Cupra R body restoration project shortvid series

[lani]

Drove 1.9 TDI Leon for some years, loved it, then upgraded to Cupra R a year ago. BAM too fast, lost the license for some weeks and decided to use that time to stop the rust and repaint. Publishing shortvids of the progress in case you are interested. They are in Finnish but less talk and more content anyway.

Top coat will be done in a paint shop as I do not have a proper filtration ventilated space. Doors and hood will stay with current paint, other parts will be painted.

Part1: Starting situation, disassembly and sandblast
Part2: Rust repairs
Part3: Body epoxy & filler sprays
Part 4: Plastics and front arcs. Ready for paint shop!
Part 5: Paint job results with a few imperfections to work on
Part 6: Reassembly
Final result

Questions, comments, suggestions are welcome!

 

[lani]

Has anyone repainted the trunk handle? I quickly resprayed some of it last winter with some cheapo spray while fixing the mechanism and seems all of it has oxidized off.. Will a standard 2K epoxy prevent this if I now do it properly? Or is this some weird alloy that needs special treatment?

 

[Battoussai]

Maybe a coat of mate lacquer would do the trick (after repainted).

 

[lani]

Next part out:

Part 4: Plastics and front arcs. Ready for paint shop!

 

[lani]

Heading to the paint shop, fingers crossed!

 

[lani]

Body is back from the painter some minor imperfections to correct (didnt pay for any post work) but overall very happy

Bumpers etc are now in, getting them back prob next week.

 

[SRGTD]

I really like restoration discussion topics like this, and kudos to you for restoring your mk1 Leon Cupra back to ‘as new’ condition .

 

[iammooks]

Body is back from the painter some minor imperfections to correct (didnt pay for any post work) but overall very happy

Bumpers etc are now in, getting them back prob next week.
View attachment 42719

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lani]

Part 5: Paint job results with a few imperfections to work on

 

[lani]

It's a Lego kit

 

[SRGTD]

Great work @lani ………I’m really enjoying this. Takes me back to the early 2000’s when I should have bought one but I bought a VW Golf instead .

Can’t wait to see it fully re-assembled and hopefully with lots of pictures please!

 

[lani]

Next video out:

Part 6: Reassembly

Went full sandblast+2k epoxy on the trunk handle, hope it holds now. Car is back to road now, need a bit of clean+wax and a good photo weather before I can post the final results.

One question: i would like to add some elegant mud flaps at least to front. Has anyone found a model that fits the cupra/fr skirts or do i need to go custom?

 

[lani]

Final results show-off video available

Pics attached. Tell me what you think

 

[iammooks]

Holy shitballs - that's like new.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Alexis27]

Nice lights

 

[SRGTD]

@lani; looks stunning and it’s great to think you’ve saved a mk1 Leon Cupra and given it many more years and miles / km’s of life.

Kudos to you!

 

[wilfster]

Lovely job. My car is very similar to this. Far less rot than Iani's had, but suffering from the dreaded lacquer peel. I'm thinking of splashing out on a major body job, but have one question for you guys. I think it's essential to have all the old lacquer removed before repainting, otherwise the old lacquer will continue to delaminate. Do you agree? I think it should be OK to abrade back to the original base colour and prime on top of that. If they abrade down to bare metal, there's a risk of taking off the galvanised coating. Do you agree? Thanks.

 

[lani]

I think it's essential to have all the old lacquer removed before repainting, otherwise the old lacquer will continue to delaminate. Do you agree? I think it should be OK to abrade back to the original base colour and prime on top of that. If they abrade down to bare metal, there's a risk of taking off the galvanised coating. Do you agree? Thanks.

I would agree on removing old laquer/clearcoat but saving the base coat and zinc. Which is not all the way simple, as the clearcoat is stuck as hell and elastic in many areas and it is rather easy to come up with some sand-through to the metal. However i think it would need quite much oversanding to go through the zinc layer so adding some epoxy/etch to the exposed metal should do the trick,