Weeeee! update time... ok, so unfortunately the bodyshop is taking uber-forever, but i guess thats what they do best... hehe.
Anyway, so it was a LOT of work getting the car prepped for the media blaster, in that all the seam-sealer had to be removed, and undercoating removed prior to being media blasted... normally, they would just blast that stuff off, but being that this is a thin-metal car, the guy didn't feel comfy blasting away at metal that could easily warp. Soooooo, between that and welding in all the holes, then the transport over to the media blasters on the other side of the state, and then getting it in-que, and then back over here.... has actually been the bulk of the last month and a half of time.
Unfortunately, the media blasting exposed some not-so-savory things about the car... but, we're pressing onward!
Here is the car as it sat when we got it back... it was just dropped off about 10 minutes prior to me getting there to check it out.
Looks neat... but then we got closer to checking it out...
First of all, all of the light tan colored patches are bondo... due to the thin sheetmetal, the media blaster was not willing to hit the car very hard, so there is a lot of evidence left of what the car has been through... the process got most of the crap off the car, but there is still some hand-work that'll need to be done. The big thing is uncovering the bondo, to expose the crap underneath...
In this case, the first thing that stood out, was the drivers door frame, towards the front.
This car has at one point been in a rather nasty accident that took out the entire left side of the car, and now we're seeing that the door sill was folded, probably due to the door being hit hard, and so there is some bondo there covering up some nastiness... this is a big concern, as it is structural, whereas the body panels aren't nearly... we'll see more of this tomorrow.
Next of course, is the left rear 1/4 panel... they actually took off a lot of bondo here at the media blaster, but they left a whole bunch more... this entire panel was repaired due to the left-side collision that this car had suffered in the past.
Something kinda funny, is that because of the bondo, and the media blaster not wanting to hit the car too hard with material, he skipped right over the stickers that were there, and left nice impressions in the bondo of kevins Rays and Takata stickers... hehe.
Now, it was on to the BIG surprise....
The entire right rear 1/4 panel of this car had, at one time, been replaced....
This sucks, but it may be fixable as long as the alignment of everything is nice and tidy... the body guys can clean up the seams real well, and fill in some holes with metal, and try to limit the future bondo usage on the car... either that, or the panel will be replaced once again, but thats not something we're wanting to do.
Evidence of one seam, up near the hatch:
The seam on the rocker:
And the seam in the door b-pillar area:
And last but not least, the hatch that was chosen for this project has a bit of a dent in the top from being pushed down or something, and that was fixed at one time with bondo... yAy!
Otherwise, this project is about what we expected.
Other random pics:
Some left over media from the blaster:
The rear interior area:
The engine bay:
Front Wheelwell:
Rear Wheelwell:
The likely, and albeit unfortunate solution to the rear 1/4 panels will probably be to replace them both with brand new OEM panels... It IS progressing though, and hopefully a touch faster now that it is back in our hands, and under control at the bodyshop