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Progress, just a bit of

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jlaird

jlaird

Great Pumpkin
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My spy in residence, Tony, reported that the floor and the battery box repairs have not been done yet. However, the bonnett is now skimmed.

Boy, sure wish I could see for myself, sigh.
 
Was supose to be 1 Sep, however he said he was two weeks behind due to blaster rebuild.

If I was a beting man I would suggest Oct. some time. Unless he really gets on it non stop.

Is OK, would rather have it later and right. He does seem to be doing it right, for example, no bondo, none at all.
 
C'mon Jack, they all need fiberglass unless you use lead and a WHOLE bunch of primer.
 
Noop, not this one. I have seen it after blasting and before primer. Look at the pics below. Reskined A posts and two small rust spots about the size of your thumb in rear and on bottom front of bonnett. Drivers side metal floor week and will be replaced and of course the manditory rust through spot in the battery box.

That's all there was. When Jollyroger said no rust he ment it.
 
Jack - I guess I should've taken a photo but all there was wasa a thin skim coat over the flat surface of the bonnet..he was detailing a couple of cars & when they were gone was going to put his air file to the bonnet to get that huge flat area perfectly smooth.
 
Not a problem Tony, your first hand reports are money in the bank. Thanks for them, how is the VW comming?
 
Waiting on your Bugeye! Body has everything off it to include fender welting...he's gonna use a small sandblaster on all the surface rust to completely kill it...awaiting the 1 body panel that has rust-through (bottom of spare tire area) to arrive so he can weld it in....then, they'll get serios about it.
 
So Jack... this car has never had a door ding? All good body shops will use a skim coat of fiberglass on the majority of the car. Most all of it will come back off, but there will be spots with a 1/16 of an inch or less. Anything more than 1/16 of an inch and the metal should be reworked or replaced.

I only mention it, because it is a pet peeve of mine. It makes me cringe when people represent a car as having "no bondo". If you ask a body shop to do a paint job on a 30+ year old car and not use fiberglass, they will either tell you that they can't do it, or they will present you with a VERY large bill.
 
would have to agree with trevor, especially after a rather lengthy discussion with my body shop man. i am totally against bondo at any thickness, but he told me it was a necessary evil even considering lead loading. bottom line is clean the rust, properly prime, fill and paint.
 
[ QUOTE ]
If you ask a body shop to do a paint job on a 30+ year old car and not use fiberglass, they will either tell you that they can't do it, or they will present you with a VERY large bill.

[/ QUOTE ]

$5000 - $6000 was the estimate on mine, and they really didn't seem interested in doing it one bit, even for that price. Looks like my 'dings' will be staying a little longer....
 
i got the same impression. i don't think he didn't want the job, but he certainly let me know that there was no easy way to do it right. i will have to do as much possible to prepare the tub for for the body shop just to eliminate any "extra" hours on his part. the cost is a bit of a downer.
 
Car did have a door ding that got edge of driver door, replaced door with no rust one. and replaced driver A post skin that had edge dinged. Passanger A post had a bit of rust at bottom, like half the size of your little finger nail, re skined. Two other small rust areas on body the size of your little finger were welded up as the backs of them were also in the open. No bondo. Yep a skinning as expected but no bondo repairs. He is only filling the metal where the blaster took out surface rust 1/16 inch or so lightweight filler on then sand 90% off. Even newish cars get this at times. Anyway I am very pleased at his approach so far in any case. Take a look at the pics in the attachment and you can see the extent of real metal work needed in total.
 
"Bondo" should not be used to replace missing metal... only level the surface after proper metal patches have been welded in place. The surface will also need to be leveled for dings that can not be shrunk any further, or dent creases that are not going to be removed. Many modern body shops will simply fill dents with fiberglass rather than try to shrink the dent outs, but only a "shady" body shop would use fiberglass to replace missing metal. Given the price of autobody work and paint... I'm glad I'm doing my own. It leaves alot more wiggle room in the budget.
 
i believe the more ornery the body shop guy the better. this guy was recommended to me from others who have had some nice work done. This guy did more complaining about how other body shops did their work than discuss my tub. he had dirt under nails too! i like that!
.
doesn't hurt to have access to his shop either.
 
By "missing metal" I meant holes.
 
my biggest problem are that replacement panels are not original spec and can lead to additional body work. in my case, my rocker panels are slightly inset. the body shop wants to feather that in using lead. i have no problem with that but it's a shame to go that route in the first place.
 
There are many ill fitting reproductions, but often (esp on unibodies) it is just because the rest of the car has undergone deformation. Anytime you compensate for misalignment in one panel, you most likely will be creating a problem in another area. It can be frustrating, but in the end only you see the "warts"
 
in the end, i want to be able to drive and show the car off without having to explain a cosmetic flaw that i decide to live with. we will have to see. i have some more welding to go on the rear quarter panel and trunk along with some other small clean up and then off to the body shop.
 
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