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=Bodywork 1= |
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Okay, I wrecked the car. Every door closed is another door opened. I got an estimate for full bodywork and paint on my car earlier this year. $4650 for all of it... including quarter repair, taillight panel replacement, dent removal, prep, paint, and color sanding. I will have to do disassembly and reassembly of trim and such, but I can live with that. I did not ask them for a show quality job, but I have a feeling they will let nothing less leave their shop. My wife told me January to get it done. So here we are. I have to get the front bodywork done, and so I figure I can save some money and get everything done now. The insurance company matched the shop estimate, so I think we are good to go. I spoke with the shop, and they are telling me that in order to get the whole thing done, I need to give them $3200 plus parts. Since I have the $2750 insurance check, I am almost there. I have a line on a parts car with a perfect doghouse on it, so I will be getting my parts there. The remaining parts will be sold off to cover the costs of the job. I have started doing some things on my own. I obviously need to start stripping the car, and I also wanted to start stripping the rubberized undercoating crap and painting with POR 15. I decided to try the fender first. Here are the results.
Another casualty of the indiscriminant undercoating application was the front fender marker light. I had to do something! Here is what I started with and ended up with:
I also had to strip the crap off the backing brackets. I found a coffee can and soaked them in gas. After just 15 minutes the gas looked more like tar, and the brackets could not be seen.
I found a zinc cadmium coating on some of the part. This must have been the original finish. I might take the time to go that far, but in all likelyhood I will just get them powdercoated. I was thinking I would like a coating to stand out against the black POR, but then, who is gonna see it anyway? |
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