engine and drivetrain Kunundrum... Body work and paint....

[Guest Anonymous]

'02 Amigos,

So, I spent some time at my local body shop looking over my paint and cancer situation... It is soo hard to decide what I want to do with the car.

I love driving it. The paint is for shit, the turn signal housings are rusted out of it in the front, with some cancer in the very lower lip on the front behind the airdam, and even a little behind the signal boxes sort of in the engine compartment.

Now comes the hard part, how far to go? I don't think I've got the budget for a Weese resto, and I really don't want to stop driving the car for a year or so to get it all done....

I'd like to go with small bumpers, I'd like to have new window rubber, then a new headliner, and it keeps looking like an engine out job. I just don't want to stop driving it...

Other alternatives are to find a decent shell, start that from scratch, and when it's ready, move everything from current car over... But that's a whole nother can of worms...

I'm thinking of going 2-tone for a while as just the upper 1/2 of the car is miserable looking, anybody seen any 2-tone with Anthracite on the bottom?

I hate these kinds of decisions!!!

It's time to start rounding up parts one way or another, beginning with Fenders which will need to be replaced if I decide to put the car to sleep this winter and just work with the current shell...

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BigDog

'76 2002

[Guest Anonymous]

mper and im going to install an airdam as well. That front nose area was littered with rust. Just took it down to bare metal and sprayed on some rust stopper primer. Does you car have bubbles in the paint? I had my repainted about 5 months ago by a friend, and now they are showing. I really don't want to have to fix them, but they are driving me nuts.

[Guest Anonymous]

in the mean time i had to drive a POS renter from the insurance.

do the headliner for sure if you take all the rubber off

i wish i had done some of the prep myself before taking it in - sanding down the shell etc. in order to shorten the time in the body/paint shop

prep is what makes the finished product look good.

[Guest Anonymous]

That's what scares me!!! Ron's car (Al's current restoration) didn't look that rusty either, but lo and behold, it's a ton of work and he hasn't gotten to drive it in sooo long!!!

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BigDog

'76 2002

[Guest Anonymous]

Here's what I think. Gather up all the parts you'll need. Remove and replace what you can while still driving. Don't worry about the tasks you'll need to remove the engine for like body work and paint, then at the point when you have the money saved, remove the engine and whatnot, send it to a professional to have the rest all done at once. The car might be ugly because the new front clip will have big gaping seams and the new fenders will probably be from two different cars, but it will still be drivable until you have the money saved to get a professional to do the finishing touches.

Michael

[Guest Anonymous]

Sell yours and buy Al's. You save Al the headache of having to put his car on ebay and you get a car with a sweet interior. -J

[Guest Anonymous]

.....is taking a project car and doing

a total lengthy restore. But, I agree....what

to do about missing out on driving.

I always think about going to Cali.

and buying a 76. Drive the patootie out of

that car while the other car gets 100% squared away.

Sell 76, when cherry ride returns.

Jerry

PS: What did I really end up doing? Buying a 67 Volvo 122S to drive about while my 70 comes back to life.

[Guest Anonymous]

URL: http://www.seamsperfect.ca/

Could buy mine, and put IT into the body shop for paint, but drive his in the meantime. After mine is done, sell his off. Now that's a plan!

Al

[Guest Anonymous]

I had my car off the road for years restoring it. In the mean time I had a cool $300.00 '65 gmc, a 65 new yorker (man that thing hauled on the highway) and a beater 2002. As it turns out the beater 2002 (made form allt he parts that I would be using) was a freakin blast. I was kinda worried abotu being afraid to use (flog) the finished car- but its dirty and on the road every day. If (when) I go thru this again i'll have a shell prepeared and a driver with all the goodies on it to use in the mean time and switch over the mecanicals. Good rust repair is gonna either take forever of cost a bunch- so I'd be on the lookout for a decent shell. But then again i'm kinda nuts.... like I said- for what its worth.

[Guest Anonymous]

the right way, sell the '76 to an east-coaster for $2500.

Simple, isn't it?

[Guest Anonymous]

My 2002, which i considered a semi-rustcar was actually pretty damn solid. I had one problem in the passenger floorboard and front valance area. I had replaced the fenders in the past. The car burnt in a garage, so I have had a really really good look at it and there were no holes in it Guess I was just pretty damn lucky.