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

[cheela]

you got such a great attitude for a guy being hit twice. Your prep work is amazing so i'm pretty sure your front end will match the rest of your car soon.

[enderswift]

you got such a great attitude for a guy being hit twice. Your prep work is amazing so i'm pretty sure your front end will match the rest of your car soon.

Oh believe me I was pretty ticked off right after the second accident, but theres no good reason in staying that way when theres a lot paperwork to prepare and parts to collect. As far as my prep work goes, I have a surprisingly large amount of things to take apart in the front. Unfortunately theres clips galore so its gonna be fun searching for clips again... The ultimate goal is to keep it looking as close to new as possible until I graduate and can start turning it into the GT4 I've always wanted

i love chromabase.
good stuff.

the clear you have is on the lower end of the spectrum, but still flows decent, and has good holdout (meaning how long it holds its shine before it starts to dull)
at the pricepoint of that stuff, its hard to beat, and definetly does the job (before we switched over to PPG we used the same clear for most everything but the highest end stuff.)

my price on a gallon of high end clear, and appropriate hardener ect is over 400$ lol

heh, I figured the clear wasn't all that good but they guys at the supply shop said I could do a lot worse. Plus my car is usually coated in a 3 inch layer of turtle wax so I think I should be good for a loooooong time what clear do you use? PPG? just in case I have to do this all over again in 3 weeks

I cant agree enough about the chromabase, the color match is fantastic

This post has been edited by enderswift: Aug 7, 2010 - 9:34 AM