Angie's FC Exterior Buildup thread
 

Here is the only real before picture we have. Before when it had the spoiler, TII hood, and when it had the polished TII wheels. BTW, Angie is my fiance not the car's name (yes she helps me with it).

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...k/105_0516.jpg

The car is an '87 TII and has all TII driveline and an S4 vert NA engine. Mods include Monza full exhaust header back (sounds pretty good actually), K&N FIPK, and Pineapple sleeve inserts. Since the before pic has been taken the pass door and sunroof assembly were replaced. One of the many previous owners apparently had a sunroof leak issue and RTV'd the sunroof closed. Upon removal I found that 2 of the 4 drain tubes were not connected properly, this must have been where the leak was coming from.

Here are pics after day 1. Yes, the rear was white. We spray painted it to make sure that white was the color we wanted to use. We decided on 'Super White' from a '91 Nissan 300ZX. It is a very nice bright white. We also plan on installing a full body kit that was purchased from eBay. Included with the repaint and bodykit plans for this car are windshield replacement and rear pass side diff mount stud replacement. New brakes and a few other things are also on the list.

I will update this thread as more progress is made. Stay tuned!

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good start. What body kit did you buy, I have a GP Sports kit just waiting for the right time to install, I'd love to see how you do it. Keep up the nice work and good luck with the project.

also curious what type of body kit it is but that white will look great man!

any rims on the way?

It looks like this. If you search for AIT D RX7 Bodykit you will find it.

For wheels they are American Racing (I think lol) 18s, chrome. Should go good with the chrome tips.

Hey, I was wrong they are Eagle Alloy, not sure of the model though. Simple 5 spoke wheel.

Click on this link for pic of wheels.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...0&d=1210824621

I like the kit, I was going to get that one and kinda wish I did in hindsight. Those rims sure are big and chrome huh??

Haha yeah I got a good deal on em. Needs new tires though which are pretty expensive. I have "good taste" though so that doesnt help lol

Update: Took the hatch off, got the hatch jamb all cleaned out and sanded. Also took the fender off and found that I need to replace a piece behind there. Its all bent up from falling off the jackstands with the tire off... More sanding got done on the door and driver fender. Not much else to do on the outside as far as sanding. Still need to sand the pass door and then onto the door jambs.

For the fender - OK, this is kinda hard to explain. The bumper studs attach to the fender by going through this metal piece and then the nuts go against the fender. Is this metal piece normally bolted on? Mine is welded and I really didnt want to take off the fender and look (yeah Im lazy). Does anyone know what this item is called and what do they normally go for?

On with the pics.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...108_143500.jpg
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http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...108_143400.jpg
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...908_143600.jpg

This last pic you can see what I am talking about kind of as far as the fender bracket thing.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...908_143700.jpg

Enjoy, and thanks in advance for any help.

Update:

Working on sanding still on the outside areas. Tomorrow the rear bumper and rearmost parts of the quarter panels will be ready to go. Hopefully by thursday I will have at least one sideskirt installed and trimmed as needed. I will have pics of that when it happens.

After the sideskirts are installed and lined up properly, they will be removed and stored until after the rest of the car is ready. Then the front bumper will be mounted. Im really hoping that the front bumper lines up correctly. Lastly, the rear bumper piece will be glued to the rear bumper cover. I will post pics of how the rear bumper is installed for those of you who are interested in seeing how that works.

good job bro

Looking nice man. And please do post the process of installing the kit. I just decided to sell my GP kit and I'm buying one of these like I wanted to in the first place. I would really appreciate it if you could document the kit install, I don't really have access to good info like this where I am at.

In these pics are the test fit of the sideskirts. They fit surprisingly well, except for the front part firectly ahead of the door. You can see this in the pics. I plan on using body glue to hold it down.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...208_150000.jpg
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...208_145900.jpg

I have also test fitted the rear bumper and the front bumper. I forgot to take pics but overall I think the kit fits very welland much better than expected.

In these pics you can see after I sprayed the etch prime and 3 coats of primer-surfacer so that I can block it out. The dark gray is the dry guide coat I am using that 3M makes (great stuff - well worth the money).

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...008_094100.jpg
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good work man keep up the progress!!

I will be taking more detailed pics for the rear bumper and also for the permanent fitment of the sideskirts. Im hoping to have the entire car done before my X-mas break. I figure if it is after that the possibility of bad roads is increased and I obviously would rather not drive it home on snowy roads with a brand new paint job and body kit.

Forgot to mention before that there was a pretty good amount of surface rust so it was all sanded out and then etch primer was sprayed on the bare metal. This should keep the rust from coming back for hopefully many years.

loooks really good. what did u use to sand with?

Because the car had been repainted once I wanted to remove the new color, or at least most of it. I used 80 grit for the paint removal, then went over that with 180 to remove the big scratches left by the 80. If the car had not been repainted previously I would have simply went over the whole thing with either 180 or 240. Now that the primer has been sprayed I will use 320 for block sanding. After it is all blocked out it will be sprayed with primer again and sanded lightly with 400 and then the paint will be applied. Lots of steps, but in the end I think it will look really good.

As far as "what I have used to sand with" - mainly a DA and have been doing some by hand in the smaller areas that cant be reached with my DA.

Update on the blocking. I got the majority of the back half done and will need to do some more work on the roof as I found some wavy areas that need filled. that will get fixed and primed again. Anyways, on with the pics.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...308_145001.jpg
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I'm digging it!!! I can't wait until we get to see her completely done. The step-by-step is fantastic! Keep it up!

Thanks! I'm just glad that the step-by-step isnt getting annoying lol.

I got the roof all fixed up and straight. Been working on the style lines straight and block sanded. The car looks basically the same so no pics (and I forgot to take them). Im pretty sure the main chassis will be getting paint next week sometime so STAY TUNED!!!

Pics showing that all of the car has been final sanded and is about as straight as its gonna get.

Plans for next week:

Monday - Unmask the car, clean everything including the interior, along with washing the exterior. Lots of dust is inside the car and needs to be blown/vac'd out as to not contaminate the booth with excess dust.

Tuesday - Degrease and mask off the car.

Wednesday - Spray primer-sealer and then shoot base and clear.


Pics of current status of car all blocked out:

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...608_160501.jpg
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I will post pics of the chassis painted white on wednesday. After the chassis is done I will start on the doors, hood, and hatch. After those are finished the bodykit pieces along with the mirrors and headlight covers will be done. Lastly, the molding pieces will be painted black as they were previously painted body color and by painting them gloss black, they will maintain good looks along with exactly matching the molding areas on the front and read bumpers.

Plz plz post every detail. :)

Doodoo butter interior! :scared:

Nice...can't wait to see the finished product.

lol, yeah the seats are the worst part. The neat thing about red interior is that people give the shit away. I thought about going with black but I spent a ton on my FB getting black interior and got quite a few good deals putting it all together. Red is cheap and the fiance likes it so it works.


One final update pic before it turns white. I took it outside and blew off as much dust as I could as to not contaminate the booth. I then unmasked and then remasked. I know that all you guys keep seeing is a primer FC, but rest assured wednesday it will be glossy bright white.

Enjoy:

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...008_142000.jpg

Here ya go people, a white 87 chassis. Some pics are masked and others are mostly unmasked lol. Next up will be the work on the doors, hood, and hatch along with the mirrors. Then the body kit will be done and mounted along with the door handles and other random pieces. Lastly the side moldings will be shot black along with a few trim pieces. Some stuff may be done out of order from what I am writing here but thats the plan so far. Enjoy the pics!!!

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...208_135100.jpg
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...208_135101.jpg
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...208_135200.jpg
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Let me know what you think.

Edit: BTW I havent masked the tires off because they will be used to drive home with and then taken off and the 18s will be installed.

I like the kit, it's subtle.

I have a glaring question though. Where did that pass door come from and what color is it? :suspect:

Front Bumper pic, go!

Everything else looks amazing.

Looking good.... In for the final product!

Long story short, it needed an interior and was much cheaper to buy a parts car and swap it instead of piecing it all together. Also, needed a few other misc parts for it. The original door was the same color as the car (red/pink metallic) but was manual window whereas the sriver door was power. I swapped doors instead of swapping window parts simply because it was easier.

As far as color, the pass door is/was gold that was faded to a kind of silver or something. Maybe the other way around lol.

I only ask becuase it looks dangerously close to the color of my car which is NOT a mazda color. Then in a different pic it looked closer to the factory color. I was a weeee confused

thats a nice facility! where i went to school we were better off spraying in the garage lol. keep up the good work, paintings a blast i love it, and some one always needs it done.

Your really proud of that paint color aren't you!!!


IanS- car is looking good, I cant wait to do the body work on my TII in the spring.

Yup, and there is a rather interesting story behind it all too.

So to the OP - If i read correctly, you have a TII but with an N/A drivetrain?

TII drivetrain with N/A motor, try to keep up Brian. :D



Ian- You should've kept it pink.

Nuh uh!!! Looky below

:suspect:

Then joined BAW

Happy b-day btw asshat :kiss:

I'm curious about something. That's a really nice and clean looking facility. When you were block sanding, did you do that indoors? I'd think that every car in there would get coated in the dust.

First off, yes its a TII car and was basically the town slut, every body got a piece off of it. When I got it it had NA driveline and vert engine. The assumed original engine and driveline was pulled by another forum member (#1) and then was sold to a different forum member (#2). Then #2 sold it to yet another member (#3) and was then sold to me. The parts car I spoke of previously had the TII driveline, interior, and a few other needed randon pieces such as the passenger door and sunroof. The assumed original sunroof didnt work and apparently leaked since it was RTV'd shut (although upon further investigation the front drain tubes werent hooked up correctly so that is where the leak must have been coming from I am thinking).

As far as blocking it out, yes it was done inside. I swept and/or vaccuumed the majority of the dust. Before spraying, I rolled it outside and blew it all off to keep most of the dust away form the booth. The cars that are sanded on are kept away from the paint booth and buffing area. In fact the FC is the closest vehicle to the booth as can be.

The shop itself is brand new. We moved into it ~8 weeks ago and some stuff still needs done before its "complete". I gotta tell you though, baking the paint is WAY faster. I shot the car, baked it for half hour at 140 and then pulled it out and a few other parts another student was working on went in. Very cool stuff. In case anyone is interested in how much a setup like that costs, it was ~75K installed and thats NOT including the concrete work.

Happy birthday Rowtarded. What are you now, 22? lol

Edit: 24. I remember back when I was 24. I was alot less of an asshole than I am now. My how the times have changed...

It already has the K&N FIPK, full Monza exhaust, and homemade pineapple sleeves. Possibly a light steel flywheel in the future. It gets up and goes pretty decent and handles ok although some suspension upgrades are on the list to do. I figure some nice shocks and some eibach pros along with some bushings will make it handle better. Angie is not really an agressive driver so it doesnt really need to be all that fast, just pretty decent. My FB is built up pretty decent for being a simple NA 12A (soon to be bottle-fed again - this time without problems that blow up engines).

Mods for FB in sig.

Edit: Oh yeah you should quit smoking cuz all of a sudden you'll be 28 and waking up at night having some sort of asthma attack. thats some seriously scary shit lol. I havent quit yet though... Its cuz Im a pansy.

Sounds like a good set up for Angie. N/A's can be very fun cars, but don't expect to beat up on everything out there. I wish I still had my 88 SE. I miss that car alot even though the paint was oxidizing everywhere. It ran great until I blew an oil cooler line. :(


And yeah, I smoke like....3-4 ciggarettes a week. I cut back ALOT! I use to go through 1.5 packs a day. I found other ways to relieve my stress like flaming people on other forum's since I can't do it here. lol

Clean up please! This thread has some sweet content.

Not much really to mention, just more primered parts lol. The sunroof is all done and ready to be sealed and painted. The doors are already sealed on the inside areas (jambs) and the outsides have been primed and ready to be block sanded. Once the doors are ready for paint, I will also seal the hatch inside and out and spray all 4 at the same time. May go ahead and spray the mirrors and fuel door also at the same time.

Angie helped alot today. She scuffed the mirrors, almost all of the side moldings (last one came in the mail today - thanks 87 T-66), and the fuel door. Once that stuff is painted it will be onto the body kit. Some fine tuning and reinforcement is needed for the front bumper and sideskirts as some small cracks happened during all the test fitment processes.

Enjoy the pics and stay tuned for many more...

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...808_125900.jpg
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:rlaugh: Newb & hypocrite

When you paint the entire car are you going to hang the doors and spray the jams and the doors at the same time, or paint it all seperately?

Its all getting painted seperately. I feel that it is ok to do this as it is a straight color, no metallics or pearls. With metallics or pearls, it is important to have all the pieces sitting in the position that they are intended to be on the vehicle to keep pearl/metallic alignment the same. It would look odd to spray the doors laying down (horizontal) while the rest is the way it should be (vertical), etc.

Besides, the chassis itself is already painted white and cleared. Working on the little stuff now, like the doors, hatch, hood, etc.

Yup - I made that mistake when I painted the hood. Couldn't get it as clean as I wanted so I hung it vertically and the mettalic didn't match. Oh well, it's been re-shot and matches now. My color is very mettalic and much like you everything was painted seperately. The mettalic and the color matches great. Just the clear on the doors didn't lay up as thick as I wanted and there is a little orange peel left that I didn't cut out. Debating repainting the doors now :icon_no2:

Nah, dont repaint just sand it with a DA with like 2500 grit. Do what you can to get rid of the orange peel and then just respray clear. Obviuously, be careful not to go through the clear and into the paint. Give it a good 3 coats of clear and then you have plenty to sand and buff to get rid of any new orange peel. Really, 2 coats of clear is all that is normally needed but for my personal stuff I like to go with 3 coats to be on the safe side so more orange peel can be removed. Some people really like the orange peel look and I seem to not be one of those people.


I hope this is still on topic. I'd hate to type all this out just to have it deleted or "cleaned up" lol.

Ummmmm, if good advice like that is cleaned up I'll find justin and insert something large and sharp into his taint.

The clear has been on there for about 3 years now, is it still ok to just respray clear ontop of that? I've been told differently.

The descrepancy is I used 2 coats of clear on the doors, and 3 everywhere else after seeing the orange peel left on the doors. I know there is enough clear to take all the orange peel out but it would leave a thinner than everywhere else film build. This is why I was just going to DA everything, seal, base & clear. That way I know I have great adhesion thoughout, the prep work is the same, the only difference is 3 extra coats (sealer and 2 base) or an extra 2 hours. To me the extra 2 hours of "painting" is well worth it to ensure complete adhesion

I will ask my instructor and see what he says about the amount of time for the clear. My only real concern is the possibility of color mismatch on the doors compared to the rest of the car. Thats why I was saying a respray on the clear would be better as then no worries with a color mismatch. Its faded the same amount as the rest and no dicking around for days tinting for a "perfect" match. Of course, you could blen into the fenders and quarters and then you wouldnt have to worry about it, but then you are clearing a huge area...




I'll get back to you with an answer tomorrow.



Edit: Hold on. You can blend on a car that is way older than 3 years. All you need to do is scuff/sand til no gloss and paint your area that is damaged and then clear the rest of the panel. As far as the paint you just need to make sure there is sealer on the area that filler was applied before the base color is sprayed. OEM is cool with this so I dont see a reason that it wouldnt be OK. See what Im saying? Makes sense to me but maybe Im overthinking it. I do that sometimes.

Edit 2: More explanation - You wouldnt need to apply filler obviously so you would really only need to scuff the doors with red scotch brite (or similar scuff pad) or a fine sandpaper and spray clear.

Cliff notes: I have the uncanny ability to confuse people through my writing lol. My final answer is YES it would be just fine to reclear the doors as long as they were COMPLETELY deglossed (on the outside or wherever you plan on shooting clear) and well cleaned and degreased obviously.

OK Im done lol