I've had the car since there were 99mi on the odometer, back in the summer of 2000. It was my daily driver for college through 2004 and then it turned into a fair-weather-only car. The body kit was installed in 2005 and being so low, it's taken a lot of abuse.
We (RD Fabs) worked out a deal with a customer who owned a '34 Ford Roadster. I did a whole bunch of work on the car and we offered not to charge him if he'd paint the Sunfire. Well, he agreed and she's been at his shop since Fall. Should be done this or next week, then back to our shop for some prep for Summer. On to the pics!
The car really didn't get touched until just recently--I knew ahead of time that he was gonna work on it in his off time. The first thing he did was fix the crappy evil-eye job the last painter did:
On the day these pics were taken, back in February, I basically headed out there and completely ripped down the car for him. Mirrors, bumpers, skirts, strikes, spoiler, tail lights, head lights, etc.
Last week I headed back out to check on the progress. At this time, the car was painted/cleared and wet-sanded. He still has some more work to do--and polishing--before it's completely done. The skirts and strikes were taken down to bare urethane by hand and the bumpers were just dropped off from soda blasting.
I've yet to see her in daylight, but I have a pretty good eye and I'm really happy with the job he did. The paint is relatively flat with no orange peel or fish eyes to be seen. I'll update this thread when we pick her up
Thanks for looking!
Thanks, guys!
Kyle, I was literally a breath away from parting her out a year or so ago...until Ryan E. got his hands on the tune and finally got her all straightened out. I haven't been excited about this car in a long time, but after driving it for 2 weeks last fall, I can't wait to start wrenching again.
very nice. the evil eyes have got to be hands down one of the absolute best mods for a sunfire.
Everything about this car and this post is pure win!
love it!
My car was made with wrenches, Not chopsticks.
Nice! in for finished/daytime pics!
Mattmac1989 wrote:u should get them to paint the door handles
Damnit...you're absolutely right and I completely forgot to ask him about those...
Wow looking nice sir. Now makes me not be able to wait to paint my car
Very nice, subbed for day pics!
Gotta love fresh black paint. It looks like a quality job. Can't wait to see pics of it all back together.
Well guys...got the call last week that the car, bumpers and side skirts were finished. Recruited a buddy and picked up the trailer on Saturday and made the drive to pick her up.
I'm extremely happy with the paint job, save for one blemish where the driver side pillar meets the quarter panel. Right now, she's at my house and I'm going back out there next week to pick up the bumper and skirts. The plan is to re-install the headlights, tails, spoiler, trunk panel, mirrors, bumpers and window trim myself...doing an oil change in the process. After than, a good car wash (by hand) with dish soap and then a glazing. Then, she's going to Kolorcraft in Syracuse to have the Type-J's and door strikes professionally installed with adhesive. After that, the stock Monsoon stereo is going back in, a good general cleaning, maybe a tune-up and she's on the streets for the season
Pics were taken at my gun club--it was just around the corner from the paint shop and I just couldn't resist putting some lead down-range on the way home. More pics to come as progress continues!
looks great. how come it took him so long?
Lars:
He did it on his spare time, so I had no real right to "rush him."
sndsgood:
I'm just sick of aftermarket head units. My Monsoon sounds good, matches the gauges and dash (red) and it's MUCH easier to use while driving a boosted car.
never too old for an awesome paint job looks great!
sweet, new life to an old car always rocks, mine needs this badly, props bud.
Nice to see the car again, Did you ever get dyno numbers with the turbo setup?
Thanks for all the good words, guys.
No dyno numbers yet, unfortunately. We were only able to get Ryan E's base map in the car at the very end of last year. I drove her for a couple weeks and then it was right over to paint. I might not even
do the dyno thing until she's running more boost.
New paint is always good.
Want hub spacers or rear disk brackets? Shoot me a PM.
Because I know how much you all love updates
I spent Saturday and Sunday afternoon this past weekend doing all the "last minute" stuff that had to get done for her to be back on the street. All that's left is some light tuning work with Ryan E tomorrow night, a NYS inspection and a new registration. If all goes well, she'll be out at the Jordan Fall Festival this weekend.
Anyone who saw my "Scumbag Thieves" thread knows why I'm missing something big, here:
$100 for a new intercooler and $40 for the charge pipe tubing/couplers I needed to fix it. Some fabricating here and there, annnnnd:
Moved her over to the lawn and gave'er a good scrub-down. You can't tell from the pics, but the car needed a buff/glazing in a bad way. It was all cloudy before I started. I used 3M glazing compound and an electric buffer to get this:
Snail
Back at it on Sunday. Both front tires off so I could secure the side skirts in the front:
El-basic suspension setup and stock brakes. She rides and stops fine, so I never "prioritized" any further upgrades. Definitely need to re-paint those brakes, though...
Door strikes installed:
Washed and buffed the bumper seperately:
Annnnnd how she sits right now until I secure the bumper back on later this week, along with headlights. Much thanks to my painter for being too lazy to mask off the snout; black looks GREAT in there...lol. Back to silver this Saturday:
