Long Days on the Door Sills – Prepping the Volvo 850R for Paint
What looked like a small weekend task — smoothing out the Volvo 850R’s new door sills — turned into a twelve-hour marathon of sanding, bondo, and masking. Add in rain showers that had us pushing the car in and out of the garage to spray primer on the roof, trunk lid, and spoiler, and it was anything but easy. Still, by the end of the weekend, every panel was in primer and the 850R was finally ready for its long-awaited red respray.
Joy van Haelen
9/26/20253 min read
This weekend was another big push on my Volvo 850R project. When I first bought this car three months ago, the plan was simple: polish the faded pink paint back into something that at least resembled red. But after all the welding, sanding, and rust repair, it felt wrong to cut corners — this car deserves a proper respray.
With the doors, fenders, hood, and quarter panels already sanded, filled, and primed in the past three weekends, it was finally time to tackle the door sills, roof, and trunk lid.
The Small Job That Wasn’t Small
On paper, the sills looked like a quick task. They’re just narrow strips of metal, right? Compared to something like the hood, this should’ve been easy. Instead, it turned into one of the most time-consuming parts of the entire project.
Leon and I started at 9 A.M. and didn’t stop until 9 P.M. Just on the sills. What looks like a two-minute montage in the video was actually twelve hours of sanding, filling, and re-sanding.
Because we welded in new sills earlier, the metal wasn’t anywhere near smooth. First we had to sand the welds, then cover them with bondo, then sand that down again. And of course, one round is never enough. By the end of the day, we’d gone through three full cycles of filler and sanding before the surface started to look decent.
It was a classic case of “looks like a small job, turns out to be huge.”
Masking the Door Openings
As if that wasn’t enough, we also had to mask the door openings on the chassis itself. The idea was simple: keep dust and primer overspray out of the interior. In practice? Not so simple. Tape stuck to everything except where we wanted it, and half the time it peeled off again.
By the time we finally got it right, we were both covered in sanding dust, out of patience, but at least confident the inside of the car wouldn’t end up coated in primer.
Another Weekend, Another Lesson
When I first started prepping this Volvo, my goal was to get it ready for paint in just three weekends. But between setbacks like getting sick the first weekend and spending nearly a full day freeing a stuck rear bumper last week, that was never realistic. This is weekend number four now — and the end is finally in sight.
That’s just how it goes with project cars: no matter how much you plan, there are always surprises that make everything take longer.
Fighting the Weather on Sunday
Sunday was all about getting color on the last bare panels: the roof, sills, trunk lid, and spoiler. The only problem? Rain.
It felt like every time we mixed paint and rolled the car outside, the sky decided to open up again. So we kept repeating the same routine: push the 850R outside, start spraying, clouds roll in, drag it back inside with my Volvo V70, wait it out… then do it all again. It was frustrating, exhausting, and honestly kind of hilarious by the fifth round.
But slowly, part by part, we got it done.
Looking Ahead
By the end of the weekend, the 850R was fully covered in primer. Every panel, every sill, every surface is finally ready for its fresh coat of red paint.
It’s been four long weekends of setbacks, sanding, and bondo dust, but seeing the car sitting there in primer feels like a huge milestone. Next time, it’s finally time for the real paint job — and I can’t wait to see this 850R in its original red again.
Thanks for following along with the build — and if you want to see the whole process (including us racing against the rain), check out the video below. Don’t forget to subscribe if you want weekly updates as this Volvo slowly comes back to life.
