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]

well 6gc its finally over.

Our very own Mkernz came through on delivering my radiator tie bar and after a little work I popped it on the car. I cannot say enough good things about Mkernz. Great communication, AMAZING packaging, and I even got the rubber trim! My experience is exactly when 6gc commerce should be. Thanks bud!

anyway, first thing I did with the tie bar was strip off the old finish and hit it with some rustoleum. Next I took the rubber trim and cleaned off the years of grime and soaked it in a mix of water and back-to-black to condition and soften up the rubber. Thankfully the marinating worked and the rubber is like new again

from there I mounted everything onto my car only to realize that I had some more adjustments to make. The hood gap was almost non-existant towards the middle of the bar. I spent an hour and a half pulling on the radiator support to get it perfectly aligned. It turned out that the vertical bar connecting the tie bar to the lower radiator support was too long. What a surprise considering the body guy welded it. No matter, I was still able to finesse everything into the proper spots.

oh does anyone know how to adjust the hood w/o having to remove the fenders? I've already adjusted it as much as I could by messing with the hinges on the hood side. Now I need to get at the other end of the hinges. I was thinking of using some offset wrenches... anyone have any insight?

I'm sorry for the lack of pictures with this update but I'm waiting on day off with good weather to take a proper set of photos. Till then all I have is this picture:




Thank you to everyone who offered advice and motivation through all this. The restoration woulda sucked w/o 6gc!

This post has been edited by enderswift: Sep 18, 2010 - 1:16 PM