Project Mutant: Resurrection of an 82 FI basket case

Project Mutant: My, what different eyes you have...

Cut and shaped both of the panels to fill in where the pop up headlights used to be. Painted inside and out. Sanded off the edges back to bare metal. Tack welded in and final welded. Ground off the welds, and smoothed everything over.

Now just giving the (admittedly too thick) layer of body filler time to harden, before I start sanding down to smooth. Then I'll start doing some more body prep.

Removed the sliders from the drivers seat, and mounted directly to the floor. Now I have at least 5" of clearance between my head and the roof. Puts the steering wheel into a position where it belongs.

I think I'll work on getting the wiring bundle back under the dash and into its proper place later this week.

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I gotta quit lookin at body work pictures like these... They are startin to give me PTSD!!!
 
I gotta quit lookin at body work pictures like these... They are startin to give me PTSD!!!

Did you have a bad experience with bodywork, or is it just the Mutant bodywork that triggered you? If you want to confront your demons, feel free to reach out, and if you are in the NE Florida area, I'd be glad to let you sand and fill and sand some more, till you sweat it out. :)

When I am done, the X will be a reduced-stock. There are some folks that think the bumpers should remain and nothing should be touched. There are some that think a Dalara widebody is the way to go. I am in-between. The body work is the middle of the madness.

When I am done, I may be found to be foolish, but by merely trying, I will have gained some knowledge. Remember: Experience is an evil teacher... She gives the test first, and the lesson afterwards.
 
Did you have a bad experience with bodywork, or is it just the Mutant bodywork that triggered you? If you want to confront your demons, feel free to reach out, and if you are in the NE Florida area, I'd be glad to let you sand and fill and sand some more, till you sweat it out. :)

When I am done, the X will be a reduced-stock. There are some folks that think the bumpers should remain and nothing should be touched. There are some that think a Dalara widebody is the way to go. I am in-between. The body work is the middle of the madness.

When I am done, I may be found to be foolish, but by merely trying, I will have gained some knowledge. Remember: Experience is an evil teacher... She gives the test first, and the lesson afterwards.

Yup... I concur... My bodywork PTSD refers back to my own project and the bag of F*CK I was given when I purchased my slightly used, garage kept, never wrecked, one owner cream puff. I spent 2 long years... Yup count em, one and two tryin to piece this crap sandwich back together. I feel your pain...

Only advice I can give a would be this.........

When a door says push, PULL it's not direction IT'S A CHALLENGE!
 
Project Mutant: One step at a time.
Front panel in good enough shape to paint. No more headlight buckets. New front presence is what I was looking for.

Hard to understand how much difference a small change makes: On the rear frame rails, I used a diamond cutoff wheel to trim back the rails to behind the bodywork. Now to get some metal that is the right size so I can make the plugs for the ends of the frame rails, and get that job finished up.

The diamond wheel was not cheap, BUT it was much better than going through a couple dozen small abrasive wheels.
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Front end lookin sharp.

Yuppers... Took me like seven or eight cutoff wheels to cut the bumper tubes down... I had to first make them small enough to fit inside the tube! Pretty big waste of materials. Gonna make my plugs out of ABS sheet and some common ABS black drain pipe.
 
Project Mutant: Who knows what evil lurks just below the paint? The sander knows!

I had been pleased that so far the X1/9 had been reasonably clean and although not rust-free, at least rust-manageable. So as I am prepping to paint, I decided to take the doors back to bare metal.

SURPRISE! (and not a good one). The lower portion of the drivers door has been patched (?) exceptionally badly. Sure it was smooth, but that is only because 1/4 to 3/8" of body filler. And what looks to be rivets. And yuck!

So, now I will need to look for a replacement drivers door, and at least the passenger door looks to be in better shape.

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Project Mutant: Who knows what evil lurks just below the paint? The sander knows!

I had been pleased that so far the X1/9 had been reasonably clean and although not rust-free, at least rust-manageable. So as I am prepping to paint, I decided to take the doors back to bare metal.

SURPRISE! (and not a good one). The lower portion of the drivers door has been patched (?) exceptionally badly. Sure it was smooth, but that is only because 1/4 to 3/8" of body filler. And what looks to be rivets. And yuck!

So, now I will need to look for a replacement drivers door, and at least the passenger door looks to be in better shape.

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Hahahahahaha... I feel yer pain... They didn't even scuff the paint before puttin a half can of bondo in this hole. I dollied out 90% of it before a light skim coat of Evercoat Gold.

A heads up... Much much much much easier working the doors off the car... Trust me.

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A heads up... Much much much much easier working the doors off the car... Trust me.

Looks like you did a darn nice job in working the dent back to a usable shape. It really looks like the same persons had the same idea on two separate cars... "Metal work? We don't need no steenkin metal work!" and slather on enough Bondo to choke a horse!

As far as working the door off the car: I'm way ahead of you. The door is off, and laying on the work table. In looking closer, I don't think I was seeing rivets inside the door. Instead, I think the door is caved in a small amount, and they drilled holes where some body filler can come through to keep it from sloughing off.

I will proceed to remove all of the caked on body filler over the next few days. THAT causes a major dust storm.

If the door is not too badly mangled, I should be able to push or persuade the dent back out to a reasonable shape, and then hopefully not have to re-skin or cut and weld replacement metal in.
 
now I will need to look for a replacement drivers door
Good luck, as the doors are notorious for rusting and damned hard to remedy. The skin is not overly thick and bracing behind is a rust trap, especially the supports for the window mechanisms. The doors have a nasty habit of rusting from the inside out, and what you see on the outside generally means something more serious is on the other side. It may be quite difficult finding a replacement door that hasn't already had a repair.
 
Project Mutant: Got all of the filler off the door. Looks like the door was scraped or driven against something. Then, rather than doing some metal work and putting the dent further out so that it matched the pre-incident body lines or contours, they just drilled a ton of holes so the bondo would stick, and filled in the rest.

I'll be working the metal over the next few days and seeing if I can get it back to within tolerable limits. Hard to see in the pictures, but the difference between now and correct is only around 3/8".

On the plus side (?), I found one rust hole that needs to be mended. Good to take care of that while it is still small.

Once the metal is back in shape, and the rust hole is mended, then I'll finish stripping the door, and put it smooth, primer it, and then on to the next panel.

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After gently hammering away on the mangled metal for a couple hours, sweating and trying to find access around the edges, I've decided that the best fix is replacement. I've ordered some fresh steel, and when it arrives there will be a panel transplant. Will split and cut off the old mangled bits of the lower door portion, and cut and bend a new skin for the lower panel, then seam and weld in the new panel.

Awful lot of work... Unless someone can come up with a decent condition door that I could purchase? Maybe? Anyone?
 
After gently hammering away on the mangled metal for a couple hours, sweating and trying to find access around the edges, I've decided that the best fix is replacement. I've ordered some fresh steel, and when it arrives there will be a panel transplant. Will split and cut off the old mangled bits of the lower door portion, and cut and bend a new skin for the lower panel, then seam and weld in the new panel.

Awful lot of work... Unless someone can come up with a decent condition door that I could purchase? Maybe? Anyone?
I have a pretty good selection of doors, but I'm nowhere near your location.
 
Project Mutant: Let's open some presents!

Behold the 'visible door'. I have removed the lower part of the door panel, and for my next trick, I will attempt to re-skin it with pristine metal.

Happily, the lower part of the door is not a stinking rust hole like it could have been. The metal inside is strong, with some surface rust, but definitely no weakness. A Christmas miracle!

I need to work harder at being able to cut a straight line with a cutoff wheel on a 4 1/2" grinder. Some cleanup to get the edge straight, some grinding to remove the spot weld remnants, and then some careful cut, bend, and weld work will follow.
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Project Mutant: Even cheap tools with a specific purpose are a good thing.

I was able to get the drivers door lower panel replaced, and with the help of a cheap set of body hammers (Thanks Amazon!), was able to get the 20ga steel folded over and looking pretty close to factory.

I used some body epoxy to fill in the dimples where welding was not quite perfect. Then some surface sanding. Now it is ready for a skim coat of body filler, and some finish sanding.

Should have the drivers door finished by end of week, and then will be back to the left hand rocker panel below the drivers door, and some finish work on the drivers rear quarter, then that side of the car will be pretty much ready for paint.

Even a tiny car has a LOT of surface area!

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BTW - That's a miniature Australian Shepherd, name of Cooper. Why Cooper? Because he is a mini = Mini Cooper. And, if you watch the Big Bang Theory, he is exceptionally OCD, and exceedingly intelligent, and more trouble than a friend ought to be, so he is also Sheldon Cooper.
 
So, I would have been done with the drivers door by now, BUT when sanding the upper panel before I primered it, I found one other spot on the door where the bondo-fairy lie in wait. So, I've got the lower 2 panels pretty much ready for finish sand and paint, and now I need to do some body filler work myself to correct the previous owners fix. Hard to tell in the 2nd picture, but where that little pinhole is, there is a 4x4" wavy section that I need to make NOT wavy.

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Project Mutant: Progress by any measure is still progress.

Both doors have been removed. Drivers door is completed, prepped, and ready for paint.

Frunk lid/hood has been removed, and is on the bench getting ready to have the big hood latch removed, and the hole filled in, and then the hood will be finished and prepped for paint. It is already 50% prepped.

The engine cover has been removed and set aside.

The car is now (mostly) masked and ready for paint. Still need to mask the radiator area. Will finish front hood and passenger door this week. Then I will remove the rear trunk lid, and remove the big ugly hood latch and fill in that hole and replace it with a small latch, too. Then will be going back to sanding the door sills, and the rest of the body.

I hope to be ready for paint in 3 weeks.
 
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