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Got started stripping back the hood, which had a bad problem with rust muffins coming up through the original paint. Tried using the orbital sander. The orbital sander broke from the effort and I wasn't making much progress.  You can see the rust coming up through the hood here. This is caused by the hood having been stripped back in the past and then painted with a water based fence paint primer for some reason - that's the yellow stuff you can see in places. The original Toyota primer is oxide red, so evidently this whole hood's outer skin was stripped back to bare metal and then recoated in a 1k primer with no rust retarder component.  Applied some paint stripper.  Stripped the latex primer, finding a pair of ugly filler jobs under it. The filler was thick and not the right kind for the hood - you want to use a flexible filler on these big floppy parts.     Got the cheepo sander replaced for a third time and applied a massive spray of rust converter.   Ground all the loose rust converter off the hood.  Sealed the hood so that it doesn't rust any further. 
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Mar 11, 2019 01:18
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Before getting down to panelbeating and filling the top side of the hood, I wanted to fix the inside of the hood. I haven't set aside the time to learn how to weld so I just jammed the electrode in there like some goober to fix the rust encrusted corner with a patch panel. While the hood was stood up and there wasn't any tension on the bracing, I applied some globs of semi-solid plastic epoxy to the ribbing to replace the old bits of seam sealer that were holding the bracing to the hood. These had long since broken again and fallen apart leaving the hood flapping around like a big piece of rubber.  Hood prepared for primer. You can see the smeared grey plastic epoxy poking out from the braces.  Primed the hood underside and also primed the gas flap which had been hanging out for some attention.  Next the hood needs to be filled and re-primed, then the only piece left needing attention will be the front splitter that mounts underneath the front bumpers.
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Mar 11, 2019 01:25
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Also, some dumb poo poo swag bitch kid tried to do a handbrake turn about 50 feet down the road last night and hosed up real bad and hit some old lady's house.  Dumbass then proceeded to threaten the old lady who came out to see if he was okay before his retarded friends came by to pick him up. Good news: He cracked his sump open driving the car back over the curb to get out of the garden, so if the chassis isn't bent the car's still broken. Helped the neighbours replant the tree before it was out of the soil for too long. I'd like to plant the jackass in the ground too but you don't always get everything you want. 
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Mar 11, 2019 01:42
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Finally got the car ready Had a lot of trouble with the clearcoat as it was my first time using it on large flat surfaces like a car body. Results sucked - a lot of gloss fade due to trying to counteract for bad technique with more paint thinner  Tried to clean up a few problem panels and in the process found out that painter's tape also is not to be trusted on 3 hour old paint  Had to sand back most of the clearcoat and put some touchup basecoat onto the nearly shredded corners  Managed to get an acceptable level of gloss with a bit of peel that we'll buff out later    Cleared out the boot and velcroed a lining into it   Created new vaporshields for the doors with some butyl sealant and plastic shower curtains 
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Apr 8, 2019 01:19
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That looks good! You have good patience and willingness to start over. Good on yah!
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Apr 8, 2019 06:50
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Elviscat posted:That looks good! You have good patience and willingness to start over. Good on yah! I actually started over twice - first pass ended up contaminated by silicon spray having been used in the area before. It's pretty hard to maintain energy when you do three full paint jobs across three days but we got there in the end.
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Apr 8, 2019 10:01
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You're an absolute monster. I can't even conceive how tedious that job was.
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Apr 10, 2019 04:38
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Spades posted:Good news: He cracked his sump open driving the car back over the curb to get out of the garden, so if the chassis isn't bent the car's still broken. I can't tell if it's an illusion due to body damage, but the rear wheel there looks like it's not at a good angle any more.
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Apr 10, 2019 23:27
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Because we decided we both hated chrome, matte blacked the flashingwork on the car before it goes back on. Pretty average coverage but it'll do for now - next comes reassembly.  Also managed to get hold of some closed cell foam rubber - the tail lights have a pair of very manky gaskets which need a fabricated replacement.
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Apr 11, 2019 10:19
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Few updates for the last week or two - Got those Advans mostly painted, remaining parts to do are re-doing the centre plates (hosed up trying to paint the red parts red) and painting the lips.  Decided to finish installing the lights - clearcoated everything that needed it  Took a pair of my ridiculously sharp commercial scissors and underused them to cut some foam rubber  Pushed the basic template, with a backing of RTV, onto the back of the tail lights  Reattached the tail lights and poured some water into the water channels. No leaks inside. 
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Apr 19, 2019 23:51
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Started reinstalling the door seals and trim pieces. Needed to RTV one of the rubbers to the rattle cord.  Windows had long been cloudy, so I took to cleaning them with 0000 sanding grit, super fine cutting compound and paint thinner     Trim reinstalled 
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Apr 19, 2019 23:55
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Started getting the Stark 2 wheels ready for the actual car. Remembering that this paint is the undercoat for a vinyl bosozoku wrap, thematically these wheels will be a color neutral to the wrap. Gave a heavy dose of primer to fill the castings in on the centres after bead blasting.  White paint and a very very nice clearcoat finish - probably my best so far, 3 coats with no appreciable orange peel  Stripped the primer and polished the outer lips  At this point in time Marcus was thinking that these wheels were looking a bit plain, so he decided he wanted me to try a different treatment - something a little flashier that'd fit the Boso look better remember that i dont make any judgements on appearance and im just helping this actually happen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOeTWpH0roU 
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Apr 19, 2019 23:59
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Had to also make a little project of rebuilding a primer gun because Marcus forgot to clean it out and left epoxy primer in it. Stripped the gun and dumped all the non-seal bearing components into a path of paint stripper and acetone then periodically sanded them 400 grain on non-sealing surfaces to get the crap off them  Filth!  Laid the components out. This gun's a cheap piece of crap  Reassembled. Needs a little tweaking on the material control knob but it sprays again now about as well (crappily) as it used to 
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Apr 20, 2019 00:03
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Lastly, we attempted to drive the car to the window sealing place to get the rear window reinstalled and the front window resealed. Roadkill rules were in effect however https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj7g1uTXuzs Looks like the radiator is clogged or potentially the mechanical water pump has worn out - we'll attach a hose to the block intake and see if it consumes water or not and go from there.
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Apr 20, 2019 00:08
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Dug out the water pump to find that the impeller fell off the shaft as soon as it was removed, so new water pump was attached and now the car runs. Issues now narrowed down to some detonation at mid throttle (oil change aught to fix that) and what seems to be a short with the heater blower motor causing the car to die when it's turned on. May also be the gauge of wiring isn't large enough for the relocated battery but I feel like that's unlikely given how weak the engine is.
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Apr 23, 2019 06:01
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your attention to detail on an 80's three-box is outstanding. Love the effort you're putting into this.
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Apr 23, 2019 07:54
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slothrop posted:your attention to detail on an 80's three-box is outstanding. Love the effort you're putting into this. Cheers, this has certainly been a journey and a half - first time I've done custom bodywork on a car, however much minor filling in all the chrome spots is.
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Apr 23, 2019 09:08
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Spent a weekend with the girl's parents on the farm and realized that you can't just drink all day for Easter, so got down to fixing up a few of the dents in her daily. Some nice big smacks on each quarter, with a prior halfass repair of my own (interrupted, I'm not lazy)    Used a jerry rigged ball pein (a house brick) and my profession dolly substitute (anotheer house brick) after pulling the inside of the boot out to flatten the major parts of the dents out. In doing so, found that the rust was caused by a badly done prior bodyshop job on the left rear fender. For the right side I just pushed it out with my fingertips for the most part as the Subaru's bodywork is made from tinfoil.   A steer helped.  Started applying some evercoat. Three layers later -    Sprayed on some high build epoxy primer. Front fender had a bit of contamination and needed a resand and some hatching with a foam brush.    Paint goes on next weekend ideally - this is epoxy primer so it won't turn to saturated sloppy garbage from the weather in the meantime. Once back home, I thought to record the Cressida crawling out of my friends' basement garage and heading off for window install. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3q-HrT7BC4
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Apr 23, 2019 09:21
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Setting up the order for the headers and X pipe for the Z06 so that the Whipple's secondary O2 sensors can be bunged into something that won't have two inch primaries. After a whole bunch of drives it seems like the number 5 injector remains the only one to have consistent misfires across the board so I will be looking up how to safely replace it. Gave the Cressida a bit of work today, helping out with getting the idle adjusted, advance sorted out and getting the oil done. I was particularly insistent on the latter since we hadn't done it yet and the oil in the car looked like it had been there for about 300,000km. With all the oil crust removed, the lifter noise died down immediately and the car no longer has a rough idle - I've yet to check if the blowby is improved or not but I can't imagine it hurt it. I also took it out for a drive - the Cressida drives kind of like the Commodore only the steering wheel doesn't respond like a drunk monkey. Pretty much your standard 80s car and I wasn't expecting anything else out of it.
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Apr 25, 2019 07:26
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The thing is built - warrant of fitness and registration have been set for the Cressida so now it's back on the road. Still awaiting the rice wheels to be rebuilt but everything is now functional and it just needs some time to make sure no issues exist under the hood. Going from this   To this    Is a good first step on the way to the car being clowned out with bosozoku parts. Marcus will need to repay me the money I have loaned him to get the car back on the road now, but after that's done a one piece fibreglas frontend, extended hood and rear deck ducktail spoiler will all be on the menu.
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May 9, 2019 01:59
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Took a punt on a 40 year old Devilbiss suction gun at a swapmeet for $10 - basically the perfect candidate for a primer gun. Had a lot of goo in the trigger, but I took a look under the aircap and the fluid tip and feed seemed to be both be free of too much gack. Bought a litre of Acetone and sunk everything in there after removing the seals.  Found that the can was leaking from around the rim due to the old rubber seal being long perished. When this happens you can do two things - 1) Buy the new seal from a place that makes seals for about $10 2) Make one out of scraps of marine vinyl Don't do number 2, ever!   Tested the new can seal and it worked, despite common sense saying it was a terrible idea. Have a somewhat upside down knolling shot of the paint gun parts.  After laying them out I checked the state of the seals - all four O-rings were too soft and swollen from long term expoure The great thing about Devilbiss guns is that all of their seals are just standard Imperial sizes. Bought $5 of Viton rubber seals - three 5/16ths in 1/16th width and one 5/16th in 3/16th width. Oiled them with some compressor oil to get the action smooth and reassembled everything with lots of compressor tape. I also managed to somehow lose the D-clips that hold the trigger axle in place. To rectify this I bought a Clevis pin and Cotter pin which just happened to have the perfect dimensions to replace the axle and be more convenient for future dissasembly in the bargain. After reassembly I noticed that the gun was 'spluttering' intermittently - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3iPMI8utEw Removed the suction cup and put my thumb over the threaded fitting at the bottom of the gun - felt regular sucking pressure so it wasn't the gun's fault. Tried to submerge the threaded fitting in water and determined it would spray fine from there - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9If9t_yy8Ek Took the suction cup pipe and tried to blow through it with the far end blocked - air was coming out through the collar around the neck. Torqued up the suction pipe to the threaded fitting as much as I could and to be double sure air taped and then duct taped the collar. Gun then sprayed from the cup fine - however, the gun was laying down a 'banana' spray pattern. This is usually from either the fluid tip being dented or the air cap being blocked with paint. Thankfully having taken a look at the fluid tip meant I was pretty sure it wasn't that. Rotated the air tip and the banana pattern moved with the tip. Took the air tip off and left it overnight in a cup full of Acetone, then rasped it with children's pipecleaners in the morning and put it back in the acetone for a few more hours.  That seemed to do the job and now it sprays a correct pattern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkDm1VV5_do And complete - need a project to paint now though. 
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May 9, 2019 02:25
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I used to use those to spray some sort of alcohol Sanitiser all over milk powder canning machinery. Nice to know they have an actual use.
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May 9, 2019 12:07
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Wow, awesome job. Love the before and after shots. 
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May 9, 2019 12:58
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Nice job on the gun, old tools best tools.
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May 9, 2019 13:08
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With the Cressida now out of the way, I've begun looking around for options for future project cars. I took a look at a Mini 1275GT, which had 90% rust for a rear fender, and realized that the Commodore is still parked under a leanto back at Dad's house. So in a month or two I'll go and take care of that I think. To recap the older thread, the Commodore currently has the following problems: -Leaking brake lines -Blown rings -Leaking bottom end -Carb out of tune -Crank walk -Open hole in the headers -Commodore -Transmission gear lever in the wrong place due to transmission swap from a VN -Ruined interior -Ruined exterior -Commodore I will be looking to start by rebuilding the engine with a new crank and rings, and learning how to rebuild and tune a carb with help from dad. The brake lines need replacement (have donor car) and the interior will need to be fabricated as none of it really remains workable except for the dashboard and seat foam. While I'm back there I'll probably touch the paint up on the BMW, then drive its limp moding JATCO transmission to the parts wrecker as ultimately the car is only worth $300 with a WOF and registration. -- On a better note, the Corvette's pipes have shown up.   The last piece remaining for the puzzle is to get the https://www.crawford-racing.com/cr-fueler CR Fueler Holley EFI piggyback system to run the Whipple. Then the car is off to C&M Performance in Auckland to get both the misfire taken care of and the new gear installed. I would usually do these installs myself but the removal of fuel tanks on modern cars is basically impossible to achieve without a proper workshop, and replacing the clutch on rear transmission cars requires removal of the differential which needs a transmission jack. Hoping for the misfire to be fuel pump related as replacing the wiring loom would be a pain in the gently caress. The car continues to have no signs of any mechanical damage so that's alright.
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Jun 9, 2019 10:21
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This thread is incredible, awesome work man.
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Jun 9, 2019 17:21
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Nice job on the Cressida, i look forward to see it with a kit. C&M is around the corner from where I work, hopefully ill catch sight of it at some point.
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Jun 10, 2019 04:32
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Echotic posted:C&M is around the corner from where I work, hopefully ill catch sight of it at some point. That's cool, I haven't dropped by to talk to them in person yet but from over the phone and from Bunce Motors it sounds like they're likely my best option both for figuring out what the hell is wrong with the car and getting the modifications done. Marcus will be leaving the Cressida as it is for the moment until he can pay me for the work I did on it, but I think the first item on the menu after that is a modern bumper cover conversion - a single piece fibreglass and carbon fibre frontend with an E30 DTM style nose wedge.
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Jun 10, 2019 05:48
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I think the general consensus is that they do good work. Keep us updated when Marcus does get started!
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Jun 11, 2019 06:27
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Had a little side diversion - the girl's Subaru sounded like a box of rocks on the road due to it having no sound deadening from the factory and all the interior tended to make a lot of rattle noise. I didn't take too many photos but we used about four boxes of sound deadener across the entire chassis. Did all four doors with this two step kind of process - first, shoving four 20x60 sized sheets of deadening into the doorskin itself  Then covering all of the flat expanses of the door skin with deadening on the inside, including covering the access windows to prevent any reverb.  -Sealed the rear hatch the same way, removed the headliner and sealed the ceiling, then did the rear wheel arches and panels. -Also used a bunch of butyl mastic to gack all of the plastic fittings throughout the car, and lubed all of the seatbelts to stop them rattling (they're height adjustable on rails and they were rattling like hell). -Roped the rubber doorseals to force them harder against the windows and then crunched the rubber gaskets for the wing mirrors (known issue). -Removed the windscreen rubber seal, which was screaming like hell at speed (known issue), and RTVed it to the windscreen with particular attention paid to the top corners. In the end sound reduction was insane - something in the range of maybe 5-8db. It's enough that the radio is audible at half the volume before, and I'm not bothered enough to figure out the precise math to line that up in db. It no longer makes weird noises past 100kmhr on the road and the buzzes/rattles typical of Subarus are completely gone. Seems she's pleased enough that she now wants to fit a proper audio system with an amp and small subwoofer to the car - maybe a project for the future. Spades fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Jun 18, 2019 |
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Jun 18, 2019 09:39
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Also had a chance encounter. Out of all of the 4 million or so cars registered in NZ, I pulled up for gas at the local one horse town on the way to Auckland and saw the red civic. New owner was keeping the flag flying - it had been keeping up with performing track car duty since I'd seen it last with apparently plenty of time on Hampton Downs.    While I'm not a huge fan of the stickers, the car's had some performance modifications too - a rear quad strut brace, LSD gearbox, DC2 rear disc brakes, coilover suspension, sway bars and new semislicks. Centrifrugal supercharger is in the works as well according to the owner. New owner (second since I sold it) was a big fan of the quality of the work I'd done to it. I don't really do car stuff for anything but the sake of building things (in a way I'm not even much of a fan of cars), but having somebody say that your work is appreciated is nice too. Spades fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Jun 18, 2019 |
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Jun 18, 2019 09:44
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Fuel system and port injection controller are now ordered, at the astronomical cost of $10000 NZD. Since this is for an extreme high end E85 compatible 1500hp system with a top of the line Holley Dominator EFI controller I suppose I can't hardly complain too much. Here's hoping that the misfire is strictly an issue with the fuel pump or otherwise lovely secondary problem and not the symptom of a broken engine block or something.
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Jul 5, 2019 00:21
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Marcus has begun the Bosozoku modifications with a set of jerry rigged Cefiro front suspension knuckles and fender mirrors. The result of the modification has been camber.  the car now rides terribly
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Jul 9, 2019 11:18
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 Cressida up on the alignment machine. Even adjusted as far in as it will go, the front refuses to ride any less than at 4 degrees of camber, which I think means that the car now has a functional tread width of 125. Bosozoku: harsh mistress.
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Jul 13, 2019 08:00
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Getting down to painting and cleaning up the somewhat manky intake ducts that were sent with the LG motorsports intercooler kit. It's not obvious from the pictures  but the finish of the carbon intakes is total dogshit everywhere except for the front facings - seems like they only gave them a very cursory flowcoat to anything that wasn't gelcoated during lay up. The gelcoated portion is also absolutely not remotely presentation grade as it looks like they basically just smeared around a bunch of half-activated CF and let it sit where it lay - a bunch of deformations in the weave are pretty visible.As for the intercoolers and rads, to hide the ricey bare aluminium radiator look I tried using Eastwood radiator paint on my new rads and intercoolers, but the paint is far too thin on the tanks and rubs off easily, so I've picked up some other high heat enamel to paint just the tanks, masking the cooling fins off so they don't get saturated. The fins will keep the eastwood paint which works just fine on them. I'll post some pictures later when everything is completed.
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Aug 6, 2019 05:23
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Haven't had a chance to compile the Corvette photos yet - it will be dropped off in Auckland come the 23rd and should hopefully be a relatively straightforward thing to fix. Meanwhile, I've been home trying to get the Commodore in working order. I removed the crank from the donor car, which required doing more landscaping than anything else, and fought around Holden's terrible engineering. Fun facts - 1) A 1987 Commodore still uses SAE bolts, unlike pretty much any other car that exists 2) The entire exhaust back to the manifold collector flange is one piece with no flanges, for "impossibly difficult" removal 3) The exhaust manifold's bolts to the exhaust flange bolt downwards, directly above the crossmember and just behind the engine mount, making them largely impossible to reach Somehow I didn't end up sawzalling the exhaust manifold in half and got the engine out. Pictures to come. Also, I started the non-donor car up to move it off of the filth lagoon that had formed under it. Not only does the crank walk, but the water pump is dead now too. so the engine has a sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5itHL3d54
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Sep 11, 2019 06:27
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So, pictures then - These are the intakes after the dogshit-crappy supercheapauto brand clear coat reacted and I had to paint thin all of the stuff off.  And done started all over again.  I found the donor car, hiding   And got started with only the highest quality tools  Factory-original crossthreading!  Unhooked most of the accessories and got the block mobile    Lay it down and it puked the last bit of chocolate milk  Found out what must have seized the oil pickup and caused the front cylinder to explode - it ate its timing gears and nobody bothered to remove the bits from the sump pan  rear end-busted.  Crank and caps out.  Took the crank, cleaned all the surfaces and lubed up with assembly grease and put in a trash sack for storage  While I'm at it, a photo of the outside of the project car. 
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Sep 19, 2019 05:34
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While I'm home, dad also roped me into showing him the basics of wood finishing. So I present, auto-boat-ive insanity. Started with a horrendously scratchy finish done with cheap brushes, a single coat of poly on undressed pine ply.  Stripped and conditioned the wood to bring the grain out a little.  Applied stain.  Disaster set in when it decided to monsoon for three days, causing the stain to incorrectly cure and thus all fall off when the poly melt coat was applied. Dad helped me scrape off the entire finish while screaming occured.  To avoid the problem happening again, mixed a small portion of polyurethane with a different color of stain to ensure it had holdout.  Applied 3 coats of poly, sanding between each coat  Sanded down final coat with wet sanding and then polished to flat shine. Dad seems satisfied.   Higher res for reference. 
Spades fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Sep 19, 2019 |
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Sep 19, 2019 05:39
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And now I'm back in Hamilton to get things ready for the Corvette to be worked on next week, and glad to be away from the weird boomer-hoarder hellhole that is dad's place. Have sorted out tow and ETA so let's see how many entire cars worth of labor it all costs. Spades fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Sep 19, 2019 |
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Sep 19, 2019 05:40
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Holy poo poo, the finish on that boat.
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Sep 19, 2019 08:32
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