Some pics of my 95 SLE (5/18 Update)

[nos4blood70]

Wow! Nice patch sir. You have me jealous. If I had these capabilities I'd drive the Bonneville until some sort of catastrophic mechanical failure lol

[Sirius]

What took you a couple hours would take me a month and still wouldn't look as good.

[95naSTA]

Thank you guys. I appreciate it.

I'm not a good welder by any stretch but thats nothing a grinder and patience can't fix.

[95naSTA]

This will probably be my last update for a while.

Last weekend I went over the passenger rocker repair again but with Zero Rust instead of POR 15. Somewhere down the line I decided it was better but forgot I still had some left over. I also ground down the rocker bottom and coated it. When I was working on the passenger side I noticed rust in the front passenger side wheel well high up and hidden behind the unibody rail, near the strut tower. It was pretty bad and should really be cut out but since I have no time or MIG, I cauterized it with Zero Rust. The driver's side has some rust but wasn't nearly as bad. I coated that and a section on the rear of the front wheel well.

I decided to seal all 500 rivets I poked through the fenders with left over panel bond. I sealed the screws I had in the bumper as rebar but decided to put on a few layers so its harder to twist in that problem area.

The headlights were looking pretty rough. It wouldn't look right to have the car painted with peeling headlights so I did a quick restoration with a DA then a Cerakote kit. I didn't go to crazy since I found out the MIG slag mark I left on the passenger side headlight went all the way through the lens. I tired to find another pair of Hella branded lenses which ended up being a can of worms. Apparently these are pre-facelift headlights (97-2000) with the inner lenses removed and a facelift (2001) corners grafted in. Bimmer forums clued me in when I asked. I had no idea. I just thought I got some funky euro facelift model with no angel eyes. So basically I'll need to find HID pre-facelift lenses and re-do the whole corner scenario or just re-use the lens shroud with new lenses. Either way they look better for now.





















The car is fully assembled sans windshield and font wheel wells. It's ready to hand off for some dent work, a new rear passenger side wheel well and paint. Hopefully the next post will be getting it sent off of that some time this fall/winter.

[nos4blood70]

How would you compare the zero rust to POR15? POR15 seems to be all about prep, but I've had it peel very frequently.

[95naSTA]

It's fairly similar. The guy who makes the Zero Rust stuff emphasizes putting it on in thin coats with a fine bristle brush. I'll do that on the first and then goober it on with a second coat. I usually put rust encapsulator paint over a 40/80 grit finished surface so it has a nice bite. I haven't had much of an issue with peeling with that method.

[Sirius]

Have you used something called RustMort? If so, how does it compare to Por15 or Zero Rust? Is it the same kind of stuff?

[95naSTA]

RustMort is a new one for me but looks similar. SEM seems to make other good products. I bought their high build primer based on reviews.

[95naSTA]

Welp, this is a big one.

It's off to address rust in the rear passenger wheel well I ran out of time for and finalize body/paint. The plan was to get it to the shop when they're slow, which just happened. I'm guesstimating 3-4 months or so till it's complete but I'm honestly not hot on the turnaround since I (theoretically) can't register it in California. I just didn't want moisture/humidity to get behind the paint/bodywork and ruin everything I did before I left. Either way, I'm excited to see it move forward.. or backward but forward.




Here are pics from 11 years ago, almost to the day, after I got it back from paint last.

[Sirius]

Cool. Can't wait to see the finished product. Going with the same color, I presume.

[95naSTA]

Yep, Black Onyx 202. The Yota/Lexus paint code. Whatever they did to make it pop white does it for me. It also hides dust which probably makes it the only black that can look clean for more than 10 mins.

[Sirius]

With 3 black vehicles currently in my garage, I can attest to the length of time they look clean. 10 minutes is generous.

[gweg_b]

I might look into Zero Rust as a solution for some of the rust issues on my rebuilds.

[95naSTA]

From what I remember the owner will actually call you and make sure you nail the application. Nice guy and wants to make sure you're happy with it.

[95naSTA]

Here's some progress from the shop. The plan is to tackle the roof into the rear quarters first to include rust repair on the right wheel well. So far all of that was blocked, dents fixed and primed to deter any bare metal from flashing. Once the rust repair is done, it'll get 2K primed and blocked again.











I wanted to repair the rust in the wheel well with OEM sheet metal. I found the outer wheel well years ago and I've been looking for the inner for just as long. I contacted every online GM parts site that hasn't removed it from their inventory but no luck. I even hit up Andrew on here but even if he did deal with pre-00 stuff, it would have rotted years ago. I just figured a yard here wouldn't let me go crazy with cutting.. but I was wrong. I found a '92 in a LKQ owned yard closer to the border and the rules on their site seemed like I should be able to cut the wheel well out. The only thing they don't allow (besides pics, whoops) is gas powered cutting torches. On Sunday I went to check out the car, get a verbal that using battery powered wiz wheels and sawz-alls was ok and a price. The car had basically zero rust, no problem going to town cutting and they estimated $150.

I had it cut out in about 2 hours. I tin snipped what I could first because I wasn't sure how long my two 20v batteries for the sawz-all were going to last. I could have used the 12v wiz wheel more but honestly in easy to access areas tin snips were faster. If I had another large capacity 20v battery, I probably would have been out of there at least a half hour earlier. Not big deal though. It went pretty well for a first go at something like this.

The best part.. They charged me $19.00... with a 30 day warranty! Lol. It was even the same person that quoted me $150.






On a side note. Here are some model year differences from my 95. Some, I've known but I found a few new ones. Keep in mind I'm not sure if some of these carried into '93 or if it's a '92 only thing.

Trunk support rails are round vs. box steel.


The hood spring is in the hood vs. on the radiator support.



A plaque with RPO codes? riveted into the radiator support.


The font door card has an extra storage cubby vs. 2 speakers. I'm not sure if this a trim thing though.


Regular fuses vs. mini fuses under the dash


I didn't get a close up but it's somewhat common (92-95) knowledge that the 92 headlights have a slightly different pattern and black (mascara) around the top, bottom and sides. All the mascara was gone.

92's also don't have the plastic shielding on the HVAC blower box that always disintegrates. The downside is they are always rusted.

[Sirius]

$19? Did you hand him a 20 and tell him to keep the change? LOL!

[95naSTA]

Haha. I actually overpaid by $3 because that's what the warranty I'll never use cost. I just silently collected my change to get the heck out of dodge before someone changed their mind.

[95naSTA]

Some northeast carnage pics..

I knew it was going to be rough on either side of the strut and the top because that was bleeding through the undercoat but this was slightly worse than I was expecting. Believe it or not but it wasn't as bad as the worse case scenario in my mind though.. Either way I'm happy help is on the way in the form of a rust free doner part.

[Sirius]

What a mess!

I think I’m going to propose a nation-wide ban on using salt or other corrosive chemicals on roads. I’m going to use the environmental angle add some leverage to the proposal – all that crap can’t be doing the environment any good, as I’m sure the worms and snails making the side of roadways home would agree. When it snows and the roads become slick, people can just work from home due to SNOVID. Those who have to be on site owing to the nature of their work will get a government stimulus check to pay for the AWD vehicle of their choice. Those who already have a loan for an AWD vehicle will get that loan paid off. All AWD owners will get a voucher for studded snow tires.

This should greatly increase the useable life span of vehicles around the country and reduce the number perfectly functional cars filling junk yards, another environmental bonus!

And while the printers at the mint are rolling, we might as well print off a couple trillion extra and take care of our neighbors to the north. Everyone knows water flows downhill so when their snow melts all that salty mess just comes right down into the US until it starts evaporating somewhere south of Missouri. Might as well nip that in the bud.

[dougtoth]

I agree with you on a salt & corrosive ban. (where are the green people when we need them)
The problem here where I live ( SE Wisconsin) is that there are so many bad,dumb,clueless stupid drivers.
I am so old that when I started driving in 1969 I had rear wheel drive and studded snow tires.
I have now driven for 52 years for a total of roughly 1.6 million miles and I still see something new or stupid everyday I drive.
I now know why driver less cars are going to happen.
If they stopped using salt or that magnesium chloride (read what that does to metal) there would be accidents all over.
Also the new car manufacturers would not be happy.
If cars last to long their sales of new cars would go down drastically.
Now that I am retired I just stay home when the weather is bad.