LS1 Conversion, A Retrospective Build Thread Options

[andys]

Here's the start of a retrospective build thread of my LS1 conversion. It took a few years to get it done mostly due to not wanting to be a slave to the project, and work on it for the enjoyment; and of course when family obligations allowed......teen daughter and high maintenance wife (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

What I started with was a local orignal owner '75 2.0 with 139K miles. The original owner "drove the heck out of it" until something died in the electrical system and he parked it in the garage for 14 years, as evidenced by the renewal tags. Only body damage was when he submarined the rear of a Mustang and creased the hood and flattened the left signal light pod. Otherwise, it was a good condition rust free (SoCal) car.

Brief specs are: '01 LS1 Z28 motor, Audi 01E 6 speed tranaxle, 911 front suspension, custom made rear trailing arms, Koni shocks, 993 wheels, and AC.

Below, are photos of what I started with, and what I ended-up with. I'll do my best to re-trace the build process, so if you have any questions along the way, please ask.

BTW, how does one place text between photos in the same post?

Andys

[andys]

I'm jumping around a bit, however lets go ahead and paint the car.

I'll start with paint and materials. I went with PPG base coat/clear coat (Deltron 2000 DBC base, and Deltron DCU2010 clear). The color is M7Z GT Silber (silver), which is a Porsche color. I chose this particular silver because it has a deep rich look, rather than some of the more pale silver's. Interesting that when I watched the store mix the paint, they added black to it hence the darkness and richness.....at least that's my take.

I bought a sanding block kit from Summit (Dura-Block) and some rolls of various grit 2 3/4" wide adhesive backed sandpaper also from Summit. The sandpaper is Carborundom Gold (not to be confused with Kona (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ), which costs 1/3 less than the 3M brand. I already had some long boards, and various other sanding blocks, and used them all.

For Primer, I used PPG Deltron DP40LF epoxy, and chose the straight gray color to maintain the deep look in the color coat. For body filler I used , for the first time, Rage Gold which I like very much. I strongly recommend this product; super quality in my book. For high build primer, I used Shop Line JP205 gray polyester, which is made by PPG.

There was an assortment of dings and dents that required the requisite bodywork, but most, unfortunately, were on blind panels, so I couldn't get a dolly behind the dents. I made ample use of my HF stud gun in these areas and used the body filler as required. To get the filling and blending just right, it took A LOT OF WORK for what seemed like never ending sanding, priming, sanding, priming....well you get the picture. I don't think I'll ever do another one again!

I ended up with three HVLP guns. For the epoxy primer, I used the slightly better quality HF gun with a 1.4 nozzle. For the high build primer, I used a cheapie HF gun and drilled out the nozzle to 1.9; it worked out very well for this application @ 40psi. For the base and clear, I used a quality Eastwood gun with a 1.4 nozzle. I had other nozzles, but this worked well in both cases.

I rented a spray booth from a guy that does a lot of the local hotrod work (as a retirement hobby), and I took a lot of advice from him. Thanks Howard! I towed the car there, which was about 12 miles, and spent two looong days priming, base, and clear coating. I layed down three coats of base, and tthree coats of clear. I used about 2 1/2 quarts of base, and about 3 1/2 quarts of clear for both inside, and out. The doors were removed, as were the hood, trunk, targa, and engine cover and painted while hanging in the booth. After three days (I think), I color sanded the clear (1000, then 1200) before it got too hard. I left it in the color sanded state until I assembled the car, and then went about buffing it out. I used 3M Perfect-It #6085 (step 1), and Perfect-It #6064 (step 2). My biggest hurdle was finding a machine pad that I was happy with, and went through several before I got something that produced a good result. I could have gone finer yet, but this is not a show quality car and I stopped there.

All this is from memory (poor memeory at that!), so perhaps I've left something out or got something wrong, but you get the idea. As always, pleaes ask.

Andys