Corolla Levin Repair, Paint and Tune - WITH VIDEO

Takumi Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 391

I leave here some pics of my project!

Next chapter: Repair and Paint

Some questions:

- what do you think I should do with the interior floor protection? Remove and reapply, just remove or just leave it? It seems to be in good condition and rust free... If remove and reapply, which type of materials are available and cost/benifit?

- welding points? yes or no? advantages and disadvantages? cost? where to do it? examples?

My goal is to use this car as much as i can in track days, although I'll be using it rather often over the weekends! That's why I don't know if I'll be needing much body strengthening in prejudice of comfort.
It's a long term project. I want to get about 160hp from my engine and then I think I'll stop, unless I win the lottery Puh

.

Say what you think that may suit me for my project and give some links or fotos.

Best regards

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:55 am Post subject:

Wow...nice going so far...I'd like to strip a hachi that far one day..

About the floor isolation, just leave it off. It saves weight.
Since the car is going to be a track car, you might as well weld the chassis. Most of the welding is done around the seams of the front suspension and around doors/windows. There are also some welding point on the floor, but I dont know where exactly.
Around the doors and windows you can drill holes through the outer layer of sheetmetal and make spotwelds to connect the layers of metal together. The suspension and floorboards are welded for short bits, about 2cm long welds, 2 cm apart from each other should be fine. Dont weld in the same spot too long to prevent any warping from the heat.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:57 am Post subject:

Looking good! Keep up the good work!

About floor isolation, don't put it back. Spot weld? Yes. Improves the rigity and strength!

Keep up the good work! Cheerleader

Takumi Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 391

The car is for both proposes, Track day (may 5 TD's per year) and weekend use.

But what about welding cost? I know I should do it, since I've disassembled my whole car, but is it expensive? I'm not doing it myself, NO WAY!

I need to know, precisely where to do it, with examples if possible, I have some, but they don't seem to be enough. I know it was made once with about 1200 welding points... I don't see myself getting into something like that.

Thank you very much!

Best regards

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:56 pm Post subject:

The spotwelds are easy to do yourself.. you only need a welder to do the seam welds around the front end of the car if you dont know how to weld.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:44 pm Post subject:

Apardal, welding only costs time and efford, so its all about either doing it yourself or finding a mate who can do it for you...

Really nice job you are doing there, wish I had been able to pull my RX7 appart it such short time:)

Interesting is that your numberplate looks like a dutch number plate for cars >25 years:)

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:45 pm Post subject:

Am i the only one, who is suprised that it isnt rusty behind the bumper, in the rear corners and in the bottom of the doors...? Confused

Takumi Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 207 Location: Luxembourg

In any case remove the inner insulation, I found rust in several places that looked very innocent with the insulation on....

You got a lot of work to do there, but that is the right way to do it, props!

Takumi Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 391

Some news from the body shop. I'm going to get the repair and paint job for about 1750€ I guess. This includes spot welding.

My question is related to what he told me he was going to do. His spot welding procedure is to drill a hole in the chassis where it is meant to reinforce and then fill it up with weld. He said that this way I would get better results. What do you think?

I'm still in need of more examples of spots that require reinforcement.

Petzk, you may be right about floor isolation, but I wouldn't like to ride my car on weekends and blowing my ears out with the noise... seeing the pics do you think I have that problem? Do you think there would be rust under the isolation? You guys blow my budget away... I guess that dry ice is the best way to pull it out... although I'm not sure if that's what I'm going to do!

Thank you
André Pardal

Best Regards

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 8:58 pm Post subject:

Hi apardal,

From what I have heard it is indeed so that you should drill a hold through the top layer of steel and fill it up to join the sides together strongly but I am not sure if you should drill a hole completely through. I am far from an expert but that would not seem smart to me for some reason.....

Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:59 am Post subject:

I dont think they drill holes in the front end around the suspension, there you just reinforce the welds by adding 2cm long welds in an alternating pattern. Only around windows and doors do you drill holes.

Takumi Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 391

That's right Ivan... in the front end around the suspension they seam weld, the rest is spot weld!

Thank You

Takumi Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 391

Well, after following some of your advises, I have some new pics:

Next step: sandblasting the rear axle, sway bars and some more stuff to get it painted.

Is it advisable to sand blast the driveshaft?

Best regards

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:35 pm Post subject:

Looking good apardal, love the icecubes:) So did it work as good as they say?

What do you mean sandblast the driveshaft? You mean the thing between your gearbox and rear axle? I wouldn't, I'm not sure how sandblasting and painting it will influence it but these things are balanced to keep vibrations down. Maybe after sandblasting and painting you should get it balanced again just in case.. Or just leave it alone, I painted my rear axle and nobody sees it anyways:)

Takumi Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 391

mux213, dry ice works perfectly, although a bit expensive... 20kg are 60€.

When i say sand blast the drive shaft, yes, it is between the gearbox and rear axle. When i was washing it, its paint started to come off and as it is dirty and rusty, sand blasting came to my thought. I guess the cleaner the better...

I doubt it is balanced dirty and rusty as it is, or that if I clean it, it will get unbalanced.

Best regards

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:27 pm Post subject:

Apardal,

I think you are right on the drive shaft thing, just being over carefull:)

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:29 pm Post subject:

So that's how you use the dry ice....I'm hammering my volvo's bitumen insulation with a hammer and screwdriver these days...it works but progress is SLOW..

Takumi Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 391

Ivan, it took me half an hour to pull it off!

Cheerleader

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:30 pm Post subject:

I'm too cheap too find and buy the dry ice...the trackdays are already consuming my entire budget this month..

Wataru Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Posts: 115 Location: Latvia

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:45 pm Post subject:

gt99,

if you take out the interiour of your car you are faced with alot of sound absorbing material stuck to the body work. If you freez this material its alot easier to remove then when in normal temparature.

So if you fill the car with dry ice and then hack away at this stuff, you have it out in no time.

Wataru Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Posts: 115 Location: Latvia

Mux213: Thank you, looks like we will need this.

Takumi Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 207 Location: Luxembourg

Wow, your doing things the big scale... at least that way you are progressing fast... I'd even say way to go!

Patrick

Takumi Joined: 21 Sep 2004 Posts: 407

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 6:34 pm Post subject:

Thats right Rikard, no need for dry ice here in Scotland Sad