For now. Last Tuesday I dropped it off at my dealership’s body shop, and left it in the care of my co-workers. Its stay should almost be over, I’m expecting it back any day now.
A few weeks ago I brought it to the body shop for a quote regarding getting the rust removed, and my OEM side skirts painted (But NOT installed. I plan to do that myself). Upon receiving the quote, my father and I went through it and agreed that we should go ahead with it, so I gave the manager the green light.
Before I show ‘after’ pictures, I had better show some ‘before’ for comparison. There was rust in the roof, driver’s quarter panel, and driver’s door. The roof and quarter panel were actually very minor. The door turned out to be the worst, and we ended up ordering a completely new shell, onto which every nut and bolt from the original will be installed. I could have picked up a second-hand door, but it was decided that brand new would be best as it would eliminate the chance of any hidden rust.
The night before I dropped it off, I pulled apart most of the interior. Due to the roof having rust, I had to drop the headliner to look for hidden damage, and that required pulling a fair bit out. The upper trim, rear seat bottom, and passenger seat all had to come out before I could pull out the headliner.
And a note to first-gen GP sedan owners; the headliner ONLY fits through the front doors, it took me a while to discover that. It will not come through the back doors.
I did find a bit of surface rust below the spot on top of the roof. I was worried that there’d be more damage, but the inside looks fine.
After a couple of hours, I had a living room full of car parts waiting to be stored, and a pile of ziplocs with nuts, bolts, and other various parts.
Tuesday morning before work I loaded the side skirts in the car, and drove out to the body shop. My father came and gave me a ride home shortly after.
Before leaving, I grabbed a snapshot of the mileage for reference. 140,800 kilometers in 18 years.
I also took a picture just before getting in my father’s car (Red Lincoln) and leaving the GP to be torn apart.
This past Tuesday, I drove out to the body shop (My parents have lent me their Suburban for the week) to see how the car was progressing. I was greeted by a multi-coloured Grand Prix, but the good news is that the rust was gone!
This is how I found it, awaiting some paint.
The roof was sandblasted, and not surprisingly the rust was clean through in a couple of spots. The areas were repaired and it will be fully repainted.
The quarter panel only needed work on the inner lip. It was the most solid of the three areas.
As for the door, the new shell was still waiting on primer inside, before it could be painted. The original garnish will also be repainted and installed on the new door.
The old door, in all of its rusty glory. It says ‘Save’ on it, because I’ll be using it to have all of the factory decals reproduced, and then placed on the new door in the exact locations of the originals. Following that, it will be junked.
I do not have any pictures of the side skirts, because at the time of my visit they were being worked on by another employee. They had been smoothed and partially primed.
Following the repaint of the primed areas, I requested that the remaining OEM paint be restored to match the freshly sprayed areas. Even though the colours will match (GM’s Bright White is VERY hard to get wrong, it’s essentially guaranteed to match every time) the fact that some areas have nicks and scratches, while the repaired areas wouldn’t, would be a dead giveaway that work was done. I want the paint to be as uniform as it was when I dropped the car off.
As I said at the start, any day now I should be getting the call that it’s ready for pick up, so stay tuned for the pictures of the GP when it’s back together.
