kid-honda

iTrader: (2)

[QUOTE=radex7;43300114]So it looks like it takes me three months to do three hours worth of work. But I am getting more serious about it. I am still on engine bay prepping stage. I got seam sealer out (for the most part), and unfortunately, with seam sealer I got some paint and primer off, in some places to bare metal. I have never done any body work before, but I am guessing that combination of spraying primer on and sanding surrounding paint down will eventually result in flat, paint ready surface. Can someone chime in here and share some pointers or favorite links?



The broken paint under the primer needs to be feathered out before the primer is put on or it will fail and lift/flake.
Once primer is correctly on scuff with 320, seal color, clear.
And most primers including high end primers are not made to cover bare metal, metal etch should always be used.

radex7

Currently affairs suck. I finally have a deadline, so no more procrastinating. Today I managed to remove all of the junk that was stored inside of the car, remove a few things that were still bolted on, put back front suspension (Bridget got promoted to "rolling shell" status), rolled her outside and took a few shots:






This turned out to be a great idea. I have now located most of the "trouble spots" that I will have to address. Lets start from the back:



Previous owner decided to have flush mounted speakers. In itself a pretty good idea I think, but the execution was less than pretty. What do you guys think about that kind of speaker mounting in your EFs? I was thinking about shoving my battery in there, but unfortunately even the Oddysey won't fit. I do, however, have speaker pods for the rear.

The most annoying and difficult in my opinion issue is: "THE RUFFLES"!


One side of my roof is slightly ruffled. Since I have nothing on the inside I noticed that those thin crossbars supporting the roof are not touching the actual roof skin. I will play with pushing them up, and wedging something in there. Once my welding skills improve to welding sheet metal, I will work on more permanent solution.

Ahhh, future fish eyes!



It seems that the seller forgot to mention that it was slightly dinged in front left corner of radiator support.


This I will start with. With help of my grinder, cutoff wheel, and my new fav HF welder I should be able to bring it back to normal.

Front end is a disaster due to overzealousness by yours truly.




I sooo want to weld those seams! Will see if I am good enough, though.

mkturbo3

coming along nice man.

91STDFLOW

Not too shabby, go big or go home lol.

I wish I could be overzealous with my car, not enough time.

PROPS!

radex7

Today was a good day. I am prepping for paint job, which is going to save me a ton of money according to the shop guys. I am going to follow this routine throughout the prep work:
1. Clean off dirt, grime, debris, and remove whatever gets in the way. For that I am using Simple Green and dish soap, and of course my trusty steam cleaner.
2. Wipe surfaces whit paint prep cleaner and disposable towelettes.
3. Sand to 320-400.
4. Clean again with paint prep cleaner.
5. Grab another piece, repeat....

Today I was rewarded with some positive outcome of my researching habits. In general I am really against tinted windows, I actually hate them, well my hatch came with full tint of a darker kind. I was hoping to find JDM bronze hatch and quarter panels, but the only two sets I came across were priced at $600 - which I found ridiculous, offensive even. So I said thank you but no f'in way to these craigslist gems, and decided to deal with what I had at hand.

After some googling I found out that it is possible to remove the tint with steam/heat which apparently disintegrates tint adhesive. And since I do have steam cleaner already - why not give it a shot. This, gentlemen, is the result of 5 MIUTES of labor! Defrost lines still intact, and not a single chip of tint or adhesive left! I am still patting myself on the shoulder for this one...

Danronian

For minor dings on the roof like you have you might be best skimming it with a coat of Bondo and then block sanding it down until it's flat.

For engine bay you could use a wire-wheel on an angle grinder which would remove all of the paint in the crevices. Once you get too many paint edges it's sometimes better just to strip everything off, especially when it's not flat and easy to block sand.

radex7

^^ Good point. Thanks.

213374U

Sub'd. Makes me wanna pick up another shell to play with

kid-honda

iTrader: (2)

On the roof a little auto body trick is the glue and supports sometimes "hold" the dents down. Take a scraper and slide between the roof and the supports to cut the glue. I have poppd out some pretty big dents that way. Then apply new adhesive.

ef_cowboy

aw man if you weld all the seams in the body that would be awesome!i wonder how much rigidity it would gain..

efb20a

nice start cant wait to see more pic.

radex7

I gave up. Sort of. It seems that I always run out of money before painting can happen. But I am also tired of looking at it taking up space in NOT my garage. I am going with Rustoleum, and infamous $50 paintjob. I am doing a little experiment with a spare fender to see if I like spraying or rolling better. I have to say that spraying seems to be more efficient, and provides for better results. Now I am considering HVLP route.

Here are the results of painted engine bay. Sprayed with Gloss Almond. Roughly 4 light coats with very light scuffing in-between, slightly more thorough sanding before the last spray. Dried for 3 days. I only have a couple of areas to touch up where primer shows through the paint.

radex7

Had some parts sandblasted, and they were just begging for some color. Wiped with oil/grease remover a few times, and sprayed with VHT brake caliper paint. Used instructions on the can: 2 light sprays + 1 mid spray every 10 minutes.

Now I am waiting 1 week to make some corrections on a caliper. Overall parts looks good and I am happy with the result.
They make an awesome wind-chime if anyone is tempted...

radex7

While front brakes are waiting for disc pads, I decided to swap out the rears:


This was surprisingly simple procedure!
Now If I could only figure out where my rear sway bar bushings and brackets are - my rear suspension would be done. I will probably find them once I dive into the pile of parts I call garage.

radex7

Pieces are slowly falling into place.
My bigger brake setup from 1991 EX.

Presidential_Detail

Paint looks like it turned out pretty good! You have a big project on your hands, but it should turn out real nice if you keep it up!

Nooch

I'm digging the paint. The process slow but hang in there. It's always worth it.

TheLukeMartinez

I wish my first time with body work went as good. Keep it up!

radex7

Thanks guys! I guess the key to success here is a little bit of OCD and a shitload of research... ;-)

radex7

Found missing sway bar hardware, painted it all, and mounted.






Temporary mounting of front knuckles. I am working on my steering rack, so who knows how many times the knuckles will have to come out to make it all fit.

radex7

I was really concerned about this part, but it turned out to be fairly easy. What slowed me down was the lack of properly labeled hardware. Gave it a nice cleaning, replaced old crumbled foam with some new open-cell weather stripping. The sequence to put things together:
1. steering rack,
2. air box (largest - center piece),
3. air blower (pass. side piece),
4. air duct connecting 2 and 3,
5. air duct on driver side,
6. irregularly shaped metal brace,
7. cables - throttle, clutch, etc.,
8. heater control cables

Next - main wire harness.

two81's

You said you were going to remove the moon roof. Is this an si? What color are you going to paint the outside?

radex7

A moon roof? This is a standard, basic version of the hatchback, sadly no moon roof...
I am painting it almond cream, there aren't many of those left around. Also, I like the contrast of black trim and interior with almond cream exterior.

Did I really say something about moon roof? This thread is only two pages long but it is so old I forgot what I wrote when I started. Maybe it is time for a little re-cap.

Ok, I found it. I made this elaborate wiring harness which does away with wiring for unused features, such as moon roof, incorporates mpfi, and it is of course tucked away. A lot of work for little benefit, as I found out yesterday when I put that harness in place, and realized that I will be better off using a stock si harness instead of setting myself up for hours of troubleshooting and frustration.

ProjetEF

it look like its going to be a great quality build !!
good idea using a stock si harness.

radex7

So I had to fix my climate control. I tried a few of different methods, mainly epoxying cable into place and sawing off and epoxying spare cable clip. Naturally when I tried to mount it in place the cable broke off, although had I been more careful, epoxy trick might have worked. I decided to try a zip-tie instead. It worked. Here are some pictures from the process.