Body Restoration on #931 GVR4

[NateCrisman]

Hey guys,

I just bought #931/2000 from NJGSX96, which was Quasimondo's car previously.

The car runs and drives great and has had a significant amount of mechanical work done. Unfortunately, the body is in pretty sad shape. I'm at a sort of crossroads with how I want to approach this car as a project.

On one hand, I don't want to invest a huge amount of money into a restoration project that I won't eventually be able to recoup when I sell the car. Go fast parts can easily be removed and sold, but body work and paint aren't. This car is TMU (total mileage unknown" on the title and has a realistic 185k miles on it or more, but the guage cluster was swapped at some point, so I can't be sure 100%. But if I could resto the body to presentable but not perfect condition and increase the value of the car a decent amount, I would put the effort in. Otherwise, Ill just leave it crappy looking and make it go fast. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Every body panel has some sort of damage, with either a large dent or multiple dings coupled with severe and typical clearcoat failure. I took some pictures showing most of the body damage, you can view them here:
http://nathancrisman.smugmug.com/gallery/6678106_pY6AN/1/426339418_8VVvX

What's the general thought on this, Id like to hear what you guys would do with this car and how you would go about it.

I have the option of vinyl wraping the car for material cost, as my brother in law runs a vinyl business doing vehicle wraps. It would for certain be mild looking and cost a few hundred bucks, about the same cost as a maaico/earl shieb paint job. In the event of a vinyl wrap, I would try to replace the removable pannels with good condition ones and do the bondo work on the 1/4's and roof myself.

 

[NateCrisman]

I just noticed that my brother in law's Ford Focus that has a vinyl wrap is in the background of some of the pics.

 

[Hertz]

I'd practice dent removal on it.

Then sand it down and rattle can it.

 

[solidviper89]

Looks just like mine /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[NateCrisman]

Quoting Hertz:
I'd practice dent removal on it.

Then sand it down and rattle can it.



Eh, rattle can on the whole car would likely cost as much as the vinyl material will and might look worse. I seem to remember SCC magazine rattle canning an STI flat black and saying it took like 35 cans! ~$150 of paint assuming about 5 bucks a can. And what a pita and messy to do compared to vinyl wrap.

Dent removal vs replacing panels is one of the crossroads I'm talking about. None of the doors are "wasted" and the trunk isn't horrendous. I could fill or try pulling the dings from the doors vs replacing them. the two front fenders have creased damage and just aren't worth screwing with IMHO, they need to be replaced.

 

it doesnt look that bad.. how is the drivetrain? As far as i can see i cant see any rust underneath, #78 looks like it has more than that.

 

[NateCrisman]

The drivetrain seems fine, as far as I know Quasimondo put the car together witha JDM 6bolt, and a rebuilt trans. It shifts 1-2 a little balky and slow, but no grind. ACT2600 went in at the same time, that is fine, should have about 12k miles on it from what I know.

As for rust, Im not seeing any to be honest. The underside looks clean, as does all the suspension members and most everything under the hood. I haven't pulled off any ground effect parts, but there is no rust under the doors, in the door jams, or the typical gvr4 rust spots in the trunk, hood, and pillars.

The thing that bothers me most is the front fenders and the front bumper hanging 1.5" low. The car isn't a "wreck" by my standards, but every panel has some damage.
Im mostly trying to judge if the car is worth making a real effort to fix the body to excelent condition at a total cost of likely $1200 to $1750 or if I should just clean it up as best I can and leave it as is, spend my efforts elsewhere.

If I were to put $2000 into the car, make the body 95% excelent...does anyone think a low 12 sec GVR4 with no rust, decent interior, mechanically sound, BUT TMU title and 200+k miles could/would sell in the $4500 to $5000 range. My gut tells me that the real high mileage and TMU title will always keep this car from being worth much more than the sum of it's part out value no matter how nice it drives or looks. I certainly don't want to invest $2000 in body work on a car that will never be worth more than $2500 regardless of condition.

I plan to keep the car for a while, couple years..who knows. This season Im going to try and get it to run consistent low 12's on the motor/16g and maybe put some spray on it to run around 11.5's @ 120ish. I miss going to the track, been a couple years since I'v had a dragstrip worthy car.

 

Just have the body work/paint done. can vinyl stick to oxidized paint?

 

[NateCrisman]

I would have to sand down all the failing clearcoat and any rusty areas.

If I did choose to vinyl wrap it, I would sand all the dings/dents and do bondo body work as normal in prep for a repaint. Spray the bondo'd areas with rattle can primer, then fine sand for smoothness. Then apply the vinyl over the primer.

The vinyl wrap is real thin and flexible. It will show the same surface defects/scratches and adhesion issues that you would have with spraying new paint. The vinyl won't hide scratches or dings, nor will it stick to a cruddy surface.

But paint or vinyl, both need the exact same surface preperation and damage repair before hand.

Vinyl is just more cost efficient and easier than an equivelent cost in repaint. We can do the wrap at home for about $300-$400 in material, and $400 doesn't buy even the worst quality repaint at a Maaico. It would honestly come out far nicer looking than a $400 repaint anyway. For a real repaint, I would think of spending less than $1000 even if I did all the sanding, dent removal, panel swaps and prep myself and drove the car to the paint shop ready to mask & spray.

Is this car worth putting $1500 into body work?

 

[scooter]

Ive worked in a body shop my whole life, and the car is not that bad. If you did all the body work, prep work, and after paint finishing it should be fine. Just do all the body work and paint prep. If you want it as nice as possible, id put my first line of masking tape on, just leave the windows blank till its there. You could then have macco or peach shoot the car. If you did the prep work, and you did most of the important masking, not much they could mess up. The car would still need wet sanded and buffed, but should come out rather nice if you take all these steps. When done this way, ive seen some pretty nice peach paint jobs. We actually have three of those places in my city. Peach, Macco, and Econo. If you check around, one should be pretty decent. It happens to be Peach here, but any should be just fine if you take these steps.

 

[scooter]

Also, that should be able to be had for under 500 for sure. Make sure you tell them it will only need minimal masking, wax and grease removed, tacked, and sprayed. Even with them doing most of the work, pretty sure its still under 500 around here.

 

[iceman69510]

Carbon fiber print vinyl wrap on the hood and trunk FTW!

 

[atc250r]

Nate,

I still have the trunk and hood here if you want them. The guy that was supposed to buy the hood hasn't contacted me in over a week so I'm guessing he's no longer interested. For what I want for the hood it isn't worth spending a few hours on that old one. I can probably hook you up with the front bumper off of my white car or the GGSX since it has a GVR4 bumper on it now. I wouldn't fool with any of the parts that can easily be unbolted and replaced. There are too many 1989-1993 Galants in the junkyard with clean body parts to make it worth spending much time fixing damaged ones. Then I would have it sprayed at Maaco. IMHO wrapping it will add almost zero to the resale and to me, it would hurt the cars value. I wouldn't want to be the one trying to peel all that stuff off after it baked in the sun for a few years so I could put a proper paint job on it. For a $200 price difference you have kept it simple and not re-invented the wheel just to hurt the resale value of the car.

John

 

[atc250r]

Here's the quote I was looking for:

Quote:
Right I forgot about the cheapskate DSM spirit. The motto of "why do something the right and easy way, when you can reinvent the wheel and spend 5X the money hacking sh*t together yourself"



Stupid NJDSM is down again so it took a minute to figure out how to get it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

John

 

[deez]

I just looked at the pics, and while the car needs some paint and minor body work, its not bad. IMHO, I wouldn't do any hack work or Maaco quality paint. We all know that's a temporary solution as their work uses sh*t for materials and does not last. Live with it, save up $2k, and when the time is right do as much of the prep work yourself and take it to a reputable painter. The car is worth it.
I have seen way too many of our cars and Starquests when I was in a Starquest club that people did half ass work on when it came to the paint. And to a person who knows their head from their ass, they looked like crap. And I laughed at them for their bad taste and lack of patience to do things right.

 

[NateCrisman]

Quoting atc250r:
Nate,

I still have the trunk and hood here if you want them. The guy that was supposed to buy the hood hasn't contacted me in over a week so I'm guessing he's no longer interested. For what I want for the hood it isn't worth spending a few hours on that old one. I can probably hook you up with the front bumper off of my white car or the GGSX since it has a GVR4 bumper on it now. I wouldn't fool with any of the parts that can easily be unbolted and replaced. There are too many 1989-1993 Galants in the junkyard with clean body parts to make it worth spending much time fixing damaged ones. Then I would have it sprayed at Maaco. IMHO wrapping it will add almost zero to the resale and to me, it would hurt the cars value. I wouldn't want to be the one trying to peel all that stuff off after it baked in the sun for a few years so I could put a proper paint job on it. For a $200 price difference you have kept it simple and not re-invented the wheel just to hurt the resale value of the car.

John



I tend to agree on the paint vs vinyl when it comes to resale, although honestly, I think it's a moot point due to the mileage/title. I have a feeling that any significant investment in this car that isn't removable/partable is not going to bring a return since this car wouldn't ever sell for $4000+ regardless of body condition.

The first thing that I need to confirm before starting to acquire any body panels that aren't green is what the Maaco price really is now. The maaco in Dover, NJ did the first yellow paintjob on my racecar 1g back in summer 2001. At the time I brought them the car all dissassembled with bumpers, wing, ground effects off. all the lights out. They had to sand, prime, mask and spray. I paid over $1300 for that, granted, they charged me a bit more due to the color change an the 2 tone black roof/yellow body. And it was still a poor job with paint chipping off super easy. obviously no wet sanding or finishing work either. I need to find out what they can really do for the $500 range.

 

[atc250r]

Bringing them the race car all disassembled added to the time needed to paint the car as will having them do the prep work for you. I would say that $500 is a very reasonable guess assuming you do the masking and stuff yourself. I would pull the headlights, tail lights, side markers, and whatever else I could before having them paint it. Then, like someone mentioned in a previous post do the first line of masking yourself to make sure the edges will come out nice and sharp. Don't use cheap masking tape either, get the good stuff from an autobody supply place.

John

 

[gtluke]

who the f*** is looking at your car? you live in the middle of the woods!
just drive it before Janet Reno brings the tanks in.

 

[NateCrisman]

Well, on a good note, the car feels pretty strong for 15psi on 93 octane. My Iphone accelerometer programs put out:

1.93 60'
5.39 330'
8.24 @ 89.9 1/8mile

That's like a 13.0 to 12.8 and 107 to 109 roughly. Ran it a few times today, but it's so cold on poop tires. I did do a couple more 8.2's and 8.3's at 88 to 89mph. swift 8.9 @ 86 last night on wet ground wit a 2.2 60'. Granted, it's basically a G-Tech reading, but should be within a couple tenths/2mph. Im glad the car runs well at least.

Ill give the Maaco a call this week, but there is no way for sure Im putting a $2000 paintjob + bodywork on a $2000 car. There is certainly a limit to what would be a decent investment and what is flushing cash down he toilet.

 

[1badgvr4]

Did you pay for that app on your Iphone.