EXTERIOR
Sorry, but the stripes had to go! There was enough damage and rust under the stripes that a repaint was only obvious option. I'm not very fond of red to begin and since the car was stripped down the option of changing the color was that much easier. This was my first try at painting. The bodywork on the nose was the first thing to be tackled. This is how it went:
-Grind off all the paint down to bare metal
-Use a nitric acid rust converter on the rusty patches
-Fill the creases with body filler
-Sand with 120 grit to get the shape close
-Sand with 320 to smooth
-Spray any exposed metal with self-etching primer
-Sand with 320
-Spray with a high-build primer
-Sand with 320
and done! The nose came out fantastic. Of course it took me days of adding body filler and sanding it all back off. I'm sure an experienced bodyman could have done this over lunch!
The battery tray was the next adventure. These cars are notorious for rusty trays which lead to wet passenger feet in rain showers because of the placement of the battery tray. I've had to buy my girlfriend new leather boots too many times to not tackle this area! I started with a wire wheel to clean up all the loose crud then I cut out the rust with a dremmel. Next was liberal dousing with the rust converter.
I replaced the holes using aluminum and once again, the trusty JB Weld. The last step will be to spray the box with undercoating and place the battery on a mat. I just have to make sure the battery securing brackets will stay functional- the battery has to be secured during any autocross/track day/etc. events.
For the rest of the exterior I just followed the formula using 320 grit sandpaper:
-Sand any rust patches (usually 240, then 320) to bare metal & treat with rust converter
-Sand and feather any rock chips
-Sand and feather any other paint defects
-Spray self-etching primer on any exposed metal and sand the knap off with 320
Then came the spray gun time:
-Wipe down with wax/grease remover
-Wipe down with tak cloth
-Spray with primer-surfacer
-Spray basecoat
-Spray clearcoat
The end result? Well, it looked pretty good. Unfortunately the clearcoat had some very nasty orange peel and a few runs. I decided to go the wet sand then buffing route. I quickly found out that I sprayed the clearcoat on too light in some areas and I sanded down to the basecoat with 1200 grit. Damn! At this point I've got the car sanded down with 1200 and I'm planning on respraying the basecoat and clearcoat. This time I've got more practice in to keep the orange peel down- hopefully well enough that I can forego the wet sand and buffing route altogether. The orange peel problem seemed to come from having the gun maladjusted (too much air-to-material).
Here are some pics before the wet sanding debacle-
