engine and drivetrain Restoration Well Under Way - One Panel At A Time

[jgerock]

Good work - just surprised to see you spraying (the Boxter bumper cover) in the open air in your driveway.  Did you get any overspray on the neighbor's vehicles?

 

Or - did you spray in the "protected booth" garage then move the parts and supports outside?

Edited April 8, 2014 by jgerock

[roadhog0]

I need your body work skills. I wish I can do my car that nice one of these days!!

[schoir]

Good work - just surprised to see you spraying (the Boxter bumper cover) in the open air in your driveway.  Did you get any overspray on the neighbor's vehicles?

 

Or - did you spray in the "protected booth" garage then move the parts and supports outside?

I sprayed the primer on the Boxster bumper in my driveway, in front of my garage, which is set back about 200 feet from the street and 75 feet from the closest house (my house).  I sprayed the color and clear coats in the body shop's paint booth.  When I "visit" the body shop, we always spray the primer inside the shop and the color and clear coats inside the booth.

 

Regards, Maurice.

[JsnPpp]

Love this post! Very very nice work, a pleasure to read (and learn) from.

 

~Jason

[schoir]

Jason:  I'm not a professional body shop guy.  I'm actually an attorney who enjoys working on cars and I'm fortunate enough to have the owners of the body shop as long-standing clients.  I'm posting the project for a number of reasons:  to stay motivated, to share some of what I have learned with the faq community and to document the project.  Although I've been working on my cars for decades, I am still surprised as to how much time it takes to actually do some of this work and I have gained some more respect for what they are able to accomplish.  

 

I'm also fortunate to be doing this work with the help and guidance of a guy who is nothing short of a master when it comes to making body panels flat, literally like glass.  I am continually amazed at how he can spot the most minor depressions and imperfections.  These sometimes are not evident until they are glossy but I've learned a lot of tricks on how to spot them.  A couple of good techniques for spotting and correcting the imperfections is to spray (using a mister) some cleaning solvent (like Pre-Kleano or Prep-Sol) onto a panel after you have done your final block sanding of the primer coat.  That will make the panel look wet and you can see depressions, etc. much more easily.  A second is to use a "guide coat" on top of the primer before sanding it.  That is a kind of spray can paint that "splatters" a contrasting color (usually black) onto the primer.  Then, when you sand down the panel, you will immediately become aware of depressions in the surface because the guide coat color will not sand off right away.  

 

I've been equally surprised at how imperfect brand new, OEM body panels are, fresh from the factory.  That has been the case with the brand new fenders, the hood and the driver's side door that we are working on.  The passenger side door that I will be posting on shortly is a whole other story.

 

Regards, Maurice.

Edited April 8, 2014 by schoir

[schoir]

The door....Oh, the passenger door!

 

I don't have a new OEM passenger door and at first the "minor" rust at the bottom corners, on the inside seams only, looked like a relatively easy fix.  Add to that the fact that although I have owned the car since new, I did not initially remember that the passenger door had been the subject of a previous repair, more than thirty years ago.

 

Here is what it looked like at first glance:

 

Front view  of bottom edge(disregard the exploratory grinding for the intended welding/filling in of two of the molding holes) 

 

Front right corner

 

Front left corner and bottom edge...Not looking too good.

 

And here is the bottom edge, after aggressive rust removal grinding (note the replacement outer bottom door edge replacement panel sitting on top of the door).

 

I had sourced the replacement panel from Walloth & Nesch as a precaution, but honestly did not think we would have to use it.  As work progressed, it became very clear that it would be best to cut out the lower section of the outer skin and use the replacement panel.  In order to avoid "interfering" with the natural body line of the door, it was best to cut a few inches off the top section of the panel.  

 

The technique for removing the small lip that wraps around the inner door shell is to grind away the edge of the door (in this case, in three places).  First the underside is ground away and the metal that wraps around is merely peeled away.

 

Same technique for the right side few inches.  Note in this photo that you can see (as I then realized) that someone had previously welded in a replacement patch running the length of the door.

 

Now this inner door shell lip will have to be ground clean.

 

Back to the outer door skin.  Laying the replacement panel (which has been cut down by about 3 inches) on top of the door to scribe the door skin.

 

Here you can see the scribe mark (and the old weld marks from the previous replacement)

 

Cutting the door skin on the scribe mark.

A small bonus here with the replacement small panel is that we won't have to weld shut the molding holes that were on the lower part of the door.  One of the decisions I made early on was to eliminate the holes for the chromed/anodized belt molding all around the car and the lower rubber-covered moldings.  This is being done primarily to eliminate the source of the start of a lot of rust (wherever the metal rubs through the paint or the metal clips contribute to that process) and to have a cleaner, more retro appearance.  More on that later when we get to eliminating the side markers and filling those holes.

 

And here is what was revealed with that lower section cut out and removed.  Time for more grinding and treating to prevent future rust.

 

Here is the bottom of the door with the new panel fitted around, hammered in and a few tack welds.

 

Corner detail.

 

Inside view of butt weld across length of door skin.

 

View of a little preliminary rustproofing that was done while the section of skin was removed.

 

That's it for this installment.  More work on the door to come (a lot more!).

 

Regards, Maurice.

Edited September 18, 2014 by schoir

[BeMyWay]

Very impressive...!   I love that work area.  Also. I like the exchange you have with your client...work for access to work area...sweet.

Edited April 27, 2014 by BeMyWay

[schoir]

It's very sweet indeed!  I feel fortunate every time one of the panels is completed.  This particular door is proving to be a long, tough slog, but it is happening.

 

Regards, Maurice.

[TNan]

Great job on the progress of the door!  I may have to ask you to do the exact same thing for my 72' 02 passenger door - you tell me what your $$ would be of course.

[schoir]

Great job on the progress of the door!  I may have to ask you to do the exact same thing for my 72' 02 passenger door - you tell me what your $$ would be of course.

Tnan, I don't do bodywork for a living... I'm an attorney who enjoys doing as much of the restoration as I can myself and am fortunate enough to have a client who owns a body shop and lets me play there pretty much whenever I want.

 

The work on the passenger door, if you were to have the same work done professionally breaks down as follows: About 2 hours to grind off all of the paint on the outside of the inner shell of the door (add another hour if you want to fill in imperfections on that surface, which is mostly covered by the door panel), about 6 hours of measuring, cutting and welding to weld the new section of door skin onto the door (lower section of outer door skin is available from WallothNesch.com, costs about $50 delivered), about 3 hours of cleaning, sanding, rustproofing, seam sealing and topcoating the inside of the door shell, and about 3 hours to skim coat the outer door skin, sand, prep and color coat/clear coat the door.

 

I'll be posting more progress on the door shortly, as soon as I can get my photos organized.  We are now at the point of just finishing the outer surface of the door skin and painting both sides of the door with color and clear coat.

 

Regards, Maurice.

[Tommy]

You're doing amazing job not being a professional! I did my best in my restoration and I'm happy but the result is still far from yours.

 

  Tommy

[LarsAlpina]

Maurice,

 

is that you cutting on the door? Why don´t you wear gloves while operating the angle grinder? Takes long time to heal if you cut into your fingers a bit while looking somewhere else - ask me how I know.

 

Thicker leather gloves avoid these kind of scratches - they won´t help if you´ll get really the wrong way and cut off part of your finger though. But for what I´ve learnt putting on the gloves before starting the grinder is well invested seconds.

 

Still ongoing GREAT quality work! And to me great writing quality, too. Although I´m no native english speaker I can read your words nearly as fluent as german language. Not the case for all of the posts on the FAQ, especially those excessively using what I would call street slang. Keep it coming!

 

Regards, Lars.

[schoir]

Tommy:  Thanks for the kind words.  It's turning out very well but it is taking an inordinate amount of time.  However, each time I finish a section or a panel and then stand back to look at it, I feel re-energized.  I followed your build and I found the work you did and your perseverance nothing short of inspirational.

 

Lars:  No, that's not me using the angle grinder/cut-off tool.  Like you, I learned a long time ago to ALWAYS wear goggles and work gloves whenever I get near any of these types of tools.  As for the writing, it's not like writing a legal brief, it's a lot more fun describing what is going on.  

 

Here's another installment, still on renovating the passenger door, still working on the door shell, first the outside surface and then the inside surface of the outer door skin.

 

Inside of rearmost lower door area with window leg support, with preliminary rustproofing.

This will also later be followed up with a coat of POR-15.  You can also see the inside of the butt weld joint on the replacement section of door skin.

 

View of of the other side, towards the front.  Same butt weld joint and fresh door skin metal.

 

Now, I started to grind off all of the paint on the outside surface of the door shell.  The two round holes are the drain holes and the little holes will have to be welded shut and ground down smooth.

 

Here is more grinding to remove all of the paint.

 

The little depressions are tough to get completely clean but the slightly flexible "surf cookie" pads help to get into all of those recessed areas.

 

After about two hours of grinding, all of the paint is off and we're down to bare metal.

 

If you blow up this photo by double clicking on it, you can see where there were two areas where a previous repair (one I had forgotten about from more than 30 years ago) had been done, where the door shell was cut, probably for better access to replace the lower door skin section that had been welded in back then.  These areas will have to be skim coated, strictly for cosmetic reasons.

 

Start of skim coating to the areas that have some imperfections, trying to make the areas that will still be visible after the door panel install look like new.

 

Same area, now sanded smooth (using a little 180 grit sandpaper, then 320 grit on the DA (dual orbital sander) this area ready for priming).

 

More sanding of filler where you can see the door shell welded sections now smoothed out, ready for priming.  

Also inserted masking paper to limit the overspray on the inside of the door shell and not make the subsequent cleaning up of the inside of the door skin any more difficult.

 

Another angle of the door shell sanded and ready for priming, with masking paper inside.

 

Starting to apply primer.

This is the part that starts to feel rewarding after all of that grinding, cleaning up, applying body filler and sanding.

 

Finished priming, having applied three coats in criss-cross pattern.

Applying the coats of primer first going from left to right, then the next coat from top to bottom, then again from left to right lessens the chance of uneven coverage, especially where there are little depressions in a stamped panel.

 

Now we apply a guide coat to make the final sanding before color coat easier to "eyeball".  Again, when the little black specks disappear it helps you to avoid low spots that are harder to detect otherwise.

 

Here's a close-up of the guide coat.

 

Here is the full door shell with the guide coat applied.

 

Next up will be prepping the inner side of the outside door skin.

 

Regards, Maurice.

Edited May 9, 2014 by schoir

[DUDONLY]

Body work is an art form and with your efforts that makes you an Artist !

[Texasyeti]

Ok, this is getting as little ridiculous. 

 

 

Amazing work, Maurice.

 

So far beyond what the factory produced, really impressive.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Texasyeti