And -- DONE!

There are still a few things left to do. I've got a punch list and I'll be working over the next month or so. I'm thinking of painting it a desert camouflage pattern.

12/06/2009 - Due date

I have to give the rental car back tomorrow so today was the big day. Between putting all of the pieces back into place and getting everything tightened up I was very busy. When I grabbed the battery to put it back in the car, I noticed that it was cracked and had leaked some battery acid. I went to Pep Boys (where I originally got the battery) to get a new one. I took it to the parts counter and joked that it was still under warrantee, but I don't think that being cracked in a car accident was covered. Short story, I got the battery for free. Woo hoo! I did have to make a bracket to hold one side the battery, but I had everything I needed to do it.

12/05/2009 - Snow!

The morning started out with drizzling rain. I fought back by erecting a picnic shelter over the front of the car.

I assembled all of the bits and pieces that go in the front bumper and put all of the plastic air dams in that channel air into the engine compartment.

I also hung the fenders and loosely hung the front bumper. I got a lot done before the sleet and snow weighed down the picnic shelter and collapsed it.

11/27/2009 - Welding complete

After doing a lot of practicing I welded the body steel into place. The spot where I had cut through, I realized that edge to edge wasn't going to work. I just kept burning through. So I cut a piece of steel and welded it over the scary weld. It worked out well.

The rest of the spots that needed welding were all overlapping so it was pretty easy to make strong welds. Ugly welds, but strong welds. Then I painted over all of the bare metal with primer.

I also put the hood on so that I could stop putting the tarp over the whole thing.

DSL is back!

I was just finishing up soldering the light and horn wires back together when the verizon tech showed up to FINALLY fix the DSL. It turned out that squirrels had made a home in the box up on the pole.

I'll be posting pics of the rest of the repairs in chronological order.

Tuesday was another big day.

At lunch John and I went over to Delaware Auto Salvage and picked up the big stuff. We got the hood, the bumper cover, the fender and the splash shield for under the fender. I forgot the headlight, so I'll be headed back over there tomorrow. After work I followed John back to the house making sure no parts blew out of the back of his truck.

When we got to the house there was a big rectangular box on the front step. It was the replacement strut. John and I unloaded the parts from his truck and I showed him what was left of the front end that we picked up last week.

After John left I grabbed the strut, my tools and the floor jack and swapped out the mangled one for the straight one. It took about 30 minutes. It's amazing how quickly things go when you have both the right tools and a clue. Though, I have to admit that the only reason I have a clue is because I just replaced the stuts slowly an methodically 6 weeks ago.

So with the metal cut and the strut replaced, I'm 2.5 days ahead of schedule.
I do need some more practice welding before I put the car back together.

In the first picture (above) you can see both the mangled strut and the straight one. In the second picture (right) you can see the chaos that is a strut replacement. I do have to say, replacing a strut is MUCH easier without the fender in the way.

Rain, rain, go away.

I managed to get some work done despite the rain. I had just a wee bit more metal to cut away. I cleared a spot in the shed to prop up the replacement chunk of car and cut away the last of the strut housing.there's still a bit more metal than I need, but I figured it would be better to have too much when I do the final fitting than too little.

Tomorrow I pick up the body parts. Headlight, bumper, fender and hood. I really can't wait for Thursday and Friday. It'll be time to start putting the Vue back together.

The project plan so far...

I'm comfortably ahead of schedule on most things. Tonight I practice welding some more.

WOW! I cut away a lot of metal

I got quite a bit done today. I drilled out welds, cut away bunches of metal I don't need and ended up with almost exactly the piece of metal I needed. It took me two and a half hours of back breaking labor, but it's done. It was well worth the work.

Some of the left over metal. What I don't need weighs more than what I do need.

Ready for anything.

After I was done I went and picked the kids up from Mason's birthday party, took half a flexeril, put the kids down for a nap and took a (coincidentally) two and one half hour nap.

While doing all of this I realized I was getting really good with an angle grinder with a cut-off disk. I was holding it like a pen and throwing sparks all over.

21 days left! Yikes.

Here's a couple pictures of my newest acquisitions. First, two pictures are of the entire front end of a silver 2003 Saturn Vue. The sad thing about this is that they DROVE it into the building where they pulled out the engine and started cutting it up into pieces. This is about three times the metal I needed, but it was the easiest way for them to hack out the bits I bought.

Next is a priceless little item I picked up off of eBay for $5.00. It came in the mail today and comforted me greatly. As I flipped through the section on the work I'm doing, I saw that I was doing almost everything exactly the way it should be done.

My first welds!

I got the welding machine out and started practicing today. I learned two truths about welding.

1. Welding is easy
2. Welding well is VERY difficult

Anyone who can hold the pistol grip of a welding machine can weld. I proved that today. Making solid, useful welds without turning what you are welding into useless slag? That takes lots and lots of practice. I will be getting as much of that practice as I can in the next couple of days. Here's some pictures of the practice from today.

Ugly but, solid.

The backside. I'm starting to get the penetration I need to make good welds.

My fire extinguisher

Welding

Well, I've spent most of the evening watching YouTube videos about welding. I've learned a lot, but it's one of those things where the more you know the more you realize you need to learn. I hope to be able to get started tomorrow while the kids are napping. I need to squeeze a month of practice into about a week.

And the parts start rolling in!

I went at lunch time and picked up the steel for the Vue. They gave me a HELL of a lot more metal than I expected. I was worried they were going to give me barely enough to work with, but my fears were unfounded.

John and I loaded it into the back of his truck and went inside to find out about some other parts. I ended up ordering everything. The hood, fender, fender skirt/splash shield, bumper cover and headlight all new after market. The corner light and windshield washer resiviour are used, but they'll work just fine.

I'm really excited about getting everything ordered. All that's left is the fog light and the battery tray. Oh, and an absolute smack-load of work!

I'll post pictures of the steel I bought after work.

The project so far

Today I try my hand at welding. Wish me luck!

GRRRRR!!! I got the welder out. I found some unpainted steel to weld. I found an empty 20 amp circuit to use. Threaded the wire and then it rained. I REALLY need a garage.

I couldn't believe it! Everything was perfect, except the weather. I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

I other news, I got a strut to replace the bent one for $35 under budget and I put a $1000 bid on an orange 2003 4 cylinder Vue with a manual transmission about 15 miles south of Chicago. It didn't met the reserve, but who knows?

No power = No locks?

This morning, on the way out the door I checked the doors on the Vue. Sure enough one of the back doors was unlocked. No problem (hit the button on the remote) D'oh. I took the battery out of the Vue last night while doing all of the cutting. So I flipped the look on the door and all was well.

Then I checked the back hatch. It was unlocked. There's no way I could find to manually lock the hatch. Hrmph! What to do?

Well, I'm a resourceful guy, I should be able to figure this out. Then I got an idea. I went inside and found something that should work. I brought out my 3Amp 12v power supply. I grabbed a power cord from an old laptop, cut the ends off, split it down the middle and stripped the ends.

I turned it on and... NOTHING! 3 amps should be enough to lock the doors. Why isn't it working?

Then I remembered, The strap that grounded the battery to the frame had been bolted to the piece of metal I carved away. No circuit, no power. I cut a piece off of one of the pieces of wire and used it to tie the ground strap to the body.

I hit the lock button once, "CLUNK" the locks locked, another time, D'oh the horn was attached to the big scrap of metal I cut away last night.

All-in-all it was a pretty quick and quite adequate solution. I think it took me longer to type this than to actually do it

Well, that resolved I went to work. I made a couple calls and went over to a junkyard, about 10 minutes from work. He had a Vue out in the lot. It had the steel I needed. I gave him a deposit and will go over on Friday with John to pick it up.

I hope to get it cut to fit over the weekend.

Big day, lots done.

I wish I got some more before shots today. I really cleared away a lot of mangled metal. Tomorrow I have to find a radiator support. I'll be going to the junk yards on Old Airport Road to find one. That place always makes me think of that movie Nothing But Trouble with Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase and Demi Moore. The premise is that in this little town in Pennsylvania anyone who drives though gets arrested, sentenced to death and executed. It's a BAD movie.

Here's a before and after of the cutting away of destroyed metal.

Before:

After:

I stopped at Harbor Freight this afternoon and spent $33.00 on a come-along and a reciprocating saw, I had coupons for both. They were exactly what I needed.

I connected the come-along to a fence post and to the radiator support. I cranked and cranked. It pulled the Vue down and forward. 20 or 30 hammer strikes later, it popped free.

For Sale, one slightly mangled radiator support:

Or a hunk of scrap metal that used to be a fender support?

All-in-all it was a VERY productive 2 hours. I just need to add a battery tray and windshield washer reservoir and pump to the shopping list.

So tomorrow I order the radiator support and hopefully the fender support. Oh, and the other thing... I need to remove the AC condenser without destroying it.

26 days to go.

Today I removed the right fender and drilled out the welds on the right side holding the radiator support to the car. There were around 25 of them. I was right to think that I would want to get it new after market instead of from a junk yard. I had to mutilate the thing to get it loose.

Tomorrow morning I will post some pictures of the outcome. I also need to stop at Harbor Freight and get some cut off wheels for my angle grinder and a decent pair of safety glasses. I wish I could get a come-along as well, but if it's more than $20.00 I can't afford it until payday.

27 Days and counting...

08:00: The insurance company will only pay for the rental car until 12/12/09. Thank God I had rental and towing insurance. I'll be cutting away the twisted metal tomorrow and ordering a new radiator support and trying to source a left hand fender support.

13:00: Did a little more work on the Vue this afternoon. I removed this thing, whatever the hell it is

I also removed the hood and hinges. I cut a piece of tarp to fit over the engine compartment. I also put up a 250 watt halogen light aimed at the Vue so I can work after dark.

16:00: I just bid $5.00 on a collision repair manual for the 2002 Vue. The 2002 is almost identical to the 2003 so I'm hoping it will be useful. If not it should be damn close and I'm only out $10:00 including shipping.

Deconstruction begins

I started tearing the front end of the Vue apart. It a complex mix of systems. I put all of the small pieces in ziplock bags and labelled them. Hopefully it will be easier to put it all back together that way.

Wrecked my car

The car two in front of me panic braked causing the pickup truck in front of me to stop suddenly. I cut the wheel to the right, there was a car in that lane. I cut the wheel back and slid right into the right rear of the truck. He got away with a cracked tail light and a scuffed bumper. I had the whole left front of my car caved in.