Fred's Backyard LE Restoration Options

[friethmiller]

Front Hood Restoration - Part 3 (7/3/2025):

Finally got out Thursday evening [before all the rain] to prep, and paint the underside of the front hood. Sprayed a light tack-coat, followed by two full wet coats of epoxy. Note: spilled about 12oz of paint on the ground (see last photo) when my disposable paint cup came apart. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) Luckily, I only got a little bit of paint splatter on the corner of the hood and across the bottom of air compressor.





Initial Body Work (7/6/2005)

With the hood in epoxy, I thought I'd go ahead and do a little bit of body work. I'll probably have to skim coat these panels later but I thought I'd at least get some of the low spots filled in before moving on to the engine lid.

...and as predicted, the "few low spots" turned into much more. This is evident in the photos, below.





Unfortunately, as I was getting the first coat of epoxy put down over the bodywork, a storm blew in. Luckily, I had enough time to clean everything up, put the hood in the shed, and get the cover back on the car. I was so rushed, I only took one photo before the rain started. Hopefully it all dries out here in Texas soon. Tragically we received too much rain this weekend (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[friethmiller]

Happy Fourth of July to everyone! God bless this great country of ours! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/flag.gif)

[bkrantz]

Yes indeed.

And sympathies to all the families affected by the floods.

[Puebloswatcop]

Looks great Fred. Yep, anytime you "do a little" body work, its never little. Its a good thing we love these cars. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[friethmiller]

More Hood Restoration - Part 1 (7/12 - 7/13/2025):

With new primer on-hand, I finally completed painting the front hood. I blasted, cleaned, and restored the hinge hardware, as well. The hood was then properly installed minus the springs.





Next, the engine cover with its support bar removed (for better access) was blasted in all the hard to reach areas. After that the remaining paint was removed and a quick coat of protective epoxy was apply to the underside. I then re-welded the support bar on but was rudely interrupted by rain storms [again]. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) FYI, I still need to grind the welds, slot the hinge holes and then prep and paint this piece.





Stay tuned, Part 2 will introduce the rear trunk lid and all its issues. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bootyshake.gif)

[Puebloswatcop]

Hey Fred, Any progress is good progress. The hood looks great. I agree, we can do with a little less rain.

[friethmiller]

More Hood Restoration - Part 1.5 (7/15/2025):

Since it rained again yesterday evening, I had to wait to paint (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)
So, I decided on some early morning primer action. This is 2 coats of black epoxy going down on clean steal. The first coat was very light using my new LVLP paint gun. Adjusted the air pressure a bit (up to 29psi) and then hammered on a 2nd heavy coat. I've been having good results using this technique with this primer. First pic shows the first, light coat. The rest are after the 2nd coat was applied.





I'm super impressed by this new $75 AeroPro R500 LVLP gun. It comes with 3 different tip sizes (1.3, 1.5, and 1.7). Think this might be my go-to gun for painting outside with this small[er] compressor. Another bonus is the reduction of overspray. I really liked that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

[Montreal914]

Taking notes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[friethmiller]

Rear Trunk Lid Restoration - Part 1 (7/1 - 7/15/2025)

Continuing on here... I had two trunks to choose from and neither was very good. I had the "red trunk" that came with the LE and the "orange trunk" that I extracted from a '74 parts car years ago. Both panels had significant rust-through at the back-end as well as the supporting structure on the underside. Even though the "orange trunk" had 4 holes that would need to be filled from the luggage rack, I decided to go with it since it had LESS overall rust damage. This was the best of two bad options.



So... here we go! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

Top Paint Removal

This hood had about 10 coats of paint on it. I started with paint remover but then quickly realized that mechanical stripping was much more effective. This process took a while to do with a razor blade but I was eventually able to switch to an orbital with 80-grit and then 120-grit. Once down to bare metal, I used RustBullet phosphorus treatment to etch and protect the metal for a while. Note: this is only temporary and the process will need to be done again later, as I begin paint prep.









Trunk Bottom & Support Structure Removal

There's a lot going on here. First, is the two broken bolts. These needed to be extracted however I was unable to remove either with heat and a pair of vice grips. I just couldn't effectively heat the captured nut from the top side. This task would need to wait until later. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) After stripping a lot of the paint, I decided to go ahead and remove the bottom part of the support structure. My plan was to deal with the rust below and hopefully get better access to the nuts on the backside.



To remove this support piece, I made 4 separate cuts and then ground down the bottom edge of the trunk skin (see arrows). You can see how rusted the underside of the skin piece was [that wraps around the substructure]. I will clean and reweld this metal back in place later.



With all that done, I could then remove the structure and examine the damage. Wow! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) As you can see the rust damage is pretty severe but with the foam removed, I now have access to the nuts! Last photo shows the main rusted area after an initial wire-wheel/rust treatment. This will likely need to be replaced. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sawzall-smiley.gif) Yikes!! Stay tuned for more coming soon. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Root_Werks]

Rust, that stuff hides everywhere!

[friethmiller]

Rear Trunk Lid Restoration - Part 2 (7/26 - 7/27/2025)

Rust treatment continues on the support piece. This stuff works pretty well. Just need a gel that will hold / strip off the rust. With access to the latch's backing plate, I can now remove from the support metal and attempt to remove the broken bolts. Last photo show my attempt to extract the bolts by welding nuts to the end. This worked to removed one of the bolts. The other took a bit more effort but I was finally able to remove it without damaging the threads. Note: I later chased the threads to clear out all the corrosion.





Sandblasting

Next up was a light glass blast of the edges and support structure. There was no use to even attempt to clean up the outlined area. This will need to be replaced.



Forming Metal

With a large piece of 20 gauge sheet metal, I was able to mark/cut out an oversized patch. In looking for something to help form the metal, I decided to use the rail of my old trailer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif) Note: this forming was done 100% by hand - no hammers. After getting it roughed in, I used the other trunk on the car to help form the piece a little more. This whole process took about an hour or so. I then went over to the metal shrinker in the garage and added a slight bend from left to right (shrinking it toward the middle of the trunk). By now the shape was beginning to kind of match the trunk. I then taped/clamped the patch in place and trimmed up some of the excess from the bottom.





Next, I used tape to create a template from the marked area in the trunk that I then transferred to the patch metal. With the tape in place I then trimmed the patch to roughly the correct size. Getting closer...





After this, I was ready to remove the existing bad metal from the trunk and then shape and weld-in the patch. The welding was pretty easy to do and it was very nice to be able stop, flip the trunk over, and pound out any low spots along the way. Again, more to come on this trunk restoration... stay tuned! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Cairo94507]

Man, Fred, that is absolutely an amazing level of work to save that trunk lid and have a rust-free lid. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[930cabman]

Once again, Fred hits a home run. thanks for documenting this repair, I have 2 trunk lids in need of the same process.

thanks again Fred (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[friethmiller]

Glad y’all enjoyed the pics. I’ll be posting Part 3 tomorrow.

[friethmiller]

Rear Trunk Lid Restoration - Part 3 (7/26 - 7/27/2025)

After getting the patch welded-in, I moved over to treating the trunk support structure with RustBullet. After 24 hours of dry-time, I then prep'd the latch backing plate by chasing the threads and grinding back the epoxy a bit for welding. I then sprayed these exposed areas with some weld-thru primer, clamped the parts, and welded everything together. The last picture here shows two things: 1) the extra, ugly snot welds I added to the plate, just in case and 2) all the drilled out rust spots. Instead of replacing this metal with patches, the plan here is to encapsulate the rust, and then cover these holes with fiberglass reinforced filler. As you will see later, I will use spray-in foam to help provide the necessary backing support for the entire operation.





Next, the four gigantic holes that somebody drilled through the trunk to hold down the aftermarket luggage rack had to be filled. Here, I've prep'd four small 20-gauge plugs and, with a magnet to hold them in place, welded them in one at a time. The third picture here shows why I cut the support structure out like I did. I knew I'd need access to the back of the all the holes. Final photo shows the patch areas completed. I'll hit this again with 120-grit to blend it all in later.







With these holes filled, I was almost ready to start the process of reassembly. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif) So, before welding in the support structure, I thought I'd take a pause and hammer and dolly the patch a bit. My thinking here was once everything was back together I wouldn't have access to the bottom side of the repair. In these pics you can see how I used a marker and a flexible sanding block to identify and bring up most of the "lows" present in the patch. Before going to paint (primer), I'll check the entire panel over and do any heat-shrinking that might be needed. The following photos show this process. Nothing is final here - just getting a start on flattening everything out. Next will be Part 4 where I'm reassembling the trunk components. Cheers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Root_Werks]

Plugging small holes like those sucks. Really small holes left behind by screws are easy and larger holes not too much harder. But cutting the small circles and welding them into place is no small task (pun intended). I had to do a few of them on my 914. I wound up grinding a lot.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[friethmiller]

Plugging small holes like those sucks. Really small holes left behind by screws are easy and larger holes not too much harder. But cutting the small circles and welding them into place is no small task (pun intended). I had to do a few of them on my 914. I wound up grinding a lot.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Yeah... For me the magnet is great for holding a small piece of metal but it causes what they call "arc blow" with the mig welder. It really messes with the weld the closer to the magnet you get. To mitigate this problem, I moved the magnet to one side, placed the plug in the middle of the hole, and then tacked once on the other side. With it held in place, I then removed the magnet and completed the rest of the welding. Pretty easy.

[friethmiller]

Rear Trunk Lid Restoration - Part 4 (7/26 - 7/27/2025)

Continuing on, I inserted the support structure, verified gaps and welded along all my previous cuts. Once the structure was in, I was then able to pound over the trunk skin on the side and weld the cut (shown in pic #2). The final picture here shows all the cuts welded and the structure in-place.





Finally with the support structure secured, I reconditioned the bottom edge metal that I had previously removed, painted everything with weld-thru on the underside, and began welding with clamps along the entire back edge of the trunk. Not an easy thing to do here given the wind conditions at the time. I had to block the welds with my hands/body during this entire process. Last picture shows the "rough" welded edge that resulted from the process.





From the pics below you can see I will need to make several more passes to get this edge complete and smooth. I will document this further in Part 5.





Bonus Pics of foam being shot into the latch area. With all the drilled-out rust holes it made for an interesting look. The excess here will be removed once it dries. Note the use of a long-wall socket (green arrow) to leave access for the latch mechanism. From the factory I believe the foam was originally drilled out. More coming soon in Part 5. Stay tuned.

[friethmiller]

Rear Trunk Lid Restoration - Part 5 (7/31 - 8/2/2025)

Since last weekend I've spent a fair bit of time wire-wheeling the bottom of this trunk. I was not trying to get every last bit of paint off here but I did want to make sure any subsurface rust was exposed so it could be properly treated. There's a lot of hard to reach area on this support structure and I employed several different types of tools to get to everything. The 2rd photo shows all the drilled-out rust holes that were filled later - after epoxy was applied.



After all the paint removal and sanding, I was finally able to prep and paint the bottom of the trunk on Thursday evening. Photos here show the cleaning, back-taping, and application of the 2K black epoxy. With clear weather forecasted, I decided to just leave the panel expose all night. Glad I did. Last photo shows the trunk the next morning. Not too bad.







On Friday evening, I was able to flip the panel over and hit the top side with 2 coats of epoxy. First two photos here are with the panel wet. Black certainly shows everything. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) 3rd photo shows the panel the next morning. I ended up placing a tarp over the paint and it messed up the paint a bit in a few places. Luckily this is just primer and will end up being sanded and filled.





On Saturday morning, I started by filling all the small holes with fiberglass filler - followed by regular body filler. There was a lot of hand sanding and small block sanding required here. Work was slow and hot but I was able to get through all the heat and humidity by drinking a good bit of water and Gaterade.

[friethmiller]

Rear Trunk Lid Restoration - Part 5.5 (8/2/2025)

Got interrupted by the near threat of rain in the mid-afternoon. Ended up getting the panel prep'd along with the trunk hinges a little later. The hinges were cleaned and etched after all the paint was removed. Photos show the process. Not too bad. Tomorrow I will install the trunk and do the initial body work to hide all my metal patch work on top. Enjoy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)