The 14 Car Performance Therapy Project Rushforths, Baers, Yokohamas, and more

[NOT A TA]

While stripping the body for new paint ( I didn't strip to metal the first time 20 years ago) we found a couple previous repairs. Among them was a dent that was filled with bondo instead of pulling it out. The dent was in a spot where you can't get to the inside of the sheet metal and whoever did the work must not have had access to a stud gun. So for those who never saw one or saw one used here's how it works.

This is a stud gun which is sort of a 110V spot welder that attaches a stud to the body. The stud is loaded into the gun, pressed to the body, pull the trigger, and the tip of the stud glows red welding itself to the body.



There's a couple sizes of the studs but even the small ones will burn through most modern cars because the metal is much thinner than the old cars so the guns aren't used much by collision shops any more.The studs shown are the larger size which work great on old cars.



My buddy Jeff shows how the tool that pulls the studs works. He's been a body man all his life so he's got the technique down from working on cars like mine since they were new. Jeff's helping me do the car as part of a trade deal. So he's doing the exterior bodywork & paint which is really going to speed up my project since I can do the subframe, underside, and other things while he's making the car straight. We do jobs together and it works out well.

[Steve Chryssos]

It's so nice to see the 14 car getting pampered and showered with gifts. And I love of your tips.

[NOT A TA]

Thanks Steve!

Since I've recruited Jeff to pick up and continue from where I was on the exterior bodywork I've been stripping the underside and doing other things. I never trimmed the rear wheel lips or rolled them before and since now's the best time to do it I cut them and Jeff rolled them so they're tucked out of the way. They'll be epoxied and seam sealed to keep anything out of the rolled section. Jeff's got the outside of the doors in primer and is working on making the roof & quarters straight by skim coating & blocking some areas.

[OLDFLM]

Looking good John!

[NOT A TA]

Originally Posted by OLDFLM

Looking good John!

Thanks Ty!

It's more humid here in South FL than most parts of the country even this time of year. So as soon as a panel is ready for primer it gets shot to prevent rust.

[NOT A TA]

I wanted to trim and roll the wheel well lips not only to create more side clearance for wide tires but also to allow more suspensiion travel and to allow the possibility of dropping the car a little. I know I was right at the limits before hitting with the 315 tires I had before. I'll be doing the Adams mod during this project which will drop the car a small amount and I may drop it a little lower than that before I'm done. So trimming and rolling the lips now before paint is just the right time to do it.

As seen in my previous post I trimmed about half of the wheel lip off in the center directly above the rear wheels and tapered off to nothing several inches above the body line. This way no one will notice when looking at the car from the sides because the wheel well lip looks stock. You can only tell if down really low looking up. Filled the gutter created by rolling the lip with panel bond to add strength and prevent debris from getting in there and holding water IF the car ever gets wet. Then I primed the wheel wells so I can move on to getting the rest of the underside stripped to bare metal without having the sheet metal get rusty from humidity.

Here's pics of the rolled lip, shiny clean 43 year old wheelwell, and 1st coat primer.









Meanwhile Jeffs been getting the quarters in primer and now he's skimming a few places on the roof. A couple small patches were used on the passenger side quarter to fix soft spots that could have eventually become a problem years down the road and the drivers side only needed a very small repair (size of a nickel) in the corner right behind the wheel. For original 1970 quarters on a car that was originally a DD up North it doesn't get much better!

[NOT A TA]

Jeff's done with getting the unibody & door exterior surfaces stripped, straightened, skimmed, etc. and is on to the prime & block stage. I'm still stripping the underneath and areas like the tail panel to shiny metal then priming. Yes, the firewall will be modified.

[ArisESQ]

Love what you're doing with it. This is one of my favorite cars on here.

[LS7 Z/28]

Looks great, your project is coming along nicely!

Where are you at in South Florida? I lived in Miami for a year and that was about all I needed. I Loved the weather but I don't speak spanish so it was tough for me to get used to being there.

[NOT A TA]

Thanks guys. I'm in Delray Beach Casey.