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.

Oh Deer,

This Spyder just came in today for us to get started on the repair process on his MR2. Instead of hitting a deer, a deer hit him and as you can see, it did quite a bit of damage. We have all parts on order and we look forward to get this little rare gem back on the road.

Too close

You know those posts that keep you from hitting a gas pump or the ATM ?  Dont you hate it when they move them?  Thats what we have here. It happens to the best of us from time to time. Luckily we were able to straighten this one out with out having to install a new panel. We will be fixing the rear bumper as well but most of that damage was just on the surface. We started by removing all the parts that were necessary. We then welded some tabs to the quarter to pull that sheet metal back into shape. We then used a stud welder to pull out the remaining low areas and tapped down the high ones. We then used filler to start smoothing up the body. This is about as far as we got today. Tomorrow we plan on having this one in primer and ready for paint on Thursday.

Just a trim

Here we have Prius thats in the shop to get a few panels repaired and replaced. A new quarter was in order here and that is on and trimmed out. We did come across a few small parts that had to be ordered and those are on the way. Tomorrow we hope to get this on painted so we can start reassembly on Thursday.

Porsche gets a fresh coat

This Porsche was dropped off a couple of weeks ago to get a new paint job. The body was in great shape so there wasnt much work to do it. We did have to repair about a million rock chips that were on the front end but thats about it. We then sanded the rest of the car to prep it for paint. After a good sanding and a good bath we started masking off the areas that we didnt want to paint. Today we put it into the booth and started prepping it for paint. Once the body was nice and clean Paul started painting.  A coat of urethane sealer was sprayed first. Once that was dry, 3-4 coats of color was sprayed. Once that is dry we will spray the clear. We painted the hood yesterday and do have a couple of pictures of that for your viewing pleasure. We will post pictures of the body with clear tomorrow. Stay tuned.

bumper bumping

So, this Kia is in the shop to get a small bump up repaired. We will be replacing the center of the rear bumper and repairing the left corner part and the lower part of the hatch. As you can see here, Cole has removed the rear bumper and started the repair on the hatch. The bent part of the hatch was hammered back out to its original shape then filler was applied to straighten out the outside of the hatch.  The bumper corner has also been sanded and ready for primer. We expect the parts to be in tomorrow. The hatch and bumper end was primed before we left today and we plan on getting it painted tomorrow as well.

Gotta split

The owner of this Mercedes dropped her car off to get this terrible looking split in the bumper fixed. She just picked this one up a few weeks ago and just couldnt bare to ride around with the split in the bumper. We removed the bumper and ground down all the area around the split. We then used products from SEM corporation to repair the bumper. Technology has come a long long way as far as glues and epoxy’s go for fixing plastic parts. Once the repair area was fixed, a few coats of primer was sprayed on the damaged area. We then sanded and prepped the bumper for paint. Thats where Paul took over and laid down a nice red base followed by a few good coats of PPG clear. The owner also dropped off her new front plate so we installed that for her as well. Its all back together now and ready for the last few weeks of summer.

When golf carts attack

Yes. The damage you see here is from a golf cart. An unoccupied golf cart. The story goes that someone loading a golf cart up with some farm supplies when one of the bags landed on the gas pedal. Across the yard sat this Karmann Ghia minding its own business when WHAMO! The fully loaded, unoccupied cart slams into it. Now, I guess the good thing here is that no one was injured but the Ghia and the cart both suffered moderate damage. We started by removing the interior trim panels to access the inner quarter panel. We used hammers and pry bars to push the dents back out as far as possible. We then used the stud welder to pull the rest of the more stubborn dents out. Once the metal was in good shape, we used body filler to smooth out the final dents. While that was being done the rear end was disassembled for a quality job. The bumper, tail lights and reflectors were removed. Once the dents were straight a few coats of primer was sprayed. Tomorrow we should be able to get this one sanded early and in the paint booth.

FJ

The FJ Cruiser was revamped in 2007 to compete against the Wranglers from Jeep. In my opinion, they hit a home run. Full frame, copied from the Land Cruiser, great ground clearance, electronic rear axle lockers and the ability to cross water 27.5″ deep right from the factory. The list goes on and on. This one is here to get the fender and door fixed up. As you can see the dents in the fender are pretty deep. We used the stud gun on there to pull that metal back into shape before using body filler to straighten out the finer ripples. We also fixed a small crease in the front door that was part of the same accident. We did get it primed today and plan on blocking this primer out tomorrow and shooting  some blue paint back on there. If all goes well the owner will be getting her FJ back by the weekend.

Sentra on the mend

This little Sentra is in the shop to get the left door repaired. Its the result of a parking lot bump up.  A large truck just didnt see the little Sentra and backed right into the door. We used a stud welder to pull that metal back into shape then used a little filler to smooth it all up again. We will be painting this one tomorrow and hopefully it will go home on Friday