The crashed car!!!

[the phantom]

Ah...yes.

[ylwgtr2]

Ok time for an update....Now that the front structure is in place the next step is to fit all the panels and parts to insure that we have nice lines and gaps between all the parts and peices....As seen in the picture the lower tie bar is off the original front as GTR tie bars have a lower dip in them than the other model skylines...The airbox is also fitted as the inner skirt is slightly diffrent on the front i fitted,so i modified the skirt to suit...the GTR also has a clutch power booster so the offset braket had to be unpicked from the old front and spot welded into the new one....The A pillar skin has had a bit of trauma in the accident so next we sand the paint off and attach pulling pins by using the magna spot as seen in the picture.....these are copper pins that spot on to the panel and the slide hammer is attached to them so we can tug the dints out...the pins then snap off when pulled at right angles and the surface is buffed to remove the heat colour and dressed with a metal file for a filler free finish...if the surface has been stretched and cant be tapped or has been over pulled we shrink it by charging the metal in a number of places with the magna spot with a copper bolt attached to it....this must be done in a certain pattern and quenched with water using a spray bottle.The sill has been done and we put a squirt of sight primer with a little filler used on the spot welds to fill imperfections...more later

[ylwgtr2]

pulling the dents and the finished pillar and sill panel

[lukasikrob]

ylwgtr2

do you mind tell me where is the place you are doing this.

Keep up the good work we are all watching.

Rob

[Merli]

if the surface has been stretched and cant be tapped or has been over pulled we shrink it by charging the metal in a number of places with the magna spot with a copper bolt attached to it....this must be done in a certain pattern and quenched with water using a spray bottle.

I found this step amazing!!!!

I think it's safe to say that 90% of people reading this thread have NEVER had such detailed steps of the repair process outlined for them like this...

AWESOME!

[Blitz_boy]

Isn't this a cut and shut?!?!

I thought that was illegal.

How do you get the VIN number

to match up with the compliance

plate if youve changed the fire

wall?

[ylwgtr2]

Isn't this a cut and shut?!?!

I thought that was illegal.

How do you get the VIN number

to match up with the compliance  

plate if youve changed the fire  

wall?

Is taking a fender off illegal???What about unspotting the radiator support panel??Or changing chassis rails???Door closing section and A pillar??Should i go on?All parts of a body shell are offered as spare parts new from the manufacturer...why do they offer them if its unsafe to take them apart and re spot them back together??Simple answer is it not unsafe.....I could have pulled the damage out and slapped bog over all the damaged and fatigued metal.....But i am guessing that you wouldnt want YOUR car repaired like this....neither do i. The vehicle is now safer than it used to be due to a prior shoddy repair(of which i was always gonna fix...this just made it happen a little sooner ) And the welds are stronger than a spot weld.In regards to the vin number.....In the old system a plate with an engraved 17 digit VIN number was rivitted on the firewall and the compliance plate was fitted on the coil support tower.....these digits dont match the chassis number at all....i beleive this is was changed about a year or so ago so the now the compliance plate reads the actual japanese VIN number with a few extra numbers added...you would have thought they would have done this from the start....Anyway as i said earlier the car was done at factory joins apart from the sill skin and the A pillar skin (of which is Brazed on as you can see in the A pillar repair pic)They are replacable skins and many panel beaters will cut and join these on a daily basis...so i ask....again where is the safety factor?I am the only owner of this car in this country and have owned this vehicle for over 2 years now and will keep the car for the rest of my life.....I trust my workmanship...noone else has to...if you dont like what i have done...dont ride in the car .....its that simple

[adznight]

Keep up the good work! VERY very interesting!

[ylwgtr2]

Thankyou guys for the comments...although i havent posted to get praise,jobs or a pat on the back...just hope that some people can learn something from what i am doing and that these jobs are possible and give an insight as to how they are done correctly.I will continue to post the process of preperation right through to the paintwork if you guys would like to see....It was a struggle finding a place to work on the car and do the job let alone the time to do it aswell,the car is in airport west at a friends shop.........the job is playing on my mind at the moment and i really need to get it done....I have done all the work myself and it really testing my patience but i am in the home stretch now....the end is near....

[inark]

i love the work u do troy and find it interesting seeing it in steps until the finished product is out etc.

im going to remove this from the sticky list for the vic forum but i have added a link to the "previous stickies" thread cause were getting a little cluttered at the top at the moment.

make sure u keep updating this thread with ur progress tho its always a great read

nice one.

cheers,

inark

[Ronin 09]

Any updates, Troy?

[ylwgtr2]

Ok no pics but i have finished all the spot repairs,small dents.First ground all the old poop from the left hand 1/4 panel that had been applied in a previous repair,nice shape work was done i have to admit but i took it all out and pulled it into shape with the magna spot and had to shrink it in a few places due to stretching of the metal.Ended up getting it where i was happy so and then went around and high filled the spot repairs and the main repairs.Giving it 5 days or so to settle in nicely then on tuesday i will sand the whole car down.Then i will apply a few wet coats of White high fill.Then we let that dry on the body for 3 or 4 days while we wet sand the engine bay and apply the colour to it and the under dash section....the reason why we use white under yellow is that yellow doesnt cover that well and if we use grey underneath it will shift the colour too much.The next step is to give the body a nice wet rub and then paint it using a solid 2 pack colour.Then we let it go off for a week or 2 then give it a rub with 800 wet and apply a base coat of yellow then give it a couple of nice coats of good quality clear.If we are really anal we then rub the clear down and flow coat it using clear again...this procedure results in a very flat glassy deep paint finish and because its a clear over base...it lasts longer than solid.Also this is easier said than done as getting dust in the paint is a big issue..i mean the aim of the game is to leave the car off the gun...no polishing.Also when flow coating a job.....its very easy to get runs!!!!But the results are staggering....will post pics if people are still interested

Cheers

[skylineakt]

Sounds like it is coming along nicely Troy

Glad to hear you are on the home stretch and can't wait to see it when you are finish.

[funkymonkey]

nice of you to drop by today troy as we were closing up hehehe... good to see the car coming along nicely...

[ylwgtr2]

ok update on the job....heres the left 1/4 stripped back and the magna spot pins on and being pulled....after we finish we can either use a light skim of filler or lead load the panel....filler well everyone knows how to do that but to lead load it we warm it up and "tin" the surface first by rubbing it with steelwool and white spirits....then we heat up the lead and wipe it on with a peice of wood/masonite and smooth it out the trick is to get a feel of the melting point of the lead while waving the heat ever so gently over the panel....then file out the application marks and sand it over nicely....after filled or lead loaded we put a black sight coat over it and speed file it down to see if its high,low or on the money....then we feather out the old paint nicely and spray hifill over the repair....the engine bay is rubbed down and hifilled also

[funkymonkey]

nice work... wish other panel beaters would take this much time and effort to restore a car... but alas... what's all them rods stickign out the side of the panel? lead strips?

oh and also, you now have the dirtiest set of R34 GTR rims I have ever seen

[ylwgtr2]

hey shan!If you see in an earlier post it shows how they are attached using the magna spot...this is how we pull the ding out without drilling holes ect...the pins just snap off when pulled at right angles so we do our pulling out the just snap em off when were done

[funkymonkey]

ahhh clever lil man u are. Is that how all panel beaters do ti or is this your preferred method.

[GTRgeoff]

Funky, this is how an artist fixes a car. These days panelshops just want to slap on a new panel and get their money.

Paint and panel are my nightmare...I never get it right. This is great to follow.

[carlo]

This has to be one of the most informative threads I have read in a long time. Keep up the posting as i think we are all learning something new.

The car is starting to look as sexy as a new one.