Progress report

Progress on the Caravan is moving right along. As you can see over the weekend we were able to get it painted and today we assembled everything we could with what parts were here. There are a couple of things that didnt make shipment because of the holidays. We hope to get them in if not tomorrow, hopefully Wednesday. The lights are in, fender liner in, computer is mounted back in its rightful home, support braces are on and the bumper is built but cant be installed until the left bumper bracket comes in. Once that gets here this one will be ready for the history books.

Midas touch

This Mercedes was dropped off today to get a new rear bumper and lower hatch molding. The bumper came in this morning but there was a slight hold up on the molding. It is supposed to be here tomorrow. If  it does come in and come in early enough, we will paint the molding and get them both installed and the vehicle back to the owner.  In the pictures above, you can see the new bumper in the booth with the base coat color applied. The bumper was first sanded then cleaned and prepped for paint. A coat of urethane sealer was sprayed on the bumper for good paint adhesion and for proper coverage of the gold base coat.  The second picture shows the bumper after clear coat. The clear is what protects the base and provides the shine. With a little luck, this one will be back on the road tomorrow.

Hot Rod Expo

They have released the dates for the Hot Rod Expo in Greensboro. If you can, come on out its a great show. Lots of hot rods and the proceeds  benefit the children’s hospital. We will be there with 4 cars, one of which has never been shown there before. Hope to see you there. 

   

Moving along

Here is an update on the Caravan that hit a deer. We were able to trim out the fender and hood today and get them installed. We also started the van, checked that we had repaired all the electrical woes and that the cooling van was operational. We also recharged the A/C unit to make sure the will be nice and cool next summer. We did find a very small dent in the new fender so we went ahead and fixed it as well today. Next we will get these new panels sanded and get this one into the booth so we can make this thing shiny and silver again.

Oh cool

Some parts for the Caravan came in today, so we started the reassembly. The radiator and condenser are in, as well as the radiator support and the repairs to the wiring harness are complete. Tomorrow we will get the fender and hood trimmed out and back on the car. We also hope to get the A/C recharged and fluids topped off. The rest of the parts will probably come in the first of the week. We will keep plugging along on this one to get it done as soon as possible.

Fender bender

What you see is the result of a little parking lot mishap. Someone hit this Tiguan in the fender/bumper area and did a fair amount of damage. After disassembly, we found that we will be replacing the fender, bumper, right head lamp as well as the fender well molding and a bumper bracket. We hope to get the parts ordered tomorrow so we can get this one repaired next week.

The Doors

We put the Lexus in the booth first thing this morning and Paul worked his magic. The repaired area was sealed with PPG urethane sealer. He then sprayed several coat of white base coat followed by several coats of pearl mid coat. Once the base coat had time to dry, he then sprayed 2 coats PPG urethane clear. It was painted early enough in the day that we were able to get it put back together by the end of the day. This on is now ready to go home for the Holidays.

Oh deer, not again

Here we have yet another victim of a deer hit. This one not quite as bad as the van below, but still will get several new parts and pieces. We disassembled it today so we could get an accurate estimate written up on it. We should be able to get going on it as soon as the insurance company comes out and takes a look.

Oh deer

This Caravan shows exactly what a deer and do to a vehicle. Everything across the front of this van will be replaced. We have the parts on order and they should be arriving over the next couple of days.

Gone green

And here is the finished product. All freshly painted and ready for years of more service.