Here is my ride...new mods in the work

ewolfe0050 wrote:

The car is finally in for paint. I started working on it Saturday 6:30 am through 6:30pm. Today I was at it again at 6:00am through 4:30pm. As of now, doors, hood, trunk lid, bumpers, triming, (and as of late tonight quarter glass and trim) everything but the front fenders are apart, sanded, etched (where needed), and primed (again where needed). The only thing broken in the dissambely was the corner lens on the inside of the driver's door. We are not painting the door jambs however we did remove all of the trim so it will hide any paint lines after reinstallation.

Eric,
Just wondering how the quarter glass removal went?
I gather you had it done professionally so you won't end up having to replace either of them?

I had someone professional come out and remove it. They charged me $100 for removal of both and when the time comes to reinstall, I just need to give them a call as installation is also covered in the $100 as well. Not too bad at all. It took him 15min/side and there was no damage done to the chrome trim or rubber. No rust was found.

ewolfe0050 wrote:

The manufacturer, MSR/Eagle, did not prep correctly and they are starting to chip badly around the polished lip. Their product warranty they advertise is worthless. I love the design of the wheels but because of the mfg and how they handled the situation I will not buy another set of their rims again.... Their customer service person basically told me I'm shyt out of luck and said it in a rude type of way... and to think I bought 2 set off of them within the past year and had planned on buying a set of 18" for auto X/winter and 16" for slicks...

!!

Glad I asked, seeing your car almost sold me on them too. Damn. I guess it's not worth taking them to court?

I won't put any rims on my Riv other than the Riv ones. I was considering trying to find some chromes but seeing the black Riv with the Alloys somewhere on here I changed my mind. I'm just gonna have my Alloys refinished. Still on the fence after I saw the Cosmichrome thread.

ewolfe0050 wrote:

I had someone professional come out and remove it. They charged me $100 for removal of both and when the time comes to reinstall, I just need to give them a call as installation is also covered in the $100 as well. Not too bad at all. It took him 15min/side and there was no damage done to the chrome trim or rubber. No rust was found.

Thats great! I paid a guy $75 just to put mine in after it was painted!
No rust is a good thing too.

Looks excellent, I am not into oversized rims and shortwall tires, rides too rough, but they look great on your car.... I vote it for Riv/month

Eric just wanted to let you know if you need help with anything at all feel free to PM me. I'm just down the road and am pretty mechanically inclined and whatnot and love working on cars.

I doubt you need it but I've got alot of spare time here lately.

Plus I'd love to see all your mods in person and learn some things

looks great Eric, im giving you props for going thru wit it

Here is some more photos. two more 12hr days this weekend. Doesn't look like we got much more acomplished but we are ready for paint Wed.... oh wait....we decided today that we are shaving the door handles, antenna , trunk lock, and emblems. We will do that Wed then paint on Sat. Hope to have it back at my place Monday. I have finally, almost decided, kinda, maybe on paint color...maybe.

Good luck on all this work, it's an artform in itself!

And keep these progress pics coming, looks awesome.

Is that a Dipped Grand Prix Rim on the front drivers side? -Shame-

I want my Riv paint to look exactly like the picture above....Mad Max style....

Chicken you just need to add the two huge gas tanks sticking out of the back from "The Road Warrior."

Here is what I have been doing the past three days...

We are painting the wheels the same color of the car. I need to media blast the old wheels to get any corrosion off and give the paint something to hold on to. First I needed to polish the lip. I need to do this before blasting so that the polish is not going into the media blast crevices and potentially ruining the finish.

Wheel before polish...



After polish..





My dining room table for the past two weeks...



I stripped then reconditioned all of the weatherstripping and chrome moldings. Took forever and I still have a few pieces left. Everything came out looking like new.





I spent today shaving the door handles, antenna, and trunk lock. I will post these photos soon.

ewolfe0050 wrote:

I stripped then reconditioned all of the weatherstripping and chrome moldings.

With what?

I used ArmorAll cleaning wipes to remove any old conditioner and dirt. It's a pretty agressive cleaner used for leather seats. Left the rubber with a nice uniform dull look.

I used Sil-Glyde for reconditioning. There were three I narrowed down from what was available when I did some internet research and this was the most accessible and seemed to be around for a while with good reviews. I found it at CarQuest and NAPA. It's thicker than vasoline and has a orangist tint. It is very time consuming to do it right. The excess is hard to remove.

I used Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish for the chrome trim.

The shaved door kit came in today. The company is Electric Life. Here are some photos of us with the body work. I will have a full write up shortly...







I took over the welder after my buddy tried to tack it on on the left leading edge. Not very pretty



This side is pretty decent...



90% of the filler gets removed..





Antenna...







Trunk keey lock...





LOOK MA! No handles!!



Here's my little helper a little pissed off after having to clean up a shitty repair by the local Buick dealership. (Dec.2006- door skin replaced due to collision with dumptruck- not at fault). The aft edges were slightly bent out which created a high spot or ridge all the way down the aft part of the door panel.



Saturday we will do the final blocking of the shaved areas, tape everything up, and start shooting color. Monday we will trailor it back near my place to put everything together after buffing. Hope to have it back on the streets in 2-3wks. Still have a lot to acomplish until then.

That door kit is going to be sweet E, looking good.

that media blaster is fun, its amazing that those small peices of plastic do a better job of stripping than sand.

So fucking awesome......

You should put netting up instead of windows, ala nascar

Eric, are you doing the gas tank cover too? Flush mount?

I thought about it but to do so, I would need to reroute the filler neck into the trunk. A little too much work.

Chicken wrote:

So fucking awesome......

Shave the side mirrors and put in a video system

Eric, you're doing what I wish I had the time, effort, and money to do.
Kudos to you and good luck. Cant wait to see it done.