Reviving another Metro

[mwebb]

Originally Posted by bgd73

. The egr..if legal where you live, block it off and conform vacuum valves and carb to not having it...hypermiling begins there,

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i must disagree with this -

so please educate me , and explain to myself just how and why you believe this to be true .

[Johnny Mullet]

Another long night staying after work.

We had all the grinding done and then the metal was welded in place............



My friend at work is pretty handy with body work and he agreed to help out with my Metro restoration. We worked late into the night............



After grinding, Duraglass was used, and then shaped and sanded. After the duraglass, regular body filler was used to fill in the small imperfections................



Then both sides of the rocker panels got sheet metal welded in place and then a coat of duraglass.........



We called it a night and then the next night we finished the major patching and repairing. While he was doing that, I had to do something with the rear bumper. The rear mounts were totally rusted off and there were long lagbolts used to hold the bumper on. You can see those bolts on this pic from when I first got it.........



I removed the actual bumper from the skin and bolted it to the body by drilling holes and using bolts to secure it and then I used 90 degree brackets on the top and bottom to give it more strength............



The skin was then installed after the body work and paint. The body was prepped and cleaned and then a coat of primer..............



After the primer was sanded with fine grit, the panels were cleaned again and then painted with a rattle can mixed with the matching factory paint from a local paint shop..........



Here is the outcome from the paint................



I brought it home and was informed to return on our day off Monday for buffing and blending. I will be sure to post the final results when it's all done and ready to deliver to the Mr's

[Christ]

Double post?

[Johnny Mullet]

No, I edited the first and put the newest up to show on the top of page 3. I am weird like that

[Wonderboy]

This is fantastic work. A lot of this engine stuff doesn't come so intuitively to me, so I'm hesitant to start restoring my XFi project. There are plenty of engine rebuild kits out there, but I'm not sure I need to drop the money to get every single thing... I don't know the names of every single engine internal, but I'm not afraid to tear something apart and put it back together. Do you have any advice on going about taking my engine apart and diagnosing what should be replaced? I don't think it has any major problems running, I just needed to pull the engine anyway to work on the control arm mounts. Seemed like a good time to take a peek inside while it's out of there. I did try starting it, but it didn't work because I had removed the cam and put it back in totally wrong. (big puffs of air were blowing into the intake instead of the exhaust)... and it had year old gas in it.

Again, extraordinary work. You certainly are crafty, and speedy with your progress. Thanks a million for posting this - very useful.

[Johnny Mullet]

Here is a nice pic of the rocker panel all fixed up. I should have got a before picture............



The rear bumper skin was remounted on the car and secured so it fits correctly.........



Here is a general shot of the car, but it is not done. My friend at work has to blend it with the buffer and remove any overspray from the paint..............



This car is almost done and we will be taking it on a 10 hour drive to Rhode Island on our vacation real soon.

[Johnny Mullet]

After a lot of hard work and time spent on this car in the last 2 weeks, It's finally done. I officially delivered to the wife and she is happy as ever. She actually has a nicer looking Metro than me. Here it is after buffing, glazing, and waxing the car..............

[MetroMPG]

Congrats on a job well done, Johnny.

Looking at that last pic... did you manage to find a set of OEM alloy Geo rims for your red car?? Or are those wheel covers?

[Wonderboy]

Nice work... you doing these cars is like Darin entering into a fuel economy run. It's just not fair. You make it look easy. Pros I tell you.

[Johnny Mullet]

OEM hubcaps on Christine and the other ones came from Kmart.