Geo Metro XFI Convertible Project Finished

[Coyote X]

yep it is a new top. I bet I could crawl under the car without touching it right now

I was going to cut the springs tonight but I figure being higher in the air makes the sides easy to paint. If the weather works out it is getting painted tomorrow

[TheDon]

nice wheel covers

[Warhawk626]

Great job, I can't wait see your FE stats. Be careful in that thing on the highway though, a good crosswind is scary enough in my 2800 pounder.

[Coyote X]

[Tango Charlie]

Woo Hoo! It's BLUE!
I like it! Coyote X, You da man!

[zjrog]

I would advise against cutting springs. They will either become very stiff or will sag beyond what you want for a ride height quickly. There are coilover conversions for struts that let you adjust your ride height. But they are a bit more expensive than just cutting existing springs.

Like that shade of blue...

[Coyote X]

Just went out and checked the car and pulled the tape off the seams and the blue is setting up nicely. The metal flake is starting to show up. If you want to see the exact color just look at a bag of snyders potato chips and imagine that blue with metal flake

I would love to find some stiffer springs than the ones i have on it but I put the stiffest ones I had that were off a 97 metro. I figure cutting them down will make them stiffer so it might actually handle like a real car this time instead of feeling like a go-kart with the car sitting on the bump stops all the time like the old xfi was. But then again I like a nice feel and would rather have a stiff ride that has just a small amount of oversteer than pretty much all the mushy feeling understeering stuff that is factory on most cars. And anyone thinking of cutting their springs, don't use a torch to cut them it will make them sag over time from the heat damage. Use a chop saw or cut off wheel and be careful of putting a lot of heat into the spring. I always keep touching the spring about a half coil away and if it gets to hot to touch then quit for a few minutes and let it cool down. They will work great that way and don't sag from heat damage.

The rear would be trivial to convert to standard coil over springs the way it is set up now but I didn't know someone made a coil over conversion for a strut front suspension I would probably get it if it would fit the car and let me go to to a stiffer spring than the factory ones. I will have to search around and see what all is made.

[Coyote X]

looks like I got stiffed on the side skirts I have been waiting on. This is the auction I won and I never received them so I looked at his other auctions and found this one.

So I guess it is going to take me a while longer to get the car ready since I have to do something to cover the missing rocker panels now.

But I will go ahead and file all the complaints and everything I can against that guy but it isn't like ebay cares much about people doing this crap.

[zjrog]

OK... I know most folks just pull out the blue flame wrench to cut springs. Still going to be stiff though. I looked last night for the coilover conversions and can't find what I was looking for. But you could do a universal air ride kit for struts from http://www.suicidedoors.com...

[Coyote X]

It is really hard to get pictures of it now. I will try and put it in a nice grass area tomorrow right before dark and get some pictures.

I have one problem I am not sure what to do with now though. Since I don't have side skirts and haven't seen any others for sale right now I have to do something with the rocker panels to make them look good. So my options are to bondo the crap out of it, weld some panels on the bottom, or use urethane foam squirt cans and sculpt my own side skirts then put a layer of fiberglass on them and paint them. Pretty much anything except finding something to bolt in is going to require a bit of painting but nothing major since I have a half a gallon of paint left I could do the entire car again if I had to

I could probably spray a bunch of foam on the side of the car tomorrow and let it set up for 24 hours then sand it to the right shape and throw a layer of fiberglass on it before hitting it with filler to smooth it out. Take me a couple of days and there is no way I would get it even from one side to the other but it would have something on the bottom that would not rust

If I tried patching it I could either weld in new metal or just glue some plastic over the existing mess. it would not be perfect but would take a few hours at most and be good enough to get me through the car shows coming up in July. I am thinking if I cant figure anything else out tomorrow I am going to try the foam thing first and see how it does. Worst case is it just wastes a day. But if it works I can make something that will actually work better than the swift parts and keep the rockers from ever rusting again.