WRX in effect

This Subaru was in a small bump up with a commercial vehicle. We will be replacing the right fender and fender molding. We will also fix a small scratch in the right door. First thing we did was remove the bumper and fender. Once the fender was trimmed out, we installed it onto the car. We then repaired the scratch in the door and primed it. Next was to put it into the paint booth. WE masked off what didn’t get painted and Paul did his magic. Tomorrow we plan on putting it all back together and ready to home.

Paint day!!

Today was a big day! We painted the Ghia today and as you can see, it turned out very nice. We started this morning by masking off the floors, transmission, headliner and behind the area behind the gauges. We do this to both to keep paint off of these areas but also to keep any dirt out of the paint that may be hiding in there. Because the car is now lowered, we had to remove the wheels to and get the car up on stands to make access to the lower front end and the rockers a bit easier to paint. Once the car was wiped down and ready to spray, we applied a coat of sealer and after that was dry, we sprayed several coats of color followed by 3 coats of clear. Because we couldn’t fit the hood and deck lid in the booth with the rest of the car and doors, we must paint those next week.  Once that is done we will start the re-assembly. The color on this car is very classy looking, Its going to look great all back together.

Almost paint day

The prep on the Ghia is coming along very well. The car has been fully block sanded and most of the outside has had its final sand. We do have a little more sanding to do in the trunk and engine compartment before we are ready to pull the trigger. We only have a coulple of small areas to reprime and a couple more hours of final sanding before paint hopefully on Friday.

FJ on the mend

We had sent this FJ out to get some mechanical issues addressed while our work load here at the shop was up. We did get it back last week and today we were able to devote some time to it getting this project started back up. What Cole is working on here is repairing where the lower rocker panels were welded in. We removed the rear doors and used a grinder to smooth up the welds. We then applied a coat of metal filler to smooth up the welds. Once that product was dry, it was sanded smooth. He then went over those areas as well as a couple of other places in the jambs to make sure they  all look smooth. Once these areas a taken care of we will do the same to the seams where the front doors are before priming the new rockers.

Prime time

The Ghia is in its final coat of primer!  Pretty big day today for this little car. For the past few weeks we have been going over this one with a fine tooth comb to prepare it for primer. We started by setting it up in the booth first thing this morning. We jacked it up on stands to get it up off the floor some to make priming the rockers a bit easier. We then masked off the areas that were not getting primed and wiped the car down with wax and grease remover. A full coat of epoxy primer was sprayed first to ensure good adhesion to the bare metal areas. Once that was dry, we applied 4 good coats of PPG urethane primer. We did find about 3 areas that will need a little more work, which is not uncommon. As thorough as we were, we are still human. Luckily, they are pretty easy fixes and wont take all that long. Next we will start blocking this out one last time in preparation for paint

Hit the Ridge

This Honda Ridgeline hit a deer a couple of weeks ago. It really must have been a good sized one too. It really did quite a bit of damage. We replaced the fender, bumper headlight and grill. It did quite a bit of damage under the hood as well. A new air box, new apron, and a few brackets were all called for as well. As you can see the finished job turned out pretty nice.

Back together

 I know. We have been gone for a while. We have been slammed with work over the past 8 weeks or so and its been a quite a few late nights and here at the shop and writing posts just hasn’t been top priority. We did find a couple of guys to work part time hours for us and are really thankful for them. They have helped us out tremendously. We reached a pretty big milestone with the Ghia this week. As you can see its back on all fours. But lets back up a bit to see what all as been done. We ordered a narrowed and adjustable front beam for this Ghia. The owner wanted it to sit lower than factory and an adjustable beam is the best way to get it there. The reason its narrowed too is because when you lower them, the tires sometimes rub on the fender wells.  You narrow it to move the wheels in some to allow for some clearance there. This also opens up more options for different wheels and tires if she desires. We also replaced the tie rods, tie rod ends, new leaf springs, new steering damper, sway bar and master cylinder. We also installed the newly rebuilt pedal assembly along with a new clutch cable and throttle cable. While we were at it, we also replaced the heater box cables. On the dash, we did away with a few holes that will be no longer needed and added one for the Bluetooth microphone. We also had to clean up the radio hole a bit. It was cut a little too large the first time, so we added some metal and reshaped it for a nice fit. While working on the dash we also added a lighted accessory plug to charge cell phones or plug in a GPS. A new pan gasket between the body and pan is held into place with all new body bolts.  Our agenda holds this car getting primer on Friday or at least by the first of the week if Murphy shows up with that law of his.