October 2008 - majority of the bodywork is done. All the rust holes fixed and assembly for paint begins, as well as final block sanding. Work on the hood begins as well.
The replacement hood was better than the old one but was also damaged from an accident at some point. It also had a lot of surface rust which needed grinding.
A side-by-side illustration of the restoration process.
New lowering springs.
January 2009 - Painting the underside of the hood. We did all the "hidden" parts to save money on prep at the painters.
I also restored a number of items such as the window wiper motor.
Compare this shot to the same one above - quite a bit of difference!
Before sending it for paint, we took the interior apart. What a mess. The carpet was from some other car and several critters had lived in it prior to me taking possession.
Unfortunately, we found some crappy backyard repairs in the floor. Bathroom caulking is not for cars! Also, rust.
So, the passenger rear and driver's front floor pans were replaced. This is around March.
While the body man was working on the floors, I worked on the trim.
Test fitting the driver's seat. I picked the set up on ebay for $100. They're from a 2003 Audi TT.
Finally, the car was ready to head off to the paint shop.
April 2008 - car is ready for pickup from the paint shop.
Assembly begins. While the car was at paint I continued to work on the various parts - cleaning and painting.
Re-chromed trim.
Installing new rubber trim. It takes awhile to fit properly so you install it without glue first to make sure it all fits. Also, since it is much tougher than the original, it causes the doors to be harder to close and the trunk lid to stick up. Hopefully it will settle a bit with time.
Installed the new seats.
Installed sound deadening.
New carpet in as well.
Final trim installed.
Underside fully undercoated.
There is still much to do, and I'll update this thread as it happens! For now, I am enjoying driving it a bit, but not too much with the leaky exhaust that will be fixed next week.