Freelica, $0.00, new trans, new life Options

[cheela]

This past sunday I had a little time so I thought I'd give Freelica a quick polish to see what I could do with the paint. Surprisingly it shined up pretty decent. Still looks like crap with the rust and spray paint overspray but it was nice to see it looking somewhat pretty again compared to the dismal state it was in before. breathing new life into it for sure. A clean set of doors and a bit of work with a PDR kit and it won't look so bad.

BEFORE:



AFTER:


Pretty good reflection. Didn't think it would be possible.

[narly_charley]

This would be a fun car to practice body work with. You could respray the car relatively affordably. LOTS of sanding, but it could be worth it.

[cheela]

^exactly my thoughts. I need to respray my green one bad but I have little to no experience with painting and don't want to mess it up on my baby. So I could use Freelica as an experimental car. I'm all for putting in the hard work and doing it myself.

[narly_charley]

^exactly my thoughts. I need to respray my green one bad but I have little to no experience with painting and don't want to mess it up on my baby. So I could use Freelica as an experimental car. I'm all for putting in the hard work and doing it myself.

Body work is one of those things that you can spend just a few minutes on or dump hundreds of hours in. It's all in what you're looking for with that vehicle. I'll tell you that if you're going budget, the cheap ass purple paint gun from Harbor Freight isn't half bad.

https://www.harborfreight.com/20-fl-oz-hvlp...-gun-62300.html

[narly_charley]

Grand Am I flipped. The clear on the rear bumper cover and spoiler was peeling terribly.

[cheela]

haha. Nice! I do in fact have that harbor freight gun. Just never used it yet. Seeing as the budget for this is as cheap as can get then I might as well try it out. The Grand Am didn't turn out too bad.

[Box]

Best thing to do is buy a car in need of bodywork and keep at it until you're good, and you already have the car so it's a perfect opportunity. Plus it won't be a total loss on materials, since you got the car for free and making it look nice will increase what you'll be able to get for it once it's done. Really it's a win win win.

[Bitter]

The Porter Cable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002654I46 is pretty decent, a little lacking in some areas but for the price it's WAY better than what I see you're using.

[NgoFcukinWay]

only thing with paint is having the right, big-ass compressor to provide the necessary air for the gun, then having the right tips for the guns to get the proper atomization for the paint, and the necessary inline filters & pressure regulators. After that, it's just proper prep work and mixing the right ratios for everything.

The Porter Cable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002654I46 is pretty decent, a little lacking in some areas but for the price it's WAY better than what I see you're using.

This is a great DA for beginners (on a budget). It's actually a great DA to have in your arsenal in general. Pair it up with Microfiber pads and it's a combo that's hard to beat.

This post has been edited by NgoFcukinWay: Aug 28, 2019 - 12:11 AM

[narly_charley]

I grew up using rotary polishers (I have the old model Dewalt). They aren't very forgiving, but you can get sh*& done with them. They cut like no tomorrow, which can be dangerous in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to tame it.

[cheela]

yeah, it's definitely time to upgrade my arsenal. I've been using alot of cheapo tools and saying when I break them I will upgrade. Some have broken right away and thus I've upgraded to better. Some I don't use nearly enough to consider upgrading and others haven't broken yet after years of use. Still with the crap paint I have on all my cars it would be a good investment to get that one.

[Bitter]

Always start with the lightest compound on the gentlest pad and lower end of the speed range and work up from there to get the desired results, when you're new to stuff. Also don't be afraid to cheat with fillers lol! My car is 50% polished and 90% fillers haha! I've got a motley assortment of stuff I use, none of it very fancy but I've got a system that works. I'm always up for trying new stuff, I'm ready to have a go at my Mazda with a sample of "the last cut" all in one diminishing compound. Cuts and polishes in one step with one pad which is pretty awesome!

[Box]

Fillers?

[cheela]

did some more small things to get this thing ready for the road.

Swapped over NGK spark plugs and wires, as well as the distributor cap and rotor.
Cleaned up the valve cover and intake manifold as much as I could.


Threw my 2 post spoiler on without the riser blocks because they were reps that were a bit wobbly when put together. I'm gonna have to get some better hardware to keep them from killing people when I'm racing up to 55mph with that 7AFE power.



swapped over to HIDs as well because f*ck traffic (they're all trucks with super bright HIDs anyways)




And finally this quick little 15 min steering wheel swap turned out to be more work than I had wanted. lol
Parked in front the garage and took the battery off, swapped steering wheel blah blah easy stuff. put it back togehter, went to start the car and NOTHING.
It was at that moment that Freelica's original starter decided to take a crap after 23 years. I KNEW I should've just threw one of my spares on when I was putting the transmission back together. lol so I had to add a starter replacement to my steering wheel swap. but all good, she runs again.


question for you all.
so my clock and cd player don't turn off when I shut the car off. To keep it from sapping the battery, I've just been unplugged the battery everytime I park. Any idea what's going on with it? There's a lot of weird things I found when cleaning and putting Freelica back together. Passenger side turn signal and sidemarker has burnt out bulbs. Passenger side door light was also just unplugged randomly. wires running to the "system" in the back didn't look that well done. cigarette light is also sitting by the shifter. I've fixed all those things except for the radio/clock staying on. I'm probably gonna take the deck out and see if the wiring was done legit or shoddy... judging from everything else, it may the latter. Does the deck affect the clock though? what would keep it on after you take the keys out?

[richee3]

I vaguely remember the clock being on the radio fuse, and the radio is probably wired up to constant power instead of switched power. That shouldn’t keep the clock on all the time though, only the radio.

[Box]

Could be the door switch? I seem to recall mine would keep the radio and clock going after turning the car off until you opened the door.

[cheela]

I vaguely remember the clock being on the radio fuse, and the radio is probably wired up to constant power instead of switched power. That shouldn’t keep the clock on all the time though, only the radio.

I'm hoping the wiring behind there isn't a mess and they didn't wire up both to a constant...

Could be the door switch? I seem to recall mine would keep the radio and clock going after turning the car off until you opened the door.

Don't think so as I've opened and closed the doors and it's still on.

[Box]

I meant like if the switch was stuck or shorted, as then the door would never "be open". I dunno, maybe that or something in the ignition switch not turning off accessory?

[cheela]

Fart noises

Registered and on the road. Now to fix the clock and exhaust. Might go the simple method and just get some joint connectors to hold the piping in and call it good. Then ready to drive and/or sell.

This post has been edited by cheela: Sep 6, 2019 - 3:21 PM

[Bitter]

Is the clock to measure the 1/4 mile times?