cam.in.head Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 agree .its all about personal preference thou and i definately like the way gm designed the original cav suspension and especially with 165 or 185 tyres. i love the way the car floats .yes i have to slow down for corners but that suits me. a couple of years ago my mate (who previously had a senator A) turned up in a new skoda .think it was a superb ,but second generation. he said i had to come for a drive to see what i thought, he said you will be amazed how comfortable it is . good as the senator he said. but ( my opinion) it was no match. seats were hard,suspension was hard,rough sufaceswere felt. but it was quiet and refined engine and external noise wise but definately not ride comfort. no modern car will ever be soft and floaty like they used to be and beleive me ive been in a fair few modern/ new cars at work inc big audi,bmw,merc saloon etc .all are firm. last "modern " car that i have been in that was a soft ride is my omega which i still have. as i have always said on here regards everything car related its all personal preference. no offence intended to anyone regards my opinions vs theirs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
®evo03 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 (edited) MX5 adjustable platform is made for rear springs, perfect. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. You might like this 👍😎 And this, Edited January 20 by ®evo03 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 On 20/01/2024 at 09:54, ®evo03 said: MX5 adjustable platform is made for rear springs, perfect. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. You might like this 👍😎 And this, Ah the rat look one is cool, especially being a 2 door! The wheels actually work quite well on it. I've seen that dark red one online before, would be worth a lot more than that now I'm sure haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 (edited) Right, lots going on! lets just start off with this: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Hell yeah. Anyway, there has been misery followed by success lately (with lingering misery too). First off, the rear rumble. Previously I said rear wheel bearings. However turns out that wasn't right, the rear wheel bearings are fine. The prop however, not so much. As I posted a while ago we fitted another MX-5 front yoke with original UJ. However the rubber seals were very worn. Needing to drive the car we just did what we could and called it a day. It drove fine for months but finally those failed seals led to grease escaping, which inevitably led to bearing cup needle wear, and eventually a few mm of play in the UJ side to side. At this point, as you can probably imagine, the rumble turned into a vibration. So I measured the UJ size and bought a new one, start fresh brand new UJ. It was a greaseable one, so I was concerned with it being hollow that it may be weaker, but we never got that far really. It didn't go well and that UJ was cut back out, and binned. I then bought a nice high quality GMB UJ. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Got the yoke cleaned up Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Fitted Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Originally staked, so once again tacked the caps in. All set, put it in. Horrendous vibration. Got car back on ramp, mate put it in gear and spun it up, prop front yoke very obviously not true. My mistake. Re-did it and got it nice and centred. Got it back in again. Vibration better but still not good at all. Babied it around at no more than 30mph and decided this was all just making me hate the car. So binned off that UJ, it was the right size but just couldn't get it quite right, and I could do without the cost of going back to JW for them to sort it all right now. So I got another MX-5 prop off a mate for free. I wanted the slip yoke with the original UJ, as we had done the first time, but this time being extra careful with the seals and cups. So instead of cutting the stakes off with a Dremel I decided to very very carefully cut the UJ out of the donor prop with the grinder, and then carefully chisel the last bit of metal off to free one cup completely, and then remove the entire thing with zero damage. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Great success Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. One perfectly intact original UJ. Slip yoke had some surface rust but a bit of fine sand paper and it was perfectly fine, no pitting or anything, all good. So with this out I carefully removed the 2 cups, took out as much old grease as possible, put in new bearing grease, and assembled the slip yoke onto my prop. All went perfectly well. Gearbox oil going back in, work smarter not harder. The motor struggles a bit with the thickness, but totally hands free and no gravity feeding or squeezing bottles until your hands hurt, just sit and have a smoke and let it do its thing: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Now this time I decided on a different method for retaining the cups into the prop. I don't have a staking tool, and I don't really particularly like tack welding the caps into the yoke directly, it's not a fun thing to do and puts quite a bit of heat into the cups which is probably not ideal. So this time I took 2 identical washers that were the exact size of the cup width (22mm), this also allowed me to visually centre the UJ perfectly, as these fat washers sat perfectly flush both sides when the UJ was centred. They butt right up against the caps, and then I tacked them to the yoke on the outside, retaining the cups in their position without needing to weld to them directly, much better solution, and much more easily serviceable if god forbid this ever needs doing again. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. It's much neater, and just looks a lot nicer this way too. So all done, I took the car out and it's perfect. Zero driveline vibration whatsoever, it's just like the day I got it on the road. Very pleased. Sadly the damaged UJ had not gone quietly and had decided to leave some unpleasantness behind. The box whines a fair bit now in all gears, so I think the output shaft has been damaged in some way, but it still drives fine. Not the end of the world as I have 2 spares lying around. Unfortunately it has also damaged what I can only assume is the pinion bearing in the rear axle too. It's loud but again no vibration or other unpleasantness. I'll drop the oil soon to check it and refresh, and eventually I'll just get another complete axle and swap it out (rebuild kits cost more than another axle!) Anyway like I say, it drives mint now, so naturally it would be rude not to test it out properly. Spot on. Anyway, enough about props and UJs, I don't want to see, read, or hear anything about either word for a while now. Onto body prep. Respray is coming very very soon, my mate's Defender restoration and M57 swap is nearing completion and we are both looking to do full respray at the same time, with a makeshift booth in our unit. So started getting stuff ordered, pencilled in the respray for 2 weeks today. Anyway before I can prep I need to address the long ignored front wings firstly. The main bit of bodywork rust that needs to be sorted before respray. So off came the wings: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. The not so bad one: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. And the worse driver's side wing: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. To be fair neither of them are really that bad in all honesty, perfectly saveable, just need to wire wheel back that awful crappy ancient underseal and properly protect them once they're welded. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Started on the worst wing. Got it cut back, had to cut back further than you would expect from the above, as the metal was getting very tired all around the hole. Got a plate cut, welded it in, and then started on one of my least favourite jobs, skimming filler. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Naturally I went way too thick in some areas, and caused a lot of extra sanding to get it flushed back to where it needed to be, Oh well, I'm a little out of practise, not done this for nearly 3 years now. Anyway once it was all sanded back nice enough, I went applied a decent few coats of filler primer. Most of this is hidden by the bumper, but might as well try and do it properly. Got the filler primer on nice and thick, and I will sand the high spots down, there were a few low spots so it should all even out. To be honest I'm pretty happy with this: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Re-fitted as is for now as I needed to drive the car home, but it's looking a lot better now than the big hole it had before: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. The hole on the passenger wing is tiny in comparison so should be easy enough to sort without much fuss. Pretty happy the prep is under way, I'll be booking 2 days off work plus a weekend to do the sanding, removal of everything, masking, primer, and top coat. All being well 2 weeks from today the car will be freshly resprayed. Recap on the planned colour, the Photoshop I did a while back (ignore the poorly edited on A3As, I don't have a set of those sadly!) Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Toyota Ivory, the same as my old MX-5 and my mate's AE86. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Looking at it now I do miss the 5, was a really lovely looking car when it was done, but the Vauxhall is the future, and much more interesting, so no time to be sad about it now haha. This with a full red interior eventually should look absolutely class I reckon. Edited February 4 by Bilbo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessopia74 Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 Love the info on the prop. This definitely keeps me looking at the MX5 as a donor for the AsconA. Cracking engine setup and the price of full cars currently is so good. One thing I would like to know is if the ABS on the MX5 could be transplanted too 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 (edited) 20 hours ago, Jessopia74 said: Love the info on the prop. This definitely keeps me looking at the MX5 as a donor for the AsconA. Cracking engine setup and the price of full cars currently is so good. One thing I would like to know is if the ABS on the MX5 could be transplanted too Yeah it's a great low cost engine setup, and also enough power to still be fun, as well as reliable. Breakers some of them take the piss a little on prices, but you can still easily pick up a decent engine for £150-£200. Probably easier to find a whole rusty car though if you need the loom/ECU etc. as well though. Hmm, I mean the ABS system and everything should be easy, the tricky bit would be the wheel sensors and rings. On ABS equipped MX-5s the front hubs and rear driveshafts have square toothed sprockets on that the sensors detect. I guess theoretically this could be transplanted onto any car. The way I can think of this system being transferred over is if you did a full front and rear subframe swap and ran all the MX-5 stuff underneath. Be a fair bit of fab work I imagine. From memory I believe the track width of the 2 are fairly similar. Other than that the only way I could see it working is if you somehow grafted the sprocket rings onto the Vauxhall hubs/running gear somehow. Sounds like a pain, particularly with a solid rear axle, not sure if it could be done? Edited February 5 by Bilbo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessopia74 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 2 hours ago, Bilbo said: Yeah it's a great low cost engine setup, and also enough power to still be fun, as well as reliable. Breakers some of them take the piss a little on prices, but you can still easily pick up a decent engine for £150-£200. Probably easier to find a whole rusty car though if you need the loom/ECU etc. as well though. Hmm, I mean the ABS system and everything should be easy, the tricky bit would be the wheel sensors and rings. On ABS equipped MX-5s the front hubs and rear driveshafts have square toothed sprockets on that the sensors detect. I guess theoretically this could be transplanted onto any car. The way I can think of this system being transferred over is if you did a full front and rear subframe swap and ran all the MX-5 stuff underneath. Be a fair bit of fab work I imagine. From memory I believe the track width of the 2 are fairly similar. Other than that the only way I could see it working is if you somehow grafted the sprocket rings onto the Vauxhall hubs/running gear somehow. Sounds like a pain, particularly with a solid rear axle, not sure if it could be done? I was thinking front hubs/stuf axles retrofitted to the OEM arms. Might need sone looking at with regards to ball joints, but it might be doable. Rear axle wise, probably draw new rings and get them machined. The benefit’s definitely out way the limited cost in machine work to me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
®evo03 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Bilbo any reason why you would want ABS when there are so many upgrades, disks, calipers etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 15 minutes ago, ®evo03 said: Bilbo any reason why you would want ABS when there are so many upgrades, disks, calipers etc. It's Jessopia who is looking into that. Way too much faff for me, after doing the dual masters I never want to see or be near brake lines or brake fluid ever again if avoidable 😂 that being said, I may buy some upgraded pads, currently still using the £10 ones from when I first got it on the road haha, though they have done a fairly decent job so far! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
®evo03 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Brake fluid, followed by a close second gear oil. Does anyone like brake juice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cam.in.head Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 making brake pipes is quite therapeutic but no i hate gear oil. the smell seems to stay forever on your clothes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 (edited) Right so, primer and paint has been delivered, mixing cups, strainers, masking tape etc. etc. all arrived too, paint is on track for next week. So I needed to crack on with the worst parts of the bodywork to get it ready for full car sanding next week. First up was the boot the other night. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. As you can see from this photo from a while ago, the left side of the bootlid had some proper poor repair respray at some point. Dodgy paint, matte in finish, and a hard mask line that was super obvious. The paint had crazed in this area, leading to some corrosion under and around the Cavalier badge. So I pulled the bootlid off, and the badges off, sanded it back, and luckily the corrosion was just cosmetic, cleaned it all away and then gave it a coat of filler primer ready to give it a sand to flat it off. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Sadly the primer reacted around where the badge would go, so I'll redo that in the next couple of days. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. With that sorted enough for now I re-fitted to so I could drive home. Another long day today, this time sorting out the passenger wing. As shown before this wing is not as rusty as the driver's wing was: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. But right on the curved part it was all so thin and rusting through, which made it a little more complex to fix properly: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Used a leftover curved piece of MX-5 sill/arch repair panel and cut it down to shape once I had cut out the affected area. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Little bit more finishing was needed after this, but it came out ok. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Little skim of filler after some grinding back: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Part way through: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. And sorted: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. I'm pretty happy with this! I still need to reattach the front trim clip holder somehow, but that is minor details, this is a lot better now. Now for the other bit, the really strange big long scratch in the main wing body. No idea what caused this, but it was like it when I got the car. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. I don't know why, but I thought I could sort it by keying it up and trying some filler primer. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. It just made it more obvious 😂 So I conceded defeat and decided to give it a really light skim all the way along the scratch, as well as one other area above the scratch too: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. And sorted: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Little bit of finishing needed, but the scratch is completely gone now and it's looking a lot better. Glad to have these things out the way now. Not a lot of difficult bits like this left to do, so just trying to get them all out the way ready for next week. Not long now. Edited February 11 by Bilbo 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessopia74 Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Good work getting the rot removed and new tin added where needed. Think most of us would gave just scrapped those wings, so good save 👍 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cam.in.head Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 trouble is nowadays its hard finding good used panels so repair is the best option . most parts thst can not be got can be fabricated and spliced together . the main issue to making any welded repair long lasting is making sure its fully waterproof and well protected on each side. and especially areas subject to a regular battering from wheel / road splash 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 On 11/02/2024 at 10:00, Jessopia74 said: Good work getting the rot removed and new tin added where needed. Think most of us would gave just scrapped those wings, so good save 👍 Cheers mate. Was a bit of a pain, especially cleaning the back of the cut out area for welding, as the lip bows inwards and it was impossible to get the grinder in there. But it went alright in the end. 22 hours ago, cam.in.head said: trouble is nowadays its hard finding good used panels so repair is the best option . most parts thst can not be got can be fabricated and spliced together . the main issue to making any welded repair long lasting is making sure its fully waterproof and well protected on each side. and especially areas subject to a regular battering from wheel / road splash Yeah it's one thing with these, no availability at all for wings of any kind it seems, unless it's some expensive NOS stuff or something really obscure and rare. These have plenty of life in them yet. I have sprayed the back of the repair with a decent coat of primer and then a thick coat of some stone chip over that. Should be ok, I'll check it in a few months and see how it's holding up. Will use Tigerseal as a seam sealer if what I have done is no good on the back, it's worked amazingly well on my other welding repairs, so hard wearing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cam.in.head Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 yeah last time i saw some oem wings for sale they were £250 and had surface rust. no way most people would pay that . i remember when you could get pattern ones for £27 but those days are long gone. easy enough to repair as you have found out and worth it for the fun factor too obviously. its always better repairing something rather than just popping a new one on. these cars do rust but its all doable .good work. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 8 hours ago, cam.in.head said: yeah last time i saw some oem wings for sale they were £250 and had surface rust. no way most people would pay that . i remember when you could get pattern ones for £27 but those days are long gone. easy enough to repair as you have found out and worth it for the fun factor too obviously. its always better repairing something rather than just popping a new one on. these cars do rust but its all doable .good work. Cheers mate. Yeah it's a real shame nothing exists for them new anymore like that, but it what it is, have to get creative. And yeah as much as it is a total ballache it is satisfying when it's done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 Ok, so more work done tonight. First off the badges were getting a bit tired, the paint on the outside of the letter was all chipping/chipped off, and they just looked a bit crap. So I gave them a clean up, I was pleasantly surprised that they were metal badges and not plastic, quite cool I thought. So etch primer first, then some acrylic gloss black: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Let that set for a day and then pushed them into a foam mat on the locating pins to hold them still, and gave the faces a sand off with a flat sanding block: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Not bad! I went a bit hard on the sanding I think, particularly on the right side of the final 0, but oh well they look better than they did! Next up, the vents. The vents have been a pain since I got the car, the ones on the scuttle area. In standard form useful, but for me with extra wiring and holes drilled for loom around the firewall, initially water ingress into the car was an issue (have since sealed the loom points up better, but still). I didn't like how rain water could just rush in, work it's way onto and into the chassis rails, and then make it's way back out. Seemed pointless and a potential rust causer. So they had been taped up for over a year. Got all the tape residue off with some solvent, and decided on a plan. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. I'm not touching that windscreen, it doesn't leak and it's not cracked. I'm not going near that windscreen seal either, it's perfectly good how it is, and I'm sure much like new front wings for one of these a new one would be basically unobtanium. So welding is off the table, no chance. Way too close to the rubber for my liking. Now I'm not a fan of this sort of work, I often see it done by bodge artists who patch over rust holes that should really be welded, but I honestly had no better solution, and I think it's gone well, seems strong too. Fibreglass filler. Normal filler at any kind of depth I feel will just sink over time, or crack. So I went with P40 instead of P38. Weird stuff! Not the easiest to spread evenly, and it smells worse than normal filler 😂 Anyway, gave it a go. Reverse side mesh in: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Filler applied: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Gross stuff, it even looks nasty when laid down, but god does it set hard! Sanded down: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Wasn't quite perfect, so gave it a very tiny skim of normal filler over it to get it nice and flush. Filler primer (yes the car is even more yellow now!): Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Both done: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Honestly not my favourite thing I've ever done, but given the windscreen seal situation I really couldn't think of a more suitable method to get this result. It certainly beats getting a ton of water all over my loom whenever it rains. It has set super well, it feels insanely well bonded into those small thin vents, and the mesh underneath is also bonded to it super tightly, so I'm quite happy. Bit of sanding and finishing on the filler primer needed, but need it to harden first. Once that's done then this is sorted and I can crack on elsewhere. I have also bought some trim masking tape, with the little plastic edge, specifically for the windscreen rubber, so I can spray the paint on without getting a nasty hard edge against the rubber, looks like pretty good stuff! Excited now, but later this week is going to be a slog. Thursday: Wash the car thoroughly as it's filthy, remove everything (lights, bumpers, side trims etc.), DA all the main panels down, sand everywhere else by hand, mask the car up, build the makeshift paint booth. Friday: Final prep, spray primer Saturday: guide coat and wet sand primer down Sunday: Final checks and top coat I'll put the car back together some time next week when the paint has hardened in the unit with the heater on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cam.in.head Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 another thing you can do with the rubber is to lift it a bit by putting some electrical cable under it. gets rid of the edge 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 Ok so an absolutely brutal 4 days, but we are there! Took 2 days off work at the end of last week to have a 4 day weekend to get the car painted. Thursday was fairly straightforward, some final sanding and starting to disassemble the car. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Friday turned out absolutely brutal, got there about 10:30am and left at 6am the next morning. Was a ridiculously busy day. Started out disassembling more bits. Lights off, door handles and locks off (those rear door handles are a pain to get to the nuts haha), chrome trims all removed, side bump strips, bumpers etc. etc. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Bit more work just smoothing out some areas, rubbing back surface rust patches on the lower doors, rear quarters/boot pocket areas etc. and adding a little filler primer where needed to get a smooth panel: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Found one rust hole, in the boot shut, very minor, and will sort that soon, but no time this weekend. It had sealer over it that had been done at some point in its life so I had never seen it before, and it was only when I agitated it with sanding that it showed itself. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Then it was masking time. The trim lift tape worked fine, super fiddly though and I hated every second of it 😂 Obviously I'm painting the door shuts, so the door openings all had to be masked fully to protect the interior, that wasn't much fun either. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Ran out of masking paper right on the final door, so my mate put this masterpiece of supermarket plastic bags together: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Every single trim clip bar 2 came off with zero damage and can be reused, which is great, very happy with that. Everything small bagged, and all trims and chrome labelled for easy re-fitting: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. There's a lot more than that, but you get the idea. So with all that done it was time for final checks, helping be the paint mixer as my mate primed his Defender, and then panel wiping mine down and getting it primed. Slightly shaky start as I was nervous, but the primer went on well enough. No runs/reactions or anything like that apart from one small sag above a door handle, so pretty happy overall. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. We used a high build primer which hid any imperfections or missed sanding scratches perfectly, and nothing seemed wrong at all. Sprayed some guide coat on for the wet sanding stage, to help identify areas left to do. The can decided part way through spraying that it would briefly turn into a normal black rattle can and just did this: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Very annoying 😂 no harm done though. Got in bed at 7am, had to get up at 8:30 to take my girlfriend to work. And then went straight back to the unit to wet sand the primer down. So obviously Saturday was a terrible day and I felt and looked like absolute death. But the wet sanding went well. My mate who painted my MX-5 popped in and gave some advice. Wet sanding was taking a long time as the primer surface was pretty rough, so he suggested just doing the bulk flat panels with a DA on low speed with 800 grit dry. So I did. It was perfect, easy to control, no burn through, and it was getting done super fast. Called it a day early and slept for a long time. Then Sunday we got cracking again, I finished the flatting back by going over everything, door shuts, bonnet and boot shuts etc. and any rough patches missed the day before. Got it all nice and smooth in pretty good time, fixed a bit of masking here and there that needed it, and then it was time. Colour going on. Had a couple of gun issues, but quickly rectified, and then it was time. Very nervous, the top coat was way thinner when made up than the primer. I was concerned about paint runs, but got cracking. 2 decent coats later and here we are: Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Project images are available to Club Members Only, Click to become an OMOC Member. Now it's not perfect. It's good, for a first time painting I'm pretty happy with this attempt, it has adhered well, it's evenly covered, and no reactions or other issues have occurred. One very small run on the entire car, which is in the rear passenger door shut, so I really do not care, it can stay there and probably never be seen. All of the vertical panels, doors etc. have all come out acceptably smooth, I'm very pleased. The panels that are horizontal, for whatever reason have a fair bit of orange peel. Glossy, but it's very noticeable. Maybe my technique, or something gun related, I really don't know to be honest. It can be fixed in a week or 2 with a wet sand and polisher, but I was a little disappointed. But honestly it is what it is, that can be fixed and then it'll look brilliant. All in all, horrible 4 days of graft and my back is killing me now, but we got there, both the Cavalier and the Defender are all painted, and the hard bit is out the way. The cheapy Amazon gun did an amazing job, impressed with it to be honest. The inline moisture trap also worked perfectly, not a single sign of moisture in any of the paint sprayed, very happy! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Barrett Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Well done Chris, mammoth task there. dont worry about the carnage peel, new cars have it! Can be flatted out with 1000 to 2000 then cut. Worst cas did its too thin blow in some more paint. No clear to deal with. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessopia74 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Good job. I don’t know many painters who go for gun finish these days, they all go for very fine wet production paper sand down and the machine polish it back. Give it a few weeks to settle and then see where you are. Peel is good imo, it means the paint layer is a good depth 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
®evo03 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Fair play, good job, it is graft and that's where most of the money goes, when paying a body shop. But hey, I've seen £8, 9k paint jobs, and to quite honest............well, fair play. Now, go spend the money you saved wisely🤣 Nice job👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 16 hours ago, Paul Barrett said: Well done Chris, mammoth task there. dont worry about the carnage peel, new cars have it! Can be flatted out with 1000 to 2000 then cut. Worst cas did its too thin blow in some more paint. No clear to deal with. Cheers mate, was a busy one that's for sure! Yeah I'm not too worried. The coats weren't incredibly thick but hopefully be ok to flat back and polish a bit. As you say worst case blow those panels over again, but hopefully won't come to that. 9 hours ago, Jessopia74 said: Good job. I don’t know many painters who go for gun finish these days, they all go for very fine wet production paper sand down and the machine polish it back. Give it a few weeks to settle and then see where you are. Peel is good imo, it means the paint layer is a good depth 👍 Cheers mate, hopefully it's a good depth. Didn't use a ton of paint for the top coat at all, but then we didn't on my MX-5 either. If it's too thin we have more paint, and will only be certain panels needed. 4 hours ago, ®evo03 said: Fair play, good job, it is graft and that's where most of the money goes, when paying a body shop. But hey, I've seen £8, 9k paint jobs, and to quite honest............well, fair play. Now, go spend the money you saved wisely🤣 Nice job👍 Haha yeah for sure, it's crazy money for a respray, but it's a lot of work, and now I really appreciate the cost, I'd charge that too if I could paint like those guys do! Ha, wish I had money, whole reason I did this is because I didn't have any to spend on it in the first place 😂 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srmrally Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Looks like a very respectful job, hat of to you for doing a shift like that to get it painted 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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