Startin to work on the Clone Runner (it's PAINTED!)

[71Beeper]

More progress today.
I got the rear end out and installed the dolly wheels.

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It's funny how the sand & glass bead still keeps coming out of her......

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[71Beeper]

Yesterday, I started on the front suspension. the torsion bars came out easier than I thought.

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Having the proper tool certainly helped.

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Then, the 4 bolts holding the front K-member were next. I had to use the big bertha to crack them free.

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The result.......it's out!

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[71Beeper]

Now I know where some of the glass bead ended up........

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[71Beeper]

More glass bead.......

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[71Beeper]

So......since the end of March I've been on the hunt for a reputable body and paint shop.
I finally found one.
A friend of a friend had his Nova painted there. Here's a picture of it in the spray booth.

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So I contacted this friend and had him bring the body guy to my house to look at the Runner.
He came and said yes he will do it - we agreed on a price and on Aug 26th the journey began.
Here it is getting ready to load up on a trailer.

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I used a small trailer that I have for my wife's Mini Cooper.

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With the car being on dolly wheels, there was no issues getting it on the trailer.
Plus it is lighter than the Mini at this stage, so trailering it to the body shop was no issue.

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Here's the full AMD quarters, outer wheel housings and trunk extensions plus rear valance and going to the body shop.

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[71Beeper]

I had taken the doors down to the shop separately as they would not fit in the Caravan with all the other pieces in it.
The shop started on the doors.

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So in the meantime I have to get started on the hood.
The underside needs blasting & the hole for the air grabber needs doing.
So,,, lets get started on the air grabber hole.

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Put on some masking tape.

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Carefully lay out the locations for the fasteners.

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[71Beeper]

Hopefully all of my hole locations are correct.
Next fire up the hole saw cutter.

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Then cut out the center.

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Drill the mounting holes and that part of the job is done.
Next, it's time to clean up the underside. First I took some pictures of some factory markings that were still there.

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Here's the underside before blasting.

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[71Beeper]

Time to blast.
BTW I did the blasting outside of my garage with the hood up against the big garage door.
I placed a 6mil vapour barrier plastic sheet between the door and hood.

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I only did half the underside on that day as I didn't realize how long it actually took.
Then sprayed some primer.

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[71Beeper]

Some more progress from the body shop.....
The old quarters are gone, time for the new AMD ones to go on.

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And here's a shot of the AMD door hinges in place.

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[71440 gtx]

wow

[71Beeper]

Hi Kevin - I wondered when you were gonna chime in.
Anyway - more progress pics.
Here's the passenger side quarter being fit checked.

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I'm going to be heading to the body shop on Nov. 11th to see the progress in person.
I haven't seen it since I dropped it off back at the end of August.

[71Beeper]

What??? no pics?
Here's the pics.

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[71Beeper]

Happy New Year Road Runner members!

So while my Runner is off at the body shop it's time to do some prepping of other parts.
Time to do the headlight buckets.
I didn't want to sandblast them - I decided to buy some Evapor-rust.

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And a container to put it in.

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Fill up the container and let it sit for a week or so.

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[71Beeper]

So the stuff is working pretty good!

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Use a little scrub brush to help it along.

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I took the assembly apart to make sure it gets all stripped.

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I'll let it soak for another week.

[71Beeper]

While waiting for the Evaporust to do it's thing I'll get started on cleaning up the rear end housing.
I had painted the rear end housing in the car some years ago. I used something similar to Rust bullet.
If you look back to page one here you will see the fresh paint on it.
Even tho I wrapped it with plastic while blasting the underside of the car it still managed to get under the plastic and onto the housing.

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So with a coarse scotchbrite pad it cleaned up pretty good.

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So the next step is to prep it for a coat of satin black.