SM: Bad news from the body shop

During April 2008, as planned, my sheet metal specialist calls me but not to tell me that both fenders and the door are ready, he rather tells me that he did almost nothing on these parts and he will not be able to do anything in the future. Cool! He just took time to do a quick sandblasting on fender sections for which we had doubts. And guess what, doubts have been confirmed 🙁

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Let’s start with the right fender

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As usual…

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… initially it doesn’t look too bad

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But here, after a little sandblasting work, it’s ugly

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I insert the camera in the lower box, and here is what I find

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Let’s go ahead with the left fender

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Once again, the lower box suffered

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The interior is also ugly

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And the front section is not nicer

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The wheel arch is damaged

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Don’t panic and go ahead with the door

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It’s very nice inside

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Really impressive, it’s very good

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The only bad news come from the lower portion…

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… which is quite rusted…

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… but at this point, I think it’s not so bad 😉

So I’m not ready to start the paint work! Thanks to my sheet metal specialist, he found two fenders and one door but then he left me in this shit. I’ll not begin to lose my motivation now, I’ll see if I can find better fenders and if I don’t, I’ll give these ones to a specialist, another one of course.

As I’m not near being able to do some work on the body, I decide to store it where I currently rent a space for my SM IE. This way, I’ll be able to have the SM IE in my garage, thus enjoying it more and also to be able to work on it more easily and inside the garage. To achieve that, the body has to be rolling.

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For the front axle, I use rubber pieces to lift the body

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I cut the rubber pieces from a plate initially made for exterior stare steps

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It gives a correct height, something like the regular driving position

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For the rear axle, I find no tricks, so I put back the suspension cylinders, with plastic studs inside and aluminium plugs made by Éric (thanks)

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At the other end, I put back the rod, ball and ball cage assembly

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And I get a comfortable height, almost the highest position

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She’s ready to roll

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A tow truck and she’ll go elsewhere to clear the garage

On May 1st, a member of the VEA club and towing professional comes with his truck and together we transfer the body to the parking space I rent for the SM IE (and the 2CV). The body will wait here until further notice.