Unexpected summer project (a good one this time)

[Terry Posten]

On April 18th I was driving in the middle lane of a 3 lane road and a Z28 decided to merge into my lane. I tried to slide far enough over to make room but I had a truck next to me. The kid did not even stop. I was cruising with about 10 other cars in a group and 2 of the cars chased him down and made him come back to the scene.





It took a few weeks dealing with the kid's dad's insurance co to get the $1600 repair check and another week setting up a painter (same guy that painted my 88 GTA back in 2000). I'm throwing in a few more dollars and getting the whole thing done.

Dates are now set. I deliver it Wednesday the 10th to the painter. He wont be done with it before I go on vacation but it's not like I would start putting it back together before I get back anyway. I will pick it up on Friday the 26th.

I only found 1 spot of rust and it is just surface around one of the rear bumper "holes" (see pics). This car was bought in central IL and lived it's whole life in IL and IA. I am totally amazed that there was no rust under the door paneling.

I have a new front emblem coming from the factory as well as all the little clips/grommets that did not come off in good shape. I also have the door handle gaskets and lock cylinder gaskets coming. Should give it that extra clean look. I will be ordering new chrome stripping for the bumpers/cladding and a crapper load of 3m tape. All the metal trim (including door handles) will be painted black w/clear coat and the body will be factory Summit White (the fastest color /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif). I also have a stock hood getting painted.

The rear bumper core is very rusty but I really don't care too much about that lump of steel. I did remove over 1/2 the weight of the core with a 4.5" angle grinder and about 2 hours of work.

I did break a bunch of bolts on the bumpers/headlights/front dog-legs and such but I used a small propane torch and small vice-grips and removed every broken stud and then chased then with a tap. I will be replacing all the bolts with new hardware. I even fixed a fitment issue with the passenger side front fender. Every gap is now proper and matching side to side.

Now for the "before" pics. Damn date stamp is off again, these were taken an hour ago. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif





















I will update when the car gets back.

 

[turbowop]

Sucks you got hit, but bonus points for it being mild and getting a full respray out of it. That's how I painted 1051 five years ago.

Can I please suggest you paint the door handles white? Pretty plz?

It looks so good on Andre's car:

 

[Terry Posten]

I am seriously thinking about it. I need more pics of that car please.

I can also get black trim instead of chrome trim.

What do you think?

 

[1badgvr4]

Please say with the chrome. Black KILLS the look.

 

[cspetros]

Chrome FTW. It's aesthetically pleasing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif. This is especially true on the nile black, and summit white body colors, though it looks nice on the others too.

 

[464/2K]

Second for the white door handles, also paint the window frames gloss black

 

[turbowop]

Quoting Terry Posten:
I am seriously thinking about it. I need more pics of that car please.




I have more pics of Andre's car, but not any good ones that show the door handles unfortunately.

 

[slugsgomoo]

Quoting Terry Posten:
I am seriously thinking about it. I need more pics of that car please.

I can also get black trim instead of chrome trim.

What do you think?



definitely paint 'em.

here's a gallery of andre's car

click

Ricky: i think the satin black trim paint looks better than gloss, but that's just me. I find gloss to be a bit too noticeable /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

[BoostedAWD91]

painting the door handles to match the rest of the car really does look alot better. My handles are painted white like the rest of the car. ill post some pics as a reference

 

[Terry Posten]

YES, please do.

 

The above picture of the vr4 showing the white handles looks nice. I agree Terry, go with painting the door handles the color of the car and stick with the chrome trim.

 

Im going against the grain on this one and saying that I prefer to leave them black.

 

[dsmer06]

I think black door handles look best on a white car.

 

[curtis]

Chrome is for chevy's and big caddy's paint everything black or white.

 

[GIjoe]

^ +1

 

[BoostedAWD91]

Terry, here are some pics of my car with the painted door handles and also the chrome trim has been painted the color of the car as well

 

[turbowop]

I think the little plastic gaskets that go behind the handles need to be left black, as well as leaving the keyhole chrome. IMO

The keyhole can get chipped easily everytime you insert the key a little off and hit the paint and leaving the little gaskets black give the handle more of a three dimensional look, yet still flows since the actual handle is the color of the body.

It almost looks like the car above only has painted handles because somebody didn't want to spend the time to take them off the car when it was painted and didn't bother to mask them off. Same with the keyhole. If that's not what happened, I apologize. It still looks good, just a tad weird to me.

 

[Terry Posten]

^^^agreed^^^

Too much white.

The locks will stay chrome as will the trim strip. The gaskets are new and will stay black. The handles will be white.

The Black window trim and front/rear window trim will be black.

The only thing left for me to decide is the front bumper. It is a USDM unit but I don't know if I want to keep the black slits or have the whole thing painted white. The grill is getting a fresh coat of white with a new emblem and the grill insert is getting sprayed black. So most likely the bumper slits will stay black.

All the black will be gloss black with clear coat. All the white will be Summit White with clear coat.

 

[turbowop]

Leave the bumper slats black. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jcgalntvr4-244]

+1 wop