I've had this hatch for about a year and a half and finally got around to this, started stripping everything on August 22. It has layers of crap that was put on it before the previous owner and of course some rust problems.

Copying and pasting the first couple posts of my project thread on another forum.

I bought this hatchback about a year and a half ago all primered up and everything and been driving it like that since. I'll be getting out of the military in December and figured I should take advantage of the bases hobby shop and paint booth before I get out so here it goes.

Supplies so far:

Shopline JP202 2k Primer surfacer
Shopline JP371 White Epoxy Primer
Deltron 2000 Basecoat, Mazda Competition Yellow code A6Y
(JBC-04) This is for the gold pearl
Concept 2021 Clear

Tools bought:
2 HF purple guns
Tekna Copper(From the forum store :D )
6 pc Durablock set

To buy:
Porter Cable 7424XP(For buffing and polishing, used to have one but it was stolen :evil: )
New trim and moldings for all around the windshield and windows
New Rear bumper
Front lip
stock side moldings/trim

Started stripping it wednesday, the previous owner put so much crap on this thing, 7 layers in total including the stock paint. Stripping using a DA and 80 grit, tried some 3m 40grit pads but they were weak and didnt strip as good as the crossfire 80 grits from napa. On tuesday it is going into the shop to have a big rust spot on the roof cut out and replaced with new metal. Previous owner took off the trim down the sides and filled the relief in with filler that I knocked out today and I will be replacing it with stock trim. I'll be in the shop all day tomorrow and Sunday stripping it :bored:





Horrible rust is under here on the inside







Put in about 4 solid hours today, 25 August, coming to a total of 9 hours so far.

Cleaned and smoothed out the reliefs for the side moldings
Hand sanded the edges on the roof
Almost finished stripping the drivers side

Here it is at the end of the day







Updates from today, 26 August, wasn't a great day.

Windshield cracked taking out the trim and everything around it, not sure how I was puling the top one out and there it went. Took the headliner out and started pulling the trim in the door jams. Rust is worse than originally thought so that bill is gonna go up. Started stripping the passenger side and handsanded the jams around the hatch.

The crack


The rust




Anyone know what this thing is? Been on there since I bought the car and the cord runs down the side of the dashboard, haven't gotten under their to trace it yet. I think it was part of an alarm that was in it previously, either way its gonna come out once I pull the wires for it.

 

4 days off this weekend :D So looking to get tons of work done.
Developments the past week:
-Got the car back from the body shop Wednesday. Rust repair is solid and he even went over some of the surface rust spots I didn't ask him too. Ended up coming to $740 for the rust repair and new windshield.
-Got a used rear bumper in awesome condition for $60
-Ordered my new PC 7424XP with pads, meguiars 105 and 205
-stripped the car out today and sanded down a bunch, picked up a quart of epoxy primer for all the bare metal spots. Also got a quart of some shopline mismatched paint for cheap to practice shooting.





New bumper mocked up, gonna need some longer hangers for the muffler

 

Keep us updated on the build

 

Got into what i thought was surface rust, should've known better since it was on the rear quarter. Cut it all out and cleaned it up. Ready for a patch of new metal.

 

look like is going to get really good

 

nice work so far. should come out really nice.

 

Thanks guys, figured with all the money I dropped on the paint I better not take any shortcuts. Getting out of the military in December and this is gonna be my college car for the next 4 years and then a few years after that too.

Plans for tomorrow are to patch that rear quarter and shoot the epoxy primer over the whole car. Still not sure if I want to pull the doors off to shoot the jams real good or not.

 

Well finally fell behind schedule today, was bound to happen eventually, that rust on the rear quarter did me in. Here are some pics for today and a list of what I did. Shop is closed till Thursday so not much will happen till then, brought some parts home with me to work on though.

-Patched, filled and shaped rear quarter.
-Removed door handles, hatch glass and sunroof
-Cleaned and wiped down the car with lacquer thinner
-Taped just about everything I could before driving it into the booth

 

can't wait to see it finished. the "thing" on your windshield is actually an aftermarket antenna for the radio. looks like they shaved off the oem antenna, so they needed an aftermarket one.

 

nice to see another hawaii car on here. looks like its coming out good!

 

I bet sanding it that far back took forever

 

holy rust hatchman. egs are some of my favorite cars to drive when lowered they feel like little gocarts i love my old one. and the color should be nice

 

Yea right now it is just sitting on some stock EK springs on Koni yellows which gives it a really nice ride but I will probably be getting some nice stiff GCs for it soon once Im done with all this madness.

 

I'm sad its not going back to the original color. Should still look good though in the new color. Keep the updates coming

 

Seeing threads like this will hopefully motivate me to do the same and paint my car. Cant wait to see the outcome, goodluck

 

Captiva blue was my other choice, it took a long time to make this decision but in the end i wanted something somewhat original. Plus the guy in the parking stall next to me at my apartment has a captiva blue hatch haha

 

New toy!

 

PAINT IT ALREADY!

 

Gimme a break man! Only been working on this for 2 weeks, all my weekends and Ive been going straight to the shop after work haha this thing is moving at light speed compared to some of the stuff on these forums haha

Also picking up a **** ton of OEM replacement parts from autofair,Moldings, seals, armrest, mask/bra, fender liners and all kinds of stuff

But here are the pics from today, laid down 2 coats of epoxy primer followed by 3 coats of primer surfacer, think Im gonna put a couple more coats of primer surfacer on tomorrow since they laid on thin

First coat of Epoxy


Primer Surfacer all laid on

 

Great progress brah .Keep up the good work.

 

Had some dips and cracks i filled in and shot 2 more coats of surfacer, no pics cause it looks the same as yesterday. Block sanding, remasking and doing final prep tomorrow.

 

 

Not gonna be any color going on it this weekend unfortunately. Got the whole car but the passenger rear quarter blocked down, everything is turning out pretty smooth and straight!

 

The color

 

That's a clean paint color
Can't wait to see how the car progresses.