A Little Different Restoration Project

Show off your work! Anything from final results to full start-to-finish project journals.



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Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 6:09 pm
I did get a little work done on my corner pieces in the engine bay but decided that I need to make room in the garage so I started focusing on getting the external stuff prepped and ready for color so I can store them in the shed out back and then I will finish the body. Nothing too exciting here, just lots of sanding work. The side skirts are used so they took alot of patience and elbow grease to get the skuff's out of the bottom side. The hood is also a problem child. Its got alot of little dings that are just taking time. I'm about to say screw it and just go ahead and do CF but im trying to stay on track for my "initial goal" with the car.

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I have said it before but im really glad that I did not go into the auto body field. It is very tedious and very little instant gratification so the only way I see progress as the project sits now is by parts being finished and moved to the shed. In other news I have finally gotten my fingers in shape enough to sand continuously without having to take breaks due to cramping.



Settled In
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:00 am
I was successful at creating a giant mess this past week. Got a fair amount of work done to all the external panels and got the engine bay 90% ready. One thing I will say is im going to kick the engineer at mitsu in the #$% that decided to put that goo on the door panels for the vapor barrier. What a pain in the rear end that stuff is to get off. Not to mention the fact that it makes a big ole mess.

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I finally about have the hood whipped. Lots of block sanding on the hump to get it perfect but im happy with it now. It would have been just an easy wet sand and be ready for color if hadn't stepped on the air hose twice and putting 2 runs right in the middle. It made me pretty mad. The flattest easiest thing to spray on the car and I put 2 runs in it from getting in a hurry. Owell, nothing some more wet sanding cant fix

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The rear hatch was about the same as the doors but the glue was alot easier to get off once I cut the rear glass out. (and 2,342,343lbs lighter) I did make the mistake of thinking that stripper would have made it easier and then got paranoid that some of the residual stripper had gotten on the primer so I ended up cleaning up any spot that looked like it was in question.

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Did round 2 of wet sanding on the skirts, fenders, door caps, and mirrors. We are almost home with all of that stuff just a few little spots that I need to hit with the detail gun. I will say that the hardest thing to prime pretty on the car is the stinking mirrors. haha. They are hard to get situated and spray even coverage on without getting runs.

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The engine bay is what it always has been. SLOW. Lots of nooks and crannies to get after. I built the filler up on the new pockets because I wasn't sure if I was going to like the way it settled on the seams and its easy enough to sand down. After I worked on that for a while I started cleaning things up to get ready for primer and seam sealer. I was going to spray some etching primer on the bare metal spots then apply seam sealer but my harder for the primer had a funny look to it and the paint store is not open on the weekends. Instead I vacuumed and blew out every nook and cranny that I could think of (stupid sand blasting) and applied the seam sealer. That also is a giant mess. Imagine caulking your bathtub but with your eyes closed and in the dark. It worked out but I will have a little clean up work to do.

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Settled In
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:27 am
Got busy last week with a wedding to attend and chores around the house now that it's getting warm again. My main goal was to finish up the little stuff to get them out of the way in the garage. For the most part they are all ready to go minus a little touch up here and there where there was a little dirt or I burned through an edge while wet sanding.

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Moving along from the sanding I spotted some oopies when I was welding in the new from radiator support. I accidentally welded up the front bolt holes on both side for the fenders. I also remembered a broken bolt from a test fit that I got carried away on, so I decided now was the time to get those straightened out.

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oops
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Now we come to one of my biggest blunders. (so far) When I primed the interior I remember it being pretty cold out, I dont recall cleaning as well as I should have, and on top of that I used a 2K on the entire thing instead of using an etching primer on the bare sports. Basically what this means is I started second guessing myself on whether or not the primer adhered well enough to the interior. The end result is that while a pressure washer wouldn't take it off I knew I was going to loose sleep over it and id hate to come this far and let a lazy mistake screw things up so I started over. The floor and forward area of the back seat were the only real area I was concerned with and the rear hatch is still bare metal from removing sound deadening and misc. sand blasting. strip scrape sand repeat. This process took the better part of 2 days to get back to square one.

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Now that the interior is back ready for some DTM primer I started focusing on the little things I have been putting off. The windshield glue still had lingering peices, the sheet metal around the removed spare tire well needed to be cleaned up, some larger holes on the firewall that required plates to be welded in needed some grinding work, and just little spots on the car that had blemishes that required attention needed to be marked.

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More to follow soon! The next phase will include DTM/2K the interior and engine bay and the under body! (wait until you see the back yard jig I am making to put this thing at 90 degrees... I refuse to weld on my back)



Settled In
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:55 am
In the last few weeks I got the etching primer down in the interior/engine bay and then got all of that that re-coated with some 2K to fix a few blemishes. I dont have a whole lot to type about this phase so ill just post pictures!

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Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:58 am
Now for the fun part. I decided that a $1500 rotisserie wasn't really an option and decided to just build a "simple" jig myself. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to build, it was just difficult to draw out. After thinking way too hard I just headed off to Lowes and started fiddling with it.

This is round one. (why I thought 2x4's would work i will never be able to tell you.)

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Next comes the issue with attempt #1. I planned on using the subframe studs seeing that they are pretty much the sturdiest part on the car. The rear was a no brainer. The frame is nice and flat and easy to attach too.

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But the front had some hick ups that i was not comfortable with. there is the pinch weld "seam" that runs underneath (or above depend on perspective) that does not allow the support that the studs are bolted too sit flush like the rear. I couldn't just notch it because i was (again... not sure why) using 2x4's as the main supports and cutting an inch deep groove would leave the support way to thin.

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One other issue that's hard to see... my geometry skills are still okay, but when lifting as i originally designed im about an inch short of clearing the lower body when going from flat to 90 degrees.

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Problem solved. Just use 4x4's! For the main supports I simply made a 1 inch deep groove for the pinch weld and counter sunk the holes for the subframe studs which now allows the frame to rest flush on the main supports. It was kinda a pita but not too bad.

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All mocked up
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Attached and ready to lift...
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And (nervous moment)

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Settled In
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 12:16 pm
Over all the underside is a royal pain in the ***. You find little bits of surface rust hiding EVERYWHERE. Its simple enough to clean up but just takes a while. I also straightened out the pinch weld and some dents in the floor the best I could. I wanted to cut a few sections out and replace them but decided against it. Its the bottom of the car and its structural. I would rather have a slightly dented frame than a replaced welded section.

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It has that "liquid asphalt" style undercoating goo on there that never dries and that nothing will ever stick too. I tried stripper to get it off... nope. I tried thinner... nope. I tried MEK... nothing. So... the only choice I had was to leave it alone or get to scraping all of the undercoating off because it just infects whatever its laid on top of. What a friggin pain and it makes a big ole mess in the garage. This is about a 3 day process. I started doing it by hand and remembered that harbor freight has an air scraper for like 19 bux. That helped the fatigue factor but still the job is tedious. After 4 days of this I finally got all of this "goo" off the bottom of the car.

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The only good news is that the "goo" isn't in the wheel wells so that should make those guys a little easier to deal with. Next week I will be scuffing and putting down some etching primer on the bare metal followed by fresh undercoating.

Thanks!



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Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2016 9:50 pm
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 9:33 pm
That's a crazy rotisserie. Looking good!



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Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 1:03 pm
I only had a short week to work on the car but I really wanted to get her down off the jig. I measured in various places across the windshield, hatch and door and saw no movement but it still has to put some stress on the frame sitting at 90 degrees.

I got home after a long day at work around 2am. Both the dogs and wife were asleep. It was storming so of course the TV was dead. I needed a beer and something to do to unwind a little. Seam sealer and beer it was.

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The next day I had some time waiting for etching primer to cure in the care metal areas so I went and fooled around in the engine bay some on spots that are easier to reach with the car at 90 degrees. After ripping about 5 pieces of sand paper on the radiator brackets I started thinking... I'm not going to use these stupid things and they are pretty dang ugly... So away they went. I'm glad I did because there was a fair amount of surface rust hiding behind them.

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I also got tired of straightening out this stupid thing on the drivers front corner of the radiator support/frame rail. So it died too. I don't even recall what it was for.

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Now on to the fun(ish) parts. As I mentioned earlier I got the bare spots with etching primer and then did a light coat of high build to fill a few small scratches.

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Before I put up the pictures of the "finished product" I do have to say that UPOL Raptor Bed Liner is probably the best product I have ever used in the simple lines of working like it says it should. I got the kit off amazon for around $130.00. I was skeptical at first because nothing ever is as simple as "fill, shake, and spray". But with this product that is exactly what you do. Fill the bottle up to the mark with activator, shake, and load the bottle on the provided spray gun and spray. It sprays nice at around 50 PSI, (you will need a decent compressor) very little mess, great coverage, and dries in about 15 minutes. One side note... don't get it on you. I bumped my arm on my test piece while straightening the air hose tornado out and I literally had to shave that part of my arm to get the stuff off 2 days later.

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Back in the "normal" position
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More to come soon!



Settled In
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:07 am
Well, Now that shes back level I can start after some of the small things that need to be straightened out before color. The main thing I have been after is the engine bay. I had alot of little blemishes that were driving me crazy so one day I just sat down on the stool and worked 95% of them out. It was tedious and I know that I am the only one that would notice, but I know it would drive me nuts so i just pounded through it. There was alot of glazing and grinder work.

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Next up was tedious and painful part #2. Sanding the interior. Nothing really to type about here except my fingers hurt after around 6 hours.

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And now here is my nemisis on this car. I welded up the fuel door and got it to 99% perfect but there is just one low spot I cant seem to work out. Im going to give it a couple more tries and then say screw it. I cant even feel it with my hand but the guide coat is showing about a half dollar sized depression (ever so slight) in this spot.

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Next came the big decision. Whether or not to rent a paint booth for a fairly large amount of money, or just say the heck with it and build one myself. I went with option B. Next you will see the ******* paint booth in a garage. haha. Ive got MAYBE $50.00's invested in this make-shift booth and had the fans just sitting around.

"Bird filters" I've got some higher quality filters on fresh air supply. These were more for mock up.
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The booth is pretty close to being finished minus a few small details. The 2 main things I need to do is add 2 more fresh air feeds and improve the airflow. I took a candle and carried it around to all the corners and high/low spots and took notes of where it lacked airflow. I am also going to redo my fan locations for the same reason. The airflow I was aware of before starting piecing this thing together. I know alot of guys bash using the box fans but I have 6 of them that are brand new (long story) so I'm going to give them a try. I am aware that I need to have at least 4 of them to change the air out 3 times per minute like is recommended in some other posts on this forum. I would put all 6 on there but I think that would be too much of wind tunnel and a pain in the butt to spray with. I may try researching what the CFM's are on medium and low settings because i would think that the more fans would give the best overall circulation.

My booth is 1155 cubic feet and each fan is rated at just over 1169 cfm. With this math I would assume that I need at least 3 and probably be better off with 4. (this is more a question to confirm my research.)

All that's left before color is getting the bumpers ready and prepping the little pieces like door handles and hinges. Thanks for following!



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Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:57 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2016 11:47 am
Got the paint booth all sorted out finally. I had to do some trial and error based testing to get the fans in the right spot. I was having issues with "dead air" in places. I also got the water separator built.

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Also... This zipper thing I bought at Lowes is probably the best money I have spent on something in a long while. Using clamps and tape was such a pain in the butt. The zipper takes 2 minutes to install and works like a champ.

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Gave the booth a test run while painting the door handles and some hinges. The Booth worked great, the quart of etching primer I bought from NAPA did not. It refused to dry and didnt stick worth a #$%. The remainder the quart went in the trash, the parts went back in the blasting cabinet and my butt went to the real paint supply store where I should have gone to start with. Luckily it was just hinges and not the actual body. On a good note the door handles came out really nice seeing they did not require etching primer.

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Now getting down to the short road. I finally was able to get back to working on the car itself rather than the logistical side of things. The body is getting its final wet sand and finish work done. I have a few small spots that I'm going to touch up. Mainly where I burned a few edges wet sanding and some spots where glass is going to be installed that I am not 100% happy with. (residual glue specks I missed)

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Oh yea... and its 112,125,269th bath as well. I'm still finding sand from the sandblaster in places.

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More to come soon! Thanks for following!
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