Fixin da front of my vl step by step *pics*

[ucwepn]

Day 1:

Hi guys I'll try and go into as much detail as possible without being too technical. After I got new top front bumper moulds and new headlights and indicators,the car was taken to a mates place where we proceeded to remove:
*Front bar
*top moulds (bumper strips)
*grill
*headlights
*nosecone

We then proceeded to rub back the damaged area on the nosecone to bare metal using a power sander. Then mixed the filler and hardner and put a small layer into the wound, using like a special type of grater we waited for the filler to reach a cheese like consistancy and removed the excess. Waited for it to harden and sanded a little. then repeated the process 4 more times until the dent was nearly gone. at that point I had to leave so I'm guessing its had the final layers of filler and has been sanded back. on day 2 we will rub back the bumper and grill and start to undercoat all of the above.

p.s. when I say "we" I mean he lol

[harry3]

be careful with the bumper bar top trim as if the car has been left out in the sun a lot, it will be very brittle and will break easily

[bangers]

this is the car that had a truck back into it isn't it? looks like you did a good rub back.

[ucwepn]

yep thats the one bangers we are about to head down and get cracking on it again, the moulds removed fairly easily 1 of them was silastic'd on, we have brand new ones to replace them with.

[ucwepn]

DAY 2:

Ok today we finished filling the dent and finishing it off, then proceeded to trial fit the nosecone and grill and adjust the grill brackets so the grill sits right. At the same time started to sand back the front bar to get it ready for undercoating, until the power sander had a death and we had to stop.

[bangers]

is the rest of the car the original paint? cos when i had the front of mine fixed they didn't match it up perfect as the original is acrylic and new paint is two pack. Can you still buy acrylic paint for cars?

[ucwepn]

Yes you can buy acrylic paint for cars but there is more preperation and work involved than with using 2 pack. Yes apart from the drivers side guard which has been bogged and painted (previous owner) the rest of the car is acrylic that is why we are going to spray the whole car in marinello red 2 pack 1 panel at a time until its done. (prolly take us months and months.) I need to drive my car in the meantime tho.

[bangers]

thats fair enough. it'll look good when done. nice ferrari red.

[ucwepn]

Hmmm dramas my mate has gone missing and my car is still locked in his garage, someone has his phone so its a bit of a worry. ( Irang it about 50 times no answer, then some guy answers and says nah mate wrong number, and then switched it off and its still off. been missing for around 48 hours so I rang the jacks and they said because i'm not a family member I can't file a report. Damn I'm worried about him but also my car. Cop said I will need a court order to get it out of his garage if he doesn't come back.

[VL Berlina 5speed]

omg, the worst thing that could happn...

hope ur mates alright and returns soon and devo bout the car getn lookd up

[BigDaz]

yeh thats a bit ruff ay, he'll turn up

[bangers]

jeez buddy. that sounds suss. i hope he's alright.

[ucwepn]

AHHH COOL I found him aye, he was rescuing his neighbor from her wifebashing ex-boyfriend and knicked off for 2 days but all is well. We have been burning the midnight oil and have prepared the nosecone and bumper for undercoat and sanding back all the stonechips to bare plastic. We have bought 2 litres of basecoat marinello red and clear. so hopefully it should be finished after the weekend, front, and drivers guard being painted at the moment. will do a bit here and there over the next few months. No pics today coz my phone went flat.

[BigDaz]

Sounds like its comin along well, just out of curiosity what did the 2 litres of marinello red cost?

[ucwepn]

I honestly don't know but I will find out for you, I just handed over the cash and my mate went to see his mate at the ford dealership on sydney road. He bought lots of other stuff too like expensive masking tape and stuff so I'd say less than $200.
Have fitted new 2nd hand headlights and brand new indicators to the front. Hopefully the front is in undercoat by now, I will ring him later and check.

[vlv8vic]

looking good, very thorough rub back by the looks.
Love the piccy with the barefeet in the shed. always in trouble with the mrs for that....

[ucwepn]

Nosecone is fixed and undercoated, going to do bumper, grill and guard (DS) today in undercoat, and we may burn the midnight oil tonight and apply the colour + clear coat. Basecoat is very similar to 2 pack being that it uses the same thinners and hardner as 2 pack but it has a clear coat on top as well and is slightly cheaper than 2 pack. (after all its not a showcar, its my old daily warrior)

[ucwepn]

Day 4
Today we finished undercoating everything and have re-assembled the car so I can drive it until the weekend when we will apply the colour (hooray) it is allot more work than what I had imagined, but most of the work is in preparing the surfaces for priming and painting. we have decided to paint the guard on the car and just roughen the surface before painting (not a full rub back).

So here are some various pics of todays activities LOL (damn it was like 42 degrees today too)

[ucwepn]

day 4
And heres a few more, the front end will be removed again to be painted but I only have one car so we had to quickly just slap it together for the week.

[VL Berlina 5speed]

lookn good m8, really shows how hard it is to do all the work. not as simple as some ppl think

[prizedbnx]

easier than i thourhgt. spraying, no mask or anything stopping those nasties.. im not likeing that....

[ucwepn]

Yeah you should have seen the garage after he sprayed in undercoat, man it was bad aye LOL, masks are for sheilas haha

[prizedbnx]

masks are to STOP emphasima or how ever you spell it...

[ucwepn]

emphaseima is for sheilas hahaha nah J/K

[ucwepn]

OK we didn't do much over the weekend we undercoated the side strips on the drivers side, but we got slack and didn't strip the drivers door strip of all its paint and the crappy paint underneath resulted in crows feet which I have to rub back before next weekend.

Other than that we re-organised his shed and all tools and equipment cleaned both spray guns (the crappy iundercoat one and the $600 dollar sweety) and did a big cleanup in preparation for finally laying down the colour.

Preparing the car extensively is pointless if the painting environment is full of dirt and dust etc.