So the condition of the body has finally gotten to be too much to live with so we started stripping down the car today.
It was originally Arctic Silver Metallic but I never liked the color so it was painted black back in 2004-2005. Since then a great many changes have taken place. Multiple engines, management changes, interior color change, glass roof, wheels, suspension, exhaust. It was basically a stock 1988 n/a and now its become much less...comfortable.
Im thinking red for the new paint, 2008 Audi Brilliant red actually. Still not 100% sure, but pretty close.
Pictures of the car as it was this morning

 

heres some close ups of the damage

 

 

Turns out there was a lot more damage in the rear quarter on the drivers side than I had anticipated. Im considering getting a replacement quarter. Well see what we can do with it tomorrow, and Ill decide.






Thats the last of the progress for tonight. Tomorrow comes fenders, smoothing and filling!

 

If you had not shown the close ups I would have called you crazy. In for the restoratioN!

 

Smoothed out the hood and worked the metal on the rear quarter. Unfortunately Mazda does not offer replacement quarters anymore, so were fixing what we have as no clean used ones are available.
I neglected to bring my sd card so no photo updates as of yet. Also still undecided on the color, I may go white, still leaning more heavily to red though.

 

Car not even that bad. Better condition then all of my vehicles, and besides my rx7 they are decades newer. Come up north and see what cars look like.

 

Started work on rear quarter the stud welder really speeds thing up in this area.


Also marked other damage that needs attention

 

Hope to have the quarter smooth tomorrow and get some of the dings knocked out

 

turning out good man. Keep it up!

 

Sorry for the lack of updates, We are still working on the car, but with 12 hour work days and a 3 hour commute, its moving forward at about 2 hours per day.
In the mean time you'll have to make due with this...


Also coming are new front signals,new spoiler mounting hardware and new oem rear badges.
Still to be ordered are new ftp lenses and new windshield molding.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates, We are still working on the car, but with 12 hour work days and a 3 hour commute, its moving forward at about 2 hours per day.
In the mean time you'll have to make due with this...


Also coming are new front signals,new spoiler mounting hardware and new oem rear badges.
Still to be ordered are new ftp lenses and new windshield molding.

 

mmm dealer parts. I like your style my good man. I forget who it was on here, but one of the vendors had new FTPS and side markers for sale. Cheaper then the dealer, and exactly the same thing.

2 hours a day is still good progress. I have not touched my car in 2 days. granted, I am being lazy right now.

 

more parts baggies!


Just look how clear those lenses are! I always thought the slight yellow tinge was normal, Even after wet sanding and buffing my old ones the plastic was still discolored. I cant wait for the ftp lenses to come in. So new parts in this project so far are; Shift lever, window switches, window moldings, spoiler clips, rear badges, and front signals. Still to come are ftp lenses and spoiler bolts and captive nuts.

 

Body work is almost done Hope to start primering sometime tomorrow around 3am.






I'm defiantly going to look for a replacement quarter panel in the next 2 years. The filler isnt deep at all but we ran it out pretty far so that when it shrinks over the next month or two it won't Show an outline. Its almost paper thin in most places, deepest part is probably 3/16" Still have to finish the sanding on this panel tomorrow before we can primer, and then sand the side trim and the hood scoop, I plan on layering fiberglass on the bottom of the scoop so it doesn't crack like my last one did.









Paint on the front bumper was flaking badly so I took it as close to bare as possible to ensure good adhesion, the rear bumper didn't flake and it used to be red, so it wasn't such a big deal anyway just down far enough for primer to smooth out.





Some parts I'm replacing because its difficult to cover fully with paint and I don't want a coverage issue. Going with series % mirrors this time because the motors are much quieter and they are much less likely to suffer the glass separation problem that my s4 turbo mirrors have. after buying 3 drivers s4 mirrors, I'm just tired of it. I think Ill miss the s4 look though, I think they look much better on the car.






Experience has told me that our Door handles have a bad habit of hanging up on themselves and chipping the paint and cracking, So spare handles are a plus and I figure if we can enlarge the gap it won't have this problem, so I back cut the handle on this one(its cracked anyway), the gap is only 1/16" larger than stock but I gained a whole lot of space between the handle and the cup.

Cant wait to start primering the car! Its finally starting to show progress!

 

Looking good man, I should have done that to the handles when I repainted mine last year.

 

Picked up some test paint. I have been having trouble picking a red for this car. I have been floored by Audi's in Brilliant red, I would like to have Blaze Red because its a factory color, and everyone makes a big stink about Porsche Guards Red.
So whats a guy to do?
Buy a half pint of each and try them out!






Can you guys tell a difference?



Ill be damned if I can. Every time I think I see a difference I look at them again and it changes. I think that blaze red is the darkest, guards has a touch of orange and brilliant is brighter...But the paint gun will tell us tomorrow hopefully.
I plan to shoot the headlight lids and clear them, so monday they will be dry enough to lay on top of each other.
Stay tuned for more dust and asbestos!

 

Wow they are pretty similar in those pics, it looks like the audi one might be a tadd darker but like you said it's hard to tell by looking here. I think it should look good in any one of those colors, red is great for the FC.

I sprayed mine in a single stage rat rod satin black from Eastwood and while I like it I do miss the glossy sheen of a standard bc/cc.

 

I haven't had my blaze red FC in a few years but I was just next to a 2008 red Audi S4 wagon while working on a guards red 911 SC. Everyone was ooh'ing and aah'ing over the guards and from memory I think the Audi red is darker than the blaze red. Someone just posted a picture of an FC in guards red and it looks awesome. The guards is great in person but does have an orange tint to it at some angles, I don't know if that's a good thing or bad for you. But it is bright and shows very well.

How much did you pay for the turn signal lenses? I'll have to call some local dealers and see if they have any in stock. They look great.

 

turn signals are $26 each walk-in pricing.

It might be nit pickey but something that always bothered me about our areo mirrors is the seam in the cutouts where the 2 sides were glued together. I'm going to smooth them out on these mirrors; I've always thought it looked cheap in stock form.

mirror and seam as is

 

RX-7 red is more to the orange of the spectrum compared to the Audi Red. You can see what I mean in the red RX-7 in the rx7club header. Naturally it will be harder to tell with wet paint. Personally I like the red on the late model Mercedes SL, it's more pure red if that makes sense. A lot of reds seem to have an undertone of another color like orange or purple.

 

AHHH...Its eating my leg!



my poor interior...




The window I used to get into the paint booth



in the booth






Primer time (thanks Ralph)





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After spraying on the white primer I have to say I am seriously reconsidering the red. It was like watching the years fall off the car, it began to look newer and newer the more white we laid down...What do you guys think? whats your favorite white?

 

My favorite white is LFA whitest white. With that being said - red has won me over (and I used to be a huge fan of black).

 

when a car is restored to a higher level it can be any color and it will look bad ***

if doing white my suggestion is a good single stage white, no clearcoat.
You can get a pure white and it will not yellow like it will clearcoat, future touchups and additions will be very simple.

you will only know the difference in those reds when comparing to each other, put a sample of each on the same mixing stick and see what you like about one compared to the other- pick one and run with it!