Why? = For The Wife
Posted: Wed May 17, 2017 9:52 am
Where I started
This all started in 1995. My future Father-In-Law buys my 16 year old future wife a new Cayenne Red Base 3.1 Beretta. She loves it from day 1 (more than she'll ever love me). Fast forward 20 years and you have a middle aged woman driving a 20 year old Beretta with 271,000 miles. 1997 it was put in a ditch requiring a new passenger fender, door and respray of that side. 2008 a truck backed into her taking out the hood and driver's fender, insurance called it a loss and gave us $1400. Numerous alternators and a few heater cores, but original engine and trans.
The bottom of the rockers were rusting along with the rear spring mounts, the engine had lost a few horses, the interior was showing its age, and it was getting the wet carpet syndrome. Putting the old girl down was not an option for my wife so she demanded I "fix it". The Plan
Pull the engine and trans - Rebuild. Fix all the bodywork and paint back to original. Interior recover. Estimate $10,000 and 1 year. Yeah I was optimistic in October 2015.
The Reality
I had a body shop do the rockers because they were the part I was most afraid of at the start. $1700 and some less than perfect work and I had something that looks acceptable. As I pulled the interior and engine I discovered the cause of the wet carpets. The lack of cowl sealing led to extensive rust and leaks in the cowl and firewall. The passenger side behind the steering rack mount and reinforcement was the worst, but the lower driver's side was bad too. At this point I was in over my head and "The Plan" was out the window, but I just figured the only way out was forward. I cut as much as I dared out, and started welding. I should mention I am not a welder, but I just dove in. With new metal in I sealed everything with SEM 2 part seam sealer and moved to the rear. The car was now on a makeshift cart with casters and I started looking into the rear spring perches. Yeah they were bad. I thought about starting the fabrication, then I got nauseous. Changed course and bought a $300 95 Z26 with 56,000 miles and a blown engine from Vegas. $800 for shipping and I had a parts car. I needed the doors, fender, and parts to repair the rear. The donor car was very clean, and I considered just building on it since it was so clean. The Wife beat me for my insolence and I fell back in line.
I started cutting spot welds and got the entire rear frame assembly out of the donor and had it blasted and powder coated. From rockers to to the rear, both sides. I also took the doors, fender, driver's rear inner wheel well, shock reinforcement, and back panel of the trunk out of the donor due to rust on my car. It was a terrible thing to do to such a nice car, I will spend an eternity in Beretta hell for what I did to that Z, but these are the things we do for love.
Lots of welding, seam sealer, and primer. Doors off the donor, hood from a junkyard I had laying around and other stuff and I was ready to have this thing painted.
This all started in 1995. My future Father-In-Law buys my 16 year old future wife a new Cayenne Red Base 3.1 Beretta. She loves it from day 1 (more than she'll ever love me). Fast forward 20 years and you have a middle aged woman driving a 20 year old Beretta with 271,000 miles. 1997 it was put in a ditch requiring a new passenger fender, door and respray of that side. 2008 a truck backed into her taking out the hood and driver's fender, insurance called it a loss and gave us $1400. Numerous alternators and a few heater cores, but original engine and trans.
The bottom of the rockers were rusting along with the rear spring mounts, the engine had lost a few horses, the interior was showing its age, and it was getting the wet carpet syndrome. Putting the old girl down was not an option for my wife so she demanded I "fix it". The Plan
Pull the engine and trans - Rebuild. Fix all the bodywork and paint back to original. Interior recover. Estimate $10,000 and 1 year. Yeah I was optimistic in October 2015.
The Reality
I had a body shop do the rockers because they were the part I was most afraid of at the start. $1700 and some less than perfect work and I had something that looks acceptable. As I pulled the interior and engine I discovered the cause of the wet carpets. The lack of cowl sealing led to extensive rust and leaks in the cowl and firewall. The passenger side behind the steering rack mount and reinforcement was the worst, but the lower driver's side was bad too. At this point I was in over my head and "The Plan" was out the window, but I just figured the only way out was forward. I cut as much as I dared out, and started welding. I should mention I am not a welder, but I just dove in. With new metal in I sealed everything with SEM 2 part seam sealer and moved to the rear. The car was now on a makeshift cart with casters and I started looking into the rear spring perches. Yeah they were bad. I thought about starting the fabrication, then I got nauseous. Changed course and bought a $300 95 Z26 with 56,000 miles and a blown engine from Vegas. $800 for shipping and I had a parts car. I needed the doors, fender, and parts to repair the rear. The donor car was very clean, and I considered just building on it since it was so clean. The Wife beat me for my insolence and I fell back in line.
I started cutting spot welds and got the entire rear frame assembly out of the donor and had it blasted and powder coated. From rockers to to the rear, both sides. I also took the doors, fender, driver's rear inner wheel well, shock reinforcement, and back panel of the trunk out of the donor due to rust on my car. It was a terrible thing to do to such a nice car, I will spend an eternity in Beretta hell for what I did to that Z, but these are the things we do for love.
Lots of welding, seam sealer, and primer. Doors off the donor, hood from a junkyard I had laying around and other stuff and I was ready to have this thing painted.