Trav

Not sure honestly. I haven't had much experience w/ the paintable undercoating... The only thing I've used is just the spray can stuff to use for minor touchups or in specific places. That stuff stays "rubbery" forever it seems, whereas this coating dries to a very hard surface. The instructions mention that you can paint this stuff, but starting w/ black, I'm not sure how far you'd get or where you would go with it. I have no plans to do that since these are areas that are either mostly or always out of sight. I'd be willing to bet that this is probably a little more durable and "long-term" that the stuff you're talking about. In other words, this crap aint coming off with a LOT of effort.

Trav

Definitely lighter -- the carpet is heavy. However, I'd doubt that it would be better soundproofing. The carpet is honestly a pretty good soundproofer by itself -- then adding the padding/deadener to it makes it quite good.

And I should mention, I AM still putting my sound deadener & carpet on top of this in the interior. I don't like the appearance of this stuff enough to use it for my floor alone. My goal is to make this a relatively quiet and environmentally protected vert.

Tofuball

Thats really sweet. thanks for the pics

I have always wanted to do this, not so much for painting, but I wanted to weld up all that metal thats only held together by (sometimes very crappy) spot welds.

Trav

Yeah, I did consider doing seam welds myself, but honestly I didn't feel like it was worth the effort and laziness drove me to just start working on finishing it, rather than coming up w/ more things to start. To give the seam weld any justice, I probably would have had to spend a lot more time cleaning the seams out and in the garage where I've got the car at the moment doesn't have a 220 outlet for our welder. So I'd have to move the car (which is just a hassle at the moment). Definitely cake to work on it, but transporting it is just a pain -- I just didn't want to deal w/ loading it up to move it to another garage for welding. I probably could have switched the welder over to 110, but again, laziness and some lack of patience convinced me otherwise.

Thanks for the comments and compliments thus far.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

Love the project, wish i had time, money, space, tools, knowledge to do that your doing, "your my hero" lol

Madrx7racer

I would have powder coated it since it was STRIPPED down like that.....looks good........i believe powder coating is much better protection against rocks and such on the road........anyone care to explain any cons?

REnoob

i dont want to see the oven that can fit an RX7 in it... nor would i want to see the bill, your cost would be unreal, as i personaly know someone that powder coats for extra cash to put in his car

JamesBong

Man, thatlooks awesome! I want to do that to my parts car body, then swap everything over!

Madrx7racer; AFAIK, you have to bake on a powdercoat, so you'd have to find a place with an oven big enough to fit the chassis!

Madrx7racer

hmmm........i had not thought of that.

NOPR

you wouldn't want to weld on a rotisserie, you would want the car with the full suspension on the ground how it will be when its driving.

Also, that vert is SWEET, i really like the way its being completely rebuilt.

Trav

Good point -- hadn't thought about that previously but didn't do it anyway.

I thought about putting the foam into the various spots in the chassis, but from what I've read, that's also better done w/ the car on the ground. And actually I see no labor advantage of doing that right now on the rotisserie anyway. I think everything that I'd want to foam-fill is accessible just as easily either way.

And as far as powdercoating -- you can cure it w/ infrared lamps, so you wouldn't HAVE to have a huge oven. But still would be a big pain though and I highly doubt worth the cost/effort.

Trav

Yeah, basically that's the next step. I've got most of the parts that came off this car, plus my other 91 vert that I'm also using as a donor. Basically I'll select the best of the two identical parts that I've got, put them all on this car (one at a time). And sell the remainder.

I've got a lot of work ahead of me as I'm also doing an RE swap on the whole thing. All-in-all, I think it will be well worth it and I'll probably be into it for a lot less than one might imagine.

Again, thanks for the comments and compliments. Happy to answer any questions you have -- in the mean time I need to start moving parts. I'll keep updating this thread as I make noticable or significant advances.

MARTIN

http://www.rally.subaru.com/rally/se...rt=1&imageId=0

They seem to have good success with welding on a rotisserie. Its also alot easier to get to.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

Wanna do my car next?

vipers

iTrader: (8)

not sure...but i hear that powder coating on big areas gives the "paint" a wavy effect to it...

NOPR

I'm really glad you posted that because I find that extremely interesting. I guess SUBARU probably knows more about cars than me, but I've always heard that you only want to reinforce welds with the full suspension in place and the car on level ground so you can weld the car how it will sit, which makes sense because if its stretched out at all from being upside down or whatever, you wouldn't want to reinforce it in that stretched out position... but I dont know that's weird. Maybe someone smarter will come correct me.

MARTIN

Well I kinda see where that idea would make sense.. But When they weld the chasis at the factory, it certainly doesnt have any other equipment on the car. And by seam welding, you are just reinforcing factory welds. Kinda like connect the dots..

Trav

A few more updates -- pictures first and then some narrative.

Ran wiring harnesses and putting stuff back in the engine bay




Repainted the hood bracket

Trav

Installed carpet and A/C & Heater cores. Steering column & E-Brake back in also.

Trav

Pedal assemblies also installed -- Autovation set is visible in prior pictures, but here is a better shot:





ECU shot (LT8 behind the panel)


Also some more interior assembly shots for dash components (probably some duplication)

Trav

Some rearward interior shots showing rear speakers in and sound dampening material:




And a trunk shot w/ the weatherstripping in, rear harness, antenna, trunk lid latch, etc.




And the heartbreaker... a scratch on my new paint!!! AGGGH!

RXn407

WOW !!! Im really impressed by the quality buildups Ive been seeing lately!!. It seems RX tuners are paying s much detail as the pros and are putting forth quality cars. keep up the good work. BTW did you put in the bolts b 4 spraying the bedliner matierial on the inside or did you tap and die them back out or ? . just curious. looks sweet - Erik

Trav

Okay, so if you've made it this far you'll see that I'm starting to put the thing back together now. The car is still on a rotisserie so it's still a breeze to work on. Can't reach something? Just flip it over until it's within my easy reach.

I started w/ running the various wiring harnesses. Takes a little time and part of my problem is remembering where all those little wiring holders plug into the various holes in the body. Probably won't figure all of them out, but as long as they're secure, I don't really care. Also started putting in a few of the components in the engine bay like master cylinder, clutch cylinder, fuse box, etc. This was a fairly time-consuming & tedious process because everything had to be cleaned and I went ahead and painted a lot of those items too. All the little brackets, plastic fuse (and relay) covers, etc. etc. Lots of little pieces -- everything got a good coat of hi-temp gloss black.

The master cylinder has to be installed w/ the clutch/brake pedal assembly in the interior (which I put new Autovation pedals on). So that went on at the same time (and went ahead and put the gas pedal on too) Btw, I love those Autovation pedals -- worth the cost IMO as they look hundreds of times better than stock crap rubber.

I spent a good day finding all of the body holes that were left after I put all of the normal body plugs in. If you've ever looked close on the interior, there are a lot of little holes covered w/ what appears to be tape. All of those were completely open on this car since it had been blasted -- so I went and bought a bunch of plastic panel fasteners to press (tightly) into all those holes. Then I went back and cut off the excess of those fasteners from the bottom and sprayed the canned undercoating on the tops and bottoms of the fasteners for a good weathertight seal. After all of that, I started putting in some of the dash components and then quickly remembered that I needed to put the carpet in first. So took those back out and then spent some time remembering where all of the stock sound dampening fiber went. When I free up some more 'hobby money', I'll invest in some better sound deadener and put all of that down under the carpet & fiber -- but that's at a later date.

I then installed the carpet -- which by the way had to have at least 5 pounds of dirt in it. I literally spent at least an hour blowing dirt out of the carpet with a compressor. The whole time I felt like I was standing in a blast cabinet. I couldn't believe how much dirt was coming out and honestly, I finally gave up and just put it in dirt and all. Someday I'll go to a car wash and give it a few bucks worth of vacuuming. By the way, this carpet was originally blue and I've dyed it black with RIT dye and a kiddie pool. I've been pretty pleased w/ the results so far. I'm anxious to see how it holds up w/ regular traffic.

After the carpet, I put the dash components back in as you can see. Installed my Microtech LT8 and put the ECU panel over the top of that. Put the steering column back in (will replace the ugly wheel at some point).

Heartbreaker -- when I was taking the car (and rotisserie) off of the trailer, we had a small mishap and I scratched my left rear quarter panel. You know that sickening feeling of the first scratch on new paint. Ohwell, had to happen sooner or later (just was hoping for the later). Jeez, I didn't even get the car on the road yet.

Next steps: Go ahead and put the dash in. Probably will stop in the interior at that point and focus on getting the suspension components in place. I will probably take the car off of the rotisserie when I'm ready to bolt the suspension to it. Not real sure how I'm going to do that. Guess I'll have to get about 8 guys over to my house for that process. I can't remember if I already posted this or not, but I also noticed during this long process that the 'vert top motor mounts have been removed from the body as well as the brace that the spare bolts to and some body panel brackets. I don't have extras of those, so it looks like I'll remove them from my donor car (after some detailed measuring & marking) and re-weld them to my new ride. A little frustrated by that, but it's not a show stopper right now, so I'm saving that for a day when I'm highly motivated to get it finished.

Anyway, I'm tired of typing for the moment, so I'll stop here and review. Open to comments, suggestions, questions smart *** comments, etc.

Thanks for taking the time to look!

Trav

I did not actually. But that Herculiner turns out to be fairly pliable. Most of the time I just scraped off/out the big pieces w/ a blade or screwdriver and turned the bolts in or the nuts on. I had very little problems w/ doing it that way -- but I also tried to mask most of my studs before applying the Herculiner and I was somewhat careful to avoid getting lots of it in bolt holes etc. For those that got a little on/in them, well it just serves as a ghetto locknut .

mcnannay

very impressive, you're gonna have to let us know how much you paid for that...just break it to us gently! Interiors are a breeze to work on when you have a vert...keep us updated, I love seeing these builds.