The Rebirth of Uli Kunkle

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

I posted some pictures on the General Discussion forum and realized that I might as well start a thread here.

Anyway, I bought my car from Helix Minisport in Philadelphia. Drove from Terre Haute, IN, to Eric's place to get it. Ended up ruining a rod bearing in a borrowed truck. This was December 2003. The car has been sitting since. Sometimes in the garage. 1.5 years was spent outside under a car cover. I covered it to keep the trailer park kids from being tempted to knock the windows out of it. Must have worked.

I'll post pictures of the rust and the paint removal later.

For right now, pictures of the day I brought it home:

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

Back for more.

Here are the pictures of the nose panel, rocker panel and general pictures of the car during paint removal. Kudos to the person that posted the suggestion to use a razor blade to remove the paint. I was sanding and sanding. It was taking FOREVER! Then I stumbled across a couple of wall paper scrapers. They work beautifully.

Anyway, I knew there was bondo on the car but I didn't understand that the rot could be so extensive. I'm learning it the hard way. Rocker panel images are from the passenger side just in front of the rear wheel (if you coudln't tell).

Nose panel pictures from 1/29/07:

Here are some images from tonight (2/3/07). I got most of the paint off. I'll have to start sanding to smooth things up but I've got lots of rust to handle, too.

.

Thanks for looking!

Jamie

[albawhore]

That looks like fiberglass, not bondo. Depending on where you are planning on going with the car, you might want to consider cutting the nose back to good metal and the putting on an air dam that will cover up the lack of nose.

You weren't kidding about seeing all the way through the car.

Some euro turn signals would sure smooth out that front end.

Welcome to the fray, if you start getting discouraged check out my 75 o2 blog and check out the predicament that I have put myself into.

Good Luck

Justin

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

After a very long time in mothballs, work on Uli has resumed.

http://picasaweb.google.com/JamieLauraDavid/UilKunkel#

Planning to cut the nose back (as recommended by Justin) and cover it with air dam.

It was hot as HELL out in the garage today. I just keep focusing on getting this car back on the road. Soon, it will be the only fun/good inanimate object I have left in my life.

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

Crazy enough to say, I'm still working on this car.

This is the latest photo of it. I've since pulled the interior and the side glass.

[canadapierre]

Looks like you and I are on the same nice and slow train!

Hope you keep up the dream and build up momentum.

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

Holy crap.  So much has happened and I haven't put ANYTHING on this blog of any substance for, quite literally, years.  Here's an image and data/info dump on what's been going on.

 

I got divorced almost 5 years ago.  This project was put on ice, sold, repurchsed by me to finish, put on ice again, kept on ice.... you get the picture.

 

I recently moved from the country to town and have a fantastic workspace set up at my new location.  So, here are images and explanations....

 

 

This was my car moving day.  The car as it sat for the last several years.  Not much had changed.

 

Below, random pics of the car as I've chipped away at it.  This forum sucks for posting images and commentary.  I'm tired of messing with it so I'm just going to stick up a bunch of pics.

 

I've also picked up a 73 and a 74 parts car.  Lots to do around here.

 

 

 

 

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

Also, I'm trying to decide what color this is.  I was going to paint the car white but have decided to put it back to original color.

 

Any ideas?

 

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

Very little time to work this evening.  Pulled the front and rear windscreens this evening.

 

I was happy to find the rear window opening had zero rust.  The front windshield opening had a fair amount of surface rust that will need cleaned up on the driver's side (pictured below). Sadly, I cracked the front windscreen when removing it.  I'm not horribly upset since it had scratch marks where the wiper assy. had rubbed it right in the field of vision.

 

Every small thing I do gets me just a little closer to having this car  back on the road. 

 

It's been far too long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2013 by sirrichardpumpaloaf

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

More pics of the car.  Cleaned up around the front and rear windscreen openings.  Found some rust holes on the lower part of the driver's side. 

 

Does anybody really read these blogs?

 

 

 

[AceAndrew]

Yes people read these! I'm enjoying this very much, expected it painted by next month.

[eizo]

every day my friend!!

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

COOL!!  I have fans!! 

 

Today, sanded and sanded.  Then I sanded some more.  Not much to picture, really. 

 

I really have to get my hands on some new rocker panels.  I'm getting to the point where I will have to stop sanding/prepping until I can get the rockers replaced and the other metal patches in place.

 

I'll post a random pics....

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2013 by sirrichardpumpaloaf

[Koblenz]

Best med for post divorce.  Man, I gotta be honest.  I REALLY like the paint scheme it had when you bought it.  I wish I had thought about that before I did my repaint.

 

Keep up the good work.  Can't wait to see it on the road again.

[sirrichardpumpaloaf]

Best med for post divorce.  Man, I gotta be honest.  I REALLY like the paint scheme it had when you bought it.  I wish I had thought about that before I did my repaint.

 

Keep up the good work.  Can't wait to see it on the road again.

Eric, the founder of this place (http://www.helix13.com/), did the car this way.  He was just getting Helix13 started/off the ground and used this as a "shop car" to run errands and so forth.  For years, this car was shown in his projects page.  Cool guy, too.  He gave me a 6 pack of a locally produced beer to take home with me. 

 

I liked it too but he (Eric) did the prep work and paint quickly because he felt he was devoting too much time to a car that wasn't going to make his business money.  The paing literally started falling off the car.  I can't decide if I should paint it the same way, the original PastelBlau color or white (I'm very partial to white vehicles).

 

So I keep plugging away until I decide what color/s to do.