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

[NewOrleans]

ahh i was there last year!
when ur done you will only appreciate the celi even more!!!

[SwissFerdi]

Good luck, you deserve it for all of the work you put in.

[Espo]

...


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 sane price)

...

I hate to tell you this, but I've had a set of USDM Tails up on the site for probably a good month or two now. :x I'm curious as to how much that one ran you though. That way I can tell if I'm still overpriced or not...

This post has been edited by Espo: Jun 26, 2010 - 2:38 PM

[enderswift]

I hate to tell you this, but I've had a set of USDM Tails up on the site for probably a good month or two now. :x I'm curious as to how much that one ran you though. That way I can tell if I'm still overpriced or not...

Aaaaah! where were you?! I had a wtb thread, scoured ALL of the junkyards in chicago, stalked criagslist and even did second source searches at work. Needless to say I've had about 5 people drop off the face of the earth as soon as it came time to pay them and such. So finding that taillight was a frustrating process... Not to mention I wasn't about to pay those crazy ebay prices $100 per taillight. Luckily i finally found a guy that was near me who gave his up for $30

car goes in on wednesday so Tuesday I'll have pictures of the car being taken apart and prepped. CANT WAIT

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jul 6, 2010 - 7:13 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

[SwissFerdi]

If it won't pop off, slide off, unscrew, etc., then the only thing I can think of is to pry it off and hope that it doesn't break.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Jun 29, 2010 - 5:29 PM

[TerBeau]

ouch the rear panel!!! why is it that dents are attracted to that area on our cars lol..... both my celicas had that same dent in the same spot wtf!!!

[Mr_Tee]

Did you remove the Headlamp without take off the bumper? If yes, how did you?

[jtmlb3k]

Please let me know if you figure out how to remove the trim on your door. Mine came off on its own and I want to get it back in haha

[enderswift]

Did you remove the Headlamp without take off the bumper? If yes, how did you?

you dont have to remove the whole bumper, just undo the side of the target headlight and swing things forward. That will give you enough clearance to remove the two hidden bolts holding the headlight on

Please let me know if you figure out how to remove the trim on your door. Mine came off on its own and I want to get it back in haha

I'll make sure to put together a thorough explanation of how to reassemble things when I get the celi back, which should hopefully be by early next week

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jul 7, 2010 - 1:48 PM

[Espo]

I hate to tell you this, but I've had a set of USDM Tails up on the site for probably a good month or two now. :x I'm curious as to how much that one ran you though. That way I can tell if I'm still overpriced or not...

Aaaaah! where were you?! I had a wtb thread, scoured ALL of the junkyards in chicago, stalked criagslist and even did second source searches at work. Needless to say I've had about 5 people drop off the face of the earth as soon as it came time to pay them and such. So finding that taillight was a frustrating process... Not to mention I wasn't about to pay those crazy ebay prices $100 per taillight. Luckily i finally found a guy that was near me who gave his up $30

car goes in on wednesday so Tuesday I'll have pictures of the car being taken apart and prepped. CANT WAIT

I had my set of two up for $50 per in the buying section, link in my signature - granted mine are in really good condition but if you found one for $30 that means I'm overpriced still.

I think we just never saw each other's thread haha

[ChfNix]

ouch the rear panel!!! why is it that dents are attracted to that area on our cars lol..... both my celicas had that same dent in the same spot wtf!!!

Funny! Mine had that same dent when I got her!

This post has been edited by ChfNix: Jul 6, 2010 - 4:33 PM

[enderswift]

I had my set of two up for $50 per in the buying section, link in my signature - granted mine are in really good condition but if you found one for $30 that means I'm overpriced still.

I think we just never saw each other's thread haha

well $60 for BOTH of them is actually reasonable, everywhere else I looked people wanted $60 each plus shipping. Either way glws

Funny! Mine had that same dent when I got her!

yea it seems all the drunks and bad drivers in the world have a vendetta against that corner. Maybe its because that's one of the most annoying sections to repair?

So the car FINALLY went in today There were a lot of delays due to this thing called the 4th of July or something . I have the worst timing I guess haha. In any case all of the dents will be taken care of by tomorrow night and paint should take place this weekend depending on whether or not my guy can secure a booth. I'm in no hurry to be honest, just an excuse to cruise the Vulcan . That said I'll be calling for a status update this Saturday and might be putting her back together on Sunday!

Pictures soon!

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jul 6, 2010 - 7:01 PM

[NewOrleans]

ouch the rear panel!!! why is it that dents are attracted to that area on our cars lol..... both my celicas had that same dent in the same spot wtf!!!

Funny! Mine had that same dent when I got her!

same here too.
same spot and i also had a dented up driver side front fender

[enderswift]

So there I was lying in bed fighting off a freak summer cold when I get the text message of text messages: "car is ready". Several second later I'm out the door on my way to pick my baby up. Here is what I found:



I cant believe I ever had doubts about my body guy. The body work is simply amazing in that there is absolutely no hint of a collision. The rear fender still even says Toyota on it and all of the gaps are perfectly aligned . What really amazed me was how he managed to maintain the crease that encompasses the wheel well and have it blend away to nothing just like on the other side. The work is nothing short of perfect. All that pulled out and sanded for $150 is a steal! Paint was extra of-course (in case someone asks)



Another shot of the body work. Keep in mind that this was the area where the metal was literally folded over itself. I hope to one day possess the skills to do something like this.



Here is a shallow angle shot of my new finish. Blending and color matching is spot on and I cannot say enough good things about dupont 3l2 paints



As far as overall paint goes, It ended up costing $100 to rent out a booth at the local shop then $50 per panel to get things painted. As a bonus they guy offered to use the left over paint on the other mirror so both sides would be super shiny. Apparently Toyota originally applied a single stage coating which tends to fade pretty easily. Either way I'm gonna have some nice mirrors



All of my previous disassembly payed off with a great finish on the individual pieces with no over-spray anywhere. And my paint guru was happy he didn't have to take anything apart haha.



This is what the interior of the body looks like. You can see where he welded the prongs used to pull the dents and such. He warned me that although the finish on the outside will do a good job of preventing rust, the inside will oxidize pretty quickly and that I should apply some rust preventative paint and bed liner.



So thats what I did



This is the end result. Its not a very good picture but you get the idea. First I masked the space off and sprayed on some duplicolor rust-converting primer and waited for it to dry. Then I applied two coats of duplicolor bedliner to seal the whole area and hopefully protect it from ever rusting on me. I can imagine that fighting rust in that spot would be a nightmare...



There is quite a bit to put together... have to remember to ask if there is any other place where I should apply some rust prevention as well.



This photo is a mid-assembly shot where I was installing the headlight and all of the splash guards and such. I wasn't able to line the bumper up too well so I just ended up taking it off and starting from scratch. I feel like I can strip the front end of a celi in half an hour now haha.



I managed to put alot of the car together today but the weather and my cold have been bogging me down. So far the drivers side door is assembled and so is the whole front end. Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the rear, the side skirt, and all of the plastics in the hatch. After that, im gonna go buy some new Falken zeix 512/912's before applying a four inch thick layer of wax onto the paint and calling it a day

My celica looks good again! wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jul 12, 2010 - 11:45 PM

[SwissFerdi]

Congratulations.

[RavenAegis45]

Awesome dude, i got some minor damage to that area as well, just looking for a suitable place to do the body work, but props your car looks amazingly clean

[enderswift]

thanks guys. Its really good to have the car looking good again. I put some more stuff together today and now im just waiting on the passanger side mirror to get back before I'll be totally done. Also picked up some falken ze 912's so the celi is almost complete!

[Badkarma]

you may want to wait a while before you wax. i saw you bought dupont. if i remember correctly, they recommend to wait 30-60 days after paint to wax. .. i could be wrong tho. wax sometimes "locks" in the solvents that need to escape from the paint. it can take a while.

i think they recommend not to wax soon to prevent "dieback" where the clear turns all milky looking.

good luck, read up on dupont chromabase and check with your painter

Erich