Well, it's begun. I bought my Centurion more than 15 years ago, my how time flies. It was a non-running $900 lawn ornament. I drove it almost every summer fixing what needed to be fixed and improving as the budget allowed. The car is Colonial Yellow when I first looked at it I thought "it would look nice in burgundy". My Uncle christened the color baby poop brown. It's had sheet metal pop riveted in the rear quarters and bondo-ed over to get past inspections, and it looks OK from 20 feet. I've never made a real car payment, instead I put a little in the Buick fund each paycheck. I guessed I had enough to get started. This year I bought a set "rust free, prestine" quarters from a guy in Louisiana. So off to Paintworks Unlimited http://www.paintworksunlimited.com/ it went after a mad scramble to remove as much of the trim as I could. I read the casual comments from guys getting their car painted and I read the horror stories. Which will it be? Time will tell. It's off to a "mixed" start. The quarter panels have obvious patches and collision damage. I asked the guy many different ways and he assured me they were prestine. After he sent them he mentioned that there was sign of a repair on 1 fender but it looked well done. Will let you judge, when I can get the pictures off of my phone. I got an update from Paintworks and my car looks naked! I'm as nervous as a new Dad. John
John, Yeah, that dog doesn't look too happy about the car either! :laugh: Just remember... don't be afraid to ask questions while your car is in the shop and visit often to check on the progress. Anyway, good luck and hope all turns out for the best.
wow, this will be intersting, especially since I will be doing the same thing but will attempt to do it myself.. eeeeeek.
Here's the update for the week. Good progress is being made and I've had my first chunk of good news! The metal was better than I thought, really only rusted along the bottom and around the wheel. They've already got the first patch in place! From the picture it looks like the seam is very straight and will take miniscule amounts of bondo to make it disappear. Fresh solid metal, looks really good to me!
I finally got some pictures off my phone. These are the quarters I paid way too much for. The section behind the rear wheel is solid on both so that's working well. Unfortunately the area in front of the wheel is rough on one and hand made on the other. Let's see what magic Paintworks can create. I want to be very clear Paintworks had nothing to do with procuring these fenders that was my mistake.
Work continues to progress nicely. The drivers side is welded up and looking good. Paintworks had to patch the lip of the inner wheel well before the external metal could be closed up.
The drivers side rear quarter had been in an accident in the past. The metal was hammered close to flat and bondo-ed over. Since we had a reasonably good quarter to work with the decision was made to replace the whole quarter. The replacement quarter needed 2 patches made to make them solid. You can see the 2 patches in the picture. What you can't see is the jigsaw puzzle of patches and replacement metal required to get the inner lip solid. Bit by bit it's becoming solid.
The front end sheet metal is back from paint removal. 2 new rust spots were found on the passenger side fender. Dang I thought they were solid. Well they are solid now. Some primer was put on them and it's almost a perfect match for the Colonial Yellow. Ick.
You get what you pay for. I had one estimate for replacing 2 quarters and a color change at $3,500. I peaked into the shop each lunchtime for a week, just casually walking by. They ground the metal with what looked like 40 grit, slathered the entire side of the car with bondo and used a long board sander to level it all off. The results looked OK but any flex in the body and it would all begin to crumble. I decided not to use that shop. I justify the expense this way: I'm still spending less than a new Hyundai.
Cranking right along, the back end is now in primer. I stopped by the shop and the work is outstanding. I know where the patches are but I defy anyone to find them. The lip of the replacement quarter had been poorly patched, and you could spot them easily. These look factory all the way. I've owned this car for 18 years and it had some rust when I first bought it. It's bizarre to look at it 100% rust free.
The hood and trunk were in good shape, but all of the little blemishes are gone. It's strange how I could look at the hood and remember where each bump and dent used to be. Am I the only one who has his car memorized?
The drivers door gets the most use and mine was in bad shape. The one that came with the car turned into swiss cheese along the bottom. I took the door off a parts car that had been rear ended. It was solid but slightly tweaked and it looked like someone tossed their friend against it leaving a series of soft dents. You can see the dark spots in this picture.
All better now. There was some surface rust starting along the bottom seam that was sand blasted and primed over.
I had purchased another parts car for the A/C conversion. I took the drivers door from that car also, but it turned out to have been through a poor repaint. They ground the door, slapped on bondo and painted. They didn't fix the rust under the trim which happily crawled under the bondo and began chewing the metal. In an earlier post I showed the Centurions hood. If you look in the left of the picture you'll see a Firebird getting ready for paint. My hood was about half the length of the 'bird... just the hood. Thank goodness Sean has long arms, sanding the center of that hood takes a stretch.
