So yeah, I started by painting this ugly beast:



On the pass. side quarter-panel behind the door and on the body-line there was a HEINOUS rusty, dented area. There were about 8-9 holes in the body from the previous owner pulling out the 'problem area'. A little Bondo, sandpaper and sealer was all I needed.

After this I sanded, cleaned, masked and painted the entire car using Krylon Semi-Flat Indoor/Outdoor paint. I used 9 cans.

After the paint I wet-sanded the entire car using 2000 grit paper. I'm pleased with the results.

Next I removed my taillights and performed my classic "mod". The mod consists of disassembling the taillights, cleaning them, removing the "diffuser" and reassembling them with new sealant. After they're reassembled they are masked, the reflector is "shaved" and the housings get a fresh black coat of paint. The masking is then removed and the tails are wet-sanded and clear-coated to perfection.

After the taillights I removed all of the side-markers and FTP's. The side-markers were wet-sanded, sprayed with VHT Niteshade tinting-spray and clear-coated. The FTP's were wet-sanded on both sides and clear-coated.

After everything was in place I pulled my Series 5 side-skirts out of storage, prepped them for paint and sprayed 'em with the same paint I used for the rest of the car. I installed them with double-sided tape and several mounting bolts. for the sideskirts.

Another project for the weekend involved reviving some beautiful wheels. I spent about 7-8 hours cleaning, sanding, masking, spraying and clear-coating them. I used Duplicolor Hi-Performance Wheel Paint. I chose the "Bronze" color simply because I've never sprayed a gold/bronze paint before but have always wanted to. I finished them off with "Clear" wheel paint (which has some flake in it). Needless to say, I was very impressed with the way it turned out.

Oh, and does anyone notice my "custom" centercaps? Yeah...

The last thing I did before taking it out for a spin was cleaning, masking and spraying my front and rear calipers with the left-over paint from the wheels. I finished the calipers off my sanding the paint off the "Mazda" logo and giving them bonus steez-points.

Oh... Last but not least--SOME DRIFTING!!!!



















I'm glad that my new Turbo II is finally nearing the level of my old Turbo II in the looks department... The only thing left to do looks-wise is suspension, a wiper-less rear-hatch and a Mazdaspeed front-lip. I'm about a month away.

 

Pics of my old Turbo II for those who don't know:

 

******* sweet dude. those rims are amazing, i cant believe they are painted. ****, makes me want to do it to a pos for ***** and giggles

 

MAD props to your painting skills, do you do it for a living? or is it self taught?

very very clean, especially considering the cost, those rims look very professional


nice job

 

what is the paint color you used? did you cover w/ clearcoat?

 

i spy an s4 t2 back there...

 

Krylon Semi-Flat Indoor/Outdoor paint... is that made for cars? where can i get them at? are they cheap? i like the setup, its basically what im goin for. cheap and nice. what clear coat did you use on the wheels? thanks for posting.

 

so you clear coated the "outside" of the tails??? looks great!!

 

I've seen krylon jobs turn out a lot worse. I wonder why people go thru all the trouble tough, its not glossy, its not even, it wont last. It'll hold you over until you get a real paint job though. Looks decent from a distance. Put some ice on those fingers now...

 

looks good!

 

Yea... I just picked it up about two weeks ago for 2gs

It has perfect compression, mint turbo, great suspension and drivetrain, clean interior.

As soon as we got back to the house, we stripped the engine bay removed all the emissions, re-grounded and replaced the fuel injectors, ported the waste gate, did the throttle body mod, and re-did the engine grounds.

So far I smoked all the lenses, the same time erik was doing his and did a temporary tail light mod with a little night shade and bright white paint.

It shouldn't be too hard to see the potential re-birth of erik's old car with my own personal twist.

This is erik's old white car the morning after we painted the trim:


Other than that, it was completely untouched from the previous owner.
It is kind of ironic because I was the one that found erik's first two rx7's
And I never had one of my own until now :









It is a little rough around the edges but with some more love it will be heading in the right direction.

Soon to come is fresh white trim, color matched sport spoiler, and S5 tails.

It feels awesome to cross over into a new realm of tuning..
...My main expertise has been and still is of the German persuasion via VW's.
And it feels great to broaden my horizons and finally get a Seven

 

Thanks man. I do really enjoy painting--but have never had the opportunity to use a real gun (although I REALLY want to hone my painting skills). My only painting experience has been from my many Rx7 related projects.

It was the Krylon Semi-Flat Indoor/Outdoor paint. I would've really liked to use a more durable finish, but this project was kind of on a whim, so I just took what I could get. And no, there is no clear-coat on the paint, although I'm seriously considering it. After the 2000 grit wet-sand--if the paint is wet, there is an amazing reflection. I dunno though... I'm not sure what the outcome would be. I'm kind of 50/50.

I don't even think it was made specifically for cars. There were several different types of paint available--but there were not enough cans in the several stores that I went to, to get full coverage. But yeah, $175 is what it cost me to do everything--with supplies. The clear on the wheels was the "High Performance" Duplicolor "Wheel Paint".

Yeah, After they were all put back together, I pulled off the mask from the "taillight housings" and layered everything in a nice thick coat of clear.

Well, it's pretty even... Like you said; a lot better than your average "Krylon job" IMO. But yeah, I think the pics do justice to the overall quality of my home-made "flat" job. Heh, and it's actually my lower back thats killing me.

 

nice car

 

Dude..you completely transformed that car in a single weekend..btw, you have a PM.

 

Which from bumper is that on your old car?

CJG

 

Stock S4 bumper with a S13 front lip......

 

are you thinkin of adding a coat of clear? props to your work, it kind of reminds me of satin black.

 

WOW!

Nice job man, I have to do some body work on mine soon. I wish I had your skills.

Looks amazing!

 

yes man, very very very nice job. i love your car... the wheels, etc. i havent really been a fan of that tailight mod. but for some reason i am completely sold on it now. how did you go about doing that. i love how it looks on your car. your car is really sweet. i love it. oh and very nice pics of the drifting. i am a photography geek and those are some nice shots by the way. awesome.
-allen

 

I'm still considering it... I'd do another 2000 grit wet-sand, but I'm going to have to talk to a couple "real" professionals about the negative effects of doing a clear-coat on this particular finish.

Thanks bro'. I'm really into detail, and although nothing I do is perfect, I do the best I can with a relatively low budget.

Right on about the taillight mod. I kind of describe the procedure a *little* in my intro post to this thread--but if you want a little more "in-depth" info into the mod, you can check out my original thread from a while back: https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/s5-taillights-%2Amodernized%2A-pics-392954/

 

Oh yeah, it was ecyrb | SLC who took the 'drift' photos. And if anyone cares, there is a strange new addition to our growing Rx7 family.

First of all, let me give a little bit of background. I live in a condo... lol. But a bunch of my close friends moved into a SICK house about a block away from my condo. This is what's in the driveway:

Steve (13bpower) owns a 400whp 300zx TT, a brand new 2006 350z and a REPU. He was also the previous owner of MY Turbo II. Bryce (ecyrb | SLC) owns a show-winning *mint* Corrado SLC VR6, a VR6 swapped MkII Jetta Couple AND now owns the white Series IV Turbo II. Colby owns a 2.9L Corrado SLC. And Tyler owns a modified (soon to be turbo'd) Civic Hatch, a Yamaha R6 street-bike and TODAY suprised everyone when he rolled up in a white, 51k mile, 1986 'Sport' Rx7 with a strange motor under the hood...

Blows my mind...

 

Erik, Tylers FC is actually a 87 and it has a 5.7 V8..... It's wild.

 

how many coats did you use on the wheels? did you sand the rim first before spraying? did you fine sand after each coat with 2000 grit? thanks

 

so when are you going to paint over the primer?

 

how many cans did it take to do the rims???
im going tommorow to pick up the same kind of brand but im going with the graphite color...
im trying to get the lip polished but its a bitch..lol