Made you look, didn't it?

This was two days ago; I dropped by the body shop today to take a look at it to see how it's coming along. He's done patching the holes and sanding it down; all that's left is to wash off the dust and spray it.

I've got some other pictures that I'll put on my website as soon as I manage to get it functional.

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"

Attached Thumbnails

 

Oooh Ba-Baaby!

I know how excited we can get about our cars, but despite all temptation, let’s not turn this into a porn site.
Personally, I’m not much of a ‘boob’ man, but I know that a good surgeon could put some nice headlights on that babe!
Maybe next time you could post some shots of her rear end?

PS: FWIW, If anyone has tried to contact me during the last couple of weeks, my (old) email address is no longer functioning due to being compromised, most likely due to a freakin back-door VIRUS. Words of Wisdom: Keep your virus definitions up to date! If this could happen to me – it could happen to anyone. I have always been careful to not download anything unless I knew who sent it, yet despite this diligence, I got hammered.

I've got some more photos up, if anyone's interested. Check out my laughably small and cramped workshop!

http://home1.gte.net/res0holb/index.htm

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"
'00 New Beetle TDI

Hey Nick, sorry I did not reply to your email! Regarding the black grille, I don't have a photo on the internet at the moment, but I'll try to scan one in as soon as possible.

Nathan,
I looked at your pictures, particularly your shop and work area. I buildt a Jaguar engine in the parking lot at college, Chicago, winter of 1961. I've gotten soft over the years. Your project has reminded me to just get out the tools and fix the thing.
Good luck.
Dan

__________________
Dan Stadt
'85 300D turbo
'79 300SD
'73 220D

Whatever you do, don't put a bra on it!!
What color will it be finally???
How many coats of paint and what type of paint
(oem?).
regards.

__________________
1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

I kept it the same cream color. I thought about going to black, since I think black looks really classy on the W123 body style, but it's almost impossible to drastically change colors like that without leaving a lot of "evidence" of the old color.

It's DuPont urethane-based paint with a mixture of urethane and clearcoat as the top coat. He laid down 8 coats so there should be enough for a good initial 2500-grit wet sanding to eliminate the "orange peel" effect on the lower half of the doors and fenders, and get rid of the few little nibs here and there where a fleck of dust settled on it as the paint was drying. I'm going to leave the trim off until the wet sanding and final polishing is done. Meguiar's web site has good info on DIY wet sanding, but I think I'll take it to a professional detailer...

No, there's no car bra in this machine's future, although I'm looking into getting some of that clear 3M adhesive film for a few places on the front, especially the thin rail underneath the headlights. You can see from the photo that the driver's side in that area is pretty banged up from just daily driving and encounters with road debris and such.

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"
'00 New Beetle TDI

Bill,

Check out the rust spot photos:
http://home1.gte.net/res0holb/index.htm

Those four rust spots were the only ones worth mentioning. There were a few other very minor spots where the paint had chipped away to expose the metal which had a very light surface rust, but those only required sanding down and re-priming.

The largest hole was the driver's side front fender, just behind the front wheel. It was about 4 inches long and 2 inches high. There was a slightly smaller hole on the same place on the passenger's side. To repair both these holes, my body shop guy cut out the metal in that area and welded a matching sheet of new steel into its place, then ground down the weld to be flush with the body panel. After the paint, you really can't tell there was any rust there at all. However, if I had the chance to do it again, I would have searched for some used replacement fenders since the patch job doesn't have a place to plug the rubber molding trim back in on those two panels. I think I'll have to glue the trim back on.. I haven't decided yet.

There was also a tiny rust spot on the right rear fender next to the hood lid. I'm not sure how he repaired it, not the same method as above, but you can't tell it was ever there.

There was a large rust hole behind the battery tray, but I told him not to worry about making that perfect since it's completely hidden by the battery. So he just cut out the worst spaces, cleaned up the rest with <can't remember product's name, something like "Marine Lube" that dissolves rust> and patched it over with some metal-like putty. It looks like the rust is gone, but it's not pretty.. not that it matters since it's entirely obscured by the battery.

I definitely would have gotten replacement fenders if I had a second chance, though, instead of repairing the ones I have, but only because the repair job won't let me easily put the trim back on.

The whole job - rust repair, removal of a couple of dents, hand & machine sanding, and paint - cost $1200, but I did all the trim removal myself, as shown in the aforementioned photos.

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"
'00 New Beetle TDI

Nice photos Nathan, what's going on with the engine?
I'm sure you did not remove it just for the paint job.
By the way, that is a reasonable price for the
body and paint, especially with that
attention to the paint layers.
Tell us about the engine.
cheers.

__________________
1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

This whole project started out as an oil pressure problem. In May my wife and I moved from Fort Lauderdale back to Tampa, a 4-hour drive. The 240D almost didn't make it. It didn't peg the oil pressure (3 bar) at all the whole trip (except while it was cold, before warming up). When I got off the interstate at the exit near the new apartment the oil pressure dropped down to the '0' peg.

I figured it was an oil pump issue, but my mechanic advised that it was more likely the main bearings. I pulled the oil pump and it was in OK shape, so I had a compression test done and compression was bad (<200psi) on #1 cylinder. [Note: this greatly surprised me since, except for the oil pressure problem, the engine started and ran exceptionally well and consumed almost no oil.] So, the engine came out for a rebuild. When I pushed the pistons out, #1 piston came out in pieces.. the ring lands had disintegrated around about 1/3 the circumference. Right now I'm waiting on my machine shop to finish the block (new liners, honed to fit new pistons) and cylinder head (valve job with new guides & seals). I've got some other threads with specifics on the engine stuff.

I decided that now's as good a time as any to get the body in tip-top shape as well, so I stripped it down for rust removal and paint. After I got it back from the paint shop I cleaned out the engine compartment, masked it off very carefully (4 hours plus an entire roll of masking tape and 2 weeks' worth of newspaper) and sprayed it down with Westley's rubberized undercoating spray (see thread in Detailing forum). It looks really nice, a flat black textured coating over the whole engine bay. So, now I'm in the process of putting the engine bay back together, carefully cleaning each and every component and wire and fastener as I replace it.

I'm very happy with this paint job except for the aforementioned fender trim issue, and the minor imperfections that will be cleaned up with a wet sand. I used a private body shop, a one-man-show that was recommended to me by a neighbor.

I should have more photos soon, there are only a few left on this roll then I'll get 'em developed and scanned. Wish I had a digital camera...

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"
'00 New Beetle TDI

The title cracked me up..

Mr. Moderator... this is from 2001... hehe But yes, its a good one.

__________________
1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car