ST205 Total Rebuild, Something a bit different Options

[Nial]

Got some colour put on the other day, managed to hand paint on some extra tough 2K lacquer. its not perfect but to be honest I am not that bothered, its just for protection as it will be covered by carpet etc......the engine bay is better. Some more of the 2K lacquer will arrive in the next day or so, I will then spray it onto the rest of the engine bay and finish the interior. Then i will be ready to install the brake lines, wiring and interior. Busy weeks ahead

My little garage with my cramped working space





the interior - front



and the back



the boot...slight problems in the wheel well, but again it will be covered by sound deadening etc so as long as the rust protection is there i aint bothered.



hopefully by the end of the week it will be all shiny

[Langing]

Great looking work, Nial!

Looks like 'Spring has Sprung', you are moving speedily along, and the slow, tedious stuff is behind you. I'd bet you are feeling a bit giddy at this point?

I've been watching your build for almost the duration, pulling for you when you were about ready to give up, cheering for you when you got married, moaning for you when you had to redo so much at one point. This latest series of photos shows me that you are way beyond the half-way point and are heading down the home stretch.

Here is a comment on the presentation of your build. It is for a person like me who hasn't had the experience of doing the kind of work you are doing, your pictures have the effect of going from one kind-of final state to another final state, as if by magic (the work you do between picture sets is missing). It is obvious that you have applied paint (and looks beautiful). Knowing that you have your hands full in reconstructing your vehicle, I hate to ask anything of you that imposes extra work, however, I thought I would at least broach the following question/idea.

Do you have any more information you could post, such as action videos that show how you go about applying (spraying) the paint, and could you provide detailed information (pics?) on which paints, undercoatings, etc. that you use, as well as info on the painting equipment you utilize (pics)? I remember once that you listed out the many levels of paint (coatings) that you had planned to apply and I haven't taken the time to go back and dig that out, but will if you could show or describe the products you use and what's the best way you have found to apply them, especially in such tight quarters (how the heck do you do that?). I check out YouTube whenever I have to do a task that I have never done before because people show pretty clearly, using video, how they go about doing what they do. Whether good, fair, excellent, or even poor, I often get a quick introduction/education. If it is too much to ask, or you can't stomach even thinking of doing more extraneous crap, that is OK. . . REALLY OK! It is just a thought about how you might make your build come across 'maybe' a little better than it already does, but that's a suggestion from someone who isn't in the direct line of fire.

BTW: Here is an aside: I'd hate to see this build thread slowly degenerate over time as photos get removed from whatever website they link from, like I have seen on some others whenever i have tried to check out older threads. The information is much too important to people like myself to let it be treated with such disrespect, and I hope this website will figure out a better way to maintain information into perpetuity. Maybe that should be directed to someone else. Maybe it is different now and I just haven't caught up?

All that said, I still have my hat off in your honour of the magnificent effort you have mounted! And I wish you the best going forward.

[Nial]

Langing........Cheers pal, as ever your words of appreciation and encouragement are appreciated. I post what phots I can, "action" shots may prove difficult as I am always the one holding the camera so it's awkward to shoot myself doing something

Paints wise, it's certainly been a challenge. I have gone through how I did it at each stage, Generally I have spray painted everything, a confined space isn't so much of a problem.....yet. I have ordered some wheel trollies so I can move the car from side to side when it comes to spray painting the outside. The only thing I would apply with a brush was the POR15 clear coat....it used to be called Glisten PC which I think it still is in the US, over here it has been renamed 2X Urethane, all POR15 products brush on well, be careful with the engine enamel, hard nose and top coat paints, they really need a thinners adding as they go on real thick and run like a bugger. But dry with no visible brush marks. I will be spray painting the 2X Urethane paint for the first time at the weekend, mixed probably about 15% thinners. The 121 Epoxy Mastic dosnt brush on well, it's easy, but it leaves horrible brush marks that stay and often looks like a ploughed field ., spray it with about 10% thinners! it goes on well and is very forgiving. The Undercoat used was a high build 2 pack primer from Max Mayer (3011 HS) IIRC ......it needs a hardener, it also needs about 10% thinners, but not essential. The colour coat I have tried also from Max Mayer......with 0% thinners up to 50% thinners. 0% thinners has better coverage but the finish is orange peely ( is that even a word?) 50% thinners gives a smoother finish but needs more coats to get the coverage but as I am in no rush I recon I will stick with 50%. I have mixed feelings about the Eastwood paints, some can be great, others terrible, but the terrible ones can be good on certain surfaces, while the good ones can be crap on other surfaces......it seems very hit and miss. I have avoided the usual household paints, there is a popular one in the UK called Hammerite, it's tough, but brittle and not massively impact resistant, it also smells bad when it gets hot....ie if you use it on brake calipers.

Thats about it for paint, I havnt finished yet, but to sum up, spray where ever possible. For the inaccessible parts I generally point, spray and hope for the best, you can set the paint gun up to shoot a more or less lazer like spray patern, but you have to be careful, although chances are in those areas you would never see it anyway if the paint did run a little.

I will on one occasion take detailed photos, I will wait until I get to the outside of the car so its easier to see, but if I do that too often it will just annoy me an I will lose interest in maintaining the thread. I also don't have much spare time so most of my efforts go towards actually doing the work and not accurately recording the process of doing it

I will also take some pictures of the compressor set up, I have changed it and don't recal posting the new photos.

[Langing]

Thanks for that good information, Nial. I do understand your situation. Just continue on the way you have so well so far and I will stay happily engaged.

When you get around to posting pics of your compressor setup, you might also include some of the spray painting equipment you use?

I remember back to 'In The Beginning. . ." when you said you were going to have to learn how to weld and (I think, spray paint), and I remember being amazed at how fast you took to the unfamiliar whenever needed, seemingly 'all by yourself': adding on to your garage, adding an enclosure in the back to house your air compressor and deaden its sound, installing water filters in your air lines so the water wouldn't mess the paint, slapping on those roll bars, constructing a rotisserie, and grinding down all the imperfections in the metal to make the surface PERFECT for reception of the paints. And I cannot forget all those pieces of hardware coming back from the zinc platers, or the hybrid bumper you invented! So, it is not just your persistence that I admire, it is your ability to just tell yourself WHAT YOU INTENDED TO DO and then you actually did it! You took a dream and made it become a reality!! Your whole build is an inspiration and I hope many people will find their way to enjoy and learn from your build thread.

[Nial]

Another coat of lacquer...i have to resist the temptation to touch it for four days now for it to fully harden (That sounds wrong )

I gave it a liberal squirt with cavity wax and fitted the front crash bar.











My compressor set up, working well so far. no water in the lines



This post has been edited by Nial: Apr 18, 2015 - 10:42 AM

[4-eyed-freek]

Looks really good! Must resist the temptation to touch!

[Box]

You should run the donut on all corners.

[Nial]

I have got four space savers fitted........gets space free and stops me ruining proper alloy wheels. Would be interesting to drive it like that.

[Box]

I think it'd be fun in a giant open space, probably like skating on ice.

[Nial]

A few more parts added........

Brake & Clutch Pedals & Dash beam thing (whatever its called)





From the engine bay

[enderswift]

how are you gonna bring yourself to actually drive this thing? At this point it should go into a helium filled glass case...

edit:

forgot to mention that the zinc plating is sexy

This post has been edited by enderswift: Apr 20, 2015 - 9:41 PM

[Tigawoods]

this is a museum piece for sure

[Nial]

Fitted the first layer of sound deadening, similar to dynomat but lighter and not so thick, other than the boot floor this is the only area I will be putting this stuff. the second layer will be a light closed cell foam which will go all over the floor, roof, boot etc.



fitted the refurbished wiper motor and wiper mech...what a horrible job.



ID plate re-rivetted in place.



the wiper arm pivot and those little hook things that catch the back of the bonnet



still all clean......for now



tonight i will start recovering the wiring loom.....i hate electrics.

[4-eyed-freek]

Wiring is always my biggest fear, no worries. A lot of people here can help if need be!

[Box]

I think everyone hates electrics, even electricians.

[antoine64]

I actually prefer electronics but I'm an electrical engineer/programmer so that stuff interests me unless I have an intermittent connection that I can't find in some sensor. I'm fixing all the wiring on my Celica project currently. The previous owner did a number on it.

[PrimeLuxeZ]

I love all the attention to detail that you are putting towards the Celica.

[Langing]

Your comment regarding the difficulty of reinstalling the wiper motor and mechanism. What made that job particularly troublesome?

[Nial]

Your comment regarding the difficulty of reinstalling the wiper motor and mechanism. What made that job particularly troublesome?

Access to the nut on the back of the wiper motor that attaches it to the wiper mechanism....trying to do it with out scratching the new paint was difficult.

[Langing]

I think everyone hates electrics, even electricians.

Sorry, Box, unless you were being 'tongue in cheek', what you think true is not. In the first place, rarely is any absolute (everyone) going to be true. Then, there does exist a small but reasonably sized class of people who do like electrics, electronics, etc.(I am one), else we would not have so much of that stuff filling our lives. Also, to believe that electricians, people whose job is to wire up electrical systems, hate electrics is ridiculous on its face. They don't all hate their jobs! Nonetheless, I think I understand what caused your remark, and it is like math, so many people do not have any understanding of it, which leads to a kind of fear. The best path to take is to keep your mind open to learning whatever you are capable of about everything (i.e. love learning).

That being said, troubleshooting electrical problems in automobile wiring can be difficult and is sometimes very frustrating, even when you have a full schematic diagram. But, then the approach should be methodical and systematic, using the small amount of knowledge of electricity that is required, and which can be found in most good repair manuals. There is no witchcraft involved, so nothing to 'hate'.