My VR4 when it was stock

If you havent already, head over to my VR4 history article where I explain a little bit about why I purchased this VR4 and my intended purpose for it.

When I purchased the VR4 it was pretty much stock, at least visually. There was some minor body damage to the front drivers side turn signal and your typical 11 years worth of body abuse, dents and a fading paint job. My initial goals for the VR4 was to bring it back to life visually (as it was already running pretty darn good in its stock engine state). I've always loved the look of the 1999 3000GT VR4, so I figured that I was going to go ahead with the conversion to make it look like a 99 VR4. I then though, what color? a nice bright Ferarri red? I had that color picked out until my cousin, Bruce, found the color Rio Red, I fell in love with it. I didn't want to just stop with the 99 conversion and new paint job, I wanted this paint job to look out of this world. In order to do the type of paint job I wanted would require a good deal of work, tearing apart the entire car. What else could I do while the car was apart, that would help with it visually? I decided to install the DeftRacing 575 hood along with the DeftRacing VLS door kit. That was my plan and I was going to stick with it.

My father, a Collison Repair (Auto Body) instructor at a local Technical High School hold "Nightschool" sessions. It's really the school itself that offers these evening adult education courses for adults that wish to learn additional skills/trades, they just offer Auto Body as one of its night courses. "Nightschool" is held during the regular school year from September through November, December is off, but then starts back up in January and goes through May. Classes are on Monday and Tuesday from 6pm till about 9pm (so roughly 6 hours a week). The intended reason for the "Nightschool" is so that adults can learn Auto Body as another skill, using my father, the instructor, as a guide/teacher during the classes. Everyone brings their own project auto's to work on, and in most cases everyone has some level of experience in Auto Body but just needs a place to do it (that has the tools, a lift, paint booth...etc). My goal was to do the entire body portion of the VR4 project during "Nightschool".

The following pictures and writtings took place over the course of September through November 2007, twice a week. I failed to record what work was done each day of each week, but do you really even care?

Note: More pictures related to this entire body project can be found within my Image Gallery.

Goals:

- New paint job! (stock paint was very faded)
- Remove imperfections (dents, scratches..etc)
- New look, 99 Conversion (99 Bumper, 99 Headlights/Turns, 99 Spoiler, 99 Sail Panels, 99 Rear Garnish)
- VLS "Lambo" Doors

As stated above, I decided to use Rio Red. This is a stock Mitsubishi color used in its SUV line of automobiles.

Step #1 - Gut the VR4

Because I was changing the colors of the car, I did not want any of the stock red to show, anywhere. This required "jaming" the car. Jaming is painting all the areas of the car where the stock color is, more specifically in the jams between each panel. When you paint your car without taking the panels off, the paint cant get in between the panels as good. This can cause the paint to eventually peel and it wont hide the stock color as good. No need to jam a car if your staying with the same color.

Ok, so gutting the car. I removed all of the interior. This helped me jam the car much better and also helped me access areas of the car to remove panels and such.

 

Gutting the car seems pretty basic, but you need to remember where ever screw goes, every plastic snap and every wire. Lot's of labeling. By the way, all the wires you see in the trunk in the above picture are mostly realted to my audio CarPC setup.

One the car was gutted, I drove it to the shop (which was a very loud ride).

Step #2 - Start removing panels

This really shouldn't be a step because you are constantly removing panels and such throughout the entire project, however I needed to start basic disassembly to get to Step #3. There isn't really much to say beyond, I removed panels at this point....front bumper, rear bumper...etc.

Basically in the end, this is what the VR4 looked like with everything (that was required to be removed) removed:

 
Step #3 - VLS Install

The VLS kit was made by DeftRacing. This kit was designed (over many years) specifically for the 3S. It key features is that it is "Bolt-on" and allows you to use your doors in VLS and OEM mode with the flip of a switch. There is a long list of other pro's about this kit over universal kits...but in the end, it was engineered for the 3S.

The Install was actually pretty straightforward, just time consuming. It required removing the doors (duh), front fenders and side skirts. You need to relocate and extend all the electrical wires (so when the door goes up it has enough wire). The kit was truly bolt on, but you do have to cut out a small part of the body frame for the kit (grinder does this well). Once the wires have been reloated and extended (most time consuming) , you bolt the VLS to the frame, then the door to the VLS, attach the piston and level out the door.....done. When you want to switch between OEM and VLS mode, there is a small screw you just flip and thats it. Here are a couple pictures:

 
Step #4 - Fix the dents and other imperfections

Again, nothing special here, just time consuming, good ole, elbow grease. Sand, putty, and weld are your friends in this step. The VR4 was in pretty decent shape when I got it. The biggest fix was a dent in the fron drivers fender. We then had to weld shut the hole from the stock spoiler. I also remvoed the stock antenna and welded that hole shut. Finally any small imperfections (knuckle size dents..etc). Again, a ton of pictures can be found in the Image gallery, but here are a couple: