Project 240

[S13_love]

Well, I finally got started on working on my car . Right now, I am trying to get rid of all the rust spots and imperfections on it. As well as replace the damaged fender and headlight cover. Eventually, I'll end up repainting the whole thing, hopefully within a few weeks.

Ok here are some pics!

Rust on driver side rocker panel, in front of the rear wheel.



Same side, but behind the rear wheel (that was caused due to the water leaking in the trunk area)



Passenger side, in front of the rear wheel also.



One of the many areas where the paint is cracking.



Now i am making some progress lol:



Got one part of it cut out!



Just as i feared, it ate through part of the inner structure.



Ugh.....



I honestly didn't expect the rust spot on the passenger side to be that bad, but it appears it didn't eat through, but I'm more than likely gonna have to cut that out due to that fact that the metal there is pretty weak by now.



Cleaned up some of the rust and covered the holes to prevent any water or any other crap from getting in there.





Green tape....JdM tyTe y0!!!11!1!! lol

Anyways, im gonna have the body tech (he is also gonna be the one repainting it too) who is helping me out on this one do the rest of the work from here. Then i'll prep it out, then he'll paint it.

The next update should hopefully be this thursday...if not, then more than likely not til next tuesday.

[S13_love]

Also here's a pic the damage of when my car was hit.



Just to let you guys know, i sprayed that area with black trim paint to keep it from rusting in case if you were curious.

I should be getting the new fender by tomorrow.

[Osirux]

Yeah green tape!Boo rust, smart move on the painting the front to not rust.Keep us updated.

[S13_love]

Keep us updated.

I definitely will do that.

[Dizel01]

Wow that is some serious rust. I chose to ignore my rust problems on my rockers by installing sideskirts, lol. Good luck though

[S13k]

what paint color are you gunna go with?

[S13_love]

what paint color are you gunna go with?

I haven't decided yet but i think i have a general idea though.

I might keep it roughly the same color, maybe throw in some type of orange pearl or metallic.

Or I might have it just as a bright orange color.

I still have some time to think about it though...first, im probably just gonna spray some test panels and see how some of the colors come out, etc.

Im also thinking of painting the mirrors and roof black...what do you guys think?

[hbpignosePA]

that color is pretty gross

and so is the rust

gl getting it fixed

it reminds me of my old datsun z.........same yellow w a ton of rust

[S13_love]

Well...got back to working on it today. I made a little bit of progress by cutting out more holes that were needed, grinded and cleaned up some of the areas.



The pic below is the area on the passenger side...it was worse than i expected.



Whatever person or shop decided to work on this really half-assed it. Instead of welding in a patch panel where the rust ate through, they put body filler over it...kinda surprised me when i went over it with a grinder lol



f***



Got a patch panel welded in place where the rust at through the wheel well.



Yeah, i know it doesn't look too good at the moment lol, but once i clean it up and grind all that down, etc., then it will look a lot better.

Finally got my fender in today...$240!!

Also i got my headlight cover too! For free!

So, next week, all the patch panels should be welded and complete...and ready for paint prep. Then the week after, i will begin the long struggle in getting this ready for paint. yay!

[1990-240sxsr20det]

I'll be watching this because i have rust in the same spots.Be very detailed for me Good luck with it man, hope it turns out good.I'm not diggin the yeller paint too much though to be honest but hey its your car

[S13_love]

Be very detailed for me

I will definitely try to be as detailed as i can in the future updates.

I'm not diggin the yeller paint too much though to be honest but hey its your car

Meh, i don't mind it lol, it definitely grabs peoples' attention everywhere i go. On the other hand, i think i might not stay w/ the yellow and instead, go with.....bright orange maybe? Painting a car yellow is a pain in the a** and im not sure if i want to deal with that.

[1990-240sxsr20det]

I have always liked the burnt orange but I'm going with gun metal grey this winter

[S13_love]

I have always liked the burnt orange but I'm going with gun metal grey this winter

...good choice! I definitely wanna see how that turns out.

[sil80_chris]

I have always liked the burnt orange but I'm going with gun metal grey this winter

i wanna paint my car the same color...except its gonna be cyber gray mettalic from the newer gtos... ...good luck with the rust OP looks like you have your work CUT out for you...get it? PUN=FAIL

[S13_love]

Well, today, some more progress was made!

Finally got all the patch panels of the passenger side welded in. (3 total... )

Basically, what was done first was the patch panel for the inner structure was welded in, first it was tacked on to stay in place and then the body tech that did the welding for me made the beads, etc. Same process for the outer panel too.





The amount of body filler that was on this thing before was just...amazing, i can't even describe how much there was. Also there were two holes above where that body line is.....weird.



Covering up the metal...as you can see, we had to match the previous body work...meaning, i too, had to put a ton of body fiiller on it.



Sanded down the bondo, then put another layer of it on, and sanded that down too. Then started to mask the car to have primer sprayed on it.



The result.





What it looks like now lol.



There should be one more update for this week hopefully.

[Dizel01]

Killer job man! Keep the good work up.

[sr20drifter1]

^^^^Second that. That color is pretty nice.

[MastaYu]

nice job

[duffman1278]

Just because you fixed that rust patch doesn't mean it's a "project" but jeez that came out very good!

[freakyjason]

You wana come to NY and take care of my spare tire well rust? Darn good job man!

[S13_love]

Just because you fixed that rust patch doesn't mean it's a "project" but jeez that came out very good!

Um, there's actually like 5 areas that needed to be fixed (to me, thats a project)...that was just 1.

But it will eventually turn into more of a project later on, once i do suspension and motor work (< that won't be until fall/winter) , etc.. Im just trying to fix the body first cause that rocker panel rust is pretty much a project stopper if left ignored for too long.

Edit:

You wana come to NY and take care of my spare tire well rust? Darn good job man!

Lol, as much as i would like to say "yeah of course"...i can't, like i said before, im having a body tech that i work with doing the repairs on the rocker panels. Those areas are kinda too difficult for me to deal with. If it was anywhere else, that i would be able to do it myself.

I also forgot to mention this...but im planning to start doing the prep work on it starting next week.
Modified by S13_love at 4:00 PM 6/17/2009

[S13_love]

Well, i don't have much to say...waaayyyyy too tired right now.

But here's an update of where things are at.

More work was done to the passenger side. The primer had to be sanded down again so we could find all the low and high spots. Also i sanded the area behind the wheel (with 180 grit first, then went over it with 280 before primering it) to get rid of all the rock chips, etc.



This area right where the body line is was just all sorts of f***ed up.



Ahhh yes, this little deal here. I originally thought that this was welded up...it turns out it wasn't. Once again, whoever worked on this thought body filler would be the way to fix this. Well, its not. Moisture got under it and caused the paint to pop up and started to rust.



Lol, instead of welding a patch panel on this one...we did something a little different this time. We basically took, a piece of metal and glued (I forget what it's called, but we used some metal body panel adhesive stuff that's used specifically for this type of work) it under the hole, after cleaning up the rust in that area of course.



The top side of it.



Back to spraying the primer.



Where it's at now.





I also got to working on the replacement headlight cover. I sanded out all of the rock chips. There was also i dent in it but i got that out. Since the area where the dent was wasn't perfectly flat, i covered part of the area with metal glaze and sanded it down to smooth it out. Now this thing is ready for primer and it's good to go.



Next week, the driver side rocker panel and quarter panel will be worked on.

[S13_love]

Triple post!!

Well, last week, there was barely any progress. Me and the body tech both had scheduling conflicts so neither of us were able to get much done. I only got a few things taken care of.

Here's the driver side door that i got for $75 . The reason why i had to get a new one was because the one thats on the car now had a rust issue behind where the mirror is. I basically said f*** it, im not gonna deal with it, so i went ahead and got another.



All the rock chips have been sanded out. Just need to spray primer on it.



Anyways i got really bored this weekend and decided to pull off the front bumper cover. And I found the the little upper bracket support thing that sits right behind the nissan emblem was rusted away lol...gotta order a new one of those now



Also i found that the front bumper was red and the center area of the radiator support have a few spots of surface rust. So i cleaned all that up decided to take care of this issue that bothered me a lot.





Well, this will do for now.

[S13_love]

Here's what got done today.

On the hatch, the primer was sanded and resprayed...also where the antenna use to be at, the paint started the go out on that, so we fixed it and sprayed that area on the quarter panel too.



Here's the deal with this one...apparently, the quater panels on each side are covered with body filler. Im not too sure as to why that is, but because of that, it's wavy as f*** and the sand scratches are quite visible. Basically, i have to sand each side by hand to straighten it out. Here's just an example of whats to come.



Well, got the little platsic fender things primered...as some of you may see, i didn't do a very good job on the one in the bottom left corner lol.



The replacement headlight cover...well at least i did a better job on this one.



And finally, the bumper......*sigh*......I hate repairing bumpers, i truly do. This one was just absolute hell. So many scratches, rock chips, paint cracks that needed to be sanded out. As you'll see in the pic below, i also got the holes, where the license plate would be at, filled.





Getting sprayed with primer tomorrow.



There should (and hopefully) be another update tomorrow. Well, since working on this, im starting to realize that majority of this car will more than likely covered be with primer lol.

Edit: New page please?

[pj]

damn dude, your patch up looks killer!you make my "ok" body work look more like a retard throwing paint on a wall....yeah, its like that.good work so far man, keep going.

[Didderson]

Good update. f*** license plate holes. f*** them.

Great progress on that bumper. I feel your pain man! Make sure you give it some healthy clear coats on the new bumper to hopefully deter as many rocks as possible!

[S13_love]

Good update. f*** license plate holes. f*** them.

I couldn't agree more, a car looks sooooo much cleaner without a front license plate and those holes.

I also forgot to mention that the headlight was fixed, meaning that it was moved back into the position it should be in...so it's not grinding against the hood anymore!!

Edit:

Make sure you give it some healthy clear coats on the new bumper to hopefully deter as many rocks as possible!

I actually thought about putting a clear bra on it...but thats not gonna happen anymore. I had to order new tires for the rear on monday. Not only were they both bald and made driving in the rain scary as f*** but on monday i ran over a screw and it punctured the passenger rear tire... it's slowly leaking air...
Modified by S13_love at 9:54 PM 6/30/2009

[duffman1278]

geez your body work is good.

[S13_love]

Got all this taken care of a couple of days ago...

I went and sanded the roof by hand to find all of the dents and high spots.



There was a few.



Then went on to the hood. In the area already primered, there was a dent i was trying to fix but somehow i managed... to sand it out ?? Kinda surprised me. Also i took care of a few rock chips near the dent too.



Then i went on to sand down all of the rock chips w/ 180 grit.



Then went over the whole area w/ 280 grit to knock down all those scratches.



Hood is primered, i think i don't have to re-prime this but that depends on how well it blocks out.



What the front bumper currently looks like.



This will definitely have to be blocked down to re-prime it, soooo many sand scratched in it lol.



There will be more updates next week.

[noobdrftr]

awesome progress