Sanding and sanding, pics pg 5 Options

[hitcachi]

Looks great. Have you guys had any snow in Omaha yet? Still nothing in Lincoln. When you finish you could probably keep driving it through the rest of the winter.

This post has been edited by hitcachi: Dec 28, 2006 - 1:48 PM

[JonMarkos]

Unfortunately we've had mostly clear skies. It's iced over a couple of times and I think snow might have fallen once for about 2 minutes but other than that nothing. You wait though, the day I finish everything we'll get a big snowstorm.

[celiracer]

Any updates man? this snow that we got sucks. I havn't drivin my car for 3 days since there has been so much snow and gravel on the ground. Don't know when i'll make it up there next. But i'll let you know.

[JonMarkos]

Realized I haven't done an update for a while so I figured it was time to add one in. I have the right sideskirt and rear extension mounted and held into place. Initially to mount them I used that adhesive material. Then to further stiffen them up I filled in the spaces between the body and the kit with an expanding adhesive foam. This seems to be doing the job nicely as they are basically immovable and when I push/pull them the whole car moves, should be enough to hold them in place. Unfortunately the fitment on the right sideskirt was crap so I ended up cutting it into four pieces. Add to that the fact that my experience with fiberglass is nil and that makes this a fun experiment for me.

Some things I have learned so far:

Fiberglass is itchy
Taking off gloves > having to scrape off the top layer of your skin with a knife because foam went all over the place
Too much sanding is just about enough
Measure twice cut once
Permanent mounting can only be done once
Fiberglass is itchy

Some pictures


The right side, you can see the gap in the sideskirt here.


An underside shot of the foam filling up inside the rear extension, I sanded down the foam so it all sits inside the extension and can not be seen from any angle outside the car.


My third attempt at fiberglassing the bumper to the body to make the whole rear smooth. This part is a huge pain in the butt as I have no experience with fiberglass work. Hopefully a buddy of mine will be able to make it out here this week to help me with this because right now I'm fresh out of ideas and running low on fiberglass.


The left sideskirt. Length wise this side fit fine but I still ended having to cut off both the front and the rear where it went up on the body because the angle was horrible.

[playr158]

what problems are you having with the fiberglass?
adhesion?

[JonMarkos]

No, the problem I am having is because the bumper and rear quarter panel do not sit flush (the quarter panel sticks out maybe 4-5 mm farther than the bumper) I cannot get the fiberglass patch to sit flush and then fill in evenly. You can kind of see in that picture at the bottom of the bumper how when I get bumper smooth the quarter panel is down to bare metal. That causes the edge of the fiberglass patch that sit against the bumper to angle out. I tried to keep adding layers (I got to 3) but I got frustrated because the same thing kept happening.

[celiracer]

Hey man looking good. if your out working on your car today me and em might be in omaha. Let me know.

[JonMarkos]

Well first, the most exciting news...WE GOT SNOW . This is why I live in Nebraska.


Taken outside the warehouse, it's been snowing for a few hours and doesn't look to be stopping anytime soon.

Of course, I also have an update on the car. Both rear extensions and both sideskirts are now mounted in place and not going anywhere.


Passenger side. The rear extension has been molded on and I now have to wait for my dad to come and place a carbon fiber patch over the gap between the bumper and quarter panel and that will be all done. I also need to go get some more expanding foam to fill in the side skirt and then I can mold it to the body.


This is a picture of the foam inside the side skirt. This foam is solid and will hopefully make sure that the side skirt doesn't go anywhere or crack if I accidently rub it.


Driver's side. The rear extension is molded on here too, but again I am waiting to get more foam later on today to fill in the sideskirt before I mold it on.


The rear extension fiberglassed up before I sanded it down.


After sanding down the rear extension.

I also decided that I want to mold the front splitters. To avoid the problem of not being able to remove the bumper I am cutting the front splitters in line with the gap between the front bumper and fender. I will then mold the back part of the splitter to the fender and mold the front part to the bumper. I think that will look a lot better than having the rest of it molded and those just bolted on. I guess I'll find out.

This post has been edited by JonMarkos: Jan 15, 2007 - 4:57 AM

[DippedInSauce]

Looks good man, keep up the good work

[JonMarkos]

I didn't get as much work done last night as I'd hoped. I got out there late due to watching adult swim and left early so I can go out to breakfast with my brother before he goes to work, but some work is better than none.


The top of the skirt fiberglassed to the inside of the door.


While waiting for the fiberglass to dry I decided to line up the rear of the sideskirt with the lip inside the wheel well, I thought it looked alot better.


After sanding it down. Dremel = best tool EVAH

The more work I do on her the more I can't wait to see her finished. Although I'm grateful right now to be driving a truck due to the snow yesterday, I miss her .

[celiracer]

Looking good man. Yea the snow is whats keeping me in town lol. Me and Em were thinking about going down there the one day and then it started snowing. So hopefully when it starts to clear up i'll be out there.

[DSToyo]

looks really good, can't wait to see it done!

[JonMarkos]

Got the carbon fiber on to help mold the rear bumper.


setting up


in place

I also started molding on the side skirts, what a PITA



That is all

[Jaws4God]

Awesome!! Looking good..

Just let me know when to pull mine in after yours..

[playr158]

very very interesting on the CF there

[JonMarkos]

very very interesting on the CF there

Questions, comments or concerns?

Did some more work last night trying to get the sideskirts molded evenly, took a couple pictures of course


Building it up.


Sanding it down.

After work tonight a buddy of mine and I are going to go out there and work on it till the wee hours of the morning, hopefully we can get both skirts molded on and finish up the rear. Maybe even start on the front if I'm lucky.

[celiracer]

Hey man. Looks like your coming a long good. Your gonna be out there tonight working on it? I'm gonna check on the roads see how bad they are and maybe stop by for a bit and help you out. I'll give you a call.

[JonMarkos]

Got some more work done on the celica last night, bondo'd up the CF on the rear and started trying to get it flush. Also added some more fiberglass bondo to the one skirt to get it smooth where I had to cut it.







It's nice to see so much progress being made on the car, especially when I look back through all my old photos and see the work progress.

On a bad note I went to go sledding around 1 last night when we were getting a big snow fall and and my truck started overheating so I had to pull off to the side of the road. Did some checking and found 1) my radiator cap was loose 2) I had no antifreeze in the reservoir. Filled the reservoir and the truck was still overheating so I had to call AAA to get a tow to the auto place my cousins work at. This story would have been a whole lot less embarrassing if I hadn't had an attractive member of the opposite sex with me . She took it in stride though, and told me tonight we will try to go sledding again, except she'll drive .

[maurer11sdk]

what kind of body filler are you using? just curious?

[JonMarkos]

what kind of body filler are you using? just curious?

To fill in the hail damage and to smooth out shallow low spots I am using Evercoat bondo.

For the molding and more complex work I am using a fiberglass reinforced bondo.


I am also reinforcing the underside/inside of the bodykit with this stuff