Restoration Part 3!, All fixed. For now... Options

[enderswift]

Halloween 2009 some douche got beyond drunk and bashed into my parked celi before speeding off . I found the damage a few hours later and aside from an internal cuss-fest I kept my cool and was really relieved to see that there was no mechanical damage. Pictures say a thousand words so observe:


this picture is from when it first happened and doesn't really convey the magnitude of the damage, I seriously thought the rear suspension was boned. I'll post fresh pictures soon, they'll show my sad looking (but effective) attempt at rust proofing.


After saving every penny from my summer job while scouring the world for parts, paint, good advice, and someone to trust my celi to, I finally have everything in order


(thats $300 in paint supplies right there, the majority of which was the insanely expensive toyota 3l2. That taillight was damn near impossible to find for a reasonable price)

I just cant be happier right now. Ill finally be able to wax my celi without wondering if I'm an idiot for waxing a ruined exterior (I figured a dent isn't an excuse to neglect the whole paint job!) also, I'll finally be able to pull up somewhere or go on a date w/o cringing every time my drivers side is displayed

So now the next order of business is to take a few things apart before delivery to my body guy. The rear bumper has to be removed together with the taillight, mirror, power antenna, front head light, sideskirt, and window trim. I'm paranoid about having someone else work on my car so I insisted on being as involved as possible. In fact, If I had the time I would learn body work and fix this on my own. Too bad university has to be so time intensive while body work is a skill that comes with lots and lots of experience..Either way until I graduate I'd rather have someone fix this thing rather than count on my rustproofing to hold up.

I'll post pics of the tear down soon

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jun 2, 2011 - 8:34 PM

[enderswift]

The time has come. The celi is (almost) completely prepped and awaiting the hopefully skilled touch of my body guy. here are some photos of how it looks at the moment. Looks like it belongs in a junk yard haha:



you can see how the rear quarter panel was pinched against itself right where it meets the rear bumper. Luckily for me the suspension wasn't involved in the hit; and in-fact it looks like the celi rolled with the punch and mostly deflected the impact taking the rest along the door and front fender. Either way I'm glad I choose to do all of the dissassembly since it took alot of effort and patience to do it the right way. I dont think anyone else would have been so thorough. Now im gonna have the peace of mind knowing that the car was repaired properly without any mis-matched bolts, cracked tabs, missing parts, ect ect ect. Also it looks like my rustproofing handled the Chicago winter pretty well



as bad as the damage looks from the outside, all of the inner panels were untouched and everything lines up properly



I decided to remove the headlight just in case it gets in the way of spraying the fender. The last thing i want is over spray -_-




okay this upper trim is making me angry. does anyone know how to remove it? Its the only thing that I have left to take off and I really dont want to break anything. .





I tried to be as organized as possible, bagging and labeling bolts that I couldn't leave attached to whatever they went with. I also took care to make sure not to damage any parts once they were out of the car. Cant stress enough how irritating it is to break stuff while trying to fix something. needless to say im gonna have to buy a bunch or replacement clips haha, but those are nothing to worry about.



The tools of the trade, thats a my whole college-freshman-winters worth of checks right there. Money well spent

IM EXCITED!!!!!!! nice un-dented cars =ftmfw

but again anyone have a good idea as to how to remove that upper door trim?? I gotta drop this car off tomorrow!

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jul 7, 2010 - 12:14 AM