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]

wish i would've done the same thing as you when I got mine fixed.

[enderswift]

wish i would've done the same thing as you when I got mine fixed.

what do you mean? you wish you could redo?

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I know that eventually I'll get everything done the way its supposed to be. I mean, statistically it HAS to go my way eventually haha.

Quick update:

I decided to hold off on mounting the new radiator support until I get the car back from the respray. I figure theres no point to offend the man (especially when he has my car). That said, I stopped by his place today to drop off the paint and we ended up talking about the car and what would happen in the coming days. I made sure to emphasize the fact that I've dumped virtually all of my summer earnings into the car so he knows that I wont be happy with something that looks 'alright' to any passerby. I want the car to look as if it was never in an accident. From there we arranged to have me bring the car back on Monday afternoon and started talking about my AC system. Originally I was gonna go over to autozone and rent a vacuum pump along with pressure gauges to refill the AC on my own (and to make a how-to for 6g). However, he offered to let me use his snap on pump and guages. I wasn't about the turn down a chance to use quality tools over potentially crappy autozone stuff so I refilled the AC right then and there. Everything went smoothly and The new condenser works great :thumbsup. For those of you who might need to refill their air conditioning in the future, be sure to get 24 oz of 134a. The system is rated at 1.44 lbs, which at 16oz/lb works out to 22oz. So two 12oz cans are enough.

anyway. When I get my car back later this week, I'll go ahead and mount the radiator support and update you guys with some awesome pictures. stay tuned!

This post has been edited by enderswift: Aug 28, 2010 - 11:36 PM