beutiful color choice i like it alot...

I just stripped and painted them, wasn't as tedious as I though it'd be.

Anyhow, I have been going back and forth between flat and gloss black, so my wife suggested doing 2 in gloss, and 2 in flat. Then I can mount them on the car to see how I like them on the car, decide when I'm comfortable, and repaint the other 2.

Actually, the carbs and wheels were gifts from my wife. She really knows how to pick gifts

Sweet Patmac, thanks!

Anyhow, I've gotten them on the car. With a fresh set of Kumho ku25 tires. Got the tires from tires-easy.com Saved a good bit of money, even with paying for shipping and mounting/balancing.


I still can't decide between flat and gloss black. I'm leaning to flat, but my wife and all my friends like the gloss. I really like the gloss too. Decisions decisions...

I also dyed the carpets black with the rit dye method, and painted the dash, center console and some of the interior. I began re-upholstering the panels in the interior as well. I'm using vinyl and tan corduroy.

Here are the pics.

A few more... It sounds crazy, but for the interior I used acrylic craft paint you get at the craft store. It's very inexpensive, and after it fully dries (takes a while) it's very very tough. Now if I were to do it again, I'd probably use the SEM stuff. But being that I was trying to keep costs way way down, 8 dollars worth of paint went a very long way, looks good and is durable, so I'm pretty happy.

more pics

last few...

Any opinions on wheel color?

i say gloss

Haven't checked this thread in a while, car is looking good! I'd vote for gloss on the wheels too, but thats just me, and personally I would have left them silver lol ;) Looks like there is still some orange peel in some of those pics, are you going to do any more wetsanding on it?

Yes I plan to do more wetsanding. On the areas I've wetsanded and buffed it's totally glass smooth. The problem is that the metallics didn't come out perfect. From some angles in the sun it looks perfect, from others, you can see a bit of striping.

So I'm still debating on whether I should wetsand and then lay on another coat of clear with some metallic or pearl powder to cover up the mistakes, or if I should just wetsand and buff the rest.

If I were to do it again I would have used a solid color, not a metallic. Then my newbie painting skills would have looked professional after the wetsand and buffing.

Agreed, I've tried metallics and they are difficult to get right. I usually just stick with solid colors, much easier to lay down smoothly. Looking good either way though!

If you're still looking for opinions on the wheels....
I vote flat....gives it a more "industrial" look.

Just my $.02

I vote Gloss. To me the flat paint looks unfinished or like you forgot to clean the grime off the wheels.

+1 on the gloss

INEXPENSIVE? How did you do that? When I got into my restoration it became a money pit!

Yeah I've been down that road. I didn't want it to happen this time so I made a very concerted effort to save. I painted it myself, I have rebuilt probably 10 carburetors, so I rebuilt my own. I took the time to dye the carpets, remove the seat upholstery to sew the tears and re-install it. The seats are still horrible, so I'm thinking fc seats will be in order.

It doesn't mean one day I won't decide to dump money into it. It's been 110 plus here in southern New Mexico so right now I'm thinking installing AC will be my next big mod, ha ha. I do have a nice little turbocharger that's dying to get under the hood.

FC seats can be had for little money, so that will still be in keeping with your inexpensive theme, plus they are just plain better than the FB seats (at least the S2 seats, I know the S3 seats are a little better)

Been pretty hot here the last few days, in the mid to high 90's and I'm loving the A/C in mine, definatly worth the time to install, and again would not cost you much as you can piece it together from junkyard parts and fill it youself with cans of R134a from Walmart :)

So I went with gloss black for the wheels, and clearcoat. It looks good, thanks for all the opinions.


Yesterday I took the carb apart and thoroughly cleaned it and decided to boost prep it according to bad 83's instructions (minus the re-jetting) I also shaved the throttle shafts and the auxiliary venturis. I didn't go too crazy with the airflow mods. I just wanted to see what some slight shaving would do. I also shortened the butterfly screws. I can always do it a bit more extensively later if I want.


By the way, if a moderator could move this thread to the new Build Threads section, it would be appreciated.

looks good thus far man, bad83 sure knows his nikkis lol