Pearl white coupe revival

[Tractor Dave]

The drums are expensive and how many will you go through doing the whole car? Let me know though because I might get one myself.

[ottawa coupe]

how long they last is a key consideration too. the fact is i don't know yet, i've gotten as far as confirming the Princess Auto (halfords equivalent for you guys??) knockoff that is readily available here has the same size of drum as the eastwood one. the eastwood tool is on sale and is the same price as the regular cost of the princess auto one. the drums are not cheap from either vendor.

i'm going to do some more searching regarding longevity and see what i can figure out.

[ottawa coupe]

Well, that was a quick search....

Not getting the tool. There was lots of discussion on old school hotrod forums about it. Lotsa people saying yes it works great but the drums are expensive. Then a few people chimed in about stripping discs for grinders. If you'll recall i tried one on the undercoating and was underwhelmed. Not so when used for their intended purpose (i know, shocking right??!).

Picked up a disc for $11. Got this done in 5 mins with no appreciable wear on the disc.


you can buy an awful lot of discs for the same $280 the tool costs.... and if you're like me and this is the last time you're doin full on bodywork like this, no need to buy another tool to sit in the drawer....

[ottawa coupe]

Yep, the stipping discs are the way to go for this work. Half an hour and the quarter is stripped. Bout 1/3 worn.

At any rate that distraction must be put to the side, gotta get some primer into the engine bay so i can then get on with making the body panels pretty properly. So, empty bay once again, manual labour to scuff paint, oh goodie.

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With luck, epoxy primer in the bay by the end of the month.

[david1980]

did you post a picture of the quarter? its not shown for me if you did.

Also could you post a picture of the disc/pad you used?

[ottawa coupe]

Slow progress but

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[ottawa coupe]

Slow progress but

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[Jaswan]

Slow progress but

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Looking good!!

[ottawa coupe]

got it on it's wheels and hung the doors so it was easier to get everything out of them. looks like i have more work on the rear quarter than i had previously thought.... the door jamb got pushed in as well and as a result the drivers door looks a little wonky.... i have borrowed my friend's stud welder/puller though i have never used one before.

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this is gonna be interesting......

[ottawa coupe]

Clearly i was a redneck in a previous life. The other end of the strap is looped around a tree....

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Started pulling things. Slide hammer didn't move things in the area i am working as it's too strong an area, studs just ripped out. Soooooo break out the big guns lol.

At any rate, it's sitting in tension as i write this while dialing into a work meeting (my wife says i should multitask more right??).

First pull gets me to here, but it springs back a bit so i need to work it more. I need to put more studs in below the trim line and maybe a few above.

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It's a very strong area as you would hope so there's every possibility i need to weld beefier tabs on to pull from. I am going to take a few days on this, the consequences of error are significant lol.

[ottawa coupe]

So, may not need to pull as much as i feared. Spent some time aligning the undamaged passenger side and the early 90s tolerances are a little less tight than today lol

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Compared to my progress

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Gonna stop for now. I'm going to play with door alignment and see how i feel. The rest of the quarter needs love still but this is the stiffest part to deal with.

[ottawa coupe]

End of day one's pulling. Close now. I think i will have to weld a tab to the first bend inside the jam in order to get the last mm out of it without distorting the corner radius.

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Had to twist the passenger door a bit but it now fits perfectly.

Should be able to have the metal moved on the drivers side by the end of the week. Probably a bigger challenge awaits next week on the passenger side rear arch where it suffered a small crunch. I must say though it's going better than i feared.

[ottawa coupe]

Right, productive weekend. Got the drivers side dent 90% sorted. All the edges are right, would like to work the flat area some more. Went ahead and pulled on the passenger rear arch and it immediatly went 90% back to the correct shape. For both areas i'm essentially down to "how thin will the filler be?" The only real concern on passenger side at the moment is that the bodyline isn't as sharp as it should be. I suspect that will take a lot of time to get right. Perhaps more skill than i posess too. Doors are now lined up really well and today i fixed a few rotted mounting holes on the fenders. Gonna leave the studs in the rear for now and will go back every couple days to progress it. The final challenge in terms of actual body repair lies in the annoying front bumper surround "featured" on north american spec bumpers. Typical crack and the plastic mounting holes broke because the corresponding bolts seized and snapped in the fenders. So now i get to play with the plastic welder i got off amazon.... pray for me lol.

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[ottawa coupe]

Well, plastic welding the front bumper surround was surprisingly effective and quick. I made a braket to support the lower part so it now significantly sturdier that previously.

I decided to toss the rest of the panels back on today at lunch.... need a bit of inspriation at the moment before i get truely stuck into the sanding lol. Can't find the brackets for the leading edge of the rear bumper so tape will do for the moment and i have many broken studs to repair on the taillights.... once i find the missing brackets, i may toss the coils on and get a proper idea of what the final result will look like.

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EDIT: the rear wheels seem goofy. back when i put the rear subframe together, it seemed to me the control arms were symmetrical. but now that i look, there are PNs for left and right.... is that why they seem pushed fwd in the arch? the balljoint is oriented correctly.

[ottawa coupe]

Pulled a long shift last night and got the tail lights with their many broken posts sorted out. I will need to polish them though as they have definitely seen some things lol. Dunno what happened to the left reverse light but given that they are unicirn tears to replace, i guess it'll be the way it goes lol. Still need to figure out a solution fir the licence plate mounts.

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also in the list of broken unobtanium are the headlight washers. Had a thought as a result of my recent successes with hot staple plastic repairs. Pictures are worth 1000 words and all....

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20240910_155428.jpg made the correct bend in steel sheet, cut a strip of plastic off, melty melty and let gravity do the rest.

Plus it'll be one less thing that breaks later lol