4877 Ressurecting a bad girl...

[DMC5180]

Now that you have it somewhat flatter, when you go to reinstall on the car, see if you can shim it up with thin wood strips sitting on top of the impact absorber. That will help prevent it from smiling again and perhaps you'll even be able shim it up more if there is still a little sag.


Dennis

[Lwanmtr]

Oh good idea, thanks, Dennis. I hadnt thought of putting shims there....but wouldnt that put stress on the impact absorber, and maybe cause it to seperate from the plate?

[DMC5180]

Your not putting that much stress on it. I did the same trick under my headlight openings to close the sagging gap under the headlight bezels.


Dennis

[Lwanmtr]

Cool. I'll remember that when I go to put it back on...as well as for the front too, since it has the sag under the lights. Thanks
Any suggestions on how thick i should use?

[DMC5180]

I think I used 1/4-3/8" material A/R. It was years ago. I have not done anything to the rear yet but mine sags about a 1/2" according to a corner to corner straight edge.


Dennis

[Lwanmtr]

Great. Thanks. Im sure I got some that size around here I can use. Still a few more days of letting it sit and settle before I'll dissasemble it all and get to sanding and all that fun stuff.

[DMC5180]

Wedge type Window / door frame shims work good for infinite adjustability. Any lumber yard, hardware store or big box store will have them. Cheap!

Adjust as required then tape or glue them together. The only down side is that they are wood. Water will eventually cause them to decay over years unless you can find plastic shim wedges.

Dennis

[Lwanmtr]

Yeah, we got a bunch of door shims and the like here.

[Lwanmtr]

Worked a bit on the rear fascia today. Another round of heating will happen tomorrow, just to tweak the shape more. But today I wanted to get to starting on sanding and prepping....

All the bad paints n bumps pretty much shaved off...started with 60 and went up to 180 grit on this pass....

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and now with a couple coats of primer filler (great stuff)...

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There's still some areas that I'll need to get the smooth blending better..some around the top and upper corner and in the D and N, which I'll do tomorrow after the primer is all dry n sandable. Then another primer coat.

After which I'll have to decide on color. Already know I'm going to do a satin clear coat, since I dont like the super high gloss look for myself.

[Lwanmtr]

Got the rear all fixed up n ready..... Applied the first coat of sem trim black. Yep, I'm doing the area behind the taillights too, hides where gaps between the lights and license bezel might be a bit.

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Waiting for the med-titanium paint i ordered to get here to make a swatch to see how it will look against the stainless.....didnt cost much, so if its too dark I can get another.