My Yelli Celi Bodywork Project Options

[Coomer]

This thread is going to be updated as I do some bodywork and paint my car. I always love these progression threads myself, so I figured I'd make my own this time.

Please post your comments as I go along. Since this is my project car and has a salvage title due to vandalism, I'm not doing things that I would if this were going to be a super nice paintjob, like having the rear side windows removed (Average quoted price was $200 around here) and using urethane base coat/clear coat paint (Expensive! And two different types of coats means twice the chances of me messing up.) I'm going to use an enamel of some sort, and going to stick with yellow probably.

Anyway, on with the project:

Day One

Day one started with washing the car with lots of harsh dishsoap and drying it, to remove dirt and some wax. Don't mind the amateur graffiti or the ugly front wheels...Les Schwab screwed up my alignment and it ate my nice Yokohomas up front. But do note those sexy sideskirts in the foreground...DCW JDM dealer option replicas, which fit perfectly and are beautiful! Props to Romas for excellent work on those skirts!



I then removed the bumpers, headlights, tail-lights, trunk lid, license plate bezel, and some other things. My front bumper is being replaced with a non-modified '95 bumper, and I'm getting rid of the fog lights. My license plate bezel and trunk lid are being replaced with parts from a '94 coupe as well, since they were both damaged in the horrible vandalism incident last June.



The next step was to start sanding, so I applied grease and wax remover to the hood and front fenders and wetsanded those with 400 grit sandpaper. I called it a day after wetsanding the front end.

[Coomer]

Day Two

Day two started with more cleaning with grease and wax remover, and then sanding some of the scratches from when my car was vandalized. I used 120, then 220, then 320, then 400 for these areas, except in a couple areas where the scratches are so deep that it'll be easier to use some body filler.



I then sanded the roof and sides of the car, fuel door, all that fun stuff. I managed to get fiberglass embedded into my arm from my spot sanding pen, which wasn't much fun.







Once the whole car was sanded (the stuff off the car still isn't sanded, except the trunk lid), I took a break and then worked on getting the TRD replica wing to fit. My new trunk lid has four holes in incorrect places that need to be filled, and needs four new holes for the wing. I drilled the new holes and laid fiberglass over the holes that are going to be filled from the bottom side of the trunk lid, and tomorrow will fill these holes in completely with body filler.

I also fixed a small chip in a sideskirt caused by shipping, and filled the backside of the antenna hole with fiberglass cloth. From what I read, for a small area such as this, the fiberglass cloth should be fine and shouldn't crack and fall off. Again, this is another corner cut, where the best situation would've been to have sheet metal welded in there.



At this point, it was late, and I'd been working for a good eight hours or so, so I called it a night.

I'm debating whether or not to shave the sidemarkers. Now would be to opportune time to do it, but I'm not quite sure if I want to. What do you guys think?