2000 GT Salvage Build

chithead

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LOVE it - I'm in the process of trying to rescue a neglected 98 GT and can feel most of your pain with this one. You are doing amazing work, keep it up!
 
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KJ-00-GT

KJ-00-GT

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Still working on the car, now that we are finally in good spring weather I'm more motivated. That means I'm into the big fun of body work. So first up is getting the crash dents out of the drivers side door and quarter panel. I first took the rear interior panel out so I could get at the back side of the pushed in spot between the side scoop and wheel arch. I beat on that as best I could with a hammer and 2x4, it helped big time. Also used a pry bar wedged against the tire to get the wheel arch more into shape. Next after seeing a youtube video I welded some small metal tabs in the dented areas, clamped a visegrip on then a hook and chain around a metal bar and leveraged the dents out tapping with a body hammer outside of the dent. I was amazed how well it came out, the body filler won't be as thick now.

The before.
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Here it is ready to pull a spot.
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I did more of the same on the rear dent to get it even better.
 
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KJ-00-GT

KJ-00-GT

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On Friday night I took my 7" sander with a 40 grit disc on it and went around the car sanding out all the chipped, flaking and cracked paint spots on both sides of the car.
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After doing this all those spots were like divot's in the paint and knew I was not going to be able to try and smooth that out. After doing a little research I determined that it looks like this car has had 3 paint jobs on top of the factory paint, no wonder it was coming off. The paint chips seemed so thick. Here is a pic of the layers, unless something is different with black factory paint, the red fender sanded through easy and could see primer, base red then clear unlike this pic of the black paint.
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So the only thing I can do is sand all the paint off the bad parts, the hood seems to be fine.
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badass98svt

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What grit paper are you using. That looks very coarse
 
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KJ-00-GT

KJ-00-GT

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What grit paper are you using. That looks very coarse
40 grit to get through all the layers of paint. I will be going back over all of it with small D/A sander with 80 grit to take out the scratches, then take another look at it.
 
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KJ-00-GT

KJ-00-GT

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Went to swap meet on Sunday and bought a couple of things, scored this harness for $20. At some point I'll get a harness bar and install it but not on the priority list right now. I would keep the factory belts installed also.
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badass98svt

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Do your seats have the submarine slot for the 5 pt harness?
 
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KJ-00-GT

KJ-00-GT

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Do your seats have the submarine slot for the 5 pt harness?
No, I'm not going to use that part of it. Honestly don't know how much I'll use the harness just something I've always wanted along with the race type seats in a fun car.
 

Snorky

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That is a lot of sanding, just keep going over it in stages it will get easier and smoother and smoother annnnndddd smoother
 

Snorky

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Also if you feel ripples, add a touch of filler and smooththe heavy off while its damp
 
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KJ-00-GT

KJ-00-GT

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I'm still at it, sanding, scuffing and more sanding. I just keep going further into making the car not drivable. Oh well has to be done, I removed the red fender 1: To fully paint it black and 2: Be able to body work the door edge that was mangled up. Going to order up the primer and hopefully by end of the week I'll be ready for it.

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Snorky

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I'm still at it, sanding, scuffing and more sanding. I just keep going further into making the car not drivable. Oh well has to be done, I removed the red fender 1: To fully paint it black and 2: Be able to body work the door edge that was mangled up. Going to order up the primer and hopefully by end of the week I'll be ready for it.

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Body work is the most time co suming aspect of automotive but is also the most rewarding. Driving a fast pile of shit is cool, but at the end of the day when you look at it you have a self loathing for sinking so much money into a car that looks like it belongs in a scrap yard. Keep it going. And keep making it smoother and smoother. The best paint jobs they do the bumpers, fenders, and pillar trim off of the car.
 
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KJ-00-GT

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Thanks Snorky for the encouragement. This started last fall as slap some Bondo in the damage, sand and shoot some paint on it, I've gone way past that obviously but I'm only going so far because it will never be perfect, some things still a bit tweaked from the crash damage.

Worked on it again today and got the door edge hammered into shape, then went after the damage area behind the drivers door to refine that more. I had ordered some 10" profile gauges to help me get the contours of the door and fender correct compared to the good side of the car. I really needed a longer gauge so came up with this to combine them together, works great 1" square aluminum tube and industrial Velco. I can still separate them too.

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KJ-00-GT

KJ-00-GT

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Didn't do as much this week because the last two days been getting the wife's Mustang ready to drive 5 hours south to Des Moines for the big IMU Mustang Invasion this weekend.

I did get the trunk paint stripped off, a job I was dreading not sure how to do it and not dig it up. I successfully got it down to the original gelcoat and remain fairly smooth, just a little more sanding at the edges and I'm done with it. Getting really close to everything being scuffed and sanded.

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50HSN95

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Pretty sweet project! The combined contour gauges as mentioned earlier as a pretty trick idea! I would like to go to Oskaloosa also this weekend but stuck working all weekend.
 

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