Hiatus...

Sadly my car sits in the driveway, going on four weeks now, patiently waiting for valuable shop space.  Am I at all disappointed?  I'd be lying if I wasn't and the truth of the matter is I've come to grips with it...finally.  It's not all bad from a life perspective.  My wife would tell me that there are more important things that take precedence like  a basement reno, yard work and house stuff in general.  So...I can surely wait a bit longer for the final rust repair/custom bodywork phase can't I?  The other 'big' issue is money which btw will be eaten up by the reno so there's a good chance the 'pro' paintjob won't happen but I have an out.  Stay tuned!

This is what we 'finished' with the last time any work was done on the car.

LH - frame rail boxed in

RH - frame rail boxed in

Front fenders cut, ready to weld on the rear!  Thx DQ!

Rust...oh how I loath thee!

It's common place to find rust on a 30+ year old vehicle so I wasn't too surprised when we discovered some in the usual places.  At least the shock towers, rockers and frame rails are intact although upon further inspection, one rail is starting to go.  More on that later.  Anyway, this installment includes more boring pics of proper rust repair which as we all know require lots of grinding, cutting, welding, puttying, sanding and priming.  In the end, it's all worth it!  Enjoy.

LR - from the wheel well

LR - from the inside

LR - new 18ga steel welded in

 

LR - The shock tower was reinforced with additional welds too.

LR - Cleaned up ready to fiberglass & putty.

LR - fiberglassed

LR - fiberglassed from the inside

LR - primered

LR - primered inside

The RR repair is virtually identical to the LR save for the major bit of metal work seen here.  I'm glad we're not cutting corners!

LR - rust repaired trunk opening and wheel well both primered

RR - same as above but the other side

This concludes the 'major' rust repair.  The rest (bottom of doors, trim around c-pillars) don't appear to be as bad but we won't know for sure until we see what lies beneath!  Stay tuned...

Stock - 30 yr old never looked so good

As with every car build, there are before and after pics of pretty much anything and everything.  Mine is no exception and as you can see, there are lots of good elements or bones if you will and I'm fairly happy it's in half decent shape; better than the sedan that sold for $2+ Gs recently on DK? 

Front

 

 RR

 

 LR

I'm not a drifter and this isn't a track only build so the interior will remain intact when it's finished.  Besides, just look at how clean it is save the cracked dash. 

Front stripped - except dash because I may have to drive the car home periodically due to lack of shop space and other unfinished projects

 

Rear stripped

Boot lid - a tale of neglect

Take a look at this pic and tell me what you see.  Note: This is the LH side of the trunk.

 

What caused this bit to fail is beyond me.  The piece that hangs down should in fact be attached to the round rod which keeps the boot lid open while in the up position as seen in the second pic (RH side of trunk).

What we did to fix this was drill out the broken pivot and replaced it with a bolt and double nuts seen here...

and here.

Say good bye to the boot prop aka tree branch!

I apologize for the uncool beginnings but body repairs are never glamorous!  Look at this as filler for the good stuff.

In the beginning...

Project root beer started it's life as a mild mannered, granny owned and driven sedan but was then passed on to a 2nd owner who drove it for just 6 months before it sat for nearly 2yrs, neglected and unused...until now.  I bought this car locally through a guy in our Toyota club but as this sweet deal went down, it became more and more sour due to a middleman withholding information.  In the end, everything was sorted and I was content.  So now it begins! 

This will be a very slow build as my body guy is at the shop only 2 days/week due to family matters.  On top of that, I'm a workaholic with a young family so I can only put in 2hrs per day a week, that's if he's there.  

Looks clean from afar but far from clean!  A month into the restoration and things are progressing albeit slower than I want but beggars can't be choosers.  Anyway, more pics and updates to follow.