heartless Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Finally, at long last, Brumhilda (aka Hildy) is back on the road after taking an unplanned ride into a very deep ditch the week before Thanksgiving. Had to do a lot of rust repair work, mainly around the windshield area, new glass installed - windshield and pass cargo area, fix the mangled exhaust, did a little rear wheel well repair, mounted a used front passenger fender and hood (after doing a little bit of rust repair on the hood, and repainting) in the processes of all of this, the dash was unbolted & moved back, the drivers seat was removed for a minor repair, the interior had to be cleaned due to a full 20 oz cup of coffee going everywhere, and of course, pulling the rear interior side panel to repair the wheel well (which also meant pulling the rear seatbacks out)... finally finished getting everything put back together and cleaned up today, swapped the good tires back onto her, and got her to fire up (was a little stubborn after sitting for so long) let her warm up a bit and took her out for a test run. Took her easy for the first few miles, but it wasnt long before the speedo was riding up near the 70 mph mark - handled great, no fighting with the steering wheel, everything seems to be kosher, but only time will tell for sure. all i can say at this point is it is SO good to have my car back!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucky92 Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I want PICS!!! And Congrats..I know Hildy is thankful!! :banana: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 will try to get some pics tomorrow if it isnt snowing... the fender i put on was originally maroon - somebody painted it white without sanding at all so the white is flaking off...makes it look worse than it is. Have the drivers side mate for it, but it is currently in nothing but primer (started redoing it a while back for future use) and trying to paint in cold weather is a chore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Easiest way to deal with weird mismatched panels is to scuff up the whole car with a sander, and paint it all a flat color - black, camo, vietnam OD green, etc. At least that way if a bit flakes off here and there it's a simple matter to hit it with some sandpaper, and shoot some rattle can over it. That's pretty much how all our military rigs are - makes for simple maintenance that way. Seems like a good idea in the rust regions too as it makes repairs 1000x faster so you are more likely to get to them quicker You can actually make it look pretty nice if you do it right - use the truck bedliner for the rockers and do a two-tone flat scheme. You can also order bedliner in any color you like online. Makes a neat surface treatment, and even salt won't eat that stuff. Don't try to paint around stuff - paint it ALL. Chrome, plastic.... everything. Leaving only the lenses, mirrors, and glass unpainted. Make sure to prep all the surfaces and use a proper primer on plastics, etc. Anyway - just an idea to consider. Better than leaving it all trashy looking with 16 colors, and there seems little sense in doing a proper expensive paint job if it's as rusty as it sounds. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 GD - the replacement fenders are in good shape, as is the hood that i put on - only had a couple of minor spots to touch up, and a small dent to straighten. the hood is the best lookin part of the car!! LOL - but yeah, the rest of the car is getting to be pretty rough. I'm not too worried about the flaking paint on the passenger fender right now, the maroon underneath is still solid, so no worries about things rusting right away. will finish the drivers fender when the warm weather returns, and put that on, as well as redoing the paint on the pass side... Not sure how far I am going to take the rust repair - far enough to keep her on the road for a while longer i think. Looking to get at least 300K on the Odo - at 244K currently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucky92 Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Thats one thing I like about white cars...its easy to repaint parts without too much attention being drawn to the spot...Bucky has more rattle can painted spots on him...but its hard to tell unless you are up close and personal. I like the idea of the trucke bedliner stuff...might jusy have to use that around the bottom of the XT6. I would say to come on over and use our heated garage but that would be abit of a hike:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 thanks for the offer Connie. We do have a garage, but the heat is from a kerosene turbo heater - not exactly the best thing for painting - tends to blow a lot of dust around. I did manage to get a decent paint job on the hood and around the windshield area, but thats all i am going to do for now. I am going to have to tackle a couple of other areas come warm weather - but then i can get the bike out of the garage and be riding that while i work on Hildy. I am just so glad to have MY car back. Driving the Coupe was nice and all, but i dont really dig the auto tranny - altho - having the "on demand" 4 whl dr was kinda nice in the snowstorm we had a while back... the bedliner stuff is great for below the trim line. they make a spray can version the is pretty decent. we used that on the other half's car - looks cool - kind of two tone - blue above, black below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgd73 Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Glad it is back together. Your motivation is great. In fact I haven't encountered another who didn't junk the car when wheel well work was needed.I fixed mine contently, the repairs are so common here it is not exactly a trauma to attack and conquer if to find bad rust spots. Any repairs at all to normal rust spots last a long long time beyond oem more times than not. My first repair went unpainted for several years - I bet it is still sitting there, tall strong and ready for 100k more in the pile it ended up in- at 20 years old. I won't doubt rust repairs again after putting a screwdriver through an oem wheel well proving how dainty they really are- in young perfect condition by subarus build. Any decent repair is stronger than oem.I of course asked myself "why" they are that dainty, but after seeing another compact car in a crash test from japan with an engine in the same liter range... they have thier own standards, not quite thinking about how bad roads, time and weather can be.This particular car got a very bad rating where all soobs rust.. and the soob is holding a rear end. How did the old soobies do in side hits etc? I bet a repaired one that revealed its weakness, as they are all individual, does better than an original. I hope you get it to go to 500k+ miles I am tending to babble, as I believe some of my rust work was doubted without facts in similar areas. I luckily have a regular place to go to for inspections. Reality and a mechanic is a great combo... Does your area give any doubts about some of the rust repair? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 bgd - we dont have to deal with inspections here in Wisconsin - thank goodness. Not that I doubt the integrity of my repairs, but there are enough oil leaks, fender rot, etc, that Hildy's days would be numbered very short if we did. Undercarraige is doing pretty well, considering her age, and the salt and such used around here. (thank goodness for the liberal undercoating on these cars). I did notice one spot on the belly pan that I am going to have to address this summer, but overall it is mostly cosmetic stuff - things that make her look bad - like the fenders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted January 24, 2007 Author Share Posted January 24, 2007 Fianlly got some pictures taken. in the interest of saving server space i am linking to them in my photobucket account... 1st pic: the "new" hood. this one had a small amount of rust on the front edge that did go all the way thru and a small dent (about 50 cent piece sized) that went outward, right at the point where the center ridge meets the lower portion - like the hood was dropped on something... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/heartless500/Hildy/newhood.jpg 2nd pic - the "new" fender - no trim - was removed for future refinishing months ago. the large dark spot is where the white paint is flaking off showing the maroon underneath (there are several other places that the maroon can be seen as well) just a note for you guys thinking of painting...SAND the existing finish FIRST!!!! gives the new paint something to adhere to. I will get around to sanding and repainting this one this summer. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/heartless500/Hildy/frtfender.jpg 3rd & 4th pics - the old hood and fender - not very pretty are they?? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/heartless500/Hildy/oldhood.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/heartless500/Hildy/oldfender.jpg 5th - i did leave the bashed in rear fender...as was noted in a previous thread - it gives character!! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/heartless500/Hildy/rearfender.jpg 6th - this pic shows the road conditions we were greeted with monday morning - Hildy's maiden voyage to work since our unplanned venture off road. the county we live in is pretty lax about clearing roads of snow...we only had about 2 inches of the stuff come down sunday - it was done falling before dark... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/heartless500/Hildy/1-22-07snowyroad.jpg and last, but not least (maybe i should put this one in the "show off your mileage" thread) the odometer reading - taken after arriving at work. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/heartless500/Hildy/odometer1-22-07.jpg none too shabby for a car i paid $150.00 for over 5 years ago... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucky92 Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 :banana: me likes Hildy....OMG:eek: there wasnt anything left of that front fender...Holy Canoli Batman!! Glad she is back on the road...looking forward to getting Bucky back on the road soon myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted January 25, 2007 Author Share Posted January 25, 2007 :banana: me likes Hildy....OMG:eek: there wasnt anything left of that front fender...Holy Canoli Batman!! Glad she is back on the road...looking forward to getting Bucky back on the road soon myself. :lol: wasnt much left of the original hood either... the drivers side fender is a little better, but not much - it will get replaced this summer, after the replacement gets painted and undercoated good. the pass. side one will come back off and get refinished as well, so the front end will look good at least! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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