Well, I know I'm always amazed by body work, so I figured I'd bring up a thread showing how I'm doing on mine. I'm pretty proud of my progress as I'm really doing this off the cuff, with no real prior experience.

I'm totally stripping the paint to bare metal (multiple previous paint jobs, with incompatible peeling/chipping paint), fixing the door dings, converting to S5, molding in the spoiler (YourSport.com wing) and possibly adding some side skirts (anyone have any S5 skirts around?).

A friend who is experienced with a gun is coming over to prime, lay color and clear it. I bought a ton of extra paint as well, so if there are a few "glitches" I can take care of them. Nothing a little sanding can't clear up.

So, as I was told previously I was not allowed to post progress threads without pictures, here goes.







I still have a little smoothing to do at the rear deck/spoiler joint, and a little nick to fix on the rear deck, and the driver's side needs a little more mud to level out the glass, but all in all I'm thrilled with the results, and the spoiler looks dramatically better molded in.

The rest of the car is pretty boring so far, just stripping paint, passenger side is done minus the small area around the gas cap that you can see, and driver side is about half done. Once the spoiler is finished, next step will be completing the strip and getting the door dings fixed.

What a chore!

 

A few updated pictures-

Side skirts on-







I'm actually a little further along on this side now, paint is clean, skirts and 1/2 of the trim is on as well. I plan on completing the rest of it tomorrow, body work wise. Optimism is a great thing. :yeah:

 

You using bondo for all that filling? (For some reason I like the lines the joint (as in non-molded spoiler) gives, the molded ones just kind of look funny to me). But it sure does look nice and flat and even.. What skirts are those? I've got the SMP ones on my GTUs to keep the rocks from chipping away at my poor fenders paint!


And who the hell says you can't post a progress report without pictures?

 

No, not bondo. It's is high bond resin on crosshatch fiberglass matting to join it, then that was rough leveled, and covered with kitty hair, which leveled it further, then bondo on top. The thickest bondo on the whole car is maybe 1/8" deep. I can stand on the spoiler, and literally lift the back of the car by it, so I think she'll be alright.

The skirts are www.classicgarage.com design. Technically they're versatec brand (German). They fit pretty decent, the passenger side went right on, drivers side required some finesse. I picked them up because they aren't terribly noticable or flashy, and keep the stock lines pretty well. They'll also protect the side of my car from rocks (the main reason I wanted them), I have 225s up front, and will have 235s once I get some coilovers.

The progress report bit was because of previous posts where everyone noted "This Thread Is Worthless Without Pics" and such.

This is the car before, with the unmolded spoiler (and my old S4 lights, full S5 trim is on the car now). I don't like the line, it's less pronounced in this picture, but it's quite literally 3/16" thick on the joint, and looks out of place. The molded spoiler is VERY flat, I have ~40-50 hours in just the molding/sanding. Not a fun task I tell you.



Has anyone seen the flat black, lightly textured vinyl "tape" that people use on race cars to protect them from rock chips? It looks similiar to skateboard "grip tape" I want to pick some up in flat black to protect the 1/4 panels below the trim, behind the rear tires, as my 255s (currently, 275s before too long) are going to throw lots of rocks/rubber on my nice new paint.

 

thats the same wing I have, but I dont plan on keeping it forever, I am using s5 side skirts also but I ripped of all the moldings and am filling them in partially, good job though

 

where can you buy car paint? i wanna do some body work and paint it myself but i dont know where you can pick up the paint based on the color code of the car

 

http://www.autobodysupply.net/

 

Few more pictures, we've got the etching primer on all the bare metal, I just have to hit this with some 220 real quick to level it, and fill a couple little pinholes that we found in the mud. The air compressor I borrowed for some reason couldn't keep up with our gun, so we got stopped at this point. It was a 26 gallon 4 HP compressor, so I don't know why it was giving us fits, but, regardless, a few pics...







Primer is up next week, I have a 6.6 HP 35 gallon Craftsman to use now, that ought to handle it.

 

what kind of spray gun u using hvlp or syphon feed?

 

We're using a MAC HVLP gun. It's a pretty nice one, ran about 220 bucks. Running a "2" for the primers, and a 1.4 for the paint and clear. It's Matrix automotive products paint. My local shop recommended it.

 

if your using base /clear i sugest using a 1.2 tip it will adomize the paint alot better and you will get a better finish as well . at the last coat of base reduce your mixed product ( after your hardner reducer paint is mixed properly) by 50% with a base blending solvent that way your base will lie down and give the clear a smoother finish. my gun is a debevliss gravity fed hvlp, sprays beautifully and your compressor might not hold up to the hvlp they recomend at least a 7 hp 60 gal tank due to the high volume of air it needs to deliver a good spray patern

 

Matrix is a good system, and progress looks great... HVLPs use a lot of air, ur running what about 30-35psi to the inlet ? maybe a lil more for the primer.. thats y ur killing your compressor...
You going to use glazing putty on the pinholes? i found polyester works pretty good...

you mean hvlp or conventional... because i currently use a hvlp syphon feed...

 

I'm using a two part very fine mix polyester filler on the pinholes, basically bondo, but with icing like consistency. I've had good luck with it thus far.

If the 6.6 HP Craftsman can't keep up, I've got a 10 HP 100 gallon I can use that I know can do it, but it's a major SOB to transport, so we'll give the craftsman a shot.

Thanks for the advice on the tip and reduction, I'll take that to heart when it comes time to spray the base. It's a RTS base, so I'll just need to run a final reduction on it, as it's premixed in the bottle (apparently Matrix does this with their base coats on the system paints, we'll see how it does).

I really appreciate the advice guys, the more I can learn the better, my goal on this car is just to one up the old 5 layer deep (seriously!) Maaco paint job I had on it, which I think we can accomplish. ;-)

edit: and yes, we were running 40 psi for the etching primer as it was some thick stuff, we'll be a little lower when the base gets laid (it's pretty thin from taking a look at a sample).

 

Well, the new air compressor has plenty of grunt to keep up with our spraying, so I'm feeling a LOT better now. :yup:

We managed to get three GOOD coats of primer on the car, after fixing the last few little spots that showed up. I still have a few TINY spots that came up when we looked at the shine on the primer that I'm going to touch up, and recoat, but overall I'd say it's at 99% now, aside from blocking the primer, which I'm starting tomorrow night.

I still have to strip the door handles, and the fuel door, and prime those, though I think I'm going to bake the door handles to try and stop them from scratching easily. Hoping to have all the blocking, and the fuel door and door handles done this weekend, so that we can lay paint Sunday or Monday night.

All in all I'm thrilled with the progress, I know that primer hides a lot of sins in the bodywork, but overall the car just looks fantastic to me. The S5 front/rear doesn't hurt that any.

Anywho, on to the pics-











In the next set of pictures, it will be black again! Woohoo! :yeah:

 

hey man thats lookin good! keep us up to date

 

when you block it out use a peice of hard wood for the block (oak floor wood )and 600 grit paper keep the paper clean don't let primer build up and wipe the surface with a cloth ever now and then this will prevent sand scratching that way it will be straight and you won't see sanding marks in your paint. and are you using a sealer?

 

I have several different hardness 3M sanding blocks that I'll be using for the blocking. I have a constant water supply to keep it wet when I sand it so that I don't have to worry about scratches.

The primer I used is a "sealing" primer.

 

Paint!

Woohoo!

Well, we got the paint sprayed last night. Had a few glitches (fisheye for a bit until we got everything figured out, and then a little glitch where the solvent and the primer got angry with each other) but we worked though all of it and got it shot.

This was the first time my buddy had shot clearcoat, so he put it on a little dry at first, causing the orange peel that is on it now. Not too big a deal, just a little more time with some fine grit and polish. We put 5 coats of clear on it (pretty much the most we could, following the max. mil thickness of the manufacturer) so I should have plenty of it there to level out any of the peel.

Good news is it shot on nice and clear, not cloudy at all, and we have very few imperfections (cold outside, so no bugs). We have a couple tiny drips to clean up, but nothing beyond that. I'm going to let it sit for a while before I touch it with any paper though.

Here we go...







Molded in spoiler came out GREAT! I couldn't be happier about it.


You can see the orange peel here. It's really not quite as bad as the light makes it look. My craptacular former Maaco paint job was almost as bad as this, and I made it look great with a little time. This will too.


This front bumper was cracked in half over 2/3 of the front when I got it. 5 points if you can find where...


I'll update again when I get the hatch trim repainted, the orange peel sanded out and polished, and the wheels resprayed to their new bronze color.

 

That is the sex.

You got a bottle of something good in there too !

 

Lookin' good You'll love it when it's polished..

 

I also love this car becaue he actually paid attention to body work. Nothing makes me more annoyed then an ugly car! I know the entire function over form garbage but still, this car is nicely done and looks great.

I rather look at a 200HP car thats looks nice then a shitty car that runs 11s.

This car does both I think?

 

Thanks for the compliments guys!

It should do 11's no nitrous, SOLID 10's with it. Probably as fast as I care to go for the foreseeable future. If I want faster, I may just pick up another car, and leave this one alone, as I think I'm really going to like it as a Saturday night special kind of car.

 

Looks good so far. Looks like you need to wet sand that black and put some clear over it.
The wing looks good molded in like that. I'd like to see some better pics of it.

You should have waited to do the bodywork and got some flares from me as it sounds like you'll need them with that V8 conversion

 

deffinently needs wet-sanding...but great work!

 

Hey!
I just noticed your sig you rat-bastard....jk