What the World needs now is... a progress thread, An update after 2 years? Unpossible! Yet, true. Options

[Dr Evil]

Bummer, I know how you feel. I thought you were going to spray it in the grass behind your garage. Live and learn. I am not clear in what you are saying with the diff, the ring gear looked good to me when I was there. Are the spider gears in the center binding? I would not have power washed it, you should spray some WD40 or gear oil on it so it does not corrode while you are on vacation.
We will get it figured out. Take a break.

[VaccaRabite]

I was worried about killing the grass. I had no idea how much of a mess I was making until several hours passed by. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon8.gif)

I did not powerwash the diff. Just sprayed it with brakeclean and worked out all the broken race/bearing parts. Hopefully it is fine, and I just got to a saturation point and did not want to deal with it. Water did not touch it, so hopefully there will be no corrosion. I tried to be careful not to power wash anything that was made of steel.

Zach

[Dr Evil]

Its all good, Homey. We will make it work.

[VaccaRabite]

Okay, I got back from vacation, and it was WAY to hot to try and do any work in the garage. Plus, I was too busy getting back into the work swing again.

Anyhow, this weekend the temps broke, and I got a lot done on the 914.
I totally wet sanded the tub with 400 paper, in some spaces all the way down to primer. I had messed up the paint by letting it dry between coats , so this was needed. I filled some dimples I found with filler (it seems I am always finding more dimples) and spot primed over the filler. Sand some more. Then I shot it again with several coats of paint (I hate tossing good paint, so I just kept putting on coats - probably 1 wet and 4 thin coats on the tub). It looks _SO_ much better! There is orange peel, but not very much of it. This took most of Saturday.

Today was supposed to be a riding day (60 miles) but Erin said that we had too much to do around the house (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) I think she was just too sleepy to ride. Anyway, as soon as I was released from chores I headed back out to the garage.

My doors are still in primer, so I sanded them smooth. There were some areas that needed more filler, so I fixed them and sanded them smooth. I was hoping to get them shot with color, but then I remembered that I had not even started prepping the headlight covers and eyebrows. I decided that I was going to try just knocking off the shine from the old paint, and then caoting them in epoxy. So that is what I did. Block sanded with 180 grit till the shine was removed from the old paint, and then mixed up an ounce of epoxy and shot them.

Tomorrow, after I get home from work and cut the grass, I'll spot prime the area on the doors that needed more filler, and hit the head light covers and eyebrows with sanding primer. If the weather stays below 90, I might actually have all the green painting down on the car, and will be able to start putting it back together. I think that I am going to get the seals on, and then re-attach the hoods and doors before I color sand. That way it is all done at once. Also, I need the hoods and tops on the car when I paint the black stripes so that everything will be alligned correctly.

I remember being pretty burned out on the car before I left for vacation, but right now I feel totally energized about it.

Zach

[Dr Evil]

Sooo, its a race then, eh? I think I can beat you to the finish line with my car......
Ninja, DRIVE! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

What, no clear coat?

[VaccaRabite]

Sooo, its a race then, eh? I think I can beat you to the finish line with my car......
Ninja, DRIVE! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

What, no clear coat?

Nope, no clear. The paint is a single stage.

If I can totally rebuild my car before you can get you built car running, I am so never letting you live it down.

Zach

[iamchappy]

Zach I dropped my car off at the body shop today, it looks like they will paint it for me,
i had it all in primer which needed to be blocked once more.
I ran out of time on it.

Word is my mother is not expected to live much longer so i will be leaving for Florida Wednesday to be there.

When i return hopefully i can start to assemble my years worth of goodies purchased for the car.

The restoration threads make it tough on all of us, there are so many guys building and restoring these cars to the highest degree that the bar has been set so high it makes things difficult to refurbish a car less than that. I finally drew the line, with
the realization that my car is going to be really really nice but it doesn't have to be perfect. Set backs happen I was up late last night putting the final touches on my custom GT valance, when i got to the body shop with it installed on the car it had stress cracks in two places.

Good luck with yours and take pride in the job that you have done, it will be sooooo
nice.

Chap

[VaccaRabite]

Oh, my car is still going to have its sticking points with me, body wise. But I decided to draw the line and forge ahead. The drivers side rear quarter panel is wavy. It had 3/8 an inch of old bondo that covered up what looked like someone just hit the hell out of it with a hammer. Though the title on it is clear, it is also clear that my car was in a colision at some point, and the entire drivers side was pretty messed up. I got it pretty smooth, but you can tell that there are still waves in my bondo job. But I needed to move on, if I ever wanted to get the car painted.

I have had several points where I just wanted to take the car to a pro and have them fix the body. In the end I figured that the imperfections would just be my fingerprint on the project.

In a way I am lucky. I can't afford to pay somone to do it for me. It forces me to persevere. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Zach

[VaccaRabite]

This is a learning process. This is a learning process. This is a learning process.

And I have plenty of extra paint.

So, I was prepping to spray my last coat of green today. The doors are primed and smooth, as are the eyebrows and headlamp covers. I need to spray the undersides of the trunk lids and the edges of the targa top as well. I was hopeing to just be able to shoot them all tonight. But it was not to be.

After I "finished" my primer sanding on the doors, I started positioning tings to get painted. My restoration bay is *REALLY* crowded right now, so I needed to think it out.

As I was moving panels around, I looked at the targa top, and saw these little gray dots. Huh. I figured some sanding dust has gotten under the plastic, but the dots did not wash out. Then I looked at the other trunk lids... The rear trunk lid had the gray dots, and the front trunk lid had some light spots where I could see through the paint.

Deep breaths. I've beaten all the other roadblocks, I can beat this one too. It just pushes me back a little further.

I know what happened (pretty sure it is solvent pops), and I suppose this is all part of the learning curve with painting, just like blowing holes is part of the learning curve with welding. Sadly, this means that all of my first round of color painting had to be redone.

SO!

I need to do to these panels the same thing that I did to the tub. Wet sand them all with 400 and then 800 grit paper, and reshoot. Then I will have to reshoot them again to get the underside.

No problem. I can do the wet sanding tomorrow, and then shoot them over the weekend.

The good news is that I still have _plenty_ of paint. I had bought an entire gallon of color, and if I knew what I was doing from the start I would not have needed nearly that much - 3 quarts at the most to shoot the entire car and have a little extra. As it is, I have extra paint to reshoot all these goofs.

I'm not letting myself get discouraged. Its just part of the learning curve. The next time I paint a car (and there wil be a next time, I know) I will know better.

Damn, do I ever work slow.

Zach

[stepuptotheMike]

so what caused the solvent pops? How would they have been avoided?

Hang in there.... this has been a great thread and has been a great help as I'm still a long ways away from even thinking about buying paint (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

-Mike

[VaccaRabite]

Solvent pops form when something goes wrong. Too much solvent (reducer) mixed in the paint, the paint is shot too heavy, or it is too hot (or a combo - inb my case probably too hot and too heavy) The result is the same, the solvent seperates form the paint, and pops to the top of the coat, leaving a void. It needs to be sanded out and reshot.

These things happen. Every time that I need to correct something, I need to remind myself that I am starting from ZERO prior experience with HVLP guns, or auto painting. Also, I need to remind myself that every time I correct something, it looks way better then the last time.

This is taking me a lot longer then most people, but I don't care. in the end, there won't be a single process in auto restoration that I won't understand.

Zach

[VaccaRabite]

So, tonight I sanded the trunk lids down largely down to primer, and reprimed, using up the last of my 2K sanding primer in the process. That took about 3 hours.

Tomorrow Dr. Evils woman is coming over to hang out with mine, before we have to go to the wedding of one of my wifes friends. I am going to NEED some garage time, its going to be freak'n estrogen fest at chez Nall. Depending on what time I get out of bed, I'll sand the primer, clean and shoot color. Tomorrow the temps are supposed to be unseasonably cool, so getting a chance to paint will be a _really_ good thing.

Zach

[Spoke]

Lookin' good. Keep up the good work. Remember, it's a hobby and as such, does not need to be completed on any given timetable or does it need to be completed the first time around.

I always try to keep in mind that my forte is not auto painting, or bodywork, or welding, or whatever I do on my car and any job I tackle will take much much longer to complete and will require do-overs. But in the end, I have the satisfaction of saying I did it.

Love the green color. Can't wait to see it all together. There's something about seeing a tub with no rust and painted from stem to stern just like it came out of the factory.

Spoke

[JPB]

Sounds like you have what it takes to do a great job. If you overmill your paint a little bit, you can color sand it down to a perfect finish. Nice to see you are having fun with it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

[VaccaRabite]

Last night I further confirmed that my car will never be a CW car.

I put on gas shocks in the rear trunk, and ordered another set from CAMP for the front trunk.

my thought it that I want to get the panels aligned before I color sand everything. Rational being that if I color sand, and then ding the panel, it will be more work then if the panel gets dinged before color sanding.

And as I did ding the panel getting the front and rear trunks mounted again, I think I made the right choice. I had new seals for the rear trunk, and have decided that the front trunk also needs new seals - they look too ratty.

I am pleased with the gas shocks, but I see room for improvement. The rear ones were not from CAMP, and one of them was plenty strong enough to hold up the stock rear trunk (though I installed both). Also, I want to put some rubber washers where they bolt in, to form gaskets to keep water from getting to the metal there. I had to move the shocks inboard about 1/4 inch each from the indicated position on the instructions in order to keep them from binding on closing. I have not yet tested to make sure that the targa still fits in, and I will need to do that before I consider the job "done."

I bought these shocks a while back (over a year ago, everything seems to blend in time now...), and since then have heard that the camp kit is a better kit. However, I like the fact that this kit did not require any cutting of the trunk to make them fit. If the targa dose not fit, however... Well, I will dive off that bridge when I get there.

From this point forward, I will be color sanding, and sanding out a few fish eyes in the front trunk hood and targa top. Frankly, I am tempted just to let them be. my bondo job on the rear driver quarter panel is not as smooth as I had hoped (hey, it was a lot of bondo) so the paint job won't be perfect. but I know myself, and I will end up sanding out all the little imperfections, even if I am the only one that knows they are there.

I would not be surprised if I ended up working the rear quarter as well, trying to get it smoother. But that is not going to be a "right now" project.

Zach

[VaccaRabite]

A special reply for McMark :^)

backfires galore! with Evil and Scottyb

Vroom vroom - no oil leaks, and I get shocked

My motor ran for the first time Satruday at Root's place. I was very happy, until Chris busted out a leak down tester to try out for the first time.
All the cylinders held compression between 180 and 120 PSI. GREAT.
Cylinders 2-4 passed leakdown between 15-18%.

Well, 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

Cylinder 1 had a leak down of 45% Crap.
But wait, it held 120 PSI compression, what the hell.

Turns out that there is a slight (SLIGHT) gap where the head was amchined to the cylinder. I am going to try to lap it into shape, instead of taking the head to get cut to fix it.

Also, the #2 spark plug hole has been helicoiled, and the coil was unwinding. I'm going to time-cert it, since I already have the head off.

I have my pedal cluster rebuilt and almost back together. it looks AWESOME- I just need to finsh re-assemblly and put it in the car.

The wire harness is in my basement. An ENGMAN fuse panel is ready to go in. The wires look good for the most part. I;ll need to do a little fixing, but then the harness can go back in the car.

So, my goals fro before Xmas:
Fix the head.
Get the pedal cluster back installed.
get the wireharness back in.
install my SS tunnel line (and sell the return line since I went to carbs.)
fix the two big scratches that I put in my paint by (1) dropping the duck-tail and (2) hitting the car while installing a drill press in the restoration bay last week.

Progress is being made. Slowly.

Zach

[McMark]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif)

Bummer about the leak down. I think I need to get one of those gauges.

[VaccaRabite]

So... Progress?

Well, not really. I have been buried with work and classes. But my last final for the semester is Nov17th, so I should be abel to get working again after that.

But, I have gotten some small tasks done.

I got my windshield in. Glued in with black rubber trim instead of butyl tape and silver trim. I used PPG glass, and it kinda sucked. Alon the edges, you can see where they glued the layers of glass together. I also had to go around the entire windshield with a razor to remove all the dried glue that had squished out. Are these really the best ones out there?

I painted on the duPont frit paint - not as well as I would have lked, but it looks good enough. The car will never be a show car.

That was about 2 weeks ago.

Every now and again I go in the garage and think about doing some work, but remember that I have a ton of other chores to do and don't get anything done.

Tonight I poked my head in and pretended I was working for about 15 minutes, before heading back inside.

Soon... soon...

Zach

[Bogaat]

So... Progress?

I got my windshield in. Glued in with black rubber trim instead of butyl tape and silver trim. I used PPG glass, and it kinda sucked. Alon the edges, you can see where they glued the layers of glass together. I also had to go around the entire windshield with a razor to remove all the dried glue that had squished out. Are these really the best ones out there?

Zach

Dude, don't even get me started on PPG glass. My glass guy came out with 5 different ones and none of them fit! To clarify, they fit so tight that any insertion of the alum trim would crack the glass. Three of them had a high spot in the middle top and had to be pushed down to seal. This would probably have cracked given a little time. They left no where near the side/top clearance that the original did. I got them to order one from George and it should be going in the car later today. I am hoping it fits a whole lot better. I am tired of dealing with the windshield. I should plug Safelite though...these guys have lost so much cash on this and they are going to honor the original quote...even with the higher priced AA glass/shipping. They haven't even mentioned giving up. Keep it up man...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif) . I should hopefully be taking mine for it's maiden voyage later this evening...just need glass and CV joints (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[dakotaewing]

Zach, dude....


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