Hey guys I have always wanted to get into restoration work, been mechanical my entire life and wanted to document my process, this is just an intro to the car I will be working on. I will add as I go!
Body off restoration to save a 100 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Jwade2682
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Not too bad underneath by Northeast standards - I've seen much worse . Good luck and keep us posted.
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- #4
Nothing has ate through the body, mostly surface, definitely salvageable, the frame will be swapped
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- #5
Nothing has ate through the body, mostly surface, definitely salvageable,
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- #6
First round of rusty bolts came out well
good luck on the project, replacing those brake and fuel lines is going to be a big job, as you probably already know!
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- #8
Yep, I love it though. For whatever reason being ocd about cars is my thing.
Awesome! It should bring you a lot of satisfaction in a few months! It looks in pretty good shape.
You can check my Body off thread for some inspiration.
Some observations:
You can check my Body off thread for some inspiration.
Some observations:
- I am a big fan of reusing the old bolts, as they are usually perfectly fine and of uniform shapes and sizes. I cleaned them with acid and then had them cold galvanised. They look like new. Ask for chromate treatment - it's more resistant and looks really bling in gold.
- Unsurprisingly, there are bajillion bolts. I took lots of photos and used a lot of labeled bags and boxes.
- Clearing the old seam selaer from the undercarriage is not something I fondly remember. The rear wheel arches were especially painful - they are covered in the same seam sealer, but thicc. Tried lots of stuff - manually with a chisel, with a brush, but the most effective was angle grinder with a wire brush.
- The body mount bolts will probably be seized. Apparently it's pretty common on 100s.
- Think of a way to clean the inside of the chassis. I took inspiration from this video - 3.07 - Clean INSIDE your frame for CHEAP! and made a similar contraption. The amount of dust and debris that came out after a thorough steam/water jet clean was terrifying.
- There are 60-something bushings in this car. Now is the time.
- Having the body and chassis separate is the perfect opportunity to thoroughly apply anti rust treatment (wax, oils, etc)
- Hot dipping is superior to any other chassis treatments, if it is available in your area. Removing the zinc from the bushing openings requires creative solutions. Re-taping the threads is a nonissue and takes less than an afternoon.
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- #10
I read through your entire thread you did a great job documenting. I appreciate your bullet points. For the seam sealer I have an Eastwood drum that has some great torque, I think it will blast through it no problem
Look forward to following along. This will become more and more common for rust belt rigs. What's the back of the envelope calculation for cost of restoration and timeline? Where did you source a rust free frame from?
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- #13
Sourced it from a member here actually going to pick it up this month. I have struck a deal with a gentleman at Toyota for parts, I’m already in about 1,000 on fuel tank, fuel lines brake lines. Lucky for me the spare frame comes with quite a bit on it. I think one of the bigger costs will be body mounts and bushings, I’m trying to sand blast and save as much as possible and throwing all bolts into my tumbler to save as well.
Cool so when you say restoration are you going beyond the frame swap? New interior, paint, etc?
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- #15
Paint is in great shape minus a few spots that will be addressed, interior will get done, passenger rocker. Engine bay, engine components. I will know more as I go lol
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- #16
Small updates working on driveshafts and treating with por 15, went ahead and took rust off the worst part on the body and treated it with por 15. This is temporary as I will sandblast when I pull the body off.
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- #17
Also my s2k I recently did a ton of work to to bring up to date. She will be moving to storage so chassis can come inside.
Love your S2000 my sister has a showroom mint 2000 with under 20k, nice cars!
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- #19
That’s worth some money now. Mine was built for some fun track days but it’s in good shape and the prices could go up considerably so just every beautiful day now.
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- #20
Donor frame arrived! Getting started
