well im looking to paint my 87 turbo II sumtime mid january ... my friend works at a body shop so me and him are just going to do it at there booth.

my question is, is what did most of you guys who have painted your 7's do with the molding. . . I DO NOT WANT IT, what should i do with the front and back bumper molding ... just paint it??

 

Just paint it body-color, like this:





If you're considering 'shaving' the molding, just beware that it'll be HOURS upon HOURS of body-work.

 

are you on ohiorotaries.com? well somebody showed up to a meet with the moldings off and trying to bondo them or something. it was really ugly.
You could paint the side moldings with them on, but the quality will show.

 

well....from a body man's perspective....

if you reall really want to shave your mouldings...only do between the wheels...it'll be a bit less work, and the way they end in front of the front wheels and behind the back wheels looks like they should start there....

BUT unless you bring it to a shop - I don't know how good your "buddy" is - it will look like its been carved out of a lump. This is not to say it wouldn't fly with kids with shaved rear doors on their 4dr accords.....but for anyone with a keen eye for paint and body they will pick it out from a mile away.

P.S. I would really really really consider this before you dod it - its a mountain of work that - IMHO - looks like backyard bodyman garbage........I would definetly search for tonnes of pics of 7's with shaved...I mean cheesed....mouldings and really really think about whether or not you want yours looking like that....

 

I personally like the black moulding around the perimeter of the car. Of course I was born exactly in 1980, so it might be a "child of the eighties" thing.

If you are going to shave the moulding, do it RIGHT. I've seen so many just filled with Bondo or fiberglass, and it NEVER looks good. You can make it look reasonable for a year or so, but filler that thick WILL crack eventually. If you're going to do it, you need to weld in strips of metal, then use minimal filler to blend. It's time consuming and expensive.

The bumpers are a whole new level of hell, because to do them you must find someone good at plastic welding. Some body shops can do it, many can't. Obviously, filler on the bumpers does not work. I give it a week before it cracks (in my experience anyway).

 

^^plastic welding OR epoxy based fillers.....I have done MOUNTAINS of plastic bumpers repairs here and the epoxy based fillers of today's day and age are really quite astounding. I have seen bumpers I have repaired (large cracks) come back because some one ran into them again and the area I repaired stayed just as intact as the original area of undamaged bumper....

 

I think ill just end up going with painting the moldings like eriksseven...

i just want sum opinions im stuck on 2 colors and leaning towards white.

-Orange
-White

pearls are also a possibility to add in if i wanted to.

ive got black rims for her sittin around right now,going with a cf hood and trying to see if i can find a non ricey / non 747 wing thats cf.

 

uh oh...
I don't know if asking anyones opinion on colour is gonna get you anywhere.
I would say orange with gold pearl - 25T is the mazdaspeed orange from the turbo protege....

but go with what YOU want - you're the one thats gotta drive the thing

 

I agree with the idea, that you should paint the mouldings, but the other option is to just remove them and fill the holes.

But don't fill in the moulding indentations. As Aaron mentioned it looks like dog crap. I have never seen one FC with the side moulding filled in that looked good.

 

YEA!!!!

someone who knows how it's done!phew- thought no-one knew how to do it right.

I'd love to shave the moulding off my car, I can weld pretty damn good, enough that minimal filler would be needed.

The bumper is a whole other thing, we actually have a plastic welder at my shop, but I'm not experienced enough to even think about doing the bumpers.
I've done some plastic welding, but it's tricky and very easy to melt what you are 'welding' together. All the things I've used it for so far have not needed to look pretty either......

It's tough to do it right...



Basically, right now I don't have the time(or the money to pay someone) to do it.
I'm not about to botch it with filler......
So for now, I just apreciate the nice clean lines of the moulding(ugggh- I really don't like the way it looks, IMHO I feel it detracts from the car)

|M|

 

shaved can be well done.
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/my-car-488484/
i have some my dad did fiberglass work for years so thats prob how ill get rid of them if i do. just have to weld in a sheet of metal to make the glass needed thiner, not shure what to do with the bumpers...

 

DO what you like not what other people are going to like, personaly i like the black s4 trim around my car, i think it sets off the red paint job nicely. But i did see one car with the moldings shaved, doesnt look like a hack job to me.

 

that photo has been photoshoped. but if you do it right it looks good, but it wont if you half *** it.

J

 

What brand of filler do you recommend for urathane bumpers? I have some minor damage behind the license plate that I would like to fill in if possible.

 

Proform makes a nice product - thats what we use mostly - the flexible plastic repair kit is PF704......rigid plastic repair is PF702 for RX-7 bumpers use 704 with a TPO adhesion promoter for good results

FUSOR also makes good panelbonding and plastic repair stuff.....they are what alot of the OE's use nowadays.....their repair filler is 114

If its a crack you need to fix though you must "weld" the plastic with a different material - PF7771 is the minute and a half dry time repair kit....the materials listed above are for COSMETIC repairs such as - filling mouldings - hehe.........or repairing scratches and waves

edit: as a sidenote to static guitar's post.........although that FC was carzed out by experienced hands....I personally think that the look is way to simple....I mean if the people who like the look had the oppourtunity to design a car all by their lonesome...would they ACTUALLY make the car look like the side of the body was made out of one flat sheet of steel with no joints seams creases crowns or bends? SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE - most of the time someone shaves either a moulding or a bumper or sideskirt its becuase it looked like junk before and they couldn't make it fit so they bondo'd over their disaster.........although there are people who do it well and properly simply to achieve a smooth look - I personally think its way to simple a look for these bodies.

 

his headlights are broken and he is missing his hood...

 

Personally, I like the moldings. Mostly due to the fact that they contrast the yellow of the car.

 

Smoothed panels are for muscle cars with BUMPERS.
Since the FC doesn't have "bumpers", the car looks funny.
The rub strip is there to keep your eyes flowing down the side of the car...else, your eyes just roam all over the sides - try it.

Two words on epoxies...DURA MIX!


-Ted

 

Yeah, I'm with Ted on this one (wow, that doesn't happen often ).

I've seen the look done well, just not what I care for. If you decide to mold them, keep it a bright color. Something like black will really lose the lines of the car with the moldings gone.

 

have you seen the silver fc from www.corksport.com ?? shaved mouldings on body but kept the bumper mouldings... looks soo bad ***... gen 3 dash and everything... man o man....go take a look at it

 

I like my filled in bump strips, I think the car looks a lot smoother without the strips in.. but then again, my mind would probably be changed if my car was one color. I like the indent around the perimeter of my Miata, because it breaks up the car's look a bit. My 7 doesn't exactly have that problem, though...

edit: I filled mine in with fiberglass. The trick to using any filler, is to never have a perfectly smooth surface, you have to have something for it to grip to. this isn't the easiest problem to solve superficially with sheet metal, so I drilled a pattern of holes along the bump strip recess. So far, so good! Pain-in-the-*** wise, I would gladly have welded a strip in there and smoothed over that, but I didn't have any way to get access to a welder or someone with welding talent. I did have access to someone who worked with fiberglass for a living.. .