Priya's SX/4 project

[Lynx_Gen]

280zx.. Thats a nissan isnt it? My previous project that i put on hold 4 the eagle is a 86 200sx coup gettin the 2.3L turbo engine outta the Merkur XR4Ti parts car..  Hehehe.. Its gona be a rank lil machine 4 autox n such.. But i needed the "FAMILY" car done 1st.. Lol..  Awesome job on ur beast so far!

[priya]

Thanks Lynx_Gen.  Yes the 280ZX is a Nissan, or Nissan by Datsun back in those days.

[Eagleearl]

Glad that your SX4 is finally rust free. I have enjoyed all the installments to your project and would like to see more on another vehicle. It is great to learn how these repairs are done and hopefully someday I will get around to doing some of my own. You do a great job Priya. Thanks

[priya]

Thankyou Eagleearl.  There's still quite a bit of work to be done before the car is complete and painted but the worst of it is over.  I've still got to rebuild the motor, replace the drivetrain, replace the steering column, put in a tach, paint various interior trim pieces, replace the headliner, make front seats from a monza fit the eagle, shape the body fill over the rust repairs, fix a number of minor dents, prep the engine compartment and body for paint, etc. etc.

[shaggimo]

Are you doing all that yourself too?  It's nice to see cars that real people build rather than the 100 thousand dollar+ cars that the elite buy and show as their own, don't get me wrong they're nice and all but I enjoy what people conjure up in their own garages and backyards more. Excellent work so far.

[priya]

Thanks Shaggimo.  I'll get the pros to do the machining work on the motor, my husband will reassemble it with my help,  install it and the drivetrain and he'll probably do most of the work in fabricating the monza seats to fit.   I'll be doing the rest of the interior work, removing the dents, shaping the bodyfill and doing all the paint prep in the engine compartment and on the body and then when its ready to be sprayed, once again I'll get the pros to actually point the spray gun.  I've sprayed two cars myself, the first came out poorly, the second was fair, but I don't have the facilities any more to do a proper spray job so I won't be attempting it a third time.  There may be various other repairs made to steering, suspension and brakes in order to pass the necessary safety inspection, I expect my husband will do the more complicated repairs and I'll do the simpler ones, I expect to do most of the reassembly of the car myself after paint is completed.

[shaggimo]

Awsome! 

[vj318]

great job sofar on your sx/4. I,m really impressed with the effort that you are putting in on it. my 16 year old son and I are just getting started on a 1983 sx/4 that I picked up for him at one of the local wrecking yards. can,t wait to see more pics as you progress.

[priya]

Thanks vj318.  I'm in the process of applying bodyfill to the rust repairs and shaping it.  Unfortunately my inline sander gave out about a week ago and the local princess auto doesn't have one in stock and the only other one I can get is over $400 so I've been on hold for a while.  One of my husband's co-workers was in Winnipeg and picked one up there for me so I expect to have it by tomorrow morning and be back at it.

[Nitron]

wow this is amazing.. These Manitoba Eagles all rust in the same places..  I am in the middle of my restoration as well.. my baby is in Winnipeg too.. I have a 2 door sedan that will be ready for safety next Monday... thanks for the pictures ...

maybe we can cruise portage avenue after their done

Laterz

[priya]

Nitron, actually I'm in Saskatoon, my husband's co-worker was in Winnipeg on business and returning to Saskatoon last night.  But next time I'm in Winnipeg with my Eagle I'll give you a shout and we can cruise Portage avenue like you say.

[priya]

I still haven't got the windshield out to be able to see for sure if my rust repairs are done, my husband's been too busy to help me.  He says there's a special cutting tool he's going to borrow from the body shop to do the job so, hopefully that'll happen before the temperature drops below freezing for good.  In the mean time I've been laying on the fiberglass fill over welds, sanding, laying bodyfill over that and repeat, repeat, repeat.  I've gotten all the repaired areas filled and shaped nicely with the exception of one join on the driver's side rocker panel and a small repair on the driver's side front fender.  These filled areas still have to be smoothed out with finer grit sanding, they're done with 40 grit at this point in time, but I'll do that when I'm ready to prep the rest of the paint on the car with 120 grit and up.

There were a few minor dings on the car to be repaired, the worst of them was on the front valence:


Here's the valence panel after I straightened it and welded the splits.


The crossmember underneath was bent in a couple of inches as well, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it before we straightened it.  My husband brought his hydraulic porta-power home from work and did most of the work in straightening out this piece.  The final work to get most of the kink out of the cross member was done with a blunted chisel and a sledge hammer.  It didn't come out perfect, but better than I thought I'd be able to do on my own.  The area that was bent in is on the left side of the cross member where the darker brown is:



Here's the repaired area on the driver's side rear quarter between the door and the rear wheel: I was very concerned that replacing the rocker, lower door frame, and the piece of the quarter panel between the door and rear wheel wouldn't come out right and the door wouldn't have proper gaps or close right.  Fortunately it came out pretty well, all the gaps are right where they should be, or very close anyway.


Here's the driver's side rear quarter behind the rear wheel, there were some minor dents just below the side marker light and the rust repairs were just below that:


Here's the passenger side rear quarter just behind the rear wheel.  Some idiot opened his door into it and put a crease here:


Here's the passenger side rear quarter between the door and the front of the rear wheel:


Here's the passenger side rocker panel.  I only sprayed etch primer on the bare metal so it looks uneven but it actually is nicely shaped.


Here's the passenger side front fender between the door and front wheel:


Here's the passenger side front fender ahead of the front wheel:


I had hoped to at least get the car painted this fall but that's starting to look unlikely.  Its starting to dip below freezing at night and the freeze/thaw cycle causes condensation on the car so I'm reluctant to continue sanding and have large areas of bare metal be prone to rust so I'm not sure how much more work I'm going to get done on it in the next month or so before winter settles in for good.   My husband says that once the first snow flies or freezing rain occurs the body shop will be too busy to paint it anyway so it may be next summer before this one gets painted.  I don't have that much to do on it before its ready for paint but I don't want to rush it either and do a poor job.  In the meantime I can probably find some things to do on it that don't involve bare metal, so we'll see what else I get done this year.

[IowaEagle]

Still coming along nicely.  Will be a fine automobile when you are done.

[shaggimo]

Excellent work, rockers turned out great.  I know how you feel about getting as much done as possible before winter hits. 

[priya]

Thanks guys.