Published on 1/29/2016
I got the car delivered back home in the third week of January. It looks so good, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
Now the rebuilding process is underway, and there is so much to do. Pulling it all apart is easy, really. I didn’t care so much as long as everything was stacked and sorted appropriately, and nothing broke. But when you put it all back again, you focus on the detail, on the alignment, on the fit, on not stripping old rusted bolts.
First off, I have to deal with what the paintshop didn’t deal with, and what they left me with. After the clean-up I found a strip of rust on the passenger floor which wasn’t obvious before. I sanded that down and sprayed it. Secondly, there were the remains of the rear lights’ gaskets. I had hoped that the paintshop would clean and treat these areas for me, but I wasn’t explicit enough about it, and they sprayed around it. On the driver side it was OK, and only required light treatment. On the passenger side however I had to chisel it off, then scrape the remaining bits off, and then sand it down. After this I sprayed both sides too so that the new seals have a clean smooth surface to sit on. The rear bumper was only partially attached, and I had to get innovative with some extra clips the detailer gave me when I pointed out that the rear mudguards weren’t attached. And of course, I have to attach those too.
The paintshop didn’t attach the front bumper on delivery (I took it home separately along with the mudguards) for paint-protection reasons, and this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It made it very easy to take off the two front tie-down hooks. These need to be cleaned and painted too. There’re also a myriad of small little consumables that I want to replace; clips and plugs and grommets and so on.
The devil’s in the details as they say, but on the whole I’m very excited to get this done now, before the turn of the season still. Stay tuned!