A broke college kid, and his broken rolla...

[EvoSolley]

Small Update,

With the cold temperatures and the rain, progress has been sorta slow on the corolla. It was warmer this weekend so I decided to finally paint the interior. I scuffed, cleaned, and vacuumed till my arms went numb. No matter how hard I tried, I could not completely get all of the dust and debris out of the car I eventually said good enough and proceeded on with painting. Their was some dirt and specks of dust that got caught in the paint but i think it turned out decent. I'm happy with the outcome, and have come to the realization that anything I do won't be up to my impossible standards lol

I am still debating if I am going to actually paint the interior with color or leave it like this. I plan on installing Dynamat, so I feel painting the floor with color will be an overkill and a waste of money but IDK. I will also be re applying seam sealer before it is all said and done. Any suggestions?

On to pics



This drivers side floor board section was time consuming. I cleaned up the rust in the drivers side floor pan as best I could. Then used a metal prep solution I had left over from an old por 15 kit. "Metal Prep" is supposed to remove any remaining rust and coat the area in a zinc phosphate coating for better adhesion. Once applied and dried, I scrubbed the area with wax and grease remove on a red scotch brite pad. I then wiped it down with a tack rag and another coat of wax and grease remover. I sprayed a duplicolor rattle can etch primer (green) just as a precaution. I let it dry, washed with wax and grease remove on a red scotch brite pad, dried, then sprayed the epoxy over it. Hopefully this will hold up and I will not run into any comparability issues. I will try the ole masking tape test when I get home. The panel was also warped and dented pretty bad from a previous accident I am guessing. I banged it out as best I could, before starting this process.










More updates to come.

[EvoSolley]

Well, its been a while and sadly, not many updates for you all. Its been so friggin cold here lately that it takes some HUGE determination and motivation to get out of warmth and fight the cold (I know I'm a baby, suck it up and get out there!) I did however make a lot of progress on repairing a major rust spot. If anyone is on the Facebook page, you have probably already seen the repair. But for those who haven't ill do a little update. I used the the bottom portion of my crappy RH side front fender to repair the bottom LH quarter panel section (the area right in front of the LH rear wheel). Hopefully this update will help anyone needing to fix that portion of their AE86, since it seems to be a pretty common place for rust. If you can get your hands on a crappy fender, this approach/fitment is worlds better than the "Wolf Steel" route. Again, this is only my opinion.









I did get a little warpage in the panel as you can probably see from the last picture. I should be able to bang it out without much problem and then go over it after with filler. I still have to weld the bottom of the patch but it looks a lot better than it did originally! The panel bond adhesive was used along where the clamps are, to create a solid water tight seal where the inner and outer panels meet. This stuff is STRONG. After sitting clamped overnight, I removed the clamps. In some areas where the adhesive was barely touching the clamps, the protective metal coating on the c clamps ripped off when they were removed! Anyways I have been slowly getting other things done on the car. Right now my current plan of attack is to finish the patch, strip the paint around the drivers door frame up to the door hinges, scuff up the hinge and inner fender area, spray with epoxy and then move onto the doors. After the doors, the trunk area and Right hand side of the car will be in full swing to strip and move on to epoxy. After that its filler time! and blocking, blocking, and more blocking..... Trying to get this done by the end of March, but that may be a bit of a long shot

More Updates to come!

[yellowsnow4free]

EvoSolley... wow, just wow.

I haven't browsed Club4AG for a while, and I am super impressed with your progress!

Great job with the welds, and awesome tip on using front fenders to repair the rear ones!

My car actually has some rust in those exact same areas, so I might be doing the same work down the line

Truly inspiring build! Sorry to hear about the windshield, but it seems like you've got a positive / learning outlook on the whole thing

Keep up the great work!!!

[JyuRoku]

Awesome! Please keep going, love seeing your slow but high-quality progress!

[aaronlee133]

Kudos and keep up the hard (yet great) work! -Aaron

[EvoSolley]

got a couple warm days over the weekend and got some work done to the patch! It is getting there, but I still need a bit of work to look perfect. Specifically I need to work on the body line and wheel well arch (gotta get them nice, straight, and smooth)

I started by grinding down the welds a bit more.


I then used fiberglass filler "kitty hair" over the welds to make sure I filled in any pin holes that might be in the welds.



Next was filler work. It looks like a thick coat of filler but most of it was sanded off to a nice thin layer. I'm trying to keep filler to a minimum but has to be used in some cases.


I worked the body line back by using a strip of tape and running a thin layer of filler over it. Removing the tape once the filler started to cure gave a nice crisp line. It was hard to see the body line on the arch when laying the tape down. Once I got it coated with some epoxy, i saw I missed it by just a bit


I sprayed a coat of epoxy primer to help me see my progress with sanding and to also seal the bare metal from the elements. The patch turned out pretty good, but you can see where I missed the body line a bit. No worries though, as I will be touching that part up soonish. Also, you can see a odd looking "crock" in the flow of the rear arch. Basically it is where the patch panel meets the quarter panel at the arch. I am assuming the front fender patch I used had a curvature that is slightly less than the quarter panel wheel well arch. A little bit of massaging and filler work should smooth it out nice, but for a free patch panel, I cannot complain!



The drivers side of the shell is all stripped and epoxy coated. Once I get the passenger side and roof stripped and coated in epoxy, I'll be going back through my work and filling in and touching up any problem areas. Then I will be spraying on some high build primer and getting into the block sanding process.... should be fun haha I also have the doors...not looking forward to those More updates to come...

[yellowsnow4free]

Looking good as always EvoSolley!

[EvoSolley]

Unfortunately, progress has slowed to a crawl, but at least something has gotten done With spring just around the corner and temps slowly climbing in my area, progress should really start to kick in. My initial goal of having the car done by the end of this month is probably not going to happen, so I have decided to move the "due date" to my birthday, June 8th!

I got the passenger side quarter all stripped and epoxied but still have a bunch of stuff to do before the whole car is epoxied. The rear side marker delete sanded out very nicely and I confirmed my suspicion of a replacement quarter panel being installed previously. When working on the cpillar I ran into bondo and the weld area. This area of the cpillar was warped pretty good, so I applied fiberglass filler to waterproof the weld and used filler to straighten everything out. Again the filler is not very thick but I did have to make up the difference of the warp. Once the car is completely epoxied, Ill be inspecting each area of the car once again for imperfections and straightness. Once everything is to my liking I will move onto High Build Primer and overall block sanding

Anyways on to the pics!






More updates to come...

[yellowsnow4free]

EvoSolley,

Your build thread is my favorite! The car is looking great!

So what's your background? I've just noticed the welding, paint, and bodywork you've been doing, and everything looks like it's coming out good!

I'm a novice at all of this stuff myself, but I feel I'm a pretty good DIY-er, so I was curious if you have any info / tips

[EvoSolley]

EvoSolley,

Your build thread is my favorite! The car is looking great!

So what's your background? I've just noticed the welding, paint, and bodywork you've been doing, and everything looks like it's coming out good!

I'm a novice at all of this stuff myself, but I feel I'm a pretty good DIY-er, so I was curious if you have any info / tips

Thanks for the kind words! As for my background in bodywork, I would say when I started on this project it was non-existent. I literally went from knowing nothing to what you see now, and I am still learning as I go. Bodywork and paint requires a bunch of searching, a decent amount of money if you don't have the supplies, and most importantly time and patience. I am far from an "expert" in the area, and I am sure more experienced people in the field would probably look and laugh at some of the work I have done, but never the less I am happy with the results so far. If you decide to tackle bodywork, make sure you are prepared for the time and supplies needed for something like this, as it does get kinda pricey at times. For example when I first started, I figured all I I needed to lay down paint was a paint gun and a compressor. Technically you could do that, but the proper way is to have an air cooling and water trap system set up in order to take the moisture out of the compressed air so it doesn't ruin your paint job.

Anyways, I could ramble on for ever about this stuff but when it comes down to it, I think anyone can do. I have always wanted to learn the bodywork and paint process, so it was a perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at it. Everyone I have talked to says the final result directly reflects the time and effort you put into it. So hopefully it will look awesome when its all said an done!

[EvoSolley]

Got to do some work on the corolla this past week/weekend. Got the roof, passenger rocker, and passenger door frame, stripped and coated. Also scuffed and epoxied the passenger under fender area. While I was at it, I worked on getting the drivers quarter panel a little more straight. I still have to work on the drivers patch panel area and fender lip area area though. As you can see, they both need to be straightened out more. Since it was such a nice day, I decided to push her out into the sun for a bit too!










Areas left to epoxy *on the body*:
- Windshield channel
- Rear window channel
- Trunk area (scuff and spray)

After that, I will move onto the doors, hood, and wheel wells/fender lip area. Then I'll go back through everything and spot fix problem areas before spraying high build primer and blocking. Slow progress but it is getting there!

[morgan]

getting close, I know the feeling at this point...nice weather, almost done, motivated...finish it up. looking good Brandon

[EvoSolley]

Well.... lets just say the past couple of days have been interesting. I got the rear windshield area stripped and primed but there was a bit of a setback. First a little story.... Monday night I was chugging along, grinding down some small rust areas around where the trunk sill sits. I was just about done and WHAM!! It felt like someone came along and punched me as hard as they could in the face. My face mask flew across the garage and I went straight to the floor, I tried to piece things together for a second, then noticed blood everywhere. I grabbed my face which was completely covered in blood. The angle grinder I was using was still on spinning around the garage. I unplugged it, then ran inside.

So what happened? I was using my angle grinder with a wire brush attachment on it removing rust. The wire brush caught an edge and flung the angle grinder out of my hands, under my face mask, and across my face. Got a nasty wound on my face and my inner upper lip got F'ed! Ended up going to the ER, got a tetanus shot, antibiotics, and pain killers (at least I didn't need stitches). Worst thing about the whole ordeal was that I had all the necessary safety gear on. Just goes to show that **** HAPPENS. At least now it is officially a project I put BLOOD, Sweat and Tears into hahaha. For everyone working on a project, BE CAREFUL!! Onto the pics





Next up is the Front windshield area! More to come...

[shagymc]

Holy **** man, I was admiring the body work and then bloody face! I cut my finger really bad a couple weeks ago with my jig and as you say **** happens. Keep up the solid work!

[grappletech]

This is so inspiring, I know nothing about body work, or the prep that goes into it. I'm sure your Saving soooo much by having the space and the know how.

Keep it up!

[Jeonsah]

Your car is coming out great. Are you going to block down the primer with like 600 grit before paint? That'll make it the paint come out really nice with enough surface to adhere to. Also, I feel your pain about the blood, sweat, and tears. I was workin on my other car trying to get off the exhaust manifold and I smack'd myself in the face with jack handle (as a cheater bar). Gave myself a black eye and got funny looks from people at work for a week haha.

[Grant]

Wow, I'm looking forward to the end result. I really admire the attention to detail.

What are you doing to keep track of which bolt goes where? Labeled bags? Pictures for reference?
I got a bit nervous of mixing things up just having the interior out, so I would be really paranoid about having parts left over if I stripped the entire shell.

[EvoSolley]

Your car is coming out great. Are you going to block down the primer with like 600 grit before paint? That'll make it the paint come out really nice with enough surface to adhere to. Also, I feel your pain about the blood, sweat, and tears. I was workin on my other car trying to get off the exhaust manifold and I smack'd myself in the face with jack handle (as a cheater bar). Gave myself a black eye and got funny looks from people at work for a week haha.

Ouch, that sucks but I know what you mean. The night after it happened I went to Kroger at around 3:00AM to fill my prescription. The guy working the counter turned around to face me and mumbled "OH ****......." before gaining his composure. In his defense it looked A LOT worse that night Pretty much, when people would stare or asked what happened, I would lean in, look around to see if anyone was listening then whisper, "Dont make my girlfriend angry....." Oh the reactions

Yup all of that will be take care of when the epoxy primer is all done, Hopefully the finished product will look as smooth as glass

Wow, I'm looking forward to the end result. I really admire the attention to detail.

What are you doing to keep track of which bolt goes where? Labeled bags? Pictures for reference?
I got a bit nervous of mixing things up just having the interior out, so I would be really paranoid about having parts left over if I stripped the entire shell.

Thanks a lot! I am still kinda dreading re-assembly, I imagine it will be "bitter-sweet" to say the least. For the most part, I bagged and labeled all of my screws, nuts, and bolts. However I know their are some I misplaced when I got ahead of myself. We will see how confused I get when I start re-assembly. I figure I will be able to reach out to the forums for help and view diagrams online if I get lost.

[EvoSolley]

**Update Time**

So my modified due date of my birthday was a bust. I'm a bit further along but no where near being done completely. Problems and setbacks just keep popping up . The latest of which is the rear passenger wheel well

My idea was to scrape off all of the current undercoating from the wheel wells (what a job) then reseal, paint, and apply raptor liner for additional protection. When I finally got up under there though, I noticed the seam sealer was slightly cracked all the way along the seam. Removing the sealer along the seam uncovered more rust . Years and years of moisture seeping into the crack eventually started rusting the seam. The "Proper" way to remove rust from a seam is to separate the panels and either replace with good panels or to cut and weld. Unfortunately this will not happen, I do not have the proper tools of knowledge to tackle a job like that. Maybe one day but not now. My course of action is to try and grind down as much rust as possible, sandblast as much as possible, then put a nice thick coat of epoxy over it, Ideally sealing the rust (IF any is left in the seam) from the elements. Seam sealer on top of that as well as raptor liner should provide additional water proof barriers as well. When sandblasting, if any holes rust rot/holes appear, I will cut them out and weld in pieces of good metal.


Repairing rust holes will involve this sort of process:

[EvoSolley]

I guess there is a limit on how many pictures we can post now or something haha I'll try and post the rest of the message here.

On a positive note though, I am just about done rolling the inside lip of the rear fenders:


I am also working on fabricating a rear speaker panel from scratch:


Last but certainly not least, I finally got a hold of a minty fresh rear bumper!! This is how I in vision delivery drivers from japan deliver their parts lol



Shout out to Steven (sc86 on the boards) for the awesome, minty fresh JDM rear kouki bumper! Now to source or fabricate some mounts for them since new ones are discontinued :




More updates to come in this never ending project haha. Its almost been a year since I started the bodywork!!!

[yellowsnow4free]

Looking good EvoSolley!

I know I've said this before, but this build is really inspiring, especially for a DIY-er like myself. I can't wait to see the finished product!

[EvoSolley]

Looking good EvoSolley!

I know I've said this before, but this build is really inspiring, especially for a DIY-er like myself. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Thanks man, me too! I want to get this thing DONE lol

Smallish Update

I have been able to pull together some free time to work on the car this past week. I'm still tackling the rear fender wells and hope to have paint on them by the end of this weekend. I also decided I wanted to attempt to "fabricate" my own rear bumper brackets. So far they have turned out pretty nice and I am happy with the results. I still have to make a mount that will attach to the brackets and bolt into the frame. I am very happy to see how much my welds have improved since I started. One thing is for sure though, welding thick metal together is a hell of a lot easier than thin sheet metal!











Granted I have an angle grinder and Mig welder on hand, i've only spent about $40 at home depot for the metal.

More updates to come!

[morgan]

Very nice! Brackets look good, and youre so right on the thick metal, so much easier.

[GTS_007]

looking good!

[EvoSolley]

**Update Time**

I have actually made some decent progress on the corolla over the past couple weeks. Although it probably won't seem like much from this post, a lot of little things that I dreaded attempting to fix has gotten done. The rear bumper brackets are about 95% finished as well. They turned out pretty decent and overall, I am pretty happy with them. I might eventually get OEM rear bumper brackets, but these home made ones should work for now.





^^ For that last picture I still have a lot of work to do on the drivers side tail light section an the whole taillight panel. Just keep in mind this is not finished yet haha.

Other progress includes a complicated (to me) patch panel fix:





The rear wheel wells are stripped for the most part. Some of the E-coat form the factory is still there, but I am not worried about it. Also, I couldn't get all of the original seam sealer out of some of the crevices. However once scuffed and cleaned, epoxy should lay on it just fine.



More Updates to come

[EvoSolley]

Real quick update since I have been slackin...

Other things have gotten done I just haven't uploaded the rest of the pics. Rear fender wells are epoxy primed and the front fender wells are totally stripped and should be in epoxy primer sometime this weekend. That leaves the Front windshield area and trunk to be epoxied. Then finally I can give the doors some much needed love. More updates to come soonish.

Drivers rear:



Passenger rear:



I know this update is pretty uneventful but progress is progress and posting helps keep me motivated (which I need plenty of haha)

[Clouds]

I know this update is pretty uneventful but progress is progress and posting helps keep me motivated (which I need plenty of haha)

Hey, updates are updates. Can't complain about progress, man.

[Grant]

Nice progress! That wheel well looks just as clean as the body now.
What are you planning on doing about undercoating?

[EvoSolley]

Nice progress! That wheel well looks just as clean as the body now.
What are you planning on doing about undercoating?

Good question haha. My plan is to maybe do another coat of epoxy primer then use 3m heavy bodied seam sealer on all seams. Let it dry and then use a 2k sealer paint coat followed by U-POL Raptor liner. It's a sort of truck bed liner. I'm hoping to coat all wheel wells, the inside of the front fenders as well as the section from the pinch welds to the rocker body line. The area the side skirts cover. That's the plan atleast.

[EvoSolley]

Small update

No excuses, I just suck

Progress has been extremely slow over the summer. The main reason seems to be lack of motivation. I missed my deadline again and after that, motivation fell through the floor. Taking a car down to bare metal and slowly building it back up is friggin job for one guy, especially one who hasn't done anything like this before. I now see why some builds take so long to finish, work and adult life take precedence over fun projects like this, most of the time.

However, I am pushing myself to get this thing done!! Its been way to long! I see pictures of so many flawless corolla builds and find myself wishing I had one. BUT I DO, I JUST HAVE TO FINISH MINE!

Anyways, with all that out of the way, time to post some updated pics. I got quite a bit done this weekend. Trunk area is about 90% finished, front fender wells are coated in epoxy as well as the window area. All areas on the body have at least been coated in epoxy primer. Next up are the doors and hood. I really want to try and get at least one door stripped this weekend if not two. We will see how that goes.

Por-15'd the trunk because I had a can I ordered and never used. I had been tossing around the idea of using it in the trunk, since it helps prevent rust and should contain rust that is already present (if any). It also should create a strong waterproof layer which is ideal for the trunk. Remember, this area will also be covered with a liner, so the por job will be out of sight. I love that por can be brushed on and the strokes smooth out. I did however run into a problem with my can. I got the por in a matte black finish, which goes on glossy but dries to a nice flat black look. The first coat turned out flawless, but the second coat turned out looking like crap. it was very blotchy, with areas of gloss and flat all over. I don't know what I did different but the result was less than ideal. It dried on and cured strong, but the looks is awful. I will eventually scuff it up and either apply a coat of raptor liner or another coat of glossy por in the future. For now though, you all only get to see the pictures of it fully glossy and wet haha.

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Epoxied Front fenders and windshield area:
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Trying to form a body line can be a PAIN!
Some of you all may recall the repair where a rusty part of the quarter was fixed with a bottom portion of the front passenger fender. This repair is proving to be very hard to make look "Right". IT is close but the curvature of that piece in comparison to the quarter panel wheel arch curve is a tad bit off. this results in a non-uniform curve that I am trying to fix with the smallest amount of filler possible. Its proving to be a very frustrating area of the car. Replicating the body line that flows along the arch curve is very hard to get right. I jimmy-rigged a tool that helped me get straight line to follow, when trying to replicate the body line. this approached helped but the area still needs work
Before:






After sanding:


Ehhhh..... it looks a bit better, but definitely needs some more work.

More updates to come......HOPEFULLY SOON!! haha