[njsteve]

Are your recommended shops anywhere near NJ?

[necdb3]

Steve,

I know the feeling, I started with my car in Oct 05 and it sat in the body shop for about the same time as yours. It was very frustrating seeing that there was no change for a long time, but I finally got my car back about 2 weeks ago and it looks great! In the end, if it's a body shop you can trust and there work is great, It's worth the wait. Sometimes patience pays off.

Good luck with that.

Dave

[cliffhanger]

might be right, but 21 months? thats almost 2 years, thats just plain wrong....
no way you can tell me in 21 months they were too busy doing anything on a panel.....
NJ or not, thats just bull...

in 21 months, they should've been able to totally restore your entire car.
even more, you could have studied a book about body work, aquire the right tools, and do it yourself in 2 years, whether you have 2 left or 2 right hands....

that it won't be ready in 2 months, ok. but almost no progress in almost 2 years, heck no.

good decision taking it away from there. Wish i'd be able to help you find a shop but I can't.

I only can give you an 'advice' I am gonna follow myself very soon, as my car finally has been fired up and running again, Is to take the parts to a 'school' / college specified in body repair/associated.

I don't have a clue how schools are run over there in the USA, but here in The Netherlands, after High-school, you can study for a trade and get your graduation in it, in this case, automotive mechanics and body repair.

The 'kids' learning to get their graduate, have to learn in practic, and so they can on your 'restoration-needing' body/panels. You don't have to worry that it gets screwed, since they'll have to do it perfect to get a good degree.
I have seen some cars done that way,and they are in excellent condition.
Those kids have fun restoring a classic, too, most of them don't even know about classic muscle cars, so that makes it even more of a 'challenge' doing it right.
atleast, that's the way it goes around here.....

and the price is very interesting as well, as (again, here) it gets partially financed by the government.

that's all I can tell you right now.......

anyway, hope you'll get a good shop and get your car up and running soon.

success!

[Brewster]

I have a friend that waited 14-16 months for a motor to get it rebuilt/restored. He complained the hole time but once he finally received his engine back he never brought it up again.
The motor is perfect and runs stronger then ever!

[Tazzz2]

21,16, or 8 months as I've experienced is just plain wrong!!!!!!!!!!!

Hell you make a deal to perform a service and then they take a health down stroke,,,,,Then you get stroked!!!! I long for the old days when things weren't so politically correct and you could share your frustration with someone!!!!! Heck there were no lawyers,,,, no BS ,,,,and things got done, if not you would expect you just deserts....

I'd love to see one of these jerks if you walked into their life/house, took a major asset they owned, took a deposit (healthy too) and then told them 4 weeks later,,,,,,,,,,,,Ah maybe next month or maybe in a year or so,what-ever,,,,,,,,They'd squeal like a stuffed pig, have kittens on the spot and then sick a lawyer on your ass so fast it wouldn't be funny LMAO.

Just my rant for a Sat afternoon,,,thanks that felt good LOL

[cdoggy81]

21 months... Know the feeling... I'm going on 118 months!!!
The red on white 73 TA has been in the shop since 1997. Things started off good but then he got more & more busy with GTO's. The SOB has been paid well over what he has done, lost my carb & wheels, has filed chapter 11, 13, WTF else there is to file, & moved 4 times on me. Swears it will be done soon. Always soon..........

[Brewster]

Pull the car while there is still some left, car your attorney or Ralph the local hit man.

[njsteve]

I stopped up at the body shop last week and talked to my body man. We will see what happens. I am scheduled to bring the body up there in 2 weeks to get the trunk floor done and windshield channel, hopefully in a 7 to 10 day time span. Then I will take it back home to reinstall the windshield and the rest of the underside stuff: exhaust, gas tank, fuel lines, etc. while he works on other projects in the shop. We will see how this works out.

[njsteve]

While I was at the shop I grabbed one of the rear wheel flairs to see if there was a better way to strip them than media blasting. Since they are ABS plastic I ended up using the old purple stuff in a tub. There was a ton of paint on the flair so it took about 5 days of soaking and scrubbing with a bristle brush to get the majority of the paint layers off. It worked rather well. Some fine sanding will get the remainder of the yellow primer/filler off. The plastic is actually a white color that is very close to Cameo White. I don't really know, but these may have come unpainted from the factory since the color is so close. Heres the before shot with the white rubber welting covered in paint and cracking. It is interesting to see that the factory used a big staple to hold on the upper end of the welting onto the plastic flair due to the severe angle it has to maintain.

[njsteve]

I started out with a small bucket and then graduated to a large tub my wife was using to store Christmas decorations in. She wont notice it's missing till after New Years. ;-)

[njsteve]

Here is the removed welting next to the NOS piece that I took off of the NOS front spoiler. Big difference after all these years. The NOS stuff is very flexible. Unfortunately the repro stuff is made only in grey and you have to paint it or dye it.

[njsteve]

Here's how the flair looked after 5 days of soaking and scrubbing. The yellow is the primer/surfacer that I will sand off later.

[njsteve]

Once I got it all cleaned I found a couple stress cracks in the plastic:

[njsteve]

I pulled out the trusty plastic welder and used that to heat up and massage/melt the original material into the cracks thereby repairing the areas.

[njsteve]

Of course things look uglier before they get prettier...

[njsteve]

After a few minutes cooling down I sanded the area with a mini-orbital sander and 180 grit. Once that was finished, the area is just as strong as the rest of the flair:

[njsteve]

Note to self: when you borrow one of the wife's storage tubs make sure there is not a hairline crack in the bottom that drains out 5 gallons of very expensive cleaning solvent onto work bench/old pool table which then leaks onto rug under said work bench/pool table. Because you will have to clean up the entire mess and then discover that rugs soaked in Purple Stuff overnight do an amazing job at completely sanitizing one 6'x12' area of all dirt, grease, oil, paint, etc. Now wife wants the rest of basement floor cleaned to match the bright grey rectangle.

Before...and after:

[eaglesan13]

Steve,

I'm laughing my a_ _ off over that one because I know my wife would ask me to clean the rest of the floor too. Hang in there!

Originally Posted by njsteve

Now wife wants the rest of basement floor cleaned to match the bright grey rectangle.

Before...and after:

[rustedgoat]

Steve

Are you using the "Super Clean" degreaser straight or do you diluted at all? Does it evaporate if left uncovered?

Great work posting up all the little details to help everyone out.

[njsteve]

Indiluted gives the best results. If you have a lid for the container that would limit any evaporation.