General: 70: rebuild, light at the end of the tunnel

[gavT5]

just finished the paintjob on my v70t5, i took her off the road some while back and left her at work to do a full body resto. my car was a pocket money s*itebox and to be fair drove nice, good power etc but the bodywork was cained. accident damage, rust (yes a volvo can rust lol) and 13years of abuse. ive been playing around at work with tricks in the paint, tinting laquer and stuff but cant really play aroud too much on customers cars lol. heres some pics of the before, repair, prep and paint.........







then i started the car, each yellow "x" is a dent lol





repaired (30 hours work later)





epoxying,priming and prepping






painting volvo 421 with a pearl twist and tinted clearcoat










adding the pearl tvr laquer







now ill be putting her back together and fittin my new tuning parts, 19t, wi, rods, ths fmic, bosst controller, green giant 465cc, walbro 255 and remapped.

its taken 4 months of lunchbreaks, evenings and weekends but its now mint and arrow straight and will be corrosion protected for a very long time, thgose of you mid project, stay at it, although it seems you'll never get there, dont give up and you will!!!

Gav

[the skinner]

so just a question how much would that cost for a respray
by the way u have done a great job in it

[gavT5]

luckily enough as my guvnor is understanding i only had to pay for paint and materials as i did it all myself which is why it took so long, im too much of perfectionist lol. as i get paint and mats at cost, total was 400quid. ive used top grade glasurit epoxy, two pack primer, pearl base and tvr pearl laquer. if id put it through my bodyshop as customer paying cash it woulve cost approx £5000. £1k mats and £4k labour. i put over 80hrs in her normally £50 ph

[stevo48]

Nice job, she really looks the business, get some pics up when you get her finished.

[SIAMBLUE]

Wow Gav, she looks truely amazing, i know you are a perfectionist and it shows as well.

Gary.

[christheancient]

Wow!

What a difference. I remember when you first made the posting of the 'before' and (quietly) thought... 'No way, Pedro'. But you've proved me well wrong.

I look forward to seeing the final job.

[Geezer]

OMG....that looks so gorgeous. I love that colour.

All the work and effort that has gone into the car is clear to see in the fantastic results that you have achieved.

Seeing your pic's makes me a tad jealous, as I have a car covered in parking and rugby ball dents, swirls, scratches and the clear coat lifting on the bonnet.

I want to get my car looking pristine again, and so, not knowing much about car painting and preparation, I was wondering if you could answer a few questions that I have?

Once you had identified all the dents on the body, did you panel beat them out with a hammer and dolly and then apply filler, or just fill and sand back?

Is the epoxy a binding agent and filler/primer?

What exactly is the “pearl twist”, the “tinted clear coat” and “the pearl tvr laquer”?

What is a “mat”?

Sorry for all the questions, but I find all of this a tad confusing and slightly mind boggling.

Anyway, keep up the great work and I will be very keen to see the next batch of pic's of your progress.

[martybelfastt5]

great work that is such a nice colour when fresh,,,,,

[gavT5]

Originally Posted by Geezer

OMG....that looks so gorgeous. I love that colour.

All the work and effort that has gone into the car is clear to see in the fantastic results that you have achieved.

Seeing your pic's makes me a tad jealous, as I have a car covered in parking and rugby ball dents, swirls, scratches and the clear coat lifting on the bonnet.

I want to get my car looking pristine again, and so, not knowing much about car painting and preparation, I was wondering if you could answer a few questions that I have?

Once you had identified all the dents on the body, did you panel beat them out with a hammer and dolly and then apply filler, or just fill and sand back?

Is the epoxy a binding agent and filler/primer?

What exactly is the “pearl twist”, the “tinted clear coat” and “the pearl tvr laquer”?

What is a “mat”?

Sorry for all the questions, but I find all of this a tad confusing and slightly mind boggling.

Anyway, keep up the great work and I will be very keen to see the next batch of pic's of your progress.

hey mate, as many of the dents that i could get to the back of were dressed out with panel hammer and dolly, some others you make bare metal at the lowest point of the dent then use a sort of spear on a welder to spot weld it to the car and then pull it out, if the metal has high spots either side of gouge type creases u need to used a metal file surform to file off the high spots. on v70 front wings there are bulges from the pressing of the original panel and i got rid of these also. sure you can "lob up" dents with filler but in 5 years time it wont looks so gud. also noted is that the front doors have a natural bow in them, volvos arent arrow straight anyway but im fussy so skimmed up little bits here and there to get the car as straight as im physically capable of. bumpers and skirts were cracked on my car so were laminated up with fibreglass sheeting on the back and filled over the top. the trick with all panel beating is to block everything, just sandpaper in the hand is a big no no.

epoxy is a non build etch primer. ie has not enough body in it to do the final shaping with. my job at work is classic car restoration so on a old e-type or similar, there will be huge propensity for the car to rust. epoxy is applied as a "wet on wet" primer in that you lay a coat on the area you want rustproofed (typically areas that get stonechipped) and before it dries totally you go over the top with your high build two pack sanding primer

volvo 421 dark olive is a two stage pearl. when you put down the base coat, it has a pearl tinter in it naturally. for a different look, my car has a pearl base as normal, a fine laquer mist sprayed over the top from a tvr tamora (twinkly laquer if you like) then the gloss final clear coat can be tinted. i added mercedes 197 obsidian black into my laquer at 4:1 so the laquer has a smokey navy tint rather that being just clear. makes a subtle twist on a already nice colour. it will stand out in a crowd at shows etc.

mats is just short for materials lol as in - paint and mats - paint and materials

regards gav

[gavT5]

these were the custom lights i have made for my car. the headlight glass and indicators looked "too white" for my taste but i dont like any of the aftermarket parts i have seen to date. the rear lights also werent to my taste so set about making my own. you start by using a water based degreaser and a trizact pad ( a 3000 grade polishing disc/pad) and lightly rub this over the surface to give a key up.




i also did this with the rears and then masked out the "clear" sections and papered over the rest of the lights.







then you mix laquer with black base coat, i used bmw sapphire black 2008, at a rate of 50% before you add the hardener ( you can mix anything up to 50% to get the tint level you want. you can tint two pack laquer any colour you wish) lay two coats over the desired tinted areas







you then wait for that to flash off (partially dry but still soft) and spray over some clear laquer. in the case of rear lights care fully remove all surrounding masking from the lights but do not for christs sake touch the grey wet laquer. then as the unsprayed parts were already trizactd you spray over the top with clear coat.





bake in the oven at 60'c then "voila".

simple, cheap, effective, different.

the headlights are being re-assembled with brighter beams (hid) and will have a look much like the new audi tt etc, grey tinted headlights. also as the lights only need to pass a brightness test when on, they are 100% legal.

more project updates to follow with custom splitter salvaged from the farbio scrap parts bin, re-worked rear spoiler and custom gauge pods.