Shooting sparks

This Subaru Baja came in the shop for a nose job about a week ago. We received the parts Thursday and Friday got to work on it. We are having to replace the upper and lower tie bar. Not really major surgery but it is a little invasive. The first few pictures show Chris and I getting the parts together and fitting them. We must make sure we are putting them exactly where they go. Once we have the measurements down, we can start welding. We did get all of the welding completed on this and we did get these parts painted as well. We just didnt get a picture of that. Next week we will hang the hood, put the cooling system back in and spray some color on here. This little Baja will be back on the road again.

The difference is clear

Here is a great representation of our head light restoration results. We have found that sanding and buffing the head lights works very well but the light will go back to yellow after a few months. Our new process is  a bit more involved but I think the results will last quite a bit longer. These before and after pictures really show how big of a difference it makes.

Going Rogue

This Rogue got a little too close for comfort with something stronger than it is. There is one heck of a scratch in the bumper but luckily it didnt get into the plastic. We just had to feather out the scratch and put a little primer on there to seal it all up. After that dried we were able to block out the primer and sand the rest of the bumper and prep it for paint. The last picture shows the bumper after painting it. Today we did get it back on and delivered it back to the customer. However, here again, someone forgot to get the pictures. Oh well, better luck next time.

I can see clearly now

This Volvo is in the shop for a few little touch ups here and there as well as fixing a few nagging problems for the owner. One of them are these headlights. Im sure you have all seen them before. Yellow, dingy looking headlights that have lost their luster. Well take a look at these. The left picture is what we started with. Picture 2, shows Chase getting all the “old” off of the light preparing it for paint. The last two pictures shows what they look like now. We didnt buff these light out with polish. We used a more permanent method to bring them back to life. They should stay like this for a few years. A much better process than just buffing them.

The doors

This Escape has a bummed door. The damage is too severe to repair it so we ordered a quality used door to take its place. Picture 3 shows the new door after trimming it out. This is a fancy term for painting the inside. The replacement door was gold. So if we didnt paint the inside, when you opened the door you would have had a gold door jamb shining everywhere when you opened it. The next set of pictures shows the escape in the booth after painting you can see on the paper the way the color is blended into the old color to give the appearance of a perfect color match. Its a very proven method on painting to help match colors. Almost every single car we paint here gets blended like this to ensure a quality job and a good color match.  Tomorrow the doors get put back together and it gets sent to clean up. It should be ready to go back home tomorrow.

Getting cooler

The Camaro saw some action today. We plumbed the condenser and ran all the hoses for the A/C and heater on the engine side. We also were able to get the door installed on the driver side and the fender and fender well installed. The fender is on but we will have to fine tune the alignment more tomorrow. Its going to look more and more like a car over the next few days.

Nice ending

This Accord was involved in a little bumper car action a week or so ago. The owners had just gotten back into town from vacation and were almost home when WHAM. They took a pretty good smash. We are having to replace the rear bumper, and the bumper reinforcement beam. Thats the part that really protects you in an accident. We are also replacing both tail lights because when they were rear ended, the tail light bounced up and hit the edges of the quarter panels.  You can see from the pictures that they were scratched up in the pockets where the lights go. When that happened it also broke the lights. We made good time on this one today. We should be able to get it back together tomorrow and back to the owners in good time.

Ahhh, Thats cool

Today we buttoned up the the A/C and almost all of the wiring. The Column is completely bolted in as well as the A/C control panel. All the hose for the vents have also been run.  This only really leaves the dash to hook up and the inside is squared away.

Color approval!!

Chase got to work right away this morning on these Chevelle parts that we prepped yesterday. First we wiped them down with a wax and grease remover. Then we used compressed air to blow the dust out of the crack and crevasse then tacked them off to remove the dust. Then the fun begins. The first layer was white sealer. Once that dried, 3 coats of the custom mix light blue went down. That was followed up with 2 coats of high solids PPG clear.  The owner came by this afternoon to check them out and see if the color was what he envisioned. It was! He has approved the color and his wife has approved the color. That means we can roll on with the project. Next week we will see if we can get the top sides of the parts panted.

Color me bad

Tomorrow we plan on trimming out the hood, doors and trunk on the ’71 Chevelle. Today we sanded them in preparation for that. We will seal these panels with a urethane sealer, then apply 3-4 coats of color then 2 coats of clear. Then next week we will be able to tape up the bottom side of these, then paint the top sides. Stay tuned tomorrow to see some color getting shot on here.