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300 Posts
I chipped out all the stock sound dampening. It's about one 5 gallon bucketful, it's 25 lbs of completely not worth it.
Resto mod from rolling shell
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3,387 Posts
Yeah it aint bad at all, but supporting folks who make things for us still aint a bad idea either. If you search the forums a bit you should be able to find someone who posted pics.
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300 Posts
I've definitely bought my fair share of T3 stuff for this car so far - front suspension is almost entirely T3.
And I'm still a little annoyed on how they handled my front coilover thing. It ended up alright in the end, so I'm not upset, but I'm not rushing to throw them $90 extra lol.
Especially because on the other side of the coin I've bought a ton of stuff through George at Raptor and he's never been anything than the nicest, easiest person to work with and very communicative. I actually just ordered some of the 300# rear lowering springs through him.
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300 Posts
That little bendy part in the middle of the quarter panel is a pain. Luckily I think all of this rusty part I'm replacing should be hidden by the fender flares. The only think I have yet to figure out with it is how I'm going to bend the wheel arch part.
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10,593 Posts
that patch panel looks pretty good!
I should be back to this kind of work myself very soon
I should be back to this kind of work myself very soon
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300 Posts
Only thing I'm not sure of is the bend at then fender ( I imagine I'm going to end up hammering it over something triangle shaped, but I want to tack the rest of it down) and the lip where it overlaps the wheel well at the bottom. Might just weld something on at an angle instead of bending that tab you can see I left over.
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300 Posts
While you're here, how did you get into the section between the quarter panel skin and the rocker box? This seems like both the hardest part to get to and seal and the most likely to gather rust/trap moisture. I can figure out the other seams, through the interior but also I'll probably drill a small hole where the rocker overhangs the rest of the bottom of the car and go in through there. But I'm not sure about that extra layer.
Sidenote, how do you clear off your backing? you mention a brush but that can't always be strong enough to clear any rust and then you can't clean it before you spray in some new primer. I'm worried about parts I added on a while ago like the front boxes it's going to be hard to prep well.
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If I can get a stainless brush onto the backing, I can get it adequately clean. The trick is to do it right away, that stuff will rust pretty quick if you leave it. Holes is the answer, lots of access holes.
Getting into that channel is easy when the quater panel is apart, but I assume you mean how do you clean the welds in there, primer and seal after its all welded together. And that is a super tough one, a process I'm on my third revision of, but I think I have it now (and yes, attempt #1 rusted out on me again because I didn't get it right). Unfortunately I don't have access to my photo library from that era at this moment so I can't show you. But first off, I use a 1.5" hole saw to cut two access hole in the interior floor above that rocker channel. That gets me access to the inside of it, and almost unlimited access to the back of the wheel well steel. Next, before I weld the quater back on, I cut a series of smaller holes into the bottom of the channel (where your red arrow is) along the edge where the rocker seam is. Obviously, weld thru primer everything, every step, every piece you apply, clean your welds and reapply for the next layer. Once its all together, I use the brush to clean the welds from above as much as possible, but admittedly, this area is near impossible to get perfect. So after I brush what I can, I vacume out whats in the channel, then hit it hard with 100psi compressed air and try and take out all of the ash and clean the backing along the 3 layer rocker seam as best as possible. Be sure to leave the drain channel operational in there too, that quater needs to be able to drain out any water that might get in. Then I hit it with more weld thru primer, sprayed from above first, then I use a wd40 red straw on my primer bottled to blow the paint into those smaller holes. I run it as a liquid and get it thick so it runs and drains out the drain. There's a bit of praying and blind luck at this point, and I also have a red straw that I heated up and bent on a 90deg angle, that I use to blow paint in the short strips I don't have a direct line of site on. I also have a small mirror on an extending shaft I use with my flash light to try and peer into every crevice to see if I got it. After that, I seal whatever seams I can get at with seam sealer on a stick, and then I resort to wax spray and bendy straws again to get the rest of the rocker seam as I did with the primer. I've done one car to this level so far, and its sat outside for quite a few years, but under a tent or tarp, and so far so good.
Getting into that channel is easy when the quater panel is apart, but I assume you mean how do you clean the welds in there, primer and seal after its all welded together. And that is a super tough one, a process I'm on my third revision of, but I think I have it now (and yes, attempt #1 rusted out on me again because I didn't get it right). Unfortunately I don't have access to my photo library from that era at this moment so I can't show you. But first off, I use a 1.5" hole saw to cut two access hole in the interior floor above that rocker channel. That gets me access to the inside of it, and almost unlimited access to the back of the wheel well steel. Next, before I weld the quater back on, I cut a series of smaller holes into the bottom of the channel (where your red arrow is) along the edge where the rocker seam is. Obviously, weld thru primer everything, every step, every piece you apply, clean your welds and reapply for the next layer. Once its all together, I use the brush to clean the welds from above as much as possible, but admittedly, this area is near impossible to get perfect. So after I brush what I can, I vacume out whats in the channel, then hit it hard with 100psi compressed air and try and take out all of the ash and clean the backing along the 3 layer rocker seam as best as possible. Be sure to leave the drain channel operational in there too, that quater needs to be able to drain out any water that might get in. Then I hit it with more weld thru primer, sprayed from above first, then I use a wd40 red straw on my primer bottled to blow the paint into those smaller holes. I run it as a liquid and get it thick so it runs and drains out the drain. There's a bit of praying and blind luck at this point, and I also have a red straw that I heated up and bent on a 90deg angle, that I use to blow paint in the short strips I don't have a direct line of site on. I also have a small mirror on an extending shaft I use with my flash light to try and peer into every crevice to see if I got it. After that, I seal whatever seams I can get at with seam sealer on a stick, and then I resort to wax spray and bendy straws again to get the rest of the rocker seam as I did with the primer. I've done one car to this level so far, and its sat outside for quite a few years, but under a tent or tarp, and so far so good.
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300 Posts
That makes a lot of sense. The only way I could think of would be from underneath, that overhang but I hadn't thought of the small cuts along the bottom of it before. I'll have to double check where the drain channel is as well. Most of my welded areas up til now have been decently easy to access, except the front box so I'll have to get creative to make sure I prep that one well. I'll probably find some sort of powered wire brush on a bendy thing to scrape in there since it's been about a year since I did that section.
Do you bother to seal the smaller quarter panels holes back up afterwards?
What if, instead of those small holes you created extra "drain" channels in the quarter panel skin that let you access that area up them?
Do you bother to seal the smaller quarter panels holes back up afterwards?
What if, instead of those small holes you created extra "drain" channels in the quarter panel skin that let you access that area up them?
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300 Posts
It's coming along. I had to cut the top part off cause it wasn't right. The original was so rusted and holey it moved too much so my outline was inaccurate. I still gotta go over this seam a second time to finish off the holes, but also this will basically be 100% covered by trim. It's nice practice for the center cut which will be high(er) stakes.
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You can buy body hole caps at parts stores in the common hole saw sizes. I paint and prime the ridges then pop those in.
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300 Posts
Going back and painting/sealing spots I stitch welded at the beginning.
3M urethane seam sealer is no joke! That has to be the stickest tackiest stuff I've ever touched. I got some wiped onto an old dirty rusty piece of metal. I let it dry for a couple hours while I was down there out of curiosity of how well it would stick, and I couldn't scrape it off.
3M urethane seam sealer is no joke! That has to be the stickest tackiest stuff I've ever touched. I got some wiped onto an old dirty rusty piece of metal. I let it dry for a couple hours while I was down there out of curiosity of how well it would stick, and I couldn't scrape it off.
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6,019 Posts
Different prices.Choice of colors.
Amazon.com: Urethane Seam Sealer, Grey, 310mL Cartridge-by-3M: Automotive
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3M-08368 white Urethane Seam Sealer Tube (3M-08368) | eBay
3M-08368 White Urethane Seam Sealer Tube. High solids seam sealer ideal for sealing interior and exterior automotive and RV seams and joints. Can be smoothed to a featheredge and/or brushed. Tack free and paintable in 30 minutes.
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300 Posts
Yup that's the stuff! It even came with a pdf datasheet. I just went with 08362 Grey over everything. It will be painted in most spots and it's nowhere on the outside of the car you can see so I wasn't picky with the color.
It says it's not recommended with Acid Etching primers, but it's been sitting for a 8 days, so hopefully that's enough time for the Acid to gas out. I'm gonna try and scrape up a couple spots on the car at some point as a test. The stuff that got on the rusty metal bar with just some drippings, but it's a curious test case for how good of adhesion it has in literally the worst conditions you could have.
It says it's not recommended with Acid Etching primers, but it's been sitting for a 8 days, so hopefully that's enough time for the Acid to gas out. I'm gonna try and scrape up a couple spots on the car at some point as a test. The stuff that got on the rusty metal bar with just some drippings, but it's a curious test case for how good of adhesion it has in literally the worst conditions you could have.
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300 Posts
I'm learning a lot of what NOT to do with this patch panel. No bead length, just tacks, weld very slow. I'm getting some "pull" as the weld cools so my seam where to two panels like up is now a valley. I tried to fix it by adding more material and the extra heat just exacerbated it. Overall I don't think it's a huge deal - filler needs to be added for any pinholes in the patch and most of it will be behind a flare. I'm going to grind it most of the way down and then have the bodyshop tidy it up whenever the car is in there. But I'm glad I'm making these mistakes here instead of right above the wheel well.
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300 Posts
For anyone DIY'ing the rear Ford Focus AGX shocks, the "factory" washers for the rear shock (part # 90948-02002) is listed as the part for all three of the washers on the top of the shock, even though stock there are at least 2 different kinds. I ordered these as the previous owners of both my cars had put in a mish-mash of random washers in there. The new stock washers fit over the rear AGX shaft perfectly without needing to be drilled out, which means they'd be a bit too wide for the stock shock shaft. I assume Toyota just adapted a washer that was "close enough" in production in their catalog. If you're looking to avoid drilling some washers, that part number will be a perfect fit.
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300 Posts
I don't think I can get the QP much better than this in that spot, as the valley just gets worse every time I try and do anything. I guess luckily it should require less filler if the joint itself is lower than the surrounding panels. Next gotta figure out how to create the weird wheel well contours, and how to fold over the extra left material in this picture.
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10,593 Posts
I was wondering what you were planning with those bends.
Generally it's best to form all of that on the patch panel before you weld it on. I've probably covered how I did it in Canadian Psychos LType restoration thread. You should be able to do it still with vice grips and a couple careful cuts. Make a cardboard template of the part with the shape and cuts figured out then trace it on.
Generally it's best to form all of that on the patch panel before you weld it on. I've probably covered how I did it in Canadian Psychos LType restoration thread. You should be able to do it still with vice grips and a couple careful cuts. Make a cardboard template of the part with the shape and cuts figured out then trace it on.
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300 Posts
The engine bay corners I reinforced are also a mess of a bunch of layers so it didn't burn through in spots but I'm going to cover the corners in seam sealer and then also spray wax in there every year or so.
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