What trade school are you in?

 

Molotovman: Yeah, its a really nice car to start with. Everything is completely cut out and open, so it makes it alot easier to access the backside of the part I'm working on...

nycgps: Thanks! Practice, practice, practice!

rotaryracer1: I go to a school called Thaddeus Stevens School of Technology in Lancaster, PA.

Not much of an update today, just got the pass side door sanded down and another coat of plastic laid down:

 

No new pics, but I got the pass side door sanded/another coat of plastic put on it.

Someone hit the other door with something and put a nice size dent in the bottom where the rock guard coating normally is, so I get to fix that now too. Oh well. This should be the last update with phone camera pictures, I got my camera located and working.

Motor should be done within the next two weeks, were still waiting on clutch and flywheel though

 

What happened to the engine? Did it you have to rebuild it?

 

The motor came apart at the last race at about 10 grand. I can't remember what the problem was with it, I'd have to get back to you on that. My dad and the owner would know, but I have alot going on and I dont exactly remember.

We are building another motor... More details later...

 

No picture updates (havent uploaded them to my computer) but a little has gotten done. I was on vacation this weekend and I havent been able to get much done in shop due to other projects that I needed to help with. Firewall is being cleaned up and I will probably be able to get a coat of plastic on it tonight since I finally have a day off and get it smooth. I also plan on laying a couple coats of paint on the underside and tearing the coilovers out and all the brake lines out, since we bought a cheap touch up gun so I can get that out of the way.

Also yesterday we had a friend over to measure the braking pressures in each corner and what we can do to get more brakes, and we are going to tear out all the lines and replace all of them. We also found out our pedal ratio wasn't correct for the type of system, so toss that up on the laundry list of things to do...

Passanger door is almost finished, havent really done much with the drivers door since last update but there isint too much that needs done.

Tonights hopefuls:

-Clean up/put plastic on spots in engine bay
-Remove brake lines, coilovers, and prep/paint wheel wells
-Finish prepping the underside and paint it.

 

How about some updates from today?

I am using Nason single stage Mercedes paint code 352, I cant remember the name though. We had like 35mph gusts, and the inner fenders have a couple runs. Whatever, not much I can do about it now I guess. Most of them will be hidden by the fenders, but I'm a perfectionist and it's going to bother me. I used approx 33oz of paint to do two medium wet coats on all four inner fenders.

I also got the underside painted, so that's also done. The wind got really bad so theres some dirt in the paint, but hopefully noone but you guys will ever know. I used about 18oz of paint to get a cover and touch up coat of paint.

Also, the motor is done, the tranny is currently being rebuilt. All new syncros, new second gear (it was a little trashed). Tranny should be done next week, and the clutch and flywheel should be showing up around then also. The engine is being built by KDR Performance in Lenhartsville, PA. Their URL is www.kdrotary.com.

How about some pics?

 

And the tunnel/underside:










Yes, the whole underside was sealed and then sprayed in white.

 

Man, that is some detailed work, was it easy to remove all that paint from the inner fenders? Or did you just scrub and clean the inner surfaces before applying primer?

 

Thanks! To be completely honest, its terrible. I personally didnt have anything to do with the scraping of the inner fenders/underside, the car owner and my dad did it all. I know they hand scraped all of it off down to bare metal with a putty knife. There really isint any other way to do it- chemicals make a terrible mess and you can't really just sand it off. I don't even want to know how many hours they have into it to be completely honest with you, but they did a really good job on it.

 

Over 1,000 views and only 36 posts? Lets hear some input.

Might be able to get some of the quarters straightened up today, hopefully we get 8 inches of snow tonight (theyre calling for 4-8) so I can stay home tomorrow and get something done.

 

Props!!

 

Some really nice stuff. I like the do it once do it right take on it.

Wouldn't have setting up a rotisserie been a lot easier/cleaner for the under body spray?

 

Yes, a rotisserie would have beyond been the best option. The original plan for the underside was to scrape it clean and just spray bomb it, but I was able to convince my dad to let me paint it using a gun. I did alot of things wrong with how I painted the underside, but we arent building a show car, so were not too worried about it.

Pass side door:

Laid the final coat of plastic, covered the entire door with a thin coat... ALOT of this will get sanded down




I also got a good bit of work done on the drivers door, just needs a few areas looked at and the trim line touched up.




Teaser:

 

More progress: So I finished the main body work on the drivers door today and got the chance to prep, seal, and prime it. I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far, but hopefully I'll get to block it down and I'll probably end up with another coat of primer before it's "perfect." Hopefully I'll be able to get some work done on the quarter panels this weekend...

Door ready for sealer:





Sealer:





Primer:







What a pain to get into the tight spots to get all the paint out of where the belt molding is (bottom outside of the window, that trim piece). I'm pretty happy with it so far, but the passanger door needs some work still. I can't wait to paint it.

 

Alright guys, the drivers side door is gettin there... I got it blocked down and mostly done, I just have to sand the inside of the door, seal the whole thing, and paint the inside blue and toss it back on the car to wait to paint the whole thing. pics:




Also started on the drivers side quarter and behind the hatch... There is/was alot of metal to be moved here






Messed with the pass side a little too:





Also tested brake pressures to figure out why we don't have brakes... Ended up discovering that our pistons are producing good pressure, but they're moving slowly and need rebuilt. They will be shipped off and redone, and pads/lines/rotors will all be replaced.




I'm going to try to get the drivers side quarter to the point where I can start to put plastic on it and get it rollin, but we'll see.

OH! And a due date has been set... April 1st. Alotttt of work needs to be done still...

 

Great work, I love threads like this. It really looks like your going all out and spending a lot of time on it.

I'm at summit point a decent amount, mainly for SCCA Rallycross, but plan on attending a few track days this year in the 7, I keep an eye out for your car and introduce myself if I see you.

 

Thanks man. We're trying to do the best possible with what we have. All of us that are working on the car are extremely picky with fit/finish, which is taking alot longer then it might take others, but its how we want it. Don't be afraid to stop by and say hey, we're a friendly/loud group of people and were always down to chat.

Got most of the drivers quarter roughed out, just need to finish figuring out what metal needs to go where. Its gettin there...





during/after:






Also started pulling everything out of the way in the engine bay/smoothing the firewall out a little... overflow bottle, clutch mc, brake lines, etc were all pulled. I wish I had the time to do a full shave...




No pics, but my dad got the calipers pulled off and drained them so they can be split and rebuilt

 

How about an update? Heres the week in review:

A good bit got done this week. I finished the drivers door, blocked it, sealed it, and painted the inside of it... It came out pretty good, minus poor spraying conditions (lots of dust/dirt in the air) and people can't seem to understand how to NOT TOUCH WET PAINT!

Ready for sealer:




Sealer (inside):



Sealer (outside):




Sanded with a scratch pad:

 

And finally, some of that beautiful blue Mercedes color:





I also got the bay mostly torn down and taped up. luckily I pulled the coilovers out and taped it all up, but I can't really paint in my garage... sweet. I still need to finish taping, sand it, seal and paint it...




Also got the passanger door pretty level. I made my first real mistake on this door. The red plastic you see in the first pictures didn't have enough catalyst in it, so it didn't fully harden. Meaning I either a) had to scrape all of the plastic off with a putty knife or b) DA the plastic off and probably create a wavy mess. option A was out, as the plastic was too hard to scrape, yet too soft to hand sand. Needless to say, I got VERY VERY lucky here. I DA'd the plastic off, blocked the door with 180 grit, then laid a thin coat of plastic, blocked with 180, and did touch ups and I'm almost out of it and its alot better then I thought i'd be...

Its a little hard to see, but you can see some of the RED plastic thats still on there. This was taken about halfway through cutting it all off with the DA.



Blocked from the point where the red plastic started to mix with the plastic underneath it



And heres the last coat of touch-up spots I did yesterday.


As it sits:



This week is spring break, and I work the rest of this weekend but I have off everyday next week but wednesday... Whewwww, finally a week of therapy sessions with the RX7

 

I wasnt going to, but how about a teaser on the second color of the car?



or



Not sure if we want a white with blue flake, or a white with a silver flake... The paint gods have been dancing in my head since I put the paint on the door...

 

What about the BMW pearl white?
Show us the sketch of the primary vs secondary color just to get an overall idea.

 

Hmmm I'll have to look into BMW's pearl. I don't have the paint booklet here, its at school...

Engine bay should be sanded down and ready for paint tomorrow if its nice...

 

All that and first time out someone is going to rub you...lol

 

wow really nice work dude.
just curious, how did you mount that front splitter?