June 7th 2004

What's up people!
Over 100,000 hits since I created Four Banger! Whoo Hoo!
I've decided to throw a coat of paint on Four Banger finally. So here's my latest progress.
I have replaced the broken followers and she runs great again.

I stripped all the paint off, took the fenders, doors, front and rear bumpers off, and am in the process of priming the bare metal after extensive bondo work.

Four Banger was stripped down to the metal using a hand held sand blaster I picked up at the local paint store for about 35 bucks. Sand is about 2 dollars for a 50 pound bag. I've went through 3 bags to get everything done. The sand blaster works great for getting into those unsandable areas too.





With the body stripped down to metal, I began to lay the first coats of bondo and see where my bad spots would be.






The roof turned out to be my Nightmare! Seems that the previous owner stomped all over the roof. I could never tell cause the paint was so dull. But once I put that first coat of Bondo on, BOOM!!! All the high and low spots started coming out from everywhere. It took me a week of Hand Sanding with a flexable board sander to get the roof straight.



Another difficult area for me was the rear quarter panels. They were dented pretty good.





Onward to the rocker panels! I had to use a slide hammer to pull some big dents out here.
Someone drove over something that crushed it in.
A quick slab of bondo and she's looking good!




The next picture shows the type of job some people do in the world. I can't believe that someone would put bondo on this thick when pulling the dent out would've been so easy. This area by the front windshield had bondo about 1/2 an inch thick. Just makes ya wonder sometimes.


Here is my finished quarter panel freshly sprayed with epoxy bare metal primer. After this coat, I spray one coat of High Build Sandable primer to take up any small scratches and waves. You can see the many layers of bondo it took to get just this part straight.
The gas cap door will be sprayed seperately.


After taking care of some minor rust on the window seat, it was bondo, then primer.
The bondo work is coming out great.







The entire car is in primer here and is now awaiting the High Build primer stage.
The metal bumpers in both front and rear will not be put back on. They weigh a ton and I can do without them.
The trunk lid will be replaced by a fiberglass bolt on aftermarket style.
The doors are going to be fiberglass too. I will have to rig up a window mechanism and some Lexan door windows.
It should be a few hundred pounds lighter from doing this and will net better 1/4 mile times too!
I believe that just the weight difference will put Four Banger into the 11's, but I also plan on a new fuel injection system going in this year.
So 11's are a guarantee.
I'm not even going to mention this blue bottle I’m putting in either.

......snicker.......




Should be ready for final primer this month!


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