I have been keeping track of this project since I started it last Saturday, figured you guys might get some entertainment out of it too 8)
I got this 2003 Bonneville SSEi back from my ex wife last Friday, she has been driving it since we split up last August and as we can all see, she has NOT been taking care of it at all! 220,000 miles on this by the way.
Saturday, 9-17-2011
It is pretty NASTY! Dents, scratches, tree sap EVERYWHERE, food and garbage all over the place. It is going to take a lot of work to get it back to my standards, but it will get there.
Sunday 9-18-2011
To start off, this is how it looked this morning after the work we did yesterday - wash, clean wheels and tires, tree sap removal over the entire car, and good interior cleaning.
Nasty scratch
Mangled up fender
Scratch and nasty dent
continued scratch
Interior after cleaned up and vacuumed.
NASTY engine, haven't touched it yet though
SO... that was where we started at this morning.
However, the interior wasn't quite as good as we wanted, and I also wanted to tackle the drivers side seat heater that hasn't worked since I originally bought the car.
Close your eyes and hide your children :shock:
Heather did an amazing job cleaning the carpet up! (not done here, just starting)
Aso having issues with the drivers door not working with any of the switches and buttons, heard of a tan / white wire that likes to corrode at a connector under the drivers seat, figured I would look for that first.
I didn't get any more pics of it, but it looked really clean, but I removed the cheap splice and soldered all four wires together and completed with shrink wrap for a good tight seal.
Found something interesting for the seat heaters though!
All soldered back together and ready for shrink wrap
Even under the carpets was just disgusting! Vacuumed that all up.
Cleaned up the rust and painted it with some Rust-Oleum spray paint I had laying around. Not perfect, but much better then leaving the rust alone.
Now, while waiting for the carpet to dry, I took the drivers side door panel off to check the drivers door module (no issues found with it) and also the blower control module (also no issues found). After that was all done I had an idea of what to do with the headlights. I wanted to originally clear them, but couldn't find the silverstar bulbs, so I came up with another plan.
Little preview of the first try
Wasn't quite happy yet so I went a little further, here is a finished light
Original
Modded (before I went darker with the reflector though)
All done (headlights), hope you guys like it!
Blinker on, still plenty bright
Running light, a little dim, but will be plenty good at night
Still have to polish it all up yet as well as do some more touch up paint, but it will get there! Interior should be all together tomorrow as well.
Tuesday 9-20-2011
Work so far today
Carpet back in
Center console in
All done now!
The drivers side seat heater still doesn't work, but if I wiggle the wires it will stay on for about five or six seconds instead of shutting off instantly. More work to do on that yet, it will come soon! Worked on the nasty scratch on the passenger side a little today, still have a bunch more work to do yet, but it will get there.
Before
After
Saturday 9-24-2011
So, time for another update 🙂
Started off today taking a break from the electrical nightmare of things not working then randomly seeming fine for no reason (blower motor) and decided to try to work on the paint some. I started off with some polishing, then decided to try my hand at some wet sanding. I have wet sanded headlights and tinted tail lights before, but there really isn't much risk there... mess up and just re-tint them, but I have never touched paint on a car before.
Took a few pics of current condition of the paint
This is after some polishing. Now don't freak out here, it looks like crap because it has only been compounded at this point which is a very aggressive cut polish. This step MUST be followed by a medium cut then a fine cut polish to look right.
Here is the familiar nasty scratch on the front door. This is after polishing with the compound and the medium cut.
Front door again after polishing, not fine cut yet.
Back to the scratch on the front door. I filled most of the nastiness in with touch up paint then let it dry and wet sanded it down level.
Compounded, not medium or light cut polish yet. Where did the scratch go???
This is the back door, the scratch is been filled in with a touch up pen, but as we all know when you use touch up paint it leaves nice little raised spots above the rest of the paint.
I decided I didn't want ANY more orange peel... wetsanded the entire top of the door.
Close up of the paint, rock chip in there that needs some work and you can see the scratch a little on the bottom yet.
Half the door compounded
Door completely compounded and medium cut polish done, still no fine cut or wax.
I got this 2003 Bonneville SSEi back from my ex wife last Friday, she has been driving it since we split up last August and as we can all see, she has NOT been taking care of it at all! 220,000 miles on this by the way.
Saturday, 9-17-2011
It is pretty NASTY! Dents, scratches, tree sap EVERYWHERE, food and garbage all over the place. It is going to take a lot of work to get it back to my standards, but it will get there.
Sunday 9-18-2011
To start off, this is how it looked this morning after the work we did yesterday - wash, clean wheels and tires, tree sap removal over the entire car, and good interior cleaning.
Nasty scratch
Mangled up fender
Scratch and nasty dent
continued scratch
Interior after cleaned up and vacuumed.
NASTY engine, haven't touched it yet though
SO... that was where we started at this morning.
However, the interior wasn't quite as good as we wanted, and I also wanted to tackle the drivers side seat heater that hasn't worked since I originally bought the car.
Close your eyes and hide your children :shock:
Heather did an amazing job cleaning the carpet up! (not done here, just starting)
Aso having issues with the drivers door not working with any of the switches and buttons, heard of a tan / white wire that likes to corrode at a connector under the drivers seat, figured I would look for that first.
I didn't get any more pics of it, but it looked really clean, but I removed the cheap splice and soldered all four wires together and completed with shrink wrap for a good tight seal.
Found something interesting for the seat heaters though!
All soldered back together and ready for shrink wrap
Even under the carpets was just disgusting! Vacuumed that all up.
Cleaned up the rust and painted it with some Rust-Oleum spray paint I had laying around. Not perfect, but much better then leaving the rust alone.
Now, while waiting for the carpet to dry, I took the drivers side door panel off to check the drivers door module (no issues found with it) and also the blower control module (also no issues found). After that was all done I had an idea of what to do with the headlights. I wanted to originally clear them, but couldn't find the silverstar bulbs, so I came up with another plan.
Little preview of the first try
Wasn't quite happy yet so I went a little further, here is a finished light
Original
Modded (before I went darker with the reflector though)
All done (headlights), hope you guys like it!
Blinker on, still plenty bright
Running light, a little dim, but will be plenty good at night
Still have to polish it all up yet as well as do some more touch up paint, but it will get there! Interior should be all together tomorrow as well.
Tuesday 9-20-2011
Work so far today
Carpet back in
Center console in
All done now!
The drivers side seat heater still doesn't work, but if I wiggle the wires it will stay on for about five or six seconds instead of shutting off instantly. More work to do on that yet, it will come soon! Worked on the nasty scratch on the passenger side a little today, still have a bunch more work to do yet, but it will get there.
Before
After
Saturday 9-24-2011
So, time for another update 🙂
Started off today taking a break from the electrical nightmare of things not working then randomly seeming fine for no reason (blower motor) and decided to try to work on the paint some. I started off with some polishing, then decided to try my hand at some wet sanding. I have wet sanded headlights and tinted tail lights before, but there really isn't much risk there... mess up and just re-tint them, but I have never touched paint on a car before.
Took a few pics of current condition of the paint
This is after some polishing. Now don't freak out here, it looks like crap because it has only been compounded at this point which is a very aggressive cut polish. This step MUST be followed by a medium cut then a fine cut polish to look right.
Here is the familiar nasty scratch on the front door. This is after polishing with the compound and the medium cut.
Front door again after polishing, not fine cut yet.
Back to the scratch on the front door. I filled most of the nastiness in with touch up paint then let it dry and wet sanded it down level.
Compounded, not medium or light cut polish yet. Where did the scratch go???
This is the back door, the scratch is been filled in with a touch up pen, but as we all know when you use touch up paint it leaves nice little raised spots above the rest of the paint.
I decided I didn't want ANY more orange peel... wetsanded the entire top of the door.
Close up of the paint, rock chip in there that needs some work and you can see the scratch a little on the bottom yet.
Half the door compounded
Door completely compounded and medium cut polish done, still no fine cut or wax.
