POST NUMBER 1
Hey all!
As some of you may know, while I've been off on my honeymoon the lovely lude has been tucked away at a bodyshop getting completely restored. I.e. all rust removed, dings and dents removed, a few minor custom bits and pieces and completely resprayed in the same R81 Milano red paint but in two pac form as clearly the factory paint isn't up to the years of UV rays it's endured.
A few bits of information about the car before we get started so you can understand the work involved in each picture:
Please Note, I have the following additional work completed compared to a fairly 'standard' lude:
- Accident repair to passenger front wing edge/front bumper edge
- Repair reformed crack in Mugen bumper under drivers headlight (expected stress from accident)
- Flushed badge and spoiler holes to boot
- Roof in between roof rails sprayed black
My lude had the following rust areas:
- Passenger side arch top meeting the bumper = a hole!
- Passenger side arch bottom meeting the sill = just surface bubbling
- Driver side arch bottom meeting the sill = looked like surface bubbling but turns out to be larger hole than the passenger top arch!
- Very slight beginnings of surface rust along both arch edges once black rubber arch protectors removed (bin these!)
- Passenger side A-pillar = Very slight surface bubbling right up to glass (caught this at the right time)
- Sunroof = one small pin prick on the paint surface and a bit of a hole on the inside edge next to the sill
My list just about covers all the usual culprits that attack us 4th gens!
As well as the above the number of small dings and dents picked up by a trained bodyshop's eye is just phenomenal. I thought it was in good condition and generally quite straight. But some circling with a yellow crayon picked up many imperfections, one rather large area on the passenger side door. As well as this each stone/man-made chips of paint to the door edges & bonnet/wings has to be filled too.
One last list...Here is what items were removed in order to enable this restoration to be completed. Some bits were taken off at a later stage as you'll see in the pics. I'm not going into how to remove each item just look in the manual:
- Sunroof wind deflector (if yours has one)
- Front bumper light inserts
- Front bumper number plate (& plate holder for a standard bumper)
- Side repeaters (cables and plugs masked to inside of wing
- Rear fog light
- Rear number plate
- Rear number plate holder/recess
- Boot spoiler
- Wing mirrors
- Aerial
- Both front and rear bumpers and front lower plastic engine cover (rear lip and back bumper also separated to work on separately)
- Standard black plastic side skirts
- Door handles
- Rear lights
- Front headlights and side lights (in one piece if yours is a JDM)
- Arch liners
- roof rails
- sunroof (then strip - remove sill etc)
- Remove rear windscreen trims
- Remove rear quarter windows (Get a professional to do it - roughly £25-45 per piece of glass to take out and put back in)
- Remove front windscreen (£50 to take out and put back in but a new screen will be going in for £150 all in! Not bad)
- Drivers and passengers window trims (and try not to break the lower trim clips - need a couple of new ones!)
And that's it! Doing this part of the work yourself and later on putting it back together will save you money as it's surprising how much items there is and how much time it takes to remove.
One final note, the main rust hole at the top passenger arch was repaired by the same chap before Japfest and left in yellow primer. Mm sexy looking. I sprayed an aerosol can of red over it until it went in for the whole lot. He cut and grinded out all traces of rust and welded in fresh newly shaped metal and fillered smooth. But left the perfect shaping to the arch for the main work.
Right I think we're ready for the bombardment of pics!
Please note, not all pics are the best of quality but big thanks to the bodyshop for taking so many to show the work gone into it. I suppose it's hard in dusty/paint spray atmospheres.
Ok, this is roughly how she was left with the bodyshop before my wedding, I took more bits off after taking the pics. I didn't remove all the bits myself though as I was plenty busy stressing and running around a day or two before the wedding!
But make sure you do it, it will save you your hard earned! : 
First pic was taken a little after work had progressed on the boot badge and spoiler holes being filled. A few spot welds later, ground flat, fillered smooth and more sanding later:
Looking good. Onto the other areas. Drivers side dings and dents knocked out smooth as possible, fillered and smoothed along the rear quarter/door/wing. Also the door edge chips sanded, filled and smoothed:
Round to the passenger side to work on more dings and dents and door edges. Same process but the middle of the door needed alot of work to get straight:
Now onto the main arch that he'd fixed before Japfest but needed shaping properly. Various tools and tricks used to get the line of the arch edge and curve right but I can't give it all away (note the lovely yellow primer that was adorning it as mentioned at the begining
):
Now onto the lower drivers side 'bubbling' of rust. Once the basic rust was knocked out, it was found to be gathering water for a while. Removing the side skirt at this stage showed the real extent of rust. Then grinding out the attacked metal left a bigger hole than the passenger side arch hole I had! More new metal to go in, ground down, a little fibrous filler used to help build up the awkward bottom part of the sill. More sanding and fillings and sanding and it was looking like it used to again!
:
Next, the work to the accident on the front passenger wing and Moooogen bumper. Wing needed pulling out from where the nice old biddies left it dented in at the flat edge part of the wing. Also lots of scratched paint so was sanded back to a flat surface. The front bumper had scratched paint and a chip about the size of a 50p back to the plastic of the bumper. This was all simply sanded back as flat as possible to prime. And finally the reworking of the crack that had reappeared from when I first had the bumper fixed, sprayed and fitted (We'll see if this lasts - if a crack reappears down the line I'll need to strengthen it on the underside. It was already plastic welded back up.
The pics are of the above completed and masked ready for primer:
Next up was the Euro side skirts I've been meaning to put on. But the time he did my passenger top arch rust hole before Japfest I actually grabbed a sander at sorted them out myself. I was covered in red dust by the end!
They had millions of stone chips and some sort of paint bubbling/reaction all over it which left it with loads of small pin prick sized bubbles which if you popped them had moisture in??? Anyway I expect Mark at the bodyshop couldn't except my skills and gave them a once over ready for primer:
Now more pics of masking up to prime any areas worked on. The rest of the bodywork didn't require primer. Only really necessary if your changing to specific different colours:
She's then rolled into the booth with front bumper and skirtsand all primed:
Now final flatting of any imperfections. Also note the pic with the million dabs of filler on the stone chips! Enough there for him?
The roof and sunroof was also worked on at this point but not anymore pics than this I'm afraid:
Then finally all masked/papered up and ready for some some colour!!! Always the bit people look forward to:
And rather annoyingly I'm gonna leave it there until the next installment!
I'll update this post again in a bit - still got a load more pics up to the finished and polished body and black polished roof!!!
PART 2
Ready for the next instalment?!?!
Right we left off with the body and all parts prepped and ready for painting. The main body was then sprayed up in red. In the following pics (very misty from paint) you can see the flatter base coat going down and then the added shine from the lacquer. Roughly just over three coats of base coat and nearly four coats of lacquer got put down in the end and Mark at the bodyshop was there till 10:00 at night to finish, one word – DEDICATION!
He then downs tools and leaves it for the night to properly set. Comes back in the morning to see what work there is to flat back and is greeted with the shiny pics below:
Looking good! At this point I had returned from my honeymoon and had been back to work for a couple of days and couldn’t wait to get a sneak preview, so I gave him a call and he said to pop down. Well you couldn’t wipe the smile of my face. To see your car (and just the body!) in fresh paint with no rust, dings or dents is truly awesome! He wheeled it outside in the light and I took a few snaps. It just started to lightly rain and bearing in mind the windscreen is just resting back in there and the rear quarters are out I didn’t want it left out too long. At this point it still hadn’t been touched with his polisher. I knew it was a good job as most of the paint put down looked like it had been polished, only minor areas mostly from the middle of the doors down needed doing. A good sign of skill from his behalf. Note that the roof was masked off and is yet to go black. So pics from my phone (Samsung 5MP) but they don’t do it justice compared to seeing it in the flesh:
And a pic of the bumpers and rear lip ready for paint (which as I write this have just been done):
Oh and I also dropped off my new mirrors. They are a Veilside/Ganador copy, unsure exactly of the make but the box is from Japan. The fitment is originally for the Civic Coupe (92-96) so thought I’d see how they pair up to the lude. Low and behold, they’re almost a straight fit! Just need a little trimming from the bottom lip which also makes the mirror sit more horizontal compared to my old M3’s. Only thing that bugged me about these was the way they angled up slightly. They look mean from straight on though. So this and the holes in the ludes door don’t line up 100% with the bolt holes in the mirror. Only slight but will have to open up the holes a little or redrill a new one. But no massive headache! So I left them at the bodyshop. I’m going to be the one working on them as Mark has enough work without me throwing extra stuff into the mix! He’s actually spraying my old original (pink) mirrors too. So if I don’t like them then I have backups!
:
Well again I’m going to have to leave it there!
I have more pics from a week later where it’s all been polished up and the roof has been painted black and also polished. Unfortunately I havn’t had time to upload these to Photobucket yet and no access in work.
As mentioned the other bits and pieces of the kit should be done now so I’m hoping to pop up later this week and grab some more pics for Part 3. Then it’s just the rebuilding left for the finished product!
Catch ya again soon!
Rob
POST NUMBER 2
Just a little bump so people notice Part 2 is up!
Unfortunately still more to come!
Cheers for all your comments guys. Trust me if you guys are excited and building up anticipation on the finished look, think about how mad I'm going right now! I can't wait even though I said to the bodyshop I would!
Now that I have the company car and he is fitting it around other jobs, I said take as long as you need to get it perfect. And it's certainly showing in the quality of work so far.However, trundling around in a 1.2 Clio company car just doesn't cut the mustard. I need a VTEC fix soon! But I don't want any stone chips on my immaculate body!!! What a dilemma!
As Mark (Theone) mentioned, I'm also trying to sort out my garage at home. Almost like building a nursery for a baby. Well my baby's coming home soon and I want her comfortable!
Been clearing out alot of junk from it. It also has a second floor so most stuff can go up there. I just need to clear the place of bugs, spiders and cobwebs, then treat the damp issue as there are gardens built over them! Think it's mainly coming down from a knackered front cladding. So new cladding and water tight build to be done and new garage door (already have) to go on. Then some fresh sealer and garage floor paint to go down and maybe some silica gel moisture absorbers to help keep the atmosphere right. So all that should keep me plenty busy!
Oh and I've only forgot to mention the Bodyshop's details!
Address:
V Dub Resto
Backfields Farm Industrial Estate
Wotton Road
Rangeworthy
Bristol BS37 9XD
Web: www.vdubresto.co.uk
Email: enquiries@vdubresto.co.uk
Tel: 07899 772169 (just moved to larger unit and the landline is being set up)
Mark Smith runs it with a few other workers.
Make sure you check out the website frequently as I designed and made it. It's still being worked on as you can see, the Gallery and Projects sections should be full up with different cars this week.
Oh and how much? You're roughyly looking at £2000-2500 for all the work that's gone into mine. But take out the accident repair work to wing and front bumper + smoothing to boot and black roof is probably more like under £1500-2000. Bearing in mind this is GOOD work from a more than capable and experienced bodyshop. Once you factor in all the above work you can see how much goes into it. But price will depend on what condition your lude is in to begin with. If your wondering then drop in to see Mark and he'll be more than happy to look the car over and give you an estimate.
Cheers,
Rob
POST NUMBER 3
All windows are going back in Monday with the new front screen. Main holdup was getting a new rear screen rubber trim which was damaged on removal by the bodyshop. But even the windscreen guy said it's bonded to the rear screen so would have been difficult to remove without breaking it even taking out the glass.
So this and new clips to door glass edge trim and roof rails. Unexpected extra cost though at £100 from Honda!!! The best price the windscreen place could find the rear window trim was £100 but I managed to get it for £66 from Honda, then all new clips (12nr - 6 a side for the door ones and 6nr - 3 a side for the roof rails) was another £33!!!
But at least it'll all be new to go with the paint and proper Honda.
With regards to the windscreen I can only imagine that it will be identical to the one in there i.e with the black bit around. I think most windscreens have that to hide the bonding stuff and dash bits TBH.
Also checked the glass type and it was as per Honda replacement (Pilkington stuff) and still £144 fitted!
More pics coming next week, maybe finished???
POST NUMBER 4
Right then!
A long overdue finish to my restoration thread now that the cats out of the bag (thanks Theone!). I was waiting till Japshow Finale to show the finished lude off, even stick it in the Meguir’s show n’ shine comp. A lot of rain spoiled that envailing, so…
Here goes…
Part 1 & 2 are on Page 1 if you want to see from start to finish.
It was left with pics of the body freshly sprayed in red with no polishing started yet and the roof yet to be painted black. Also the kit + bits to be sprayed.
PART 3
I went up there a couple nights after those pics and they’d laid down the gloss black roof and polished it all up. Not the best pics to pic up the colour as it was soooo sunny. Wish it still was! Anyway pics:
Then once the polishing was to a satisfactory level, in came the window guy to put in a new windscreen (About £150 all in – not bad at all), re-install the rear quarters (£30 a piece of glass) and remove and reinstall rear screen to fit new seals from Honda (£30 + £66! For seal!!!).
No pics of the installing as it was lunchtime and had to get back to work, just pics of the screen about to go in and lude without bits of glass – not the best I’ve seen her:
Next visit to the bodyshop they had sprayed the kit + other bits – Front bumper (red only), side skirts, rear lip, handles, roof rails, mirrors and any other bits I’ve forgotten. So we started to put it all back together:
That’s enough pics for one post. No wait this time, next post with Part 4 sitting right below.
POST NUMBER 5
PART 4
Next visit I parked up and found her outside looking like this, agreement that I’d put it back together went to one side as he’d fitted most of it!
Look through the mass of VW’s!
I had brought up my Moooogen spoiler (finally) to get this sprayed up to match. It was already sprayed red a while back, but was unable to fit with the existing spoiler holes, which were finally filled!
Had to rest it on to see how it would look:
Looking good. Just needed redoing to match the fresher paint! While I was there I got on and prepped the spoiler fittings which consist of two metal bars held on with three screws to the spoiler then 2 ‘C’ clips clamp round the edges of the boot and bars. It is secured with an allen key screw on each ‘C’ clip on the inside of the boot, plus a little padded doubles sided tape to the mount spokes.
Anyway, I stripped these in good ole vinegar for a night, a little etch primer and finished in matt black to fit with the general red/black (& smidge of white) theme:
Next up was some refurbing the Mugen badges. The bumper item is a metal pressed plate. Looking through pics of the Mugen Prelude catalogue the original has a matt black background with raised polished detailing. So out with the matt black again, then various grades of grit paper down to some Metal polish brought the badge up like this:
A couple of correctly sized rivets later:
Also refurbished the Mugen spoiler badge. This item is originally a black plastic item with raised chrome lettering. Well no chrome left on mine and the black wasn’t too great either. More matt black! Then found the best match chrome paint I could and HAND PAINTED the raised lettering with a paintbrush. Overall? Looks great, just no pics of the badge on it’s own. Wait till further down with it on the spoiler.
Forgot to mention the bodyshop had done the matt black around the headlights on the bumper – as per the original Mugen brochure. However the paint had reacted for some reason and crackled up and come away, but only in various areas! Oh well, one of those things. Lot’s of sanding later (annoying job redoing fresh work!), back to the start. Redid the fine line taping line but this time added a blast of primer to give it a fighting chance, then matted. All ok!
Also why I was there I decided to get my jap number plate trial mounted to get the screw holes made for future shows, etc. Plus I wanted to see how cool it looked. Thanks again Stan, think it’ll add a little something at the shows (If I ever get to one that isn’t raining!). Also got to use more Mugen items – my Mugen license plate bolts / washers. It all adds up to the theme!
Either that or I’m crazy paying £15 for bolts and washers!I decided to mount it to the side as to not cover over my hard work on the Mugen bumper badge:
Looking good! It’s all about the detail.
Next night I meshed the bumper, same round hole pressed mesh to the nostrils but decided it was a little too much for the mouth after numerous combinations with Photoshop. Fine diamond mesh in black was what I ended up with. Careful trimming and bending, fibre paste/filler mix later It was all on!
Just had to get the bumper on, wheel liners and engine tray and I could drive her home for the first time in a while!
But didn’t leave before test fitting the Mugen headlight covers (copies courtesy of GTdrift – Rash):
The fit on the bumper still isn’t 100% as I still need to add the brackets that have never been there from day one! It’s more than secure just annoying tweak for me to finish.
Again enough for one post…Scroll down or next page for PART 5
POST NUMBER 6
PART 5
Well VTEC home was better than ever. After driving around in a 1.2 Clio while it’s been in the bodyshop it seemed like I was gonna take off! Actually took a little while to get back into the swing of things. Got home with a huge grin on my face!
The next night I had to pick up my Mugen spoiler painted and my ‘extra’ project the guys had been working on. This was the night before the Saturday of Japshow. Check out the collection of crap I hauled up with me:
Spot anything in there? Yep a lovely Milano Red smoothed in triple guage A-pillar pod.
Had two Jackson racing gauges to fit for a while (Air/fuel ratio & oil temp). Third one I’d like to be a boost guage down the line! I have a aluminium Mugen badge perfect to sit over the hole for now. Here it is at the bodyshop:
When they were home, I polished them up a little, installed the gauges (still to be wired into the lude) and fitted the spoiler mounts and refurbed badge:
First thing in the morning before heading up to Japshow I fitted the Spoiler and A-pillar pods / gauges:
Looking bloomin awesome now and loved the look of the red creeping into the interior slightly. Will be adding Milano Red Mugen rear view mirror cover to add to it too down the line.
Well the drive up saw us stop into Milton Keynes to check out a potential car to buy for the missus. Stopped in a good ole McyD’s. The sun was out, which looking at forecasts seemed like the ideal time to take a couple of snaps:
Then…RAIN…and lots of it! Started Saturday afternoon and didn’t stop! We were in a hotel room for the night, woke up to a washout at Japshow, so didn’t even go down.
On the way back, stopped for some shopping and took a pic of the front in yet more rain:
As for the final thorough clean for some sweet photos. Had to wait till the next weekend (just gone). If you wanna see the result click here!
Thanks all! Hope you enjoyed the journey.
