club.liberty.asn.au

A week or so before Christmas while picking up a new radiator for our newly turboed Swift GTi, I had someone reverse into the side of my Liberty GT.. Not a lot of damage, took out the passenger mirror and an 8 or so inch dint across the crease just below the mirror. A panel beater in the same unit block heard the commotion and came out to see what was going on and said it was around $1500 damage because the mirror with the built in indicator was $700-800 .. ouch.. Anyway because it was going to take a while to fix as it was Christmas the next week, the guy who reversed into me in the Hilux dual cab (not his car) said... "mate I'll just give you $1000 and you can get a 2nd hand mirror and get it all painted for that.." So i agreed to that.. I was disappointed about the damage but at least I could get the car fixed.. I managed to find the correct mirror in Sydney and got i to Brisbane for $100 including postage. I took it to a friends Panel Shop who has done work on several of our cars and showed him the damage, I had already fitted the new mirror, and I also asked him if, while he had the car, if yhe could fix the clear coat haze on the front left guard and the bonnet... The bonnet is alloy and had stone chips as well . So they did the entire door, blending it in as they went back to the middle pillar, the front guard, and stripped the bonnet back to bare alloy and redid the priming, undercoat, top coats and clear coats, and repainted the mirror the correct colour all for a grand total off $990 ... I had already paid $100 for the mirror so i got all my paint issues sorted for $90 .... woohoo... paint is all matched perfectly. I new he would do a good job as the other cars he has done for us are always perfect.. Soo I am so happy to have that hazzy bonnet sorted. It didn't matter what I did I couldn't make the haze go away for more than a couple of weeks.. This is it in the booth after the bonnet, and door had been repaired and put back on the car.. They did the entire side of the car so they could "blend" in the new paint so there was no miss-matching line of the colours to stand out like some repairs where the new paint is ever so slightly different to the original. They did a perfect job as usual. They washed and buffed the entire car. It's sooooo shiney now it looks perfect.... Love it.. I can't recommend Brendale Body Works highly enough.. They have done fantastic work not only on the Liberty but also my Blue rex, our white Ver 6 sti and our previous delica that ran into the back of a 4x4 tray when they stopped for an ambo going through a red light in the wet. Next up is my wifes wrx that has areas of clear pealing in a few paces..

Good stuff. Nice to give the paintwork a birthday.

Meanwhile, I added to the collection of "mud covered traffic cone marks" on my car at the recent WRX club Dirt Day. Good fun though

That sounds like fun.. I think I would wrap my wrx in bubble wrap before I went out on the course..lol..Where was that held ? QLD rex club ? Got any pics vids or links ?

WRX Club of Qld put it on at the Ipswich motorsports complex (the "2 configuration" dirt track used for all that stuff). They are having more of those days on:

- 8 May 2022,
- 6 August 2022; and
- 30 October 2022

Someone more experienced of track days than I am could probably recommend a stick-on product to protect the paint. Eg I wonder if the sticky stuff they use to cover kids' school books would do the job and come off cleanly afterwards?

The photographer on the day has released a bit of teaser stuff but we're waiting on the full gallery to become available for view/purchase.

if that is the "WRX Experience" track at Willowbank, I have been on that. It's a lot of fun. I am glad I was using their car, not mine. Theirs was a bit of a slug but still fun. I hit one of the plastic 44 gallon drums but didn't seem to do any damage. Look forward to seeing some pics when you get them..I have seen guys put bubble wrap on their cars with masking tape just to stop any chips. Mainly on the side panels behind the wheels and along the sills ..Others have just used the 50mm masking tape by itself.. I think i would rather use someone else's car.. LOL..