My new toy !!

[Little Kez]

its like a brand new car :O

[dinger]

definately very impressed mate your a doing an ynbelievable job keep it up

[wh0s_the_daddy]

I got cracking today with stripping the front end down now the engine is out.

I'm stripping the whole engine bay out so that it can be painted properly in every nook and cranny....

I took out the ABS unit and wiper motor...



all the sound deadening has gone, i'm going to repaint the bulkhead to make it really shiny and leave the sound deadening off- all the brake lines taken off the bulkhead aswell - these will be chromed.



Brake servo and clutch cylinder removed....





Then I moved onto the front suspension, took it all off to leave the front chassis and arches ready to be prepped for paint... Tiny amounts of surface rust, so it will be an easy refurb, just a matter of rubbing down - then protecting with Epoxy mastic 121, then painting Scotia white.

BEFORE PICS...











Then removed the steering rack and the front subframe....







Found a split in the gaitor so i'll replace them before i re-fit it...



Got a box of bits for the chromer now...



and a few bits to keep the powder coater going.....



onwards and upwards as they say.

cheers

Andy

[wh0s_the_daddy]

I've spent a few days sorting out the front end, not finished it yet but i should have it finished next week....

Firstly I stripped off all the old paint to take it down to bare metal and remove any sign of surface rust... I used the tools below...



This is what i ended up like (halfway through) so you get the idea what the surface is prepared to..









I did this on both front wing / arch areas and where ever there was signs of any surface rust - everywhere else was sanded down and then treated with rust convertor just to be sure.

Then i painted the Epoxy Mastic 121 everywhere, here's a pic of the 1st of 3 coats....





Notice that the colour of the mastic 121 paint is beige and not grey as the rear end was, this was an ordering error on my part..., it makes no difference though as its being painted over white anyhow....

So, after 3 coats of mastic 121 the arches and front wing areas were painted gloss white.... here's the 1st coat of 3 coats of white.













I also painted under where the front subframe attaches to, this was given the same prep and paint treatment as the wings / arches... ( so that's the whole floorpan finished now....).

[wh0s_the_daddy]

Once the paint was dry i sealed EVERY seam i could find with tigerseal, you can see the kind of thing i that needed sealing in the pics below ( gaps in the sections )....







So here are some areas sealed with Tigerseal....















You get the idea now, I sprayed Dinotrol cavity wax in the large gaps before sealing with Tigerseal.

I've still got LOADS are areas to seal with the Tigerseal but i ran out today so i've got to order some more :goingmad::goingmad:, ideally i'll seal EVERY gap all along the floorpan and everywhere else i see one, so any water won't get between any of the panels ( not that the car will be driven in the rain ).

So thats it for now, i'll prep and paint the engine bay next week and update once that's done.

Here's a quick reminder of what the front end was like before i started....









cheers

Andy

[wh0s_the_daddy]

I finally got some paint and laquer on the engine bay today, its taken me a while to get it to this stage, lots of rubbing down etc, I also removed the charcoal canister bracket and the bracket that used to hold the fuse box in place ( the fuse box is in the glovebox now )....

I'm going to start putting things back in the engine bay over the next 2 weeks, so keep looking for updates....











I took a leaf out of Coskev's book and took off all the sealer around the front strut tops and the bulkhead, then used a small run of tigerseal instead of the huge thick seal that mitsi used, looks 100% better....





I'm 90% happy with the results, i always wanted to get rid of all the unwanted bolt holes but it was far too big of a job for me to tackle in the time i have, but 90% is good.

My next job once the laquer is dry is to treat all the chassis leg cavities etc with Dinitrol and the seal up with Tigerseal.

Getting there slowly..

cheers

Andy

[Ginger_ninja]

Wow, i am really impressed by your attention to detail, and effort put in. Makes for a good read. Good luck with the rest of the work.

[wh0s_the_daddy]

Sorry about the crap pic but i've fitted the little cubby glovebox where the airbag was (the normal glovebox is now where the engine bay fuse box is located).
(i'll sort out some better pics soon).





Thanks to Raj at Autoflock for the top work as usual.

cheers

andy

[wh0s_the_daddy]

I finished off putting the Dinitrol cavity wax in the front chassis legs and the inside of the front wing frame, also did the front bar that wraps around the radiator and the chassis where the subframe bolts to.

So 90% of the chassis is protected now, all that is left is to drill some holes under the back seat where the rear chassis beam goes across the car - spray in some Dinitrol and then re-seal.













Dinitrol give very good penetration, you can see below where all the Dinitrol finds every seam and runs through so i know the penetration is very good, a bit of cleaning up to do now though.....











I'm going to put Tigerseal on all the seams in a few days once the Dinitrol has thickened up a bit, i'm going to try to seal up EVERY gap along the whole chassis and floor to prevent any water ingress, it also makes the chassis look a whole lot neater as there won't be any gaps visible.
Its a real messy job but i think it's worth it in the long run.

cheers

Andy

[Pupsy]

Top marks for being so thorough

If you were a woman you would make a fantastic housewife

[wh0s_the_daddy]

Got some parts from the powdercoater today, top quality coverage and finish from the fella i use....

FRONT SUBFRAME







FRONT BRAKE CALIPERS





FRONT ARB



FRONT BRAKE DISC SHIELD & REAR ARCH BRACKETS





(LOVELY METALLIC FINISH ON THE BRAKE SHIELDS)

FRONT SUSPENSION SPRINGS (FROM MY TEINS)



LOWER SHOCK MOUNTING (FROM TEIN GREEN TO KAWASAKI GREEN)





FRONT HUBS



FRONT FLITCH BARS




Andy

[wh0s_the_daddy]

ALTERNATOR CASINGS







There looks a lot of red there, but it will look just like the rear end - a mixture of red against the white chassis and also lots of chrome bolts and polished suspension parts.

I'm just waiting for the bolts that hold everything together to come from the chromers and also the suspension arms are getting chromed just like the rear end has been done.

cheers

[dawsonr]

Such a great effort you have put into the car

[wh0s_the_daddy]

Picked up a few bits and pieces from the platers today so i can get cracking on putting the front suspension and steering rack back together, then get the car back on to its wheels again.

VARIOUS POWER STEERING PIPEWORK / RAD BRACKETS etc







BIG BOX OF PLATED BOLTS TO GET THE FRONT END BACK TOGETHER



PLATE I HAD MADE UP TO COVER UP BRAKE PIPES / FUEL LINES UNDER THE CAR



FRONT SUSPENSION WISHBONES READY FOR POLYBUSHING.



Got a lot to do yet :

# Rebuild front brake calipers - new seals, bolts and banjo bolts / nipples - braided hoses too.
# Rebuild steering rack - new gaitors and drumsticks ( chromed ).
# Rebuild front suspension struts
# Rebuild front hubs (bearings, ABS sensors etc ).

Fit all the polybushes to front end, i'm off work for a couple of days so i'll get cracking on it, of course i'll do some pics etc as i put it all back together...

cheers

Andy

[wh0s_the_daddy]

i spent an hour rebuilding the alternator after i had the casings powdercoated.....

So its nice and shiny now, just got to get the bolts that hold it together chromed, i'll drop them off tomorrow after work....









Although i'm not too sure of the red, i might get it re-done in silver ??

cheers

Andy