project: 2000 SSEi (light bronzemist v3) @ auction

[harofreak00]

Just a progress pic of the hood


Tires are showing up today, and rims tomorrow.

[harofreak00]

Tires are mounted on the new rims, and hood should be finished this weekend.

[harofreak00]

Hood is done. Only thing left is some polishing on the paint and headlights.

[97seagain]

How did you prep the hood for paint?

Anything special required since its aluminum?

And, did he have to blend in the tops of the fenders?

I'm considering having the hood on my SSEi repainted.

[harofreak00]

I didn't paint it, so I don't really know all the steps. I know he sanded it down to bare aluminum, sprayed on a sealer, primer, color and clear. The fenders were not blended in.

[harofreak00]

Finished pics: http://andrewsuderman.com/00ssei5.html



However, I don't think I'm finished. When I was moving the car from the shop to the house, there were no problems. When I backing the car out of the driveway to go take pictures, the tranny was slipping pretty bad. After I took pics, I took it out on the highway, and stopped several times. Everytime after that, it spun the tires no problem, and all shifts were fine. I'm gonna let it sit overnight and see what its like tomorrow after its cold. I have a feeling I'm gonna be putting a tranny in now as well. UGH!

[1oldman]

Really good look'n car. - BC

[laxmangl]

Man you can't catch a break with these transmissions.

[harofreak00]

Yup, tranny is junk. Weighing out my options.

[Bing]

Man that sucks, especially since you just had the motor out. Sorry to hear that I hope you can still have a good profit.

[MouSe]

The engine cover lies! Hahaha.

Sucks about the transmission being bad, considering he said he just had it re-done.

[jonnevilleSSEi]

Sorry to hear about the continued "discoveries" when done this car is going to be a pewter peach. If cars can be "happy" this one certainly is.

[97seagain]

How did you get the overflow jug so clean???

[harofreak00]

How did you get the overflow jug so clean???

A little Castrol Super Clean, and I found using a brush made for cleaning bottles works great. The handle is bendable, so you can curve it to reach all areas.



A little update on the transmission. I brought it to my local tranny guy for him to look at, which is 10 miles away. When I got there, it was performing perfectly. I told him how on a cold start, it barely wants to move. I also told him about how long it was sitting. He is pretty sure its just the seals drying up. He said to drop the pan, put in a new filter, and add a couple ounces of brake fluid to the tranny fluid. Then, put some good miles on it. This should give some new life to the seals, and hopefully fix the slipping while cold. I'm definately going to try it, the worst I could be out would be the $40 for fluid and filter. I don't doubt the tranny was rebuilt, it has new output shaft seals on it, and new TC.

[harofreak00]

I dropped the pan today. Filter and fluid looked good, no clutch materal or metal flake. I put in a new filter and added 2-3 ounces of brake fluid with the new trans fluid. I'm planning to put on a few hundred miles and see what happens.

[sleguy]

I love the before, during, and after pictures. Very impressive!

[Bing]

That's good to hear, I hope that this takes care of the tranny for you. It's always a good thing to hear that the fix is way easier than what you were expecting it to be.

[harofreak00]

Interesting turn of events on this one!

I got a call today from Shannon while I was on my way home from picking up another car (parter outer). She said, you need to come home right away, someone ran into your car. I'm like... ya right. She had to tell me like 3 times before I believed her. Even once she got through to me what was going on, I still couldn't believe it. I made it home about 10 minutes later, to see this:

The story is, the car was parked on the side of the road in front of the house. At about 4pm, an older gentleman (72yrs) was at the top of the hill at the stop sign, and somehow ran into my car on the way down the hill. He doesn't remember anything from the stop sign to hitting the car. Not sure if he blacked out, or what. His 06 white Rendezvous hit the rear driver quarter panel, pushing the car against the curb, causing the rear wheel bearing and brake rotor to snap in half. The impact also cocked the front wheels and caused the front driver control arm to snap. The sheriff estimated his speed at only 20-25mph. The sheriff said he will be having the man take some driving courses to make sure he is good to drive. No ticket issued.

I had them just move the car to the driveway since I will be parting it out anyways. Although its kind of a crappy situation considering this car was almost complete, its going to work out awesome for me. I'll get the insurance money for the car (guessing between $6-7k), I'll buy back the car, and sell the parts for another couple grand.

If you are wondering about the car on my dolly, stay tuned for another post.

[1oldman]

Man, that's a real shame!! Another really good lookin' B'ville bites the dust!! - BC

by the way, I am almost 72 so look out! - lol

[repinS]

WOW I was not expecting that! Glad to see nobody was too seriously hurt.