Paint Blog 2: Day 1

Bodywork

Bodywork

I stopped by the shop to check out the progress. I walked in, said hi, and walked toward the back… no Sharka.

I walked around the side. No Sharka. No Sharka on the side of the lot parked next to the other cars either.

I looked in the paint booth. No Sharka.

I walked back toward the front doors, and then realized I was standing next to a car wearing NA8 Miata wheels. Then my eyes focused and I realized I’d walked past my own car TWICE without recognizing it.

Much crunchy.

Much crunchy.

This is a fender from the wrecked 97. I beat it back into shape and touched it up. It’s been on Sharka for the past couple years. Not easy to tell that it wasn’t original, even from up close.

I swapped it out because of how badly I mangled the original front fender trying to make my Star Sharks not rub. The mangled fender has not been seen on my blog for about 3 years. I never mentioned it… to anyone.

Yeah. I’m ashamed.

Getting de-mangled.

Getting de-mangled.

This fender is the worst on the car. They’ve just barely started work. It was also mangled by me.

I’ve never posted about this before. I’ve hidden my shame. The mangling can only be seen up close and from certain angles, but from those angles? Holy shit. Really really bad.

But it’ll all be fixed soon.

A non-bumpy trunk.

A non-bumpy trunk.

There’s been a few dings in the trunk lid since I bought the car. I didn’t realize there were this many. There was one high spot that always drove me nuts. Getting those gone is gonna be awesome.

Passenger side.

Passenger side.

Lower rocker.

Lower rocker.

This side is where most work has been done. About half a day by shop estimates. It looks quite nice in person.

I’m having 80% of the lower rock guard removed. I’m gonna follow the NB style and just have the wavy stuff under the door. I think that’ll look lovely. I plan to also protect the area right behind the front tire with some clear bra.

Rear lighting.

Rear lighting.

These little J-type fasteners replace the inner nut on the Garage Vary tail panel. That means no need to remove the panel to fix a burned out bulb in the future.

Why would I need to worry about that? Because this panel will never come off the car again. It’ll be bonded on.

More photos in a couple days!

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  • Brad says:

    Body work has always fascinated me. Takes a certain kind of perfectionist to do it right, so my hat is off to the guys and gals that fix our beloved cars.

    Thanks for sharing the progress!

  • Stoly says:

    I’m with Brad. I honestly don’t get it but am fascinated by how body work works. I have a hundred hours of head bobbing under my belt with Mark and Mark II and still couldn’t translate a single thing they said. Fun to watch Sharka transform!

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