it looked great on the lid. Then on the sawhorses. But not on the actual car.
Back to brg....
it looked great on the lid. Then on the sawhorses. But not on the actual car.
Back to brg....
im getting sick of sanding....
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
I'm sick of it from here!
But you're sooo good at it!
Eating the elephant....
That looks gooooood
Thanks! Pretty happy with how itc coming considering how everything was damaged when i started. That hood came out nice! Both fenders have minimal filler (less than before, and straighter than before(. Same with the quarters.
The wetsanding and washing is the only way i can really check my progress, and at this stage, im spot on where i want to be!
i had a car in primer for so long i went ahead and painted it a wet cement gray...
In reply to stafford1500 :
Surrounded by a sea of greyscale all day while driving for work, i can't bring myself to do it. Its why it's not gunmetal/charcoal grey. Great looking color, like it, but....
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
I've seen an NB that was painted a deep, non-metallic gray. It was almost the same colour as some storage tanks we had where I worked, but nice and shiny....it looked gorgeous. Kind of old school ,from the days before metallic paint became mainstream.
Like this blue-gray sorta.....but a bit darker.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
Some day I'll do a Duster-style driveway/garage paint job. Looks awesome, keep it up!
In reply to AxeHealey :
Do as much as possible outside. Its what I do. Keeps the mess down.
And make sure to keep the garage doors closed so the dust doesn't blow back in.
engine bay prepped for seam sealer. This is a huge milestone in paint readiness.
Time to make pretty seam sealer, something I've never successfully done before. Im watching YouTube videos and reading old posts about mineral spirits, cloves, brushes and tape. Going to practice ob hidden seams first to make sure i have the flow down before i do the ones i care about.
test run went well enough.
Now for the important part.
the girls helped. Made it go quick and easy.
they dont know this is our Christmas card picture this year....
and done. Ill sand down the rough spots in a few days when it cures, and should look decent under paint. Not factory, but good enough....
Budget update first
Previous total:1325.87 with 1880 recoup
New money:
Gallon of deltron in final color: 281.67 (I won’t use it all, will pro rate later)
Gallon kit of matrix ms52 clear 175 (I won’t use it all, will pro rate later)
Gallon reducer: 30 (won’t use it all, will pro rate later)
Front lip: 45.99
Nb2 bracing set: 100
4 m6 weld nuts: 1.70
New totals: 1720.62 with 2000 recoup
Well, it’s been a minute….
Like 4 months’ worth of minutes.
I’ve kind of done a little bit of work in that time.
The angle iron butterfly brace mounts were cut off . that job SUCKED. But needed to be done, and will allow for factory routing of fuel and brake lines with factory clips.
20241002_200742 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Then went ahead and painted the underside bare spots with some leftover black. No pictures, but will take some after exterior paint when I do the real coat of blacken the wheel wells and undercarriage.
Next up, I added the studs through the floor to mount the factory butterfly brace from an NB2
20241004_193645 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20241004_193623 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Welded in some chunks of 14 gauge where the rollbar lands. Reasoning is, this will be rollbar number 5(?) in this car. Its getting kind of cheesy and weak where they land. So I wanted to reinforce or at least bring back to factory integrity. I welded the supports in underneath so as to not affect the rollbar installation. It was ground down and wiped with black paint. Welded from both sides as well!
20241004_193651 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
While talking rollbar, y’all may have noticed that my package tray is VERY hacked up. My solution here was to gut oversized patched from the parts car to pop rivet in place. Reason I’m not welding is that I want to be able to remove the plates to make rollbar servicing easier if ever needed. While in there, took a couple scraps of 90-degree metal to recreate the front landing areas that I cut out where the Sheetmetal cover bolts down. Also, speaking of rollbar servicing, I sent Bethania garage an email about the bar that was in the wreck. They sent me new hardware free of charge! Amazing company right there. I need to get padding and a cover from them for this bar….
20240927_192132 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I guess that now brings us to bodywork. And there’s a LOT of bodywork.
Ill try not to bore you stupid with the details….
I noticed some cracking filler in the drivers rear quarter. When I did this car for the last challenge run, I stripped plastidip, sanded and painted. I had no idea what was under the paint. This time, I wanted to make it a much nicer car. I knew I had to get the rustoleum off, but still was tentative on how deep to go. My decision was made here.
20240919_181527 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240919_191845 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
It’s all got to go…
So, it did. Quarter was ushed in about an inch from where it should have been. Lip beat to death, taillight didn’t fit, filler up to the door….
20240925_182719 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Hours of panel beating got me here. Which I thought was GREAT.
20240926_192519 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
After priming, I realized it wasn’t. so, more hours of panel beating ensued. And welding up the slide hammer holes. And making tools. And borrowing a stud gun. And ….
20241019_083944 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Eventually I got happy with it for a skim coat of filler.
The rest of the car was stripped to bare metal. I used these coral reef looking discs for my 4-inch grinder. They did a FANTASTIC job as long as I didn’t hit an edge with them. Or my flesh.
20241006_141653 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
All the metal exterior panels were stripped in this manner. All exterior panels required hammer and dolly work. Every single one. These discs will DESTROY plastic. Do not touch.
20241006_150558 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I then bought 300lbs of crushed glass, loaded up my truck and the Miata, and took it to a friends place to blast the engine bay and jambs. I tucked the windshield molding in on itself and taped of the glass top protect it.
20241007_082315 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
9 hours later, I had this
20241007_145350 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20241008_170102 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
We then prepped every surface with 180 grit, shot the epoxy and high build and a guide coat.
20241012_124319 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
And proceeded to hell of blocking. Very minimal filler, but I used every bit of high build and 320/500 sandpaper I had to get it here.
20241219_065104 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Thanksgiving Day and day after, my family and I tried to do the best job of clean seam sealing on the engine bay we could. After watching all the videos and reading all the articles, I decided we would tape off and smooth with mineral sprits and a glove.
20241127_193018 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20241128_092450 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20241128_093839 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
So that brings us almost up to current. I have some body parts ion color, as my friend brad is spraying them for me in his heated homemade paint booth. However, he had brain surgery recently, so we are waiting to finish until he recovers. Thankfully they got the whole tumor.
Until next time folks.
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