Mitsubishi Pajero MK1 shorty restoration

[mubeen.chohan]

thanks for the kind words, and yes masha-ALLAH its coming out great.

this is my own vehicle, but i would be glad to do this kind of work on a client's vehicle as well, if they are willing to wait and pay accordingly. most people don't just understand this sort of detailed restoration work, and are not willing to spend accordingly.

[mubeen.chohan]

after applying the seam sealer to all the exposed sills on the exterior, the painter sanded the whole body smooth, and then we removed some minor dents that came to light after sanding, and then the body filler (potien) was applied to cover the imperfections left in the body, this is a time consuming process which involves a lot of sanding again and again to bring the proper shape back to the vehicle, steel potien was mostly used on the panels, but also we used some fiber potien to some areas that are prone to cracking and paint damage,

fiber potien is a very strong filler and works like a charm, and is rock solid when cured,

most of the body filler is removed in the process of sanding the panels down, but we have to cover the panel initially so that it is shaped properly and we dont have to apply the filler again and again.

and yes the engine bay was all masked off to prevent any overspray and damage...

[abdul_basit007]

I want to take a moment to appreciate the incredible work done by you. The skills and dedication to excellence in dent repair and painting are truly remarkable.
Subscribed to your thread for more updates!

[mubeen.chohan]

thanks a lot bro, this sort of positive response is very encouraging,

[mubeen.chohan]

okay now here we are, after we were done straightening out the panels and giving them shape and sanding all the extra filler, the pajero was sprayed on with its first coat of primer, after that we applied deco potien to fill out the minor imperfections that were left behing and then again sanded smooth all the panels and prepared the vehicle for another coat of primer, vehicle was now almost ready for the final base coat and paint,

[mubeen.chohan]

after we were done preparing the surface on the exterior of the pajero, which was of-course a very detailed and lengthy process, now was the time to finalize the paint shade,, the pajero was blue from factory, and i wanted it to be blue of some sort,,
initially i wanted it to be the T54 blue , the on the Mitsubishi lancer, the bay was also painted in a similar shade, but on the exterior i was confused to between some custom shade, or T54, or the factory shade,,
after some thinking and discussions it was decided to have custom metallic blue shade, so this is what we came up with, , the color was dark enough to look classy and shiny enough to turn heads (at-least of some similar minded people hehehe)

pictures attached

[mubeen.chohan]

after lots and lots of work hours and counter cheeking for any flaws in the prepped surface, we finally painted the pajero, i lost some pictures of the process, but i have some that im sharing, this was a major milestone in the restoration journey so far, the floors still needed some attention on the inside and also the undercoating wasnt done , , we were a little caught up in work so we decided to undercoat the Pajero when we lift the body up to mate the engine with the frame,

the pictures dont do justice to the final paint job, but you guys can have an idea of the work,.

one other thing that i was worried about was the front cross member that is under the radiator, it was badly rusted and needed some attention, which should have been given to it during the denting work, but it got postponed because i wanted to try something else on that, more updates on the next post.

[mubeen.chohan]

the Pajero was now parked in the workshop and was awaitinf further work, the lower front fross member was the priority and after that complete undercoating of the body, and after that we wanted to mate the engine to the frame and then tighten the body back on the frame for the final time,

[mubeen.chohan]

now let me just clear one thing, this job was to be done before the paint job, but was delayed due to me being busy with other projects, and i did not have time to personally fabricate and weld this cross member, any how this was to be done,and now was the time to do it.

we lifted the body from the frame, the purpose to remove the body was remove the plastic wrap that we wrapped the frame into, undercoat the body, add new body mounts, and to mate the ENGINE with the frame, by removing the body completely we make our lives VERYEASY to all these jobs, so we lifted the body using the chain-block that we have , first thing that we did was to inspect the crossmember, and then remove all the welded pieces that were put on by previous denters , this is a very messy part of the job, most of the local denters that we have here do not do the work properly and weld patches over and over the rusty part instead of cutting out that part first

at fist glance the crossmember doesnt look that bad, but wait till you see whats hidden under those PATCHES,

well after inspecting the cross member we removed the patched up pieces by cutting torch and grinder and then finally original factory rusty panel was visible and then it was easy (not so easy) to drill out the spot welds to remove the panels and then plan to fabricate them,

[mubeen.chohan]

now this is how the Pajero looks after all the rusty parts removed,, rust is like a cancer to vehicles, and we try our best to remove most of it, so it doesn't cause any problems in the future, this repair is a tricky one if i want this to be and look exactly like the factory panels i'll have to work alot, and carefully fabricate all the pieces near to perfection, so everything fits in place.
i decided to try a different approach on this one details are in the next post, a total of around 12 pieces/panels need to be fabricated, and we carefully measured every piece and noted them down, after that we drew some diagrams on the paper so that we have an idea of what we have to make, where to cut, and where to bend the sheet metal. more details in the next post,

[mubeen.chohan]

this is what i was planning for the crossmember, i designed each and every piece on computer based software, and then got them cut on a CNC machine, next step would be to bend these pieces into proper shape.

each hole was carefully measured and spaced as it was on the factory pieces, also places some holes to where the spot welds are , so that when i weld them in it appears to be a factory spot.

[mubeen.chohan]

this is what it looks like after bending the panels and giving them proper shape, the inside of the panels were painted to prevent rusting, , now the next step would be to assemble them altogether and weld them into the main body of our pajero , this was a very interesting process, and i loved every challenge of it, and the final outcome was very much satisfying.

[mubeen.chohan]

After fabricating all the pieces and painting the insides of them, we began working on the body, first of all we reinforced the front of the Pajero , measured every thing to near perfection, and bolted the "X" SHAPED piece to the front so that the front doesn't deform while welding, hammering and cutting,

after that we started welding the pieces together on the floor, so that we have a one complete unit that will be spot welded to the body , we welded all the pieces together as close as to where the factory pieces are, except for the front flat pieces, that piece was welded on after we attached the crossmember on the body , the front was left open so that the inside of the crossmember can be rustproofed and painted accordingly

after attaching all the panels, and painting the insides, we grinded all the joints to smooth finish and then coated them with a good quality anti rust paint ,,

Pictures attached

[jAyHSN]

is it completed? eager to see the marvel.