Some of you maybe saw my earlier post "Swedish Riot" where some youngsters torched a car parked next to mine. My car recieved quite extensive heat damage to the left front. The tyre burnt to a crisp. Front headlight and rear view mirror on the side, both motorized, melted. Side indicator melted. Front bumper defenately melted. Plastic rim on the chassis above the tyre melted. The paint on the metal cracked and peeled off.

Since the car was quite old my first reaction was to scrap it and buy a new one. Then i did a search on second hand parts and found that i could get most of what i needed to make the car running again. All for about USD 500 shipping included, provided I did all the work myself.

A reminder






Parts arrive. Front bumper. The biggest parcel I have ever recieved by mail.


Disassemble the car to reach all bolts.


After that, the hardest part was to fix the plastic rim above the tyre. It was melted and contorted and I couldn't find a spare one. So i rebuilt it using glass fibre resin, sanding, fine resin, sanding, more resin, sanding and wet sanding.






Paint


Then clear laque and reassemble everything again. Put on the replacement parts and were good to go!




The car has been checked by an authorized mechanic afterwards and it is fit for the road. !
Hopefully now i will get more time with my camera taking Pictures.
Regards Johan

[tclausen]

Wow, amazing work. Yeah, I recall your riot photos, and it looked grim. I really admire you for repairing it yourself....I'm pretty sure that had I been attempting the same, I'd have ended up totaling it.....and probably needed surgery myself.

[slowpez]

Great job. Can't believe you tackled that yourself.

[scratchpaddy]

Nice! Now you have a car you can really be proud of, knowing all the work you put into it yourself, and you saved yourself the hassle of finding a new car. I've always wanted to just have a car and drive it until the wheels fall off, but that hasn't worked out so far. Well, technically, I did drive the last one until a wheel fell off. Literally. But not in the way I intended!

Hopefully you got some money out of this? Did they ever catch the dolts who set the van on fire? They should be criminally liable for the damages to your car.

By the way, what kind of car is that? It looks a lot like the North American version of the Escort, but I don't think the European version looks like that.

[Johan Holmgren]

Wow, amazing work. Yeah, I recall your riot photos, and it looked grim. I really admire you for repairing it yourself....I'm pretty sure that had I been attempting the same, I'd have ended up totaling it.....and probably needed surgery myself.

Thank you, tclausen!

Great job. Can't believe you tackled that yourself.

Thank you, Susan! Fortunately I kind of like these kind of challenges!

Nice! Now you have a car you can really be proud of, knowing all the work you put into it yourself, and you saved yourself the hassle of finding a new car. I've always wanted to just have a car and drive it until the wheels fall off, but that hasn't worked out so far. Well, technically, I did drive the last one until a wheel fell off. Literally. But not in the way I intended!

Hopefully you got some money out of this? Did they ever catch the dolts who set the van on fire? They should be criminally liable for the damages to your car.

By the way, what kind of car is that? It looks a lot like the North American version of the Escort, but I don't think the European version looks like that.

Yeah, it looks quite funny when a wheel comes off a moving car and keeps rolling past the car .
I had only third party insurance so I had to cover all the cost myself. That's why I took on repairing it, since I don't have the finance to get a new car at the moment. Nobody was caught or charged for the crime, if they were I could claim compensation from them.

And it's a ford mondeo from year 2000.

Cheers!

[crewl1]

Wow great work, congrats. Q - why in picture 5 it looks like you have a matching bumper but in the final it is black?

[Jean Poitiers]

Wow, great job ... that's A LOT of work there, congrats ... J

[Kerrowdown]

Interesting story board of images, maybe a change of career awaits you.

[p38arover]

Good job.

(I think you might need new front discs )

[Johan Holmgren]

Thank you guys!

Wow great work, congrats. Q - why in picture 5 it looks like you have a matching bumper but in the final it is black?

Yeah, the original front bumper was indeed metallic green. The new one is graphite gray. In the pic you mentioned the burnt bumper is laying up side down and switched over so you see the unscaved side. I couldn't bother to spray paint the new one since it would require two more days, so I kept it that way. But I think it actually looks good .

Good job.

(I think you might need new front discs )

You mean the green circles around the fog lights? They definitely sticks out a bit! I have been thinking about repainting them, but on the other hand they make the car more personal. Or maybe I'm just lazy !

[tessfully]

Enjoyed your journey thru auto restoration. Good work and enjoyable pics.

[p38arover]

You mean the green circles around the fog lights? They definitely sticks out a bit! I have been thinking about repainting them, but on the other hand they make the car more personal. Or maybe I'm just lazy !

No, the disc rotors - the front brakes.

[Johan Holmgren]

Thank you Tess!

=p38arover;2426876]No, the disc rotors - the front brakes.

Aah, those. I guess they look worse than they are after a few days of exposure to rain . Every year the car must undergo a state controlled inspection where a service guy checks everything related to road safety. They are particularly thorough about breaking and steering systems. After I fixed the car I let it through inspection and the guy cleared it, so I guess the discs are okay.

[p38arover]

I wasn't thinking of rust. I was looking at the lips on the inner and outside edges which indicates, to me, that the rotors are badly worn.

[Johan Holmgren]

I noticed that too during the renovation. But it still looks worse than it is. There is apparently plenty of thickness left in the plates still. I asked specifically about just that last week :-)!