close in the 1/4" low spots here and there.

[WE3RX7]

Finally I started making additional holes and working my way down the dent, applying more or less pressure to the slide hammer as needed.

I also started working my way down a little ways as the dent had made a few friends during the impact with whatever it was that hit it.

You can see the area that I sanded down and where the holes were is rising up and slowly becoming part of the original shape of the quarter panel.

However, if you look in the last pic down and towards the door, there are more ripples, but that should come out once I get closer to finishing. I'll probably end up skimming the quarter panel with filler and having to spray some dark primer when I get close to check for low/high spots.. This quarter panel will probably take me a week at least.

luckily the rest of the body is just simple dings which are easy. The passenger fender which is just going to be replaced, the hood will be replaced and the header panel will be replaced. The rest of the body is good to go.

[WE3RX7]

To wrap up the night I wanted to seal the bare metal holes just in case I dont have time to work on it tomorrow and I leave Weds for a business trip and not that I fear moisture in my garage, but I'm a little over protective when it comes to this stuff.

I also wanted to spray it with a darker color to check out the progress and see where I'll need to start up work again next time.

At worse, the car will at least be in primer for DGRR, lol..

[blwnrtr93]

Slide hammers are difficult to use and get good results on imports. It'd probably come out a little better with less holes to fill with a body hammer and dolly. I wish I had used a hammer and dolly on my 240 so it wouldn't have looked like Woody the Woodpecker had tripped acid and attacked the rear-quarter.

[WE3RX7]

Lol - yea, thats somewhat how it looks right now.

I'd use a hammer and dolly, but I cant get to the panel from behind without cutting open the inner fender which I dont want to do since I dont have a welder onsite to put it back together when I'm done.

My goal is to use as few and as tiny of holes as possible....

[WE3RX7]

Project continues.

I took about a week and half off as I was in PR for business for 5 days and while I was out, I had a potential buyer for the car so I held off doing any work until he decided he wanted the car or not...

As much as its always nice to sell a car and pay some bills off, I'm glad he decided not to get the car - even as I drove it to meet him I loved it... even with all its little issues and body damage - its still fun.

So back to the bodywork. I skipped some pics, but needless to say I've been running the filler now.

Going in light coats to save my elbows.. got the holes all filled up and gone and now I'm just working the panel back into the original shape.

I ran out of my 100 grit paper though and using 220 on raw filler just gunks up way to quick so I had to call it a night.

You can see in the pics the low spots I'm still dealing with, but its coming together two more light to medium filler coats should finish it up. Each coat I feather farther and farther away to blend it all in. I also need a longer sanding block as this panel is curved and makes it hard w/ my 6" block!

Onto the pics...

[WE3RX7]

To finish up the night since I didnt want to feel like it was not as full of progress as possible, I started to remove the molding. What a PIA that turned out to be... turns out my GF is the only girl I know who doesnt own a blow dryer, so I used my space heater to work them loose... and to top it off, i have entire bottle of goo gone that is now MIA!

More pics tomorrow - I hope to have the quarter panel finished this week before going out of town again this weekend.

I also located a new header panel and upper part of the driver's mirror, so now I just need a passenger fender!

[Polito Racing]

looking good. good work

[blwnrtr93]

If you can't find your goo gone, try rubbing alcohol. I used it to get the decals off my celica. takes a little rubbing with a paper towel but the results were the same.

[WE3RX7]

i had a scraper that was working fairly well, but it broke. I'll use some goo gone or the rubbing alcohol tonight. The nice part is, since I'm repainting the car, i'm not too worried about little scratches, etc...

[WE3RX7]

Holy crap do I hate pin stripes and stock molding.

I did however go out and buy a better sanding block and it makes a HUGE difference in my arms and how long the paper lasts!

Just thought I'd toss up another pic - round 3 of the filler. Whats nice though is I can finally see the shape of the quarter panel returning. The only problem is when it hit, it pushed it "up" as well which I beat down and filled in as best I could but I know it wont look perfect.

My plan is to get it painted and I'll throw some "MAZDA" SCCA solor banners on the quarter panels to distract the eye, lol..

I also starting blocking the drivers door and only found a few low spots..

I got sidetracked installing my new shift boot which turned out to be a POS too, but oh well ... cant wait to get this sucker painted!

[WE3RX7]

So I got my new mirror put on (kind of counter-productive since i'll be removing it to paint the car, but oh well).

I also started scuffing the rest of the car in preparation for primer.

I'm still working on the rear quarter and as I've now learned - bodywork deserves to be expensive! Its not a quick gig -

My plans have shifted a little now. I dont think the car will be able to make DGRR. Gas prices are too high to take two cars and I'd rather take the 8 at this point.

So for now, I'll finish the body work, scuff and primer and then shoot some paint towards mid April.... haven't 100% decided on a color though...

More pics tonight...

[WE3RX7]

So I'm bringing this thread back. I have the car up for sale, but have been actively working on it for a while.

I replaced the header panel finally. Body work on the rear quarter is coming along. I actually think it'll turn out 92% - the rest will be solved w/ wider body fenders someday after paint.

The area behind the drivers window is beyond my capability - so I'm just going to sand it down, paint it and live w/ the dings for now. Will try to locate a targa band to go over top of it at some point.

The only things left are to put the new hood on, get a passenger fender and replace the rear bumper. If it doesn't sell, it should be painted by June.

Here are some pics.

[nocargreg]

If it doesn't sell I might have to buy it by June.

[WE3RX7]

I've had lots of people come out, say its good - the price is great and then nada. I'm not sure what the deal is. The more I work on it though - the higher my price goes :)

If it makes it to paint before it sells, you can believe it's worth over $2k all day long as good as it runs... I'm going to start engine work this week and take a break from the body (just want to replace some gaskets, hoses, etc).