Some before and after shots

So I was looking over some of the pictures that I have taken.... it is hard to believe that I have had this car for about a year now. Only ten more before it is road worthy :)


August 2007

September 2007

October 2007

July 2008

August 2008


I have been toying with this quarter panel the last few days, still getting some gunk out from the wheel well. There is that pin hole that filled with some body filler, it still needs to be sanded down. It shouldn't be long before I get the whole quarter panel primed.

The rear quarter panel - drivers side

I have spent some time putting a wire brush to the drivers side rear quarter panel. I know I mentioned this before but, it is worth saying again... 35 years of dirt, grime and everything a car picks up year after year doesn't just wipe off with a Kleenex. You have to hack and chop at it, drench it cleaner, work at some more and then when you are at your wits end you beg and plea with the gunk... in the end, it all comes off.




So here is a before shot....
here is an after with some primmer... This is by no stretch done, I threw a layer of rattle can primmer on the quarter panel to prevent surface dust that started to pop up since I brought the car down to bare metal. The plan is not to put any primmer down unless I am completely satisfied with the surface metal and the condition of the body work.... below is a good example of what I am talking about.





This is a shot of the inside of the wheel well. There was a lot of, for lack of a better word, gunk layered on this metal. I worked it over and over in order to get it down to what you can see below...

If you look closer into the wheel well, you can see just how thick it is. Well back to my point about the bare metal and trying to explain my satisfaction before applying primmer... I am going to have to pull the wheel off, remove the rear shock and who knows what else before I can get into all those crevasses and get it to a spot that is ready for primmer.

To further explain how obsessive I can be about things... check out some of the other work I need to get done on the rear quarter.

I had this spot down at the bottom of the quarter panel. There was a dime sized rust hole on the right just to left a pin hole. I did grind down all of the rust and got it to nice and shinny metal. I put in some body filler (it took me two attempts to figure out how much to mix and how fast it dries)

Here is the after picture when I was able to sand down all of the excess...You can make out the pin hole on the left... I need to get that taken care of, I need to get the rest of that rust off the bottom of the body and it is good and ready for some primmer.....

In the end you can see what the body is going to look like when some paint, even if it is flat primer, is applied.

So there it is... I may have not spent hours and hours on end but it has been a little here and a little there.

Below are some more pics that I don't feel like setting up, take a look.

Let me know if you want to see more or less of anything in particular.

It has been a while!

Hello all!


I know I have not updated this site in about six months. What can I say, life has been a bit crazy in the last few months. Updating my blog has not been the highest priority for me nor has been hammering on the beetle with any kind of dedication.

First off.... My wife and I are expecting our first child! We are both very excited!

The news of our new family member has had me running around trying to figure out what needs to be done to the house, how to arrange things in order to accommodate another person has been tough but doable. All those years of playing Tetris have finally paid off :)

My indoor swimming pool has finally been dried up and all of the flooring problems have been taken care of. The hall way came out fine and it actually looks like I knew what I was doing. I will take a couple of pictures and post to the site.... just so everyone knows I have not been slacking for the last few months.

The bug... I have not been able to spend hours on end or anything like that but I have been toying with the car when I get a few minutes. Ten minutes here or twenty minutes there... all of this equals not too much of a noticeable gain but, it is not wasted time. I have been able to get some of the more detailed paint remove taken care of. In between the slots above the rear deck have consumed the most time but they are all done and ready for primmer. There are a few other spots that got some attention over the months...again, nothing with with any kind of dedication but a little work here and there.

I will be sure to get a few pictures taken and updated here in the next few days.

At any rate, thanks for checking back in. I am still working on it and it is still a pretty good hobby as far as hobbies go!