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7 Jul 06 Body and Paint |
| The body has
been sitting in the sun on the cut down body buck for the
last three months.
The seams have been knocked down, but that's about it. |
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14 Jul 06 Body Fit |
| The TPS and
MAF air tube hit the hood, we removed the phenolic spacer
to move TPS towards the center. We then removed the tube
and turned it inward and held it in place with JB Weld.
I really did not want to remove the upper intake and mill
down the spacer. Note: We have since changed over to a carburetor. |
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| I made an adjustable
bracket to support the center of the rear cowl area between
the seats. |
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| We hacked up
the roll bar holes in order to get the bars to go in place.
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Filler neck and ground
wires, I noticed that the cap does not contact the filler
neck, so I ran a wire to both. Note that the Le Mans cap
comes apart so you can install it; the base will unscrew.
Tighten the base on the cap
securely, then position it on the car to drill the mounting
holes. Point the hinge towards the driver's roll bar.
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| 30 July More
Body Stuff |
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| I drilled some
holes in the body so the taillights would sit flush. The
small brass screw blocks are slightly raised and kept it
from fitting snugly. The rubber gasket holds them in place,
should I need to remove the lens.
If you tighten the light against
the body, the lens screws will be loose, since the brass
blocks hit the body, be sure to check them.
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13 Aug More Body Fit |
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| The drivers
door fits OK after hitting the edges with the belt sander.
The magnet stuck to the fiberglass
tells me there is metal where the hinges mount.
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| Since the scoop
is the focal point of the hood, I aligned the scoop
with string so its centered in the car and let the hood
edges run wild.
Look closely at the slots
in the hood hinges, they are at opposite ends of the adjustment
travel, that's what it took to get the scoop aligned!
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| After reading
about the hood bowing from the gas struts, I decided not
to use them even though the struts were the 20 lb units.
I think the rod looks more "period correct" in these cars
anyway. I made a prop
rod out of stainless steel. A plastic bearing and
clip prevent it from rattling under the hood.
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With the body on, the small access panel works great!.
A panel that spanned the top of the foot box will be impossible
to remove with the body in place. |
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| I did get a
little carried away with the sander in some places. |
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| A couple of
pictures with the body on. Lots more to do! |
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| It looks like
a car! I'm not pleased
with the look of the front mid-lip wheels, the spinner protrudes
quite a bit past the body, more than I thought it would.
Hmmm....
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23 Dec 06 Body Work |
| HSRF
sticks best to raw fiberglass, not gel coat. the Rage will
stick to either. The surfaces must be prepared properly
by sanding and cleaning. To use the HSRF sand thru the gel
coat.
The body was washed with
solvent to remove any mold-release compound.
Acetone will remove the fillers
before they cure, once hardened, the acetone has no effect.
It will also remove the Great Stuff foam before it cures.
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The correct amount
of hardener is 1 1/2 to 3%. Here's an easy way to
measure it:
On the pallet that you mix the filler on, put the
amount you are going to mix up in the shape of a
circle. With the spreader divide the circle in half,
50%. Divide the half in half, 25%, half again, 12.5%,
half again, 6.25% half again, 3.125% (maximum) half
again, 1.5% (minimum). |
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| I purposely
waited until the winter to start the bodywork - sanding
in 100 degree heat and 100% humidly is no fun.
I spent two full days on the
hood, getting the scoop opening edge straight and the inside
fairly smooth.
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27 Dec 06 Door Foam |
| I decided to
fill the doors with foam so they would have a more solid
feel and sound when closed. I drilled 8 3/8" holes around
the edge, extended the Great Stuff nozzle with a straw and
started filling. I gave each hole a one or two second squirt
and then let the foam expand and cure for 2 hours.
The Great Stuff foam cures with humidity and air, so you
can spray the inside of the door with water to speed up
curing. |
Note: The doors do NOT need
to be completely full of foam when finished. 50 - 75% full
should achieve the desired effect.
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| Be sure to pull
the metal plate against the inside of the door with a couple
of nuts before filling with foam.
Two much foam and no relief
holes will cause the door to split when the foam expands.
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| Go slowly around
the lock area.
Fill the cavities no more
than 1/4th full and let the foam expand. It took me two
tries to get the doors partially filled. If the foam comes
gushing out of the holes or elsewhere, you've added way
too much! Obviously.
You can feel the difference
when you pick up the doors, the foam adds a few pounds.
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Tip: You can shine a light
thru the holes and peek inside to see how much foam is really
in the larger cavities. Don't forget your SAFETY GLASSES!
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28 Dec 06 Doors |
| 3M HSRF patches
the broken door edge and fills the holes used to spray in
the foam.
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| A major low
spot is clearly visible near the end of the sander.
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| The passenger
door was a mess, the fiberglass was paper thin at the top
seam and full of holes. I cleaned it up with the Dremel
and a wire brush, and put a coat of HSRF on it.
Be sure to find and fill all
of the pin holes! Beat on the fiberglass with the wire brush
to break thru any weak areas. Use the Dremel tool
to enlarge the cracks and holes so you can work the HSRF
into them.
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Look closely and you can see
the foam inside the door -- its not completely full.
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29 Dec 06 More Doors |
| A body file
or rasp saves a lot of work! Hit the obvious high spots
and big chunks on the body filler to knock them down. Don't
get too carried away, otherwise you'll have to fill the
marks left from the rasp. |
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| Test fit of
the driver's door - so far so good.
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30 Dec 06 Trunk |
| I sanded the
raw fiberglass and put a coat of filler over it. I'm not
looking for perfection here, but the raw fiberglass had
to go! I used up all
of the Rage Gold (It was left over and given to me by a
friend) so I switched to Extreme, the Extreme is a
different color and is a little creamier than the Gold.
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| Body shop trick
- most body fillers can be thinned with fiberglass
resin at 1 part resin to 2 parts filler. They are basically
the same stuff -- polyester resin and styrene (notice
the smell) the filler contains talc or some other material
to thicken it. Check some of the body shop forums for more
info. Evercoat sells a thinning product called Plastic Honey,
but its a little hard to find. |
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| The trunk was
pretty wavy, so I skim coated it with Rage. I was not sure
if the Feather Fill would fill it -- I have never
used it before and I was not taking any chances. I thinned
the skim coat about 1 part resin to 2 parts filler; It being
a cool day (60's) it helped the filler flow out.
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| While I was
at it, I skim coated the doors too.
Some folks say you should
not break thru the skim coat, not sure it matters so long
as the surface is flat and later sealed.
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| The skim coated
and sanded hood and doors, on to the body! |
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| I bonded the
hinge and prop rod mounts to the hood using the HSRF along
with rivets to give a little extra strength. Be sure to
remove the gelcoat when using the HSRF.
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13 Jan 07 - Body |
| We blocked the
entire body with 80 grit paper. We also cleaned up some
of the fender lines and other openings. No rolled edges
or anything special. But there are some scallops in the
cowl to make removing the dash screws easier. |
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| Changed over
to the big guns for the body. I wanted to get as much done
this weekend as possible to take advantage of the 70 degree
weather and nothing beats a Dual Action sander for speed.
If you use a DA, keep it in constant motion, the second
you stop, you'll have a flat spot. Be careful on the
curved surfaces, otherwise you will put in more waves than
you take out. |
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4
Mar 07 - Body |
| After a month
of cold weather, it finally warmed up enough to do some
more body work. I added twp strips of aluminum to the inside
of the vent area so the Velcro would have a flat surface.
The chassis is covered with
plastic to keep some of the dust off while we test fit the
body again.
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| The body has
to be lifted fairly high to clear the seats and then pulled
back to clear them as the rear is lowered. |
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TIP: Use a mini-sand blaster
or even a full-sized blaster at low pressure to get the
areas you can't sand easily.
And you thought pro body
shops sanded every nook and cranny by hand.
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| I sanded the
underside of the body with 80 grit paper to remove bad spots
and loose fiberglass before apply the bed liner. I used
the PasticCoat brand black bed liner coating from Wal-Mart.
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| The PasticCoat
s a 1 part compound. 1 gallon was enough for 1 coat over
the entire underside and 2 coats in the wheel wells. It
looks just like the more expensive Hurcliner or other brands
when dry. I put a 3rd
coat on the wheel wells and maybe a 4th after the car is
painted and assembled. Hopefully, 3 coats will prevent star
cracks in the fiberglass from stones and other debris thrown
off by the tires.
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25 Mar 07 - Body |
| Spraying the
Feather Fill. 2.2 tip, gun opened all the way up, and the
filter removed. The gun still clogged up once and the stuff
came out like mud. |
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| Next step is
wet sanding. Feather Fill G2 can be wet sanded, its not
recommended to wet sand some of the older Feather Fill formulas.
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1 Apr 07 -Stripe Layout |
| The Feather
fill has been wet sanded with 400 grit paper and has been
setting in the sun for a week.
We laid out the stripes before
painting and marked the layout using a tiny drill bit. The
holes will be hardy noticeable after its painted and can
be filled and touched up if desired. The stripes are tapered.
When you lay out the trunk stripes be sure to insert the
hinges in the holes to align the lid.
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| Ready for paint
-- letting the body and filler cure one more week. |
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22 Apr 07 -Paint |
| Well took several
more weeks before the weather finally broke. Here the car
has been sealed with epoxy primer/sealer. What you
can't see is the hours spent wet sanding it because I misread
the mixing instructions and ended up with a lot of dry spray
and orange peel. |
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| The stripe gets
painted. Its 2002 Toyota Wine Berry Pearl. Ensure you use
a coated paper to mask the stripes, if not the paper may
soak though making a mess (ask how I know that)
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| Done! The main
color is 1997 Saab Midnight Blue Metallic. |
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| 1 coat sealer
2 coats wine berry
2 coats midnight blue
(probably should have done 3 coats, then
1 mist coat to bring out the metallic)
4 coats medium solids clear.
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| It still needs to be
wet sanded ad buffed, there is a lot of orange peel but
surprising not much trash -- several sweat drops, 2 flies
and a spider. There is also a spot on the stripe that is
a little mottled from another mistake. |
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| These pictures
are a truer representation of the color, they were taken
with a different digital camera. Overall, not bad
for a couple of amateurs -- thanks for the help Skip. |
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6 May 07 - Wet Sand and
Buff |
| Wet sanded and
ready to be buffed. Its been sanded with 1000, 1500
and 2000 paper. We did not try to sand every bit of orange
peel out, its not a show car and it was better to leave
some orange peel in rather than having to re-spray the clear
if we burned thru the clearcoat. |
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| The body after
the first phase of buffing, we used the Norton Liquid Ice
kit. More wet sanding and buffing to follow. |
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| Ugly solvent
pops on the door that were too deep to sand out. There were
about a dozen pops or fisheyes in various spots.
I filled them with
clearcoat using a small applicator similar to how stone
chips are repaired. Will let them harden for a few days
before taking the razor blade and sandpaper to them.
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| The filled areas
have been scraped level with a razor blade. Be careful here,
I scraped some a little too deep and had lots of wet sanding
to do to level them out. |
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24 May 07 - Wet Sand
and Buff Finished! |
| I used the Norton
Liquid Ice buffing kit, it consists of one compound with
3 different wheels. You can see the results in the pictures
to the right. I went over the car several times, wet
sanding areas that needed a little more attention, then
re-buffed. There is
lots of mistakes in the paint and body, most are not very
obvious and are hardly noticeable.
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Note the quality of these pictures
has not been lowered, and hence the file size reduced, to
speed up downloads.
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| 11 Jun
07 - Roll Bars and Wheel Wells |
| The roll bar
trims rings and roil bars get installed. Even if you use
the trim rings, get the holes in the body close, the rings
are not very wide and will not cover excessively large gaps. |
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| The gaps between
the body and inner sheetmetal were not very large, about
an inch at the largest spot. I filled this area with spray
foam and used a little left over undercoating on it.
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