The Final Product: A Wagon Restoration (56k beware)
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Council Member
When I bought this car in fall of 03' it was blue clearly a backyard spray job with lots of bondo. It was a fresh repair and just smelled of body problems to come. And did it ever.
I'm going to do my best here with photo's and giving descriptions. There are LOTS of gaps where no photo's where taken and major progress was made. Sorry, when you get frustrated or excited you forgot... or have dead batteries.
I started by pulling the car into the shop and removing the rear bumper and all the rear interior. Rust was clearly an issue even before I started, but it was worse than we could have thought.
My friend Justin, a mechanic at the local Honda dealership is the one to whom I owe this project. He did all the work involved in the body repair. Tools were all his
I will take a moment to tell you about the tool list. A lot of these tools are a must.
- air orbital sander (lots of 400grit sheets, LOTS) This tool is your best friend.
- welder (not sure what kind or specs)
- sawzall
- plasma cutter (never got to work right)
- angle grinder, air hammer, air everything.
- cutting wheels, grinding/scouring discs.
- various different sandpaper from 80grit to 600 grit. We used 600 on our final wet sand.
- sanding blocks
- buffer
He started by cutting out the left rear tail light/quarter panel section out of a parts wagon to replace that section on my wagon.
That section was then welded into my car.
Then the left rear wheel arch was cut out, revealing lots of rust.
We removed a lot of crap from the car. I think in total we dug out a rag, some cardboard, and a piece of wood.
The inner wheel arch was replaced with an EK civic front fender. The beauty of this is that we bent the inner lip towards the outer lip and welded it up, now there is no lip at all, and no place for any junk to collect. below.
Once completed he started work on the outter wheel arch. We decided to use the front fenders from one of the parts wagons in the backyard, the arch seemed the same. We would later realize the arch opening was about 1" longer. The rear bumper was sticking into the arch. Easily fixed by trimming the bumper. Not perfect, but hardly noticable. Lack of Pics here. With the fender welded into place after much effort. We decided that tacking the piece into place and then just banging it to fit was our only option on this side. It's ugly to look at, bondo to the rescue.
Lack of pics for the passenger side, but it was MUCH easier. Less rust. Very nice work on the passanger side.
Trunk area. We pulled some cardboard out of that hole. below.
The hood, fixin' stone chips.
The rocker pannels needed repair on both sides. At first we were not even going to fix them, just cut the rust out and cover it back up with the plastic trim. But ended up welding in new pieces anyway, they actually looked really nice.
There were lots of other little spots where rust was grinded out as best possible and sealed with industrial sealer. That shit (Por15) doesn't come off your hands (or nose) no matter what!
Bondo sand, bondo sand. That is where Justins brother Matt came to the rescue. He was our bondo guy.
We used a can of home rust paint (Rustoleum, Tremclad)
using no particular measurements at all, we mixed in some mineral spirits and started rolling on the paint. Our first few coats were to thin. We later realized that starting with an almost unthinned coat would be best, gradually thinning the next few coats sanding out orange peel as necessary. There is LOTS of sanding involved. It is a lot of work, but very cheap.
The finished product.
Lots of gaps in the details. Fire away your questions.
I'm going to do my best here with photo's and giving descriptions. There are LOTS of gaps where no photo's where taken and major progress was made. Sorry, when you get frustrated or excited you forgot... or have dead batteries.
I started by pulling the car into the shop and removing the rear bumper and all the rear interior. Rust was clearly an issue even before I started, but it was worse than we could have thought.
My friend Justin, a mechanic at the local Honda dealership is the one to whom I owe this project. He did all the work involved in the body repair. Tools were all his
I will take a moment to tell you about the tool list. A lot of these tools are a must.
- air orbital sander (lots of 400grit sheets, LOTS) This tool is your best friend.
- welder (not sure what kind or specs)
- sawzall
- plasma cutter (never got to work right)
- angle grinder, air hammer, air everything.
- cutting wheels, grinding/scouring discs.
- various different sandpaper from 80grit to 600 grit. We used 600 on our final wet sand.
- sanding blocks
- buffer
He started by cutting out the left rear tail light/quarter panel section out of a parts wagon to replace that section on my wagon.
That section was then welded into my car.
Then the left rear wheel arch was cut out, revealing lots of rust.
We removed a lot of crap from the car. I think in total we dug out a rag, some cardboard, and a piece of wood.
The inner wheel arch was replaced with an EK civic front fender. The beauty of this is that we bent the inner lip towards the outer lip and welded it up, now there is no lip at all, and no place for any junk to collect. below.
Once completed he started work on the outter wheel arch. We decided to use the front fenders from one of the parts wagons in the backyard, the arch seemed the same. We would later realize the arch opening was about 1" longer. The rear bumper was sticking into the arch. Easily fixed by trimming the bumper. Not perfect, but hardly noticable. Lack of Pics here. With the fender welded into place after much effort. We decided that tacking the piece into place and then just banging it to fit was our only option on this side. It's ugly to look at, bondo to the rescue.
Lack of pics for the passenger side, but it was MUCH easier. Less rust. Very nice work on the passanger side.
Trunk area. We pulled some cardboard out of that hole. below.
The hood, fixin' stone chips.
The rocker pannels needed repair on both sides. At first we were not even going to fix them, just cut the rust out and cover it back up with the plastic trim. But ended up welding in new pieces anyway, they actually looked really nice.
There were lots of other little spots where rust was grinded out as best possible and sealed with industrial sealer. That shit (Por15) doesn't come off your hands (or nose) no matter what!
Bondo sand, bondo sand. That is where Justins brother Matt came to the rescue. He was our bondo guy.
We used a can of home rust paint (Rustoleum, Tremclad)
using no particular measurements at all, we mixed in some mineral spirits and started rolling on the paint. Our first few coats were to thin. We later realized that starting with an almost unthinned coat would be best, gradually thinning the next few coats sanding out orange peel as necessary. There is LOTS of sanding involved. It is a lot of work, but very cheap.
The finished product.
Lots of gaps in the details. Fire away your questions.
Comments
A lot of people don't realize hat's where most of the cost of paint job come from...labor.
I did the same thing on an old Mazda 626 I had picked up for cheap. After doing all that prep in the middle of a Texas July, I vowed I would never do it again.
I got the bars off an old 70's subaru wagon and they are to prevent the roof from sounding like a piece of aluminum flapping in the wind.
Rolling up or down the window used to cause the cabin pressure to change enough that the roof would suck in or push out.
great job, I agree with what was said earleir
nice to see one saved instead of scrapped
Hey, that was my idea!!! :twisted: - Just kiddin'... all good wagon ideas belong to the entire wagon community.
Quarters, your ride is so nice I start to salivate when I see pictures...
why get 17" rims when 13"s can be cool too? oh and 4 13" tires cost barely more than 1 17". lighter as well. haha
Since winter has started, there are spots where i can see rust forming already. Spots that couldn't get the attention they deserved from us, mostly coming from under passenger side doors. Oh well... if you're going to do this kind of restoration the right way, you gotta replace pretty much any panel with any rust on it. The entire panel. OEM.
I'm currently being plagued by mechanical problems right now, rear suspension/brakes are giving me issues. Trying to hold out until spring.
figured some of you out there with rusty wagons can see that there is hope... sort of. to do the above was a total cost of about... $200 for just materials. having the tools is what really counts, and loads of free time. i drywalled/plastered my friends renovation and that's why he helped me, it was a trade. never would have attempted alone.
paid 2,700cnd 6 years ago (has it been that long!)
440,000kms and still driven daily without ever getting into it and wondering 'ok, is this thing going to drive.'
the car looks like crap again. rust i hate you.
the point is, you still have it!
time flies, i remember when this was first posted, too...