Back from Thanksgiving vacation and checking the thread. Thanks for the responses folks, and for looking at my thread! It's always encouraging to see people are looking at it, and even more encouraging to see someone is picking up a trick or tip, or maybe see how NOT to do something maybe?

Not a problem ATC529R, glad I could help. If that main channel is rusted badly I'd replaced it also, either with a rust free donor section or from new metal. Cutting rust out and replacing with new or rust free metal is really the only way to ensure that you have as much control over repeat rust as you can.


Yeah, and you think YOU'RE craaaazy! Ha!!! Seriously, thanks for the props. Funds on this build are definitely an issue and that was the option that fit into my budget so I went with it.


Thanks ACR_RX-7, I appreciate the props! Because I have no budget I have no schedule. This is something that I want to get done and I fit it in when I can around work-life, home-life, kids school schedules, and whatnot, and within my fiscal constraints. I also have a very understanding wife which is 9/10ths of the battle! I'm also pretty sure that if I had the money to finish it I'd not have the patience - I know me...

Thanks for looking at my thread Andrew7dg, I'm glad I could inspire you! I'm glad you like the electrolysis. It's cheap, very easy, very little effort, and achieves fantastic results. I was sold right away.

Thanks too for the advice on welding. Unfortunately, I didn't get a proper MIG welder. I suppose I could have bit the bullet, but the HF flux core fit my budget and I didn't think it would not make decent welds. I always had a dark thought lurking in the back of my mind that I'm gonna get this thing on the road, tear off and hit a pot hole and the entire car will fall apart at the welds I did... I hope that isn't the case.

I practiced and practiced a bunch but admittedly my first welds were not the best. Really, they sucked. I did use Lincoln weld wire though! The more I did and the more I practiced the better I got at weld penetration, controlling the spatter (which, you're right, is a big issue with a FC welder), and controlling warping. Despite those issues I thought the B-pillars and the inner quarter panel turned out really well. I was lucky in one respect though - none of the welds I did will be visible to the casual observer. Interior-wise they'll be under the carpet, and exterior-wise you'd have to look inside the wheel well or under the car to tell it was welded on. Knowing that, I had already decided that if I needed to weld on the exterior of the car, like on a quarter panel, then I'd either pay a professional to do that or go buy a good MIG welder when I could.

I hope the welds are strong enough and not brittle (and honestly, now I'm concerned), but that's about all I can do at this point is hope they're good enough because the reality is that I'm about done welding on this car. I don't have any other rust holes to fix. I've turned the corner on tearing it apart and need to start putting it back together and get it painted. With Christmas coming, well... Rusty will have to wait. I plan to take the car to a body shop owned by some people that we know and trust to get it painted and in light of your comments I'll have them look at the welds and give me their opinion on their strength and potential longevity. I'm hoping for the best!

 

As long as you get the welds hot enough, then it is not an issue on penetration. Yes, flux-wire spatters and is not as pretty, but skyscrapers are put together with stick welders. A stick welder is just a very thick flux rod and it has the best penetration and is easiest to use. In your situation, patience and practice is all that is really needed. Since I didn't have enough of a closeup of your welds and didn't see it under the helmet, I cant't tell you if you are getting hot enough or not. A good test to verify though is get two scrap pieces (I know you have lots) and butt weld a seam between two pieces. Cut it perpendicular to the weld and check penetration and even hit it with a hammer and try and tear your weld.

It also never hurts to get the advice of a body guy, but I have seen some real "Russian Rebuilds" in my time. I used to work for a shop and a guy brought in his car for an alignment so that he could sell it. He was Russian and I know because my Russian coworker did all the talking (guy barely spoke english) So, it got brought in the shop and this damn Civic had holes the size of nickels in the attempted welds that held the front half of the strut towers on. Now they had cut the front half off of another civic and welded it on the car....right through the center of the strut mount they cut the @#&*%$ in half. I was AMAZED it didn't collapse. This was not the first nor the last hack-job we saw from this guy.

 

I'm pretty confident the welds were hot enough. On the advice of 82transam, and with a lot of practice, I ended up welding most all of this together with an overlapped joint by overlapping the pieces by about 1/8th of an inch. Butt welds turned out to be nearly impossible because of the blow-throughs. The overlap method worked well because I could get the bead started and kinda roll the weld into the other piece I was welding. I remember on the floors I had good penetration. I welded from inside and could see that I had good penetration from underneath the car. I'll try welding a couple scrap pieces and cut them like you said and see what happens...

 

Sounds like you are doing all of the right things. I have been watching youtube videos to get some help every so often. I recommend weldingtipsandtricks.com. Jody is an excellent welder and posts weekly videos on projects that he encounters. He is proficient at almost all welding types. (I say all because I'm not sure if he has access to a micro-laser welder) His intro to MIG and wirefeed series is rather good.

 

Just ran across the following on another forum, ever hear of it? Look up "DHC2000" on YouTube...quite interesting.

 

I'm posting a link to this thread in here for reference so I have easy access to it. Had been thinking on how to make all my removed rusty hardware look good again and figured that with electrolysis I could re-plate it all. Someone on here's already figured it out!

https://www.rx7club.com/detailing-re...bolts-1019230/

It's the perfect winter project. Now, I have to find some zinc....

Craaaaaazy: No I had seen that tool before. Looks cool though!

I've been thinking on the welding thing and looking back at the pics I took along the way (not all were posted) and I'm certain that the welds were hot enough. Pretty? No, definitely not. But I was able to see on the backside of the welds (cause I had access to everything with the car totally disassembled) and there was good penetration. The first welds in the drivers footwell area were definitely the ugliest, but I think they'll be serviceable. A show car this is not.

 

Zinc??? Check out West Marine

Zincs & Anodes | Boat Maintenance | West Marine


You might be able to find them cheaper on Ebay.

 

Aha! Thanks Qingdao!

 

Cool.... 4#s is less than half what a normal oxy/acetylene torch uses. I'd like to get into gas welding, but gas gets expensive quick. 4#s might be more reasonable than 10-15 that I'm used to.


Woodmv: I'll try to dig up some pics of my first welding project* I did with my HF MIG back 5 years ago.... You did a fantastic job with yours compared to my job.

* I put a Yamaha DT250 two stroke engine in a Kawasaki Ninja 250 frame. I had this Moto GP fetish at that time.

 

DUDE MUCH IMPRESSED!!!! You'll be driving it in no time it would appear. Light at the end of the tunnel sshould be visible!

 

I'd like to see that!

Thanks Landon! It's been quite an adventure so far.

With my work schedule the last half of the year in 2014 I wasn't able to do as much as I'd like to with the car, actually I did NOTHING. I need to start acquiring parts and save up money for a paint job. I've been sanding on it here and there to get that dull white layer off.

Talked with dad last week some about the paint. Funny story, but the short version is that between the beer and the fumes, the gun was held progressively further and further away from the car. He said they were getting a bit light headed from the fumes and help from the beer too! He and my brother put an entire gallon of white lacquer on it and I can tell. Gonna sand it down when I can and get it ready for paint. Maybe that will decrease my paint costs some, but I still need to get an estimate.

Tried the electrolysis for rust removal with a bunch of small nuts and bolts but I wasn't very happy with the results, so I need to figure out a better way and will keep plugging away at it. I picked up a piece of zinc from a boat dealer (thanks for the idea Qingdao!) and I really wanna try my hand at zinc plating.

I also took the time to disassemble and clean the heater box. After struggling with removing the doors/flaps, I got it all apart. I need to source some foam and I think I'll try McMaster-Carr. I saw some on there I want to order. I'll also disassemble and clean out the blower assembly. Lots of dust and leaves in there!



Oh! And for anyone that noticed that spray can of bug repellant in the pic, it's the stuff with 40% DEET and works like magic to brighten up and clear off faded and blasted plastic headlights. I was pretty shocked, but it works!!

 

Mom and dad sent me a couple pics of the car. The silver before paint, and the white after paint.

Check these out!

 

Awesome work, I am getting tired just reading all this! Keep it up!

 

Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to read through my thread and I hope it's been helpful.

I attacked the white paint on the car this weekend. Bought me a new DA palm sander from HF on sale and with a 20% off coupon for $20 and went to town this weekend. Dad had said he and my brother had put a GALLON of lacquer on the car, and I believe them! I used about 9 or 10 sixty grit sanding pads, and I still have to sand down the fenders, bumpers, and the nosepiece.

I was able to get all the white paint off and sand out some rust spots that I then treated. You can see where the passenger side rear quarter panel was replaced from a previous collision. Lots of bondo in that area, and the body line at the top of the passenger tail light is a bit low, giving it a "droopy eye" look. I hope that a good body shop can straighten that out a bit.

I had a bit of the body color and gloss clear left in a rattle cans from when I painted the engine bay and tested it out on the quarter panel. My best way to describe the results is "meh"... If it were that easy, everybody would be doing it. I hope I can do a lot of the sanding and prep to reduce my costs of a paint job.

Anyhoo, here's the **** - my car all stripped down:

 

are you painting it yourself?

 

I've been kinda on the fence about that, but right now leaning towards having a body shop paint it. Depends on the price really. I at least need a good pro to try to fix the right tail light area. It's been bondo'd up so bad that it isn't really straight and will drive me nuts if it doesn't get fixed (or I'll have to name the car Rusty Right Eye Rotary - ). You can kinda see what I mean in the one picture I posted.

My current plan is to get the car to a point where a good body shop needs to do just a bit of prep work, fix the tail light area, prime it and paint it, if the price is right, but I need to know what that price is. I'll take it to a good body shop that I know about and see what they say, but I'm pretty certain it's gonna be in the 'thousands of dollars' range. If it gets too cost prohibitive then I'll see about enlisting some friends with experience and doing it myself.

Long winding way to say "maybe"....

 

yeah, same boat with mine. get it straight, then see how much they want. I have the tools to do it myself, but VERY leary of doing it in my garage, let alone my weakest strenght it artistry. I'm going to do my engine bay myself so I can get it on the road and see how my confidence is/how that turns out. I am just gonna go single stage on mine so if there are minor rust spots that pop up in the future it's easier to fix

 

Guys I need parts like no freaking other where can I get them 0_0

 

You can find some stuff from black dragon, mazdatrix, racing beat, etc. or look on the classified section of this website and eBay. Also look around your local junkyard.

 

Thank you.. I pretty well get to strip it and start all over engine and trani is in good shape but body looks bad.. lots of patches and body filler for sure.. also can you give me the year models that swap parts.. I have a 78 and not sure of I can use newer modle parts or not. Thanks for the help

 

Wow, it looks like mine at this moment!!!!

Congrats on your project as well!!!!

Looking forward seeing the advance..

 

I always like seeing cars all sanded down and in the middle of bodyworking. I must be weird Get a paint gun and paint it yourself! No need for a gallon though, 2 quarts is usually enough unless you need to redo a section or something.

 

Thanks! We'll see who get's theirs on the road first - my money is on YOU!

Thanks Sean! I'd love to paint it myself, but my puny little air compressor only puts out 3.7 CFM at 40 psi, and the HVLP guns need 12. A new compressor that puts out 12 CFM at 40 psi is gonna be at least a 60 gallon compressor that runs off 240V (which I don't have in my garage) and cost at least $600. If the pros want more than 2.5 or 3 times that, then I might consider just buying the compressor and doing it myself, but I'm also gonna factor my experience (none) into the equation because afterall, the paint is the first thing anyone notices when they look at a car and even if it's 2.5 or 3 times the cost of a compressor it may be worth having a pro do it.

Of course, beer consumption at the moment of choice, available funds at the time, and predicted future costs of sending my oldest to college next fall will play into that decision as well.

 

JA!!! You have the lead my friend... You have an engine.... I don't!!!!!!

 

Haha yeah college is insane, that might make up your mind There's definitely a steep learning curve with paint, I dunno, I find the whole process to be relaxing for some reason. Guess cause I just get immersed in it - it's a good place to hide from the world haha. I forget, what color are you wanting to paint this?