Honey Badger the Y60

Headlights are foggy old, with dust and unfortunately already loosing some of the reflector chrome plating, one of the turn signals has broken amber lenses and one of the cornering lights is very damaged. Took care of it the best way I could, before I can replace all the parts. Here on the fenders you can have a clue of its original second color (yellowish gray) that was covered with blue at some point in its life.
Attachment 84225 Attachment 84224

Front turn signals before and after cleaning.
Attachment 84226

Notice one of the front turn signals missing a big part of the amber lens.
Attachment 84227

Washed the front grill very carefully, as I want to keep it chromed if possible. If not, I will try to keep at least its "eyebrow" chromed to contrast with some dark gray on the grill.
Attachment 84228

Attachment 84229

Attachment 84230


Aussies are probably too used to the Patrol looks to think of it, but the front end looks darn mean in my opinion! It is a mean looking car!
Attachment 84231

Attachment 84232

Gave the front end lights a good wash. Notice here one of the corner lights missing some part.
Attachment 84233

Attachment 84234

This is how it turned out, for the moment:
Attachment 84235


Front lighting updates:

For headlights, I got these LED ones with DRL from AliExpress:
Attachment 84236

Attachment 84237

Attachment 84238 Attachment 84239

For turn signals, on a work trip to Argentina, I was able to score these:
Attachment 84240

For the cornering lights, the only thing I was able to do so far was to make up for the missing part with resin. Not that good, I must admit, but I left extra material to be sanded once the car is painted and then will paint the surroudings with a similar gray color. I hope that it looks a bit better after that of if I can hopefully be able to find new ones for an affordable price.
Attachment 84241

Attachment 84242

The tail lights were pretty rough and filled with dust. Left side had a big hole in it and both had bad contacts all over.
Attachment 84445Attachment 84446

Took them out, gave them a good clean, checked all the wiring and cleaned contacts up to the point they worked. I had priced replacement ones from AUS and neighbor countries but all the quotes turned out very expensive. I had heard about some local companies that fix/refurbish tail lights and decided to give it a shot. What they do: they break it apart, clean all the parts. Then they search among their inventory of scrap yard tail lights for one with a close enough color to be used to patch the broken part. They square out the broken hole, cut a matching section of the scrap yard donor part, heat/bend/mod it to fit. Then glue and polish it. The result surprised me.

Here you can see the patched part:
Attachment 84448

There is no crack on the reverse light white lens. It was also glued and polished, so it is all watertight.
Attachment 84449

Now compare with other side, which was polished as well:
Attachment 84447

Final result:
Attachment 84450

OEM horns were working properly (when hardwired to the battery at least) but looking ugly. Greenish/moldy kind of ugly. So one of those days with nothing interesting to work on the car, I decided to give them a good clean an paint. Only external work, I didn't pop them open.

After some wire wheel:
Attachment 84452

Attachment 84453

Attachment 84454

Attachment 84455

Attachment 84456

And after some paint:
Attachment 84457

Attachment 84458

Attachment 84459

Now the fun part... They are sounding like crap now they are cleaned and painted LOL. Not sure what the external paint coat could have done wrong LOL.

So, by now the bodywork is done and the paint job is halfway though, but I'd rather post the complete work for specific parts so one can see the evolution. Also, at some point I was able to buy a donor junkyard car. Rusted to death but with several hard or impossible to find bits and pieces that I can use on mine.

The actual choosing of the colors was made after bodywork was complete, but again, since I am going to show parts evolution from start to finish, the chosen color will be there, so let's start with the color.

Since beginning of the restoration I felt in love with the 2020 GM Onix called Seeker Blue:
Attachment 84570

One day, on the drive-through to take my COVID jab, the car in front of me was a 2021 Fiat Toro in Jazz Blue:
Attachment 84571

Indecision had been planted! Also, for the "yellowish gray" part of the car, I was in doubt for a very light gold/beige or a bit more presence beige. So I ordered small samples to be mixed at the local paint shop.
Attachment 84572 Attachment 84573

Left to right we have Fiat Jazz Blue, Toyota Aurora Beige, GM Seeker Blue, Honda Shoreline Beige.
Attachment 84574

I feel it very hard to realize the tone of a color looking into a small paint card, so I decided to test the samples using the barn doors of the parts car. Gave them a good wash, some very light and uncompromising sanding and gave them a go. I combined darker blue with darker beige (Jazz/Aurora), not so dark blue with lighter beige (Seeker/Shoreline):

Attachment 84575

Attachment 84576

Both combinations came out stunning!
Attachment 84577 Attachment 84578

Attachment 84579

Attachment 84580

And the verdict: I stood with the original pick, GM Seeker Blue. I am glad I took the time to do the comparison, though. I would possibly have second thoughts when looking at that Jazz Blue on a car on the road. Also, my end product is a tidy more dark then the Seeker Blue in the tests, for the reason the test doors were white, while my real car had a light blue primer applied. That enhanced the final color perception a bit.

The roof on my Patrol had at some point a roof-rack, but not the type that goes on the rain gutters, but rather, the one where the roof is drilled. Rack was no longer there, but the 8 holes were... Also, the back left corner was dented towards the inside of the trunk, most possibly due to carrying too much weight on the roof, or maybe due to someone standing on top of it.

First, I took all the roof inside parts apart. The roof lining is completely stained of iron ore dust. I saved it for now, to be used as a template for a new one when the time comes.
Attachment 84581

From the inside the roof had surprisingly nothing to deaden the sheet metal sound other then very few patches of cotton/wool blanket. Tapping on the roof would make drum-like noises.
Attachment 84582

Here the roof dent had been roughly beaten back in place and the holes were welded shut. The roof panel was later softly beaten to a better finish.
Attachment 84584 Attachment 84585

Some more gently beating, light coat of bondo, lots of sanding and some protection primer.
Attachment 84586

Attachment 84587

Attachment 84588


All the parts are being primed with a multifill primer tinted with blue paint for the final sanding phase. Here the roof is ready for final paint and can be seen in such light blue primer.
Attachment 84589

After the bodywork was complete, we used SILOC 44 rubberized PU adhesive to fill the gap between the roof sheet metal and the roof cross-member supports I don't have a good picture of it now, but the same was done on the hood/bonnet and for that I have pictures that I will post here later. Now, tapping at the roof makes a solid thud. Very good already but proper sound deadening will be addressed at reassembly.
Attachment 84583

And the final result after 6 layers of Seeker Blue paint and 4 layers of clearcoat:
Attachment 84590

Attachment 84591

Attachment 84593

Attachment 84592

Far out! That looks really, really good mate

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by growler2058

Far out! That looks really, really good mate

---

Thanks mate. There is some real dedication being put in it to make this dream come true!

The bonnet under-structure was broken in a couple of places and poorly stick welded. it also had some dents on the front lip.
Attachment 84594

My friend grinded that out and mig welded it back. Even so, he admitted that it was not looking much better then it was before, for the sheet metal being very thin. Also, there was nothing else gluing the sheet metal to the under-structure anymore, so I redid the gluing with SILOC 44 rubberized PU adhesive, same mentioned in the previous post. Instead of putting glue just on the pockets available on the under-structure, I chose to put it on 100% of the structure. Tapping the bonnet now gives you a solid thud. Will probably do more appropriate sound deadening when the time comes.
Attachment 84595

Here you can see some of the mig welding that my friend was upset with the appearance. I have also later regretted myself for not cleaning up the excess glue right after application...
Attachment 84596

I bought myself a 120psi / 130L /5 cfm second hand compressor and a orbital sander and got to work.
Attachment 84599

Attachment 84597


That compressor ended up being insufficient for the task. I did some more research and found out that at least 10 cfm was needed for the orbital sander. After a couple of weeks monitoring local classifieds for a deal, with people asking almost the price of a new unit for their used ones, I figured it was a better idea to bite the bullet and get a new one.
Attachment 84600

Work then started to move faster.
Attachment 84598

Attachment 84601

My friend noticed some bondo spots on the front lip and some other parts and decided to bring it to bare metal and do some panel beating. That was quick work for a flap disc on a grinder.
Attachment 84602

After some filler primer and lots of sanding we got it to this point.
Attachment 84603

And after full priming the top side of it.
Attachment 84604

Back to the underside, it was being a pain in the butt of a job to remove the excess rubberized glue, so I decided to wire wheel it and then sand out the wire marks.
Attachment 84605

Attachment 84606

Attachment 84607

And right before we moved into the next primer, my friend decided to give his welds some better finish, so he grinded them down some and then primed it all. The bonnet was now in pre-paint stage.
Attachment 84609

Attachment 84608

Attachment 84610


Then came paint day, and after 6 layers of Seeker blue and 4 layers of clear coat, it was almost impossible to take a picture of the full bonnet showing its color such shiny it was. The pictures were reflecting the walls and not showing the blue in its entirety.
Attachment 84615

Attachment 84614

Attachment 84613 Attachment 84612

Attachment 84611

WOW looks bloody amazing mate, I have a respect for the patience needed for body work (and skill of course), both I certainly do not possess lol . .

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

Crikey, that looks Brilliant BZ Mate [emoji322][emoji106][emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk