Some assembly pics for the junkies:





John's also keeping busy working on the little bits:




I expect the next shot in the booth to be coming up pretty soon

Lane

 

Exterior Paint is DONE bitches







John's now moving on to tint and the painting my interior pieces






Lane

 

More interior painting process pics





Lane

 

This thing is looking amazing!

 

Thanks for this thread. I'm starting bodywork next month. This is good prep on how much work I have ahead of me. Thank you for all the details.

However, what's truly amazing thing is that John finish on his spray looks better then most peoples wet sand.

Freaking amazing!

 

Thanks Billetproof97 and mach.80



I've got a little side project to share. It's not paint related, so I'd normally only post it in my build thread, but since John's involved I figured y'all would like to see another area where this painter excels

My side project is a full 304 stainless steel exhaust I've been designing in my head for a couple of years. Here's what I drew up to get this shindig started



The parts in blue were contracted out to Anthony Chaghlassian of AS Fabrication out of California (acfabrication@gmail.com / Instagram)
The parts in green will be built by John.

Looks like Anthony is holding up his end of the bargain!









Saying I'm excited is a major understatement!

 

While the fabricated parts from Anthony were on their way I hooked John up with some goodies. By goodies I mean a buttload of 304 stainless including straight 3" a U-J pipe, v-bands, 3/8" rod, and rubber insulators!

Yesterday John laid down the law on my exhaust build and really showcased his fabrication skills

Here's the first picture I got yesterday!


You can see that we ended up going back to a Samberg trans mount. I was previously using the Kevin Doe trans mount that came with my previous dual 3" exhaust. I told John he had the option to use either one and it was his call based of what would make it easiest for him to fabricate around. He chose Samberg and I have to say, after seeing this picture I'm ecstatic about the choice. My concern was that the Samberg mount wouldn't be able to get as good a ground clearance as Kevin's mount, but you can see that John was able to get this going in the right direction right from the start!

Here's the picture I've been absolutely drooling over ever since he sent it over:


THIS is the reason I wanted the splayed Y. That's not to say that the splay made the fabrication trivial. I know John spent a LOT of careful planning and fitting to get such a straight line gorgeous merge. Awesome work all around. Anthony hooked me up with exactly what I wanted and John knocked it out of the park by integrating it perfectly

Here's a side view showing John's attention to ground clearance:


I'm very happy with the view. The v-band bolts will of course be turned around when we get it on the road, but even down I'd say we're headed in the right direction

Tapping into the U-J pipe supply for bends to get around the cobra rear end


What WHAT!!! Showcasing the Oval Vibrant muffler with custom tip!




Vibrant Round


As you can see. John's only tacked everything together the hangers still need to be designed, but we're getting very close! I can't wait to hear this baby sing!!!!

Can't thank John and Anthony enough for the work done to date. Getting the exhaust done the way I wanted has been a major roadblock for me in MS. Seeing this come together in one afternoon was an unbelievable experience



Lane

 

Went through your whole thread and have to say it's some seriously awesome ****

Very happy to see a poorly-done FD rescued by a true craftsman

 

Thanks Rich! I honestly have pictures of your post-detail FD saved on my computer. Back when I saved them I was thinking to myself "it's nice to have an ultimate goal even if I'll never see paint this nice on my car." Well, I don't know if it'll end up looking as good as yours but John has taken me infinitely closer to the goal than I thought I'd ever achieve! Thanks for posting such inspiring pictures

Glass was recently installed so we're back to ~watertight. John took the opportunity to wash her down and prep for the final colorsand and buff:







John's going to put the car in the paint booth to keep it clean until the buff.



Lane

 

Looks soooo good. Nothing beats fresh black paint when its done right. Keep up the good work!!!

-Austin

 

Ok I will ask first, how much does this paint job cost? 10k?

 

I haven't approached $10k yet even with the exhaust work. That's not to say the same job wouldn't cost someone else that figure. I got John during a transition period where he started working for himself. I suspect that if he were to take on a similar job he would have to compensate for the overhead he has now-a-days. Best bet would be to email him for a ballpark quote if you have a job you're shopping around. I'd be happy to provide contact info for anyone interested.

Latest updates -------

Progress has stalled a little bit due to weather, other work John had to move out, and the availability of friends to help finish the final buff. Despite that, John sent me some cool updates this morning

Tint is in




It's 37% to keep myself in good standing with the local 5-O.

Lane

 

John has also been working on my interior pieces. Here are two shots of the texture base:



It's SEM chip guard applied over a plastic adhesion promoter.

Finally, he topcoated it with a very thin two part PPG semi-gloss paint (I think that's right... it's been a couple months since we talked through the details):








Really liking the texture and the fact that its so jet black! The picks above are wet pics so we're waiting to see how matte the topcoat gets as it cures

 

We've had some hangups.

The first has been the weather. The snow up north has meant monsoons for the south. John's booth is nice but it's not a $30k heated booth with all the whistles so he has to factor in the weather at the extremes.

The second hangup has been my rear bumper. After painting it and letting it cure over the last couple of months it developed cracks in the paint. Sorta similar to what I had all over the car after the first paint job but much less severe. Well, John stripped it back and reprimed it with even more flex agent. After a few days the cracks started to appear again. He stripped it back again and set himself up with a new primer system + flex agent that's made for priming 90s yellow Japanese fiberglass. A few days later the cracks started appearing again. John and his paint rep ran out of ideas and were understandably frustrated. This is where John called to say that their best bet was that the bumper was dry rotting or losing its structural integrity due to age and exposure. They could continue upping the flex agent ratios past the recommended, skim it with filler, oorr start with a new bumper. After talking it through we settled on the best solution being to look and see if I could get a new rear bumper cover. Talked to Ray and found out his rear cover is doing the same thing. Makes me worried that it may be something more people have to face going forward
Long story short, I coughed up the dough and got the last new rear cover in the USA headed Jackson. If the rain clears up we might get some nice results sooner rather than later.

On my off time I've been raising my daughter and spending every spare minute (only a few of those in the week) developing a handful of embedded gadgets that will help our community.

Lane

 

Been following this thread for some time now.
Everything looks really good, can't wait to see the finished product.
I had my car resprayed like 6 years ago and the rear bumper started cracking too, very hard to see from a distance but I can tell.
I didn't think it was a common occurrence.

Anyways, keep us updated once the weather clears up.

 

Thanks Sephek

Exciting developments today! Out of the blue John jumped on knocking out the final polish and buffing. With the help of a friend they got a very nice start on getting the main parts of the body done. If you ask me, it looks finished, but he says "It is getting there" lol!

Oh yeah. Try and ignore my dirty *** tires. They were like that when I brought them to him. I think it may be the tire dressing I use. After all this time I think it's yellowed. Either that or their just filthy *** dirty.











The last shot is off a fender, which is unbelievable to me as they were in rough shape when I brought them do him (my dad literally fell on one the day I brought the car to John lol)



Lane

 

My parts box is almost empty and it's looking like John and company are definitely going to wrap this month :drive:




Here's a pic of the buffing/polishing progress (passenger light cover is just sitting in-place)



Body is finished!




Mmmmmhmmmm

Now its just down to getting the bumpers done.

Lane

 

This day just keeps getting better and better. John must be pulling a 24hr RX7 binge because he keeps sending be sneak peeks:






Blowing me away. Bumpers are back on and look at that rocker panel! John convinced me to ditch the rock guard and now I'm convinced it was the right call! I know its going to worry me, but that's what clear bra is for. I'll have to protect it, but for now I'll continue drooling over these pics

Lane

 

3 more teasers for you junkies





Lane

 

It'ssss baaaaack







I made the trip to pick her up on Saturday. Unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to let it sink in. I had to go out of town in the opposite direction of jackson to get the trailer, then drive to and from Jackson, then back to the drop point for the trailer, then I switched vehicles and drove my family to a wedding shower so I was on the road all day Saturday. Then today I spent most of the day cleaning my house and garage to catch up on the micro vacation I took last week. On the garage side I had to make sure I had 4ft clearance around all sides of the rx7 + I had to remove any tipping/falling hazards
That's all to simply say I am still in shock. The car in the pictures is a little dusty with dust/pollen from the trip and I haven't cleaned it yet, but take my word for it; its breathtaking for me. I told John it was going to take a few weeks for it to sink in completely. Seeing the car in my garage sans the terrible paintjob and replace with THIS is just an unbelievable feeling

I'll be taking more pics and posting more details as soon as I can get the time to do so. In the meantime I'm just going to sit in my garage and drink a few drinks with my RX7 haha!

Lane

 

WOOOOOOOW! I actually think I just turned gay for your painter!

 

Lane

 

that come up mint, nice job!