Hotblack Desiato, A restoration thread of sorts..

[WSC-SHO]

Well, It's been a long, interesting road, but I finally got myself a Gen 1 SHO. It's even black :woo-hoo: However, as with all good things, there must be bad, but before that, a brief intro..

Here she is sitting the day I bought her,



Clean but pictures can (and do) lie.

A few more,







And her saving grace, the drivetrain..





She sat as is for a grand total of 1 (!) day, then teardown! She's been in an accident judging by the 1/4 inch of bondo I peeled off of the rear fender. 6" sander took care of that issue..





After getting rid of the rust on the rear 1/4 I decided to continue following it into the rockers, what I found I was not expecting,





This is the point it's at now, The main body is very clean, but the rockers are horrible, the paint has orange peel everywhere, and it just looks like **** really..

so I guess I'm just looking for some positive reinforcement here, a "you can do it" kind of thread to keep me motivated. Plans thus far are to find and patch all body rust, the sand and re paint. Any opinions or advice (especially) are more than welcome, tell it like it is brothers! :thankyou:

 

[SHOGUN88]

Bring her back to life! Cut and weld!

 

[SuperHO]

love the Hitchhikers reference. if you can be amused by Douglas Adams, you can do anything. let's see that car come back to life!

 

[Art5]

since you're at it, you might as well make wider quater panels in the back and make custom side skirts out of metal, to replace those rockers.

 

[Shoaz]

Good luck on the project, and I second the excellent start with the HHGG name.

 

[zblackbeast]

Yar!! were gonna fix this b***h up right.. then finish my 94! :{.. Its pretty rough on the outside.. but it really is all repairable.. The rockers are only rusted front and rear with one hole in the middle.. so there is solid metal to base our new panels off of so it makes things a lot easier. This is just going to be a time consuming project that should be interesting when its done!

As for the drivetrain.. Damn... its nice.. its got 220000 miles on it and it runs like new. doesnt burn any oil, cranks right up and no noises.. Its runs almost as hard as my 94 with mods and 60k less miles. A 60k minus water pump has been done recently so powertrain wise its really solid and shifts like butter...

The interior has a pretty cracked and beat up dash, but other than that just a couple tears at seams and the obvious bolster wear. No odors or stains otherwise.

All in all for 1000 i think its a solid starting point. The only rust is whats pictured. All the floor pans, frame rails, even the suspension parts don't show its age at all. I guess when you build parts that like to hold water thats what you get!!! Well keep you updated as we go. We have most all the tools minus a HVLP gun and a paint booth so the body work should be done in a few weeks with a few hours a night in body work!!

 

[jonheese]

Don't panic!

 

[zblackbeast]

Im not.. he is! We got it pulled apart last night and i went "Shit.. that aint bad" he looked at me like i had two heads! hah.. I then explained to him when i removed my rocker covers there was NOTHING there adn that metal bar was just chilling under rusty dust in the side skirt.. ha

 

[jonheese]

Two heads, eh?

 

[zblackbeast]

 

[WSC-SHO]

Thanks to everyone for the well wishings, I'm pretty sure that we can do this, it's just going to take time. :thankyou:

The HHGG reference came about from the passage about hotblack's stuntship... http://www.american-buddha.com/hitchhikerrest4.htm there if you want to read it

Has anyone ever done wider fenders? By all means guys I'm open to suggestions, it all needs to be replaced and repainted anyway. So have at it!

 

[kevinspann]

I...

Love HHGG.

Like black SHOs.

Hate black SHOs with rust

Like the face that mine isn't as bad as yours.

Hate rust, again.



http://www.shophoenixproject.com/feature/feature.htm

This is the only flared out car I'm aware of, but I don't really like the looks of those flares, and think they would look out of place on a gen 1.


How good are you with body work? From what I understand G1s don't have as much room in the rear fenderwells (I guess that's due to the design of the quarter-panel?), so if you could, in effect, pull it out some, it could do some good.

Or KISS, and go with stock.

 

[jonheese]

Has anyone ever done wider fenders?

Yes. SHOWYA's widebody SHO project comes immediately to mind:
http://www.shoforum.com/showthread.php?t=27177

Edit: Gah! Kevin beat me to it ^.

The thread I linked is the same car.

 

[WSC-SHO]

I...
This is the only flared out car I'm aware of, but I don't really like the looks of those flares, and think they would look out of place on a gen 1.


How good are you with body work? From what I understand G1s don't have as much room in the rear fenderwells (I guess that's due to the design of the quarter-panel?), so if you could, in effect, pull it out some, it could do some good.

I'm very handy with metalwork, I have access to all the steel I'd ever need and a MIG, TIG/ARC and oxy welder. Thanks for the link, both of you :thankyou:

I suppose I could widebody it, but I'm not sure how that would look on a Gen 1.

 

[kevinspann]

Doing something like this is what I was thinking

http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=59024

 

[jthod]

Cut off both wheel archs, and weld in Gen 2 fenders. More clearance, Clarence.

 

[WSC-SHO]

Cut off both wheel archs, and weld in Gen 2 fenders. More clearance, Clarence.

I like this idea, it solves the repairing the rear drivers 1/4 panel issue as well. And Clay's got a Gen II parts car sitting in his garage with all the panels and doors still on it...

Thoughts on Gen I with Gen II fender "flares"

 

[kevinspann]

The gen 1/gen 2 mixup might not look too bad. I thought that car that Clay has is rusty? Or was that just the rockers?

 

[WSC-SHO]

The gen 1/gen 2 mixup might not look too bad. I thought that car that Clay has is rusty? Or was that just the rockers?

His DD has rocker rust, I'm not sure about the parts car, I'll check it out today or tomorrow and see.

 

[NebraskaSHO]

I say fix it and enjoy it. The wide body is going to keep it off the road even longer than what you are planning right now.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.