December 29, 2012: I Want a Perfect Body

During our last meeting with Carlos, he told us about this trick Mustang he saw at a car show. He told us that this Mustang had some paint features (stripes I think) that would be present in certain angles of light. He mentioned that I should do that with my car so it doesn't look like another run of the mill Mustang. More importantly he said that he could and wants to do it. I guess he likes my car.

Over the course of the week, my Dad and I were looking for different ideas.
Picture this: the majority of the body is painted Black. Now picture one stripe going up the middle of the car that has a thicker diameter, the stripe would go around the whole body. The stripe would grow from the front valence, over the hood, over the roof, over the trunk, through the rear tail panel, and finally to the rear lower valence. The stripe would itself be a deep red that would be present at a certain angle. The dark red to not only match the interior but to create a subtle difference in the paint. I'm going for a definite double take look.

HOWEVER, that goal is pretty far away from the current situation. I have a car in pieces and it needs to be put back together before we can even think of paint.

After buying those parts needed for the fender, it was back to Carlos'. Between our last meeting, the car already had some more progress done to it.

The surface rust above the wheel well was already taken care of! It looked so much better.
Also...

The new tail panel was already put on! It's coming together pice by piece!

After hanging out for a bit, it was decided that we wanted the rust removed, make sure the car is straight, and put the body panels on. Once all that is done, we can talk paint.

P.S. When Carlos was taking the car apart, he discovered that the gas tank was NOT bolted down to anything. It was just sitting there and staying in place because of gravity. This car is just full of surprises.

Just before Christmas 2012

Just wrapped up my first semester of senior year and I can't wait to see what the car looks like now.

Upon arrival at Carlos' shop I saw that my car was even more naked than it was before! No fenders and the entire rear of the car was missing! All that's there is a hood, roof, one quarter panel, and two doors!

Carlos redirects my Dad and I to the back of the car. That's where we see it... RUST!! I sank.
Remember how I mentioned that the right rear quarter panel was going to be a problem it is! That entire area is a mess. Not only with rust but with bad welding from the past body guys.

Two areas of interest: 1) The top sheet metal, just above the wheel well, only has surface rust which can be taken care of quite easily.
2) Notice the area, that has the tools laying on it. That is the problem area... that is where most of the bad body work is and has the most rust. We were told that the rust made the metal so weak that if the car got rear ended while driving it would have folded up like tissue paper!

Not to worry too much. It can be fixed but it will take so time.

Then we are redirected to the front area of the car.

And we see this. That looks terrible! Once again, we were told that it is just more surface rust and can be repaired. However, the rubber lining (the gray strip that surrounds the rusted area) needed to be replaced.
That just means more shopping.
Then we will come back with the parts and a battle plan for the future.