Panels getting painted

Bumpers, fenders and doors ready for prime and paint.

















Edges were starting to rust even though we are in the Pacific NW! These cars had thin metal and were not built to last for the long haul.

Sanded all the body sealer out of all of them and then soaked it with an acid etch primer for good bonding and sealing.







Fenders needed nothing, good all around.













Hatch suffered the worst of the rust. One hit with the blaster and it went right through. Super thin metal is no match for sand blasting. Resorted to hand sanding and wire brushing. Luckily there were no rust through areas in the outer panels.














Doors were in need of paint. When they were factory sprayed they missed a lot of places and many of the seams were never caulked.

Naked with a few holes.

Stripped down to its skivvies and ready for some minor rust repair. These never held up well and even here in the mild NW, rust had started in the tail panel. Not bad but still annoying











Interior out, even the headliner. Had a real hard time getting the sun roof off. And it too had some rust starting as well... common on these apparently.

A few more weeks and then into paint.

Plastic Bits

Found a great local guy here in Seattle that could re-dye all the interior plastic so now it looks new AND is all the same color blue. Not a bad price, had tried Just Dashes in SoCal and they were good but pricey. This was a fast turn and great service!

Shell shock

Took the nose off the car to get to all the insides. Need to paint the A/C and oil cooler flat black along with the fan to make it look clean again.











No surprises other than the fender supports up front were made of tin foil and twisted at the first sign of distress.

There were A LOT of bolts holding the front and back bumpers on. Lots more than in today's cars.








While working on the car in the shop, my friend Maureen had her car rear-ended and towed to the shop.

2002 Mistubishi Lancer ES with not even 50k on it... low miles and clean. Totalled out at $6600 in damage for a $7000 car. Hard to find parts for these even after 8 years, even from the dealer!

In the body shop for its Spa Day

Took the front fenders off to find about 8 inches of debris packed up inside the inner fender. No rust just LOTS of dirt and compost. Car should be about 50 lbs lighter in the end once it is cleaned.














Spoilers and sill plates came off and they too were packed with dirt, filled to the top actually. Thankfully no rust behind any of the pieces I took off and no broken clips either.










Yes that is dirt. The car is white, and once that gets wiped off, it should be white too.












Nose is off, and you can see the piles of dirt hidden behind all the panels. And this is AFTER I spent an hour pressure washing everything I could get into. No surprises so far.

Gutted the interior

Took the interior apart, yanked the carpet, cleaned it and had new backing pad installed and had floor mats made.
















Seats came out and had the rails painted.

















All the interior plastic trim is going to be re-dyed to match (many are different color blues as they have faded over the years).















Steering wheel leather needs to be redone.

Engine clean up

Old valve covers were a bit crusty. Bought a new on from the dealer but could not get the set so I had my body shop repaint the two old ones.











Here is how they look back from paint, amazing job and matched to the factory colors.