Restoration Page 4 : May 2000 - Aug 2001

After multiple passes, the quarters and fenders are finally done!

The rear deck was severly damaged when welding in the metal patches.

As a result, lots of hammering and bondo was used to give it a new surface. This is a particularly difficult multiple-curved surface, which took a while to smoothen....

...but it turned out nice!

Ahhh yes, working at home in your parents garage. This is usually what the place looked like before I started work.

Sandblasting caused warpage, so had to do work on the hood.

This was tough. All had to be done by hand, multiple concave surfaces with ruts and valleys. Ung.

...but it turned out nice!

This is epoxy primer. The inner quarters and wheel housings are finished aswell, so the metal is seamless.

At this point the car is finished all the rough work. Its outside being blown out for final coat of finishing Sikkens primer.

Sikkens colour-build black primer. It was supposed to fill up all the pin-holes.

I noticed the sand-blasting in the trunk caused warpage on the rear filler panel, ,so I had to work it.

The trunk lid was nasty, sand-blasting(again) caused nasty warpage, and also the lip was rusted through, especially at the corners. I looked around, but a replacement that was pretty good was very expensive, so I decided to try fixing and see how it turned out.

I patched and welded new metal around the lip. Finishing the flat surface was impossible. The tools were not enough....

..so I made my own tool. This was an experiment, and I later went on to make a tool much better and usable. I was thinking of patenting the new design. I dont know how to this problem without my tool!?

The lid came out perfect. I later found out that primer shrinks, and the waves came back, however I will buy a good lid one day.

There were soooo many pinholes, ,and the only way I could think of to fill them was to use a toothpick and a can of primer. I later found out that there is a proper filler for this specific application.

More sanding. I thought that it was OK before, but upon final inspection, I thought I could do better.

I dont know how many times I went over the 1/4s.

At this point I stopped buying expensive primer because I seemed to be continually sanding it off. So I started putting the lacquer primer.

I stripped off all the old asbestos in the ceiling.

I shot it directly with Sikkens blue paint. It was the colour I was originally thinking of painting the car.

Everytime something went wrong with the family car, I had to move my un-protected rolling chassis outside (by hand) in the snow/rain/wind. It doesn't get much better than this.

I shot the trunk with one-step Sherwin Williams paint.

Finished sanded the engine bay by hand. I had bruised knuckles and sanded fingertips for days.

Baught a heavy duty engine stand to put the engine on. It's been sitting for 3 years, wonder if it still starts?

Taped off the whole car, ,to prep for engine bay painting.

Shot the engine bay with a one-step synthetic paint by Sherwin-Williams.

Prepped both lids and front valence.

Painted the under sides of both lids with the same synthetic paint.

And FINALLY the car is painted...

Sent the car out to Holden Collision to paint the car with base-clear black. Painting alone cost a grand.

Finally starts looking like a real car.

I took the steering column apart and adapted to fit for a manual steering box. The rebuilt manual box is sitting on the can.

I needed a battery with a vent tube, so the trunk wouldnt smell. Only Mercedes, BMW, and Audi has batteries like that. This is from a 1987 Audi.

I relocated the old fuse box, all relays, and flasher units to the trunk. I now have room for 21 fuses. I am thinking of selling this package on the market.

I took the instruments out and installed a tach. One day I'll replace all to match.

Put the rear glass in, thats my brother Yan.

Front glass is in.

Rear 1/4 window weather striping, and window trim.

This is a remote-drive power antannea by Heratta. I made a custom bracket and installed the motor in the cabin beside the heater box. That way it will always be nice and dry. The mast is outside, replacing the original. I drilled out a chrome drawer handle to replace the weathered original antannea base.

This is what an-protected surface looks like after years of over-spray.

I replaced all the wather striping on the doors and windows, in and out.

I used paint stripper chemicals to clean the glass and chrome.

Almost done.

Stripped the engine appart.

Going by a picture I took 2 years ago, I decided to gamble and modify the headers before finishing them.

Steel weld.

Sandblasted the engine, headers, and all pulleys and brackets.

Used a high-heat manifold paint to finish the headers.

Shot the naked yellow with "Screaming Yellow" paint.

Replaced all the gaskets and seals with a kit from Mopar Performance.

Assembled the pulleys and brackets and shot it again.

Finished assembling the engine. This sucker's gonna run! Also installed a custom dip-stick out of a brake line. Much smoother than original.

Dropping in the engine.

Supported it with a make-shift wooden cross-member.

Dug up the old exhaust system from the basement. Notice the rust on the aluminised pipes and mufflers!

Sandblasted the rims and finished with "PC-Glitter" from POR-15, very good product. Then baught 230/60R15 slicks from BF-Goodrich.

The old header.

Baught some new carpet underpadding to insulate and sound-deaden the ceiling.

New headliner. This is hard to install. i dont know how they do it easily.

New carppet.

Cleaned and painted the old gas filler neck. I used custom 1/8" rubber stock in abd out to make the new filler seal. Topped it off with roofer tar, new tank seal, and sending unit.

Baught a 3-core rad, custom modified to fit this application. I replaced the original clutch fan with this aluminum spacer/plastic high-flo fan. Also instaklled a stainless steel boat horn and universal windshield washer system behind the grill.

This was the week before Moparfest 2001. I took the week off work to fix the car up before the show. There was much criticism from friends and family, saying I'd never finish this car, so I took a hard deadline which was the show.

I worked my ass off, but unfortunately, I couldnt make it because of a failed inspection, suspension problems, cooling problems and a bad transmission.