Great car!!! The muffler really threw me off!

 

ok, I guess I should have added in that the only thing on my car is the subframes, so there isnt much work to do when painting it. the only items they have to tape off are the windows and some wiring. the kind of paint that is going on isnt going to cheap either. reason for it being so cheap is because there is going to be less prep work.

by the way what fenders are those?

 

Go BBS!!

 

twin turbo LT1....excuse me, I need to go clean my pants, I seem to have made a mess...so, so sexy, so much power, damn thats going to haul some serious ***.

 

what kind of drivetrain mods do you plan to do?

 

jagwrjack, the guys I talked to said you don't have to go down to bare metal for a great pain job. Factory paint is so good all you have to do is scuff it and paint over. But for something you need to last for like 20yrs, down to bare metal is the best way. It's something probably most people don't do unless the paint is really crappy.


Rhode_Dog, so far all I have is a spec stage 3 carbon clutch kit, aluminum driveshaft, tubular torque arm, and a custom tranny mount. I don't know what I'm doing for the differential yet. I'll probably go with the Kaaz or T2 LSD. Lots of guys are pulling some serious power with these setups so I think it'll be good enough.

 

 

Tight work on the paint. Looks good for a garage job. I'm getting ready to paint my car within the next cupple months. Got all House of Kolor Orion silver, Klear Kote, Blue and white ice pearls, and everything elise needed. came to about $900 (recently found out my uncle is a factoy Rep for house of colors ). Going to start building a Side Down draft paint booth this weekend. Just gotta go pick up a good air compressor, DA Sander, and Paint gun. Gotta alot of prep work to do to keep my busy while im saving money for that though. Its a 8 peice body kit so i got my work cut out for me. Cant wait for the kit to get here so i can get started.

As far as the Engine in your car.......looks good but personaly i love the rotory, and kinda painful to me for some reason to see it gone, replaced by a domestic engine. But hey not my car, and to each his own.

 

how much paint did you buy? I recently looked at prices for House of Kolor and suprisingly, they are pretty cheap. There only expensive paints are the kameleon. There pearls are pretty expensive but you only need a couple ounces for the whole car, unless you're painting a Caddy Good luck and pst some pics when done

 

how much paint did you buy? I recently looked at prices for House of Kolor and suprisingly, they are pretty cheap. There only expensive paints are the kameleon. There pearls are pretty expensive but you only need a couple ounces for the whole car, unless you're painting a Caddy Good luck and pst some pics when done

 

Actually, the general consensus among painters is to just take it down to the orginal primer - the idea being that the factory primer will have better adhesion to sheetmetal then a new, aftermarket primer.

For those that have the notion that spending $5000 on a paint job will get you $5000 worth of effort, take heed. As was said, nobody will care to spend that extra time to sweat the details on your car as you would. Working on my car, I uncovered a body filler job that extended almost the whole height of the passenger side door - to cover two freakin, measly DOOR DINGS. (horror turned into relief as I removed the filler and uncovered the 'damage', then to utter disgust - discovering that someone was too lazy to push two little dents out)

I seriously, seriously doubt any shop would spend the amount of time I've had working ever square centimeter of my car, no matter how much I'd offer to pay them. One thing is true of all body shops - the more cars they push through, the more money they make. $5000 paint job will likely buy you a less then proportional effort as compared to a $2000. In other words - yeah, they'll spend some more time on it, but likely not effort worth the extra $3000 to you if you really knew what they did.

My investment on my current paint project:

Craftsman 6hp, 33 gallon air compressor - $320

Ingersoll-Rand DA sander - $65

Devilbiss Plus hybrid paintgun - $300

Asssorted supplies/primer/etc to date - $200

Dupont ChromaPremier (Dupont's top of the line) base, clear, reducers - $350 (with plenty left over)

Knowing that someone did not cut corners on my baby? - priceless

 

It came to 900 for everything from the paint down to the 3M Pads for my buffer. I got enough to paint the outside of the car, inside(speaker box, door panels,ect), extra for repairs/ screw ups, and for what ever elise i feel like painting to match (accents, you know the little **** that makes a big difference).

Orion Silver (fine metallic)
Hi-Heat Black
Black
Ice Pearl Blue
Ice Pearl White
Klear Kote
Paint Strainers
Mixing cups
Wax & Grease Remover
Post Sanding Cleaner
Tack Clothes
Cleaning Wipes
Glazing Putty Tube
Body Filler
Dura Glass
some off the hook Epoxy
3M Rubbing Compound
3M Glazes
3M Compound Pad
3M Polishing Pad
3M 77 Adaptor for pads
Reducer
hardner

 

It came to 900 for everything from the paint down to the 3M Pads for my buffer. I got enough to paint the outside of the car, inside(speaker box, door panels,ect), extra for repairs/ screw ups, and for what ever elise i feel like painting to match (accents, you know the little **** that makes a big difference).

Orion Silver (fine metallic)
Hi-Heat Black
Black
Ice Pearl Blue
Ice Pearl White
Klear Kote
Paint Strainers
Mixing cups
Wax & Grease Remover
Post Sanding Cleaner
Tack Clothes
Cleaning Wipes
Glazing Putty Tube
Body Filler
Dura Glass
some off the hook Epoxy
3M Rubbing Compound
3M Glazes
3M Compound Pad
3M Polishing Pad
3M 77 Adaptor for pads
Reducer
hardner

I definatly post pictures when im done, gonna be a while though, got alot of work to do and alot of money i need to make.

 

I have owned an F.D. for about a year now and did all the work myself, engine etc. (had to redo a engine I got from a runaway builder). I have added a few things extra but I must say the designing underneath a conversion such as this are taken for granted. Most people see something like this and say cool, but don't know the how much R&D is involved. More guys should build their cars themselves any way they wish. Great job!

 

Very nice car. I like how you've done something different from the rest with it. And that paint job looks great!

 

I'm sorry you have had poor experiences with body shops. There are two body shops in my area that charge between $7-10k for a full repaint and they are FIRST CLASS shops. The shop proprietors are perfectionists and wouldn't dream of doing a half-*** job.

I would never bother getting a $2-4k paint job (here in the Bay area, elsewhere in the country should be a bit cheaper). I think LT1-7 did a fantastic job for DIY, I just wanted to dispell any thoughts in people's minds that you can do a FIRST CLASS paint job in your garage. That's all.

 

You get what you pay for. Thats the main reason i do everything myself. If someone says they are hookin you up on labor, that mean the work they put in is equal to the amount your paying. Sure it may come out looking good, but show it to someone that paints cars for a living and know there ****. People cut corners like not sanding the car to the factory primer insted of just scuffing up the old clear, or taking the time to sand the car with a higher gritt sandpaper. There are alot of things that can be done to get a better paint job, but even without them it still can look good not great but good. example: the plasma TV's, u wouldn't think anythings wrong with the picture on the older tv's but once you see the picture on a plasma its noticibly better.

 

Thread hijack: If you are talking about watching a bright, animated feature on a true hi-def plasma (which is NOT what you get for $2500 at Costco....), then yes, a Plasma looks better than a CRT. If you are talking about any other situation with an HDTV CRT, I strongly disagree.

 

Stripping a car to bare metal is another one of those myths perpetuated by people who think that a paint job can't be good without a lot of unnecessary effort...

 

yeah its a very good looking car but its just not an rx7 ne more I mean come on it stands for Rotary Experiment number 7 so without the ***** Rotary part its pretty much pointless to call it an rx7.

 

Sweet lookin 7!!! Good job!!!

 

Well thank god you took the time to weigh in with that classic nugget of wisdom.

Funny how people's cars sitting engineless in their garages while they wait for their rebuilds to get to the are still considered rx-7s and they don't have rotaries either. Pretty much everything but his engine and tranny still require a Mazda part (or equivalent).

Guys like you crack me up. his car doesn't have a rotary in it anymore, get over it. He didn't steal it's soul, or desecrate a classic, or any of the other really pointless arguments that a lot of rotary zealots make. He just changed the drivetrain out. Nothing more, nothing less.

As much **** as John has done to his car you might as well call it a reciprocating experimental 7 .

Paint looks good John Now get that badboy down to Texas and give me that ride you owe me.

 

There are tons of new cars that come with other manufacturers motors in them , mazdas with ford motors , nissans with ford motors , fords with yamaha engines (Ford Taurus ) .....you dont see them changing the name of the car just for the motor do you?????So go fly a kite about it not being an RX7

 

It's pretty much pointless to believe you're capable of intelligent thought, but we're not telling you to stop calling yourself human are we?

 

Damn Jim. I almost choked to death on the water I was drinking

Excellent reasoning, by the way.