who welded the rear apron on a pre-88 car?

[raafhimself]

yeah that coating was a BIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!!

[Jand3rson]

I did the same thing with my front valance, removed all of the undercoating.

[raafhimself]

Thanks for the great responses! 'Janderson,' I can totally see now how it took you close to 2 years to find a good donor apron. I've had a couple of good leads that ultimately have failed. Doing the front end tomorrow - I too smoothed the front apron. Will post photos once completed

[der affe]

nice job josh!

another option for those who attempt this is to drill or punch 3/8th inch holes in the bumper and button weld it to the remaining old section of the rear bumper insted of stitch welding it. this will give you less chance of warping it and will allow you to put more welds down accross the whole panel.

[88e30is]

Wow, Great job! I was thinking about doing this on my 88ix. Some jack ass backed into the pass corner with a low hitch and some how put a smal hole/indent in it. Thought about just cutting it off and putting an Mtech II cover over it but this seems like the way to go. On the look out for a fresh apron.

[Lof8]

Doing the retro-fit wasn't really that hard.

Finding the fucking apron was the bitch, and hacking it all down to fit properly.

True. I used about 25 sheet metal screws to hold mine in place. Not as thorough of a job as Josh's attachment, but is doing the trick just fine in my eyes. Its very sturdy.

sorry no in-progress shots

[Jand3rson]

Josh, what I'm wondering is was it welded all the way across, or just spot welded as in one of those pictures? And why were the screws left in there? And how much did you end up spending on the plastics and front/rear valences with paint?

Just wondering.

EDIT: I also want your compressor.

Welds were just done in 1-2" sections, a full seam weld would have taken forever, and been kind of overkill. Body seam glue was used to completely seal the whole seam, the tan colored-goo shown in the pics.

The screws were left in kind of by accident. We used them to firmly mount the valance in place while we welded it, and then we were going to remove them. Right after we welded, I went though and did the body seam glue and undercoated it, and just forgot to take them out. So now they're just another structural mounting point.

As far as cost for the whole conversion, I've probably spent about $600-700. The bumpers with all the hardware were $250, the rear valance was $100, and I just spent $300 having the bumpers fixed up and repainted (the first paint job I had done on them was shit, also had to repair my seams from shortening the rear bumper). I also stripped the original undercoat off of the rear valance and reapplied my own then painted it with Duplicolor gloss black.

[TwoJ's]

I would say that welding it is definitely the way to go.

Josh, what I'm wondering is was it welded all the way across, or just spot welded as in one of those pictures? And why were the screws left in there? And how much did you end up spending on the plastics and front/rear valences with paint?

Just wondering.

EDIT: I also want your compressor.

[TexasTerp]

This is perfect! This is exactly what I want to do when I get ahold of my rear apron, I'll definitely look for the write-up!

[Jand3rson]

Doing the retro-fit wasn't really that hard.

Finding the fucking apron was the bitch, and hacking it all down to fit properly. It took me 2 years to find a car with a straight rear valance that someone was willing to hack off for me, and about half a day's worth of work to hack it down further to fit right.

[Edev]

Win. I want to do that shit someday.

I've read through Janderson's write-up at least thrice.

Same here. The rear end on mine looks real lonely.

[Slangbox]

Win. I want to do that shit someday.

I've read through Janderson's write-up at least thrice.

[Jand3rson]

Tell me if I'm wrong, but he didn't weld his I think.

It's welded.

And and body-glued.

[Stephen]

lof8 didnt weld.

[neighborhood]

janderson.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but he didn't weld his I think.