I sat down and read this whole thing from post one yesterday. So impressed! Did you learn any lessons from this that you'll apply to future projects? Have any advice for us newbies getting started on our own projects?
Thanks unpossible. One of the lessons I learned was the same one I learn every project but keep seeming to forget - its always worse than it looks so when you're contemplating starting a project keep that in mind. Initially I thought I had a couple of small holes in the rocker to fix but once I got started testing with a scratch awl and got the interior out I saw most of the inner and outer rockers gone and when hubby encouraged me to replace them entirely I was pretty reluctant to committ to that. If I had it to do over again I'd have replaced even more sheet metal than I did because for example on the passenger side I kept part of the original outer and inner rocker and after replacing portions of those panels I sandblasted the remaining original panel and found a number of pinholes I welded up, then more sandblasting and more holes to weld and so on. I eventually got them all, but it would have been better to just replace that entire panel. Often portions of the outside of a panel surrounding a rusty area look pretty good and may even still be covered in paint but the interior surface has deep rust pits and what appears good should be replaced. Even though it may look good plan on replacing a bigger area than you think you need to. Test with a sharp object like a scractch awl, place it in various places over the suspect area and tap lightly to see if it goes through - it will not go through solid sheet metal but it may also be the case that there are a number of areas where the panel is pretty thin and you won't hit them with the pointy object and you'll think its good when it would be better to replace it (that's what happend to me on the passenger side rocker panel). If you can see or feel the backside of the panel and the panel isn't reasonably smooth (even if there is a light coating of rust) replace it anyway.
The other thing I learned, is that despite how long it takes you don't want to rush it. The body work on the car I did prior to this came out flawlessly but on this one there are numerous minor imperfections in the paint that can be seen if one looks for them. After I had done all the bodywork I was doing the final prep for paint and we arranged with a co-worker of Wards to paint it on a particular weekend. I felt rushed to get it ready and didn't spend the time I should have to make sure the final surface was perfectly smooth and it showed up in the finished product. It looks good if you don't look too closely at it, but if you scrutinize the car to see how good the paint job was you can notice a lot of minor flaws. If I had to do it all over again I'd have ensured I got another 2 to 3 weeks to do the final surface prep and make sure it was as good as possible.
Although there is a lot of work to repairing rust if you have the right attitude you can stick with it and get it done. I'm not the most highly motivated person in the world, I'm prone to depression and often easily discouraged but I managed to see it through by keeping this in mind - once you've realistically appraised the project and decided you are committed to completing all the work you estimate it will take stop thinking about what the whole job entails. Instead focus on short term goals and ignore the rest. When you go out to work on the car think "My goal is to remove this old rusty panel and prep the surface for a replacement and that will be an accomplishment". When you're done that think "My goal is to form a replacement panel (buy already made if you can) and that will be an accomplishment." and then "My goal is to weld in this new panel and that's all I'm thinking about accomplishing at this time" and so on. Don't think about the entire amount of work you have in front of you as it can seem overwhelming if you do. Just remind yourself that if you keep accomplishing small goals on a regular basis you will get it all done. A lot of days I really didn't want to go out to the garage and work on the car, it was raining, or cold, or I just felt down but I told myself "Let's go out and at least do a little bit, even if its only 1/2 hour and then I'll still be making progress even if its slow." and that's what I did.
Even though I don't have a job I found the most I could consistently manage with my depression prone low motivated self was typically about 12 to 15 hours a week although there were times I put in much longer hours such as when I was doing the final prep for paint I put in a few 40 hour weeks. A motivated person with a full time job can do this sort of restoration weekends and evenings and do it in the same number of months I took or less. I know some people on the Eagle nest with full time jobs have done so and I can't tell you how impressed I am with that. For me that wouldn't have been possible, when I worked full time it was all I could do to handle that and any thing other than relaxation on evenings and weekends was out of the question. You have to decide how big the project is and how much time you can consistently put in over the long haul to complete the project. If you commit to a large project be determined to work on it on a regular basis even if you don't spend much time on it and at some point you will complete it. I just kept telling myself "If I keep at it it'll get done, if I keep at it it'll get done" and it did.
Topic: Priya's SX/4 project (Read 374650 times)