Brown 244 GL

[petiww]

As I borrowed an engine hoist to help out 12david34 with his engine swap, I quickly swapped the B230F+M47 in to the brown to get it done now aswell.
Fortunately the blue car was well maintaned, so I dont need to change too much parts on the engine now.


I really need to finish up that remaining door and quickly do the paintjob on this thing. Cold weather just came, and I need to hurry up before it gets even colder.

[petiww]

Paint, well, i got a few good ideas from a painter buddy, so i'll do the prep work in a few weeks i hope.

Meanwhile got the struts sorted out (-1,5 coils), tie and control arm ball joints are nice and tight, they will stay there.
Front brakes will get a fresh set of seals, rear brakes sent to the sandblaster along with a lot of suspension parts.

Bolted on the power steering, and it already made a little oil puddle under the left tie rod end... And its not even under pressure... We will see how that goes when i start using the car.

Also, as I seen this: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showpo...3&postcount=11
I did exactly the same with the beige car's early VDO cluster and two spare 86+ VDO clusters (thanks 12david34).
Gauge face bolts on perfectly, trip meter opening needs a little work.
Also i had to trim the PCB of the speedo and the PCB of the cluster to fit it together.
I have to paint the needle white, or come up with a nice color and paint the other needles too.

Fits like a glove.

[JPS]

(It was originally a Dutch car, so I'm not chasing dreams about a rustfree chassy... )


sorry about that here in holland the peaple are scared to drive on snow and ice, so instead whe drive in the winter time on a big layer of solt

but nice project youre doing! keep up the good work

[petiww]

Originally Posted by JPS

(It was originally a Dutch car, so I'm not chasing dreams about a rustfree chassy... )


sorry about that here in holland the peaple are scared to drive on snow and ice, so instead whe drive in the winter time on a big layer of solt

but nice project youre doing! keep up the good work

Oh, don't worry, it is still a damn good donor car! Maintenance is the key.
And major body panels - if needed - can be cut out from it, because they are still in good condition. (untouched rear quarters for example)

By the way thanks!

[petiww]

Right quarter filler job is almost finished, a little filler is still needed and epoxy can be sprayed on.


Doors are also not so far from finishing stage:


Left quarter is taking shape also:



My father's painter friend told me that i shouldn't paint it home... Too messy, dusty, and weather is already too cold for that.
Looks like I'll paint it in a proper heated paint booth, so i dont need to mess with making a ****ty diy booth from thin foil. And paint will be pretty much presentable without polishing it right after.
I hope i can paint the car in the middle of november. It would be nice.

[petiww]

A little throwback... Well, right side looked a bit worse at the beginning of 2016:


Left side too:

[Mark]

Wow, amazing commitment and excellent work! Looking forward to seeing it in paint.

M.

[adomz]

Looks great buddy!

[petiww]

Originally Posted by Mark

Wow, amazing commitment and excellent work! Looking forward to seeing it in paint.

M.

Thanks! Me too!

Originally Posted by adomz

Looks great buddy!

Thanks adomz!

A bit of progress: I really need to turn the car around, because I have ****ty access to the left rear quarter for sanding. So i have to make the car moveable. And as I want progress too, I decided to finish the suspension paint and put it in place.

This required reinforcing the torq rods:

And removing heavy rust from the joints on the M47 crossmember:



Got most of the suspension sandblasted and powder coated, now the front control arms are already in place with new bushings. Two hardline needs a bit of work and it will get the struts in place too.

After sandblasting I sprayed the whole rear axle, trailing arms, the coupe's rear axle and a few other bits with epoxy.


Ignore the mess there, I had troubles with clogging paint gun, pouring paint all over the place and generally with the mess in the garage.
Also have to keep the garage temperature above 10C with a barrel stove, as the ambient temp just dropped near freezing point.

The question is, should I paint the axle brown?

[nel621]

Wondering as to the cost of having all those parts powder coated. Leave the axle black.

[petiww]

Originally Posted by nel621

Wondering as to the cost of having all those parts powder coated. Leave the axle black.

All the parts you see in the wagon was ~100$ (sandblast and powder coat)

[nel621]

It would cost that for one part here. Great deal!

[TurboDenny]

Awesome work.

[petiww]

Originally Posted by TurboDenny

Awesome work.

Thanks!

Loong hours of bondoing and hand sanding later, windshield area, rear lip and rear door got a thick coat of epoxy. I'm planning just flatting the orange peel with 600 grit and be done with them. Or at least i hope they dont need another layer of surfacer in this cold season.





I think I kinda got in the groove, feels good to be able to do such things on my own.
Quarters and front door is the next this week.

[petiww]

Well it always takes more time than i think...

Anyways, had a bit of struggle with sanding the quarters, one point i said i let the painter guy do the rest... But then my friend came, we sorted out the mess in the garage, and finally gave me the motivation to finish these:




I think its not bad at all, and I still dont have a da sander, so its 100% handwork.
I hope I can paint the car this year with the awesome brown acryl.

Brakes are getting zinc coated and a bunch of other things too.
Pulled the fuel system from the blue car and already put it under this car, now only the fuel tank needs paint after i get it back from the sandblaster.

Sorted out the leaking diff cover issue, welded the bastard... Then Arn02 wrote me a letter that he has a spare, so it looks like I'll have a nice alu cover bolted on instead of the leaky steel one.
Thanks so much!

[petiww]

Well, january was super cold, so i could not do too much on the car itself.
I mainly did assembly work in the room and fixing the wiring, connecting LH into the original loom, finishing cluster...
Brakes assembled:

Had a bit of trouble with rear caliper rebuild kits, as they were for ATE calipers... Pistons are just a bit smaller and they move too easily in the bores. Sourced some useable pistons from the browns original front calipers...

Repaired tank senders broken connector in my own way... Used the third pipe for the wiring.


Main harness was fun to work on, fixed a lot of shady splicing, replaced oxidized pins, wired some LH stuff in...

Connecting a few wires was not that hard, at all, i pretty much think it will start on first try.


Finished the electric cluster conversion, needed to enlargen the trip meter opening a bit to the right to see the 100m roller. Not sure about white needle or not...


Put in a shift up indicator:

But i have a strange feeling it wont work, or at least we will see... Does it need a relay?
If it not works, or its ****ty, I will make it a redline indicator.

Put on the fuel tank, all the brakes:



Then good weather came and i quickly got to the point that i want to see it in paint. Well guys, paint booth is finally getting rented on this weekend, and i will paint the heck out of the car!!!
Few parts needed some rust treatment and epoxy layer:

Also on a few places metal/bondo showed trough because sanding:


But these are really the last ones... On friday it will get its last sanding before topcoat, on saturday i'll bring it to the booth.
Pushed it outside, cleaned it a bit... I still love this color and car!



Fabbed up quickly a steering column mount to be able to properly steer the car to the trailer.


Thats it for now guys, I hope i can show you the painted car next week! I cant wait!

[nel621]

Nice work. Can't wait to see it one color.

[petiww]

Its finally painted! Its nice cause the painter guy sprayed it with a good gun and a lot of experience... He gave me the gun but i gave it back cause i did not want to screw it up.

Got a lot of help by my buddies in masking, transporting the car.




Now all i need to do is quickly assemble it till 15. of April.
Then I can start look for untouched rustfree left doors and fenders, and give them this color too. Of course once money allows... But I guess finding these is harder.

[nel621]

Funny that you would paint the entire car knowing you are missing to panels. Good luck with the hunt. I guess putting it back together will keep you busy enough.

[petiww]

Well, yeah... I ran out of motivation to cut&weld&prep the left doors and fenders... They are in a pretty bad shape, but still holding up with a little touch up.

[petiww]

Well, it looks pretty nice outdoors, I'm glad i got the upper part of the quarters painted




Dont get me wrong on not spraying the whole car... This whole paint thing started out like i just wanted to spray the repaired pieces by myself, i did not want to mess up other panels with my crappy spraying. (and im still on budget)
Then this booth thing came up, and i still thought i will spray it with my gun... Then fortunately the painter guy was kind enough to help me, and sprayed it with his own pro gun. This way the whole paint came out way better than i expected it. Still not perfect but damn it looks nice.

And as i see how nice the paint is, i already started fixing that right front wing, and will get it sprayed in a few months. This way at least the right side will look good, and only the left side needs some attention in a few years.

[nel621]

What's up with the trunk lid?

[petiww]

Originally Posted by nel621

What's up with the trunk lid?

Well, i did not really think about that... Money decides once i go back to that booth to paint the fender.

[JonnyP]

Great job on the body work man. The rear quarters look factory new and the paint looks great!

[nel621]

Originally Posted by petiww

Well, i did not really think about that... Money decides once i go back to that booth to paint the fender.

Instead you painted the engine compartment?