Winter projects

Pardon the dust and beat-up paint. It's going in for some engine bay paint touch-up in the spring.

Chrome plated

RacEoHolic330 said:

Man. That's serious. You better have a bin a sunglasses next to your car at shows. You'll be blinding people with all that bling!

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Someone else said the exact same thing to me the other day. I could sell them to help recoup some money.

They've been chromed for a few years along w/the master cylinder, but the booster is a new addition (my stocker was painted body color) and I replaced the SN95 master cylinder with that one-piece street rod style unit. Here's what it looked like before:

2vNotch said:

Makes my car not worth having..... Thanks....lol

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LOL - sorry

Another stretch of no progress worth showing, but I've got the brake booster, pedal assy., and all the under-dash stuff back in place. No large task, but with my sparse availability lately it's good.

I would've started on the intake powder coating by now but I got the heads up that a bay will open up at my future father-in-law's shop for paint, so I'd rather get it in and out now than later. Just waiting on that and will finish up everything else when it's back home. I'll have the front bumper repainted completely (it's desperately in need), have the hood/front bumper fit together better than it was originally (kept hitting, so they're going to fix it to save me on future chips/rubs), will touch up all the imperfections on the paint all around the car, and will touch up as much of the engine bay paint as possible. Most importantly the giant gash and chips I put in it by pounding the strut tower in order to fit the new master cylinder.

At least once it's there for paint and after it's done I can post some pics worth looking at and feel like I've accomplished something here That's the sucky part about slow projects like this, they never show well until they're finished!

All the wiring and vac lines are all back together; I ran the car for a couple minutes today. Ran and idled fine but the CE light was on. It always does that after sitting a while and clears itself out. The battery wasn't hooked up but for a minute before I started it, too. It's going to the paint shop tomorrow!

Paint work is underway. The front of the hood has always rubbed against my front bumper, so first up they're fitting it better so that no longer happens. Once done, the front bumper comes off for a repaint. While that's off I'll probably be freshening up a bunch of harnesses, brackets, etc. that are mostly hidden by it. Since it'll be off it will be a good opportunity for me to do so.

Some of the belt moulding has warped over the years, pulling away from the body slightly at the top edges. I was there this morning and they had some of it off to re-shape it as closely back to normal as they can get it. That will be nice, they were like that when I bought the car 12 years ago and I never replaced them. The driver's side front ground effect was the worst culprit and it's looking pretty straight now. Since they're repainting the front bumper and touching up a bunch of little scuffs and scratches, I'm also going to have them color sand the entire car before it's all said and done. The paint never really looks bad but when you're right up on it you can see some imperfections in the clear. Despite my detailing efforts, I can't perfect it myself. Good to have body men in the family, I guess! I hope it gives me the results I want.

This Saturday I'll be over there to take a bunch of parts off of the engine so we can get started on the engine bay freshening-up. Got to make a little more room on the strut tower so the master cylinder won't sit right against it, sand down a couple areas, fill a couple holes, glaze/smooth some stuff and hit it with some professionally-laid paint. When I originally did it, I did it myself with a learning curve so it only came out as good as it could. It was good for 7-8 years but I've been in there so much over that time that it's definitely time to be revisited.

Blah blah blah - I should have a couple pics this weekend of the progress. Some of the areas of the engine bay are hideous because I painted around them and have since hidden more wiring, vacuum lines, etc. Now they show Lesson: go for broke the first time! All in all it's not so bad, it's done me well and doing it a second time will allow me to use some other ideas I've had.

A few panels are off and fixed or color sanded already. Hood + bumper are in the middle of their reworking. They no longer hit each other and now they're focusing on making sure the underside doesn't hit anything anymore either. They'll be painting the trunk area to match the body and I'll likely have them do the inside of the doors in the same manner.

Now that there's room the attention will soon be on the engine bay. I have a few parts off to now polish or powder coat, and some more bolts to replace with chrome ones.

When the bumper comes off I'll be back so i can look at a bunch of things being hidden by it. It's dirty as hell in there!

Sent from my Evo using Tapatalk

Doing some sample work for the candy red powder for my lower intake:



This red topcoat is more of a tinted clear as opposed to a translucent color on its own, which makes it tougher to lay properly. It came out darker than I expected but overall looks great. Anyone who's familiar w/laying powder will know what I mean when I say that it flows out like a clear, making for a very smooth and slick piece. Only trouble w/that is the color kinda bleeds a little bit and results in a less uniform color. What I was hoping for was similar to this color below (Translucent Red, a separate see-through powder to be laid over chrome similar to this candy red topcoat) but a little darker:




It looks great with good light but in darker situations it, of course, looks darker. For the lower intake I'm thinking it'll be too dark. I'm going to mess around w/more samples to see if I can get this to lay smoother upon shooting the first layer, which should have it cure a little lighter/brighter. Failing that, or if that doesn't work anyway, I'll pick up some of that translucent red the valve covers are done in and see if I can lay it on a little thicker to see if it gives me the results I want.

Whatever I end up with, the PS reservoir will be painted to match. The one I have on there is leaking, and I'm sick of the dealing w/the spray-on chrome crap that's currently on it along with its downfalls.

Last year I replaced all the bolts on the blower head unit with chrome plated ones, except for the little allen-head bolts that hold those little slats in place (the ones that you loosen when rotating the blower head to a different configuration for the aftercooler or different discharge setup). Since they're not aluminum I powder coated them chrome and put 'em back on. Beats having to have them plated and wait a month+, and the chrome powder matches the polished blower head very well anyway.

Thanks, that seems to be the popular opinion from people who see it too. I've got to admit, the more I look at it the more I like it.

Went to hang out at the shop a bit today. Checked on progress (was mostly checking to make sure they were still going to have it for a while as I am in NO rush to get it back - LOL), went over some more ideas and plans, and so forth. I also got the OK to go over whenever I get the time to yank the intake so I can powder coat & reinstall it before it leaves the shop. That'll save me unnecessary time and effort once it's back home, so I'm happy! While in there I'll do the water pump as mentioned earlier as well as the lower radiator chrome pipe. Got to cut the stock hose and make those hose ends to connect it.

The progress: the re-shaped ground effect and the cowl have been painted. Still need the initial wet sanding but so far they look glossier and brighter than the rest of the car does. Can't wait to see how great it looks once fully wheeled out. The hood is basically ready for paint, there's just a little more prep work on the inside curves of the underside. It no longer hits anywhere, thank God. Hopefully once it, the radiator hold down, etc. are all back on it will remain that way. The way the hood fit at the cowl area, there was a large gap. So to close that up and make the gap more uniform all the way around the hoodline, they built up the rear of the hood to help close it up. Sweet!

I also sourced a couple more bolts so I can take 'em to the chrome bolt store, which will finally be this week. I also left the throttle cable bracket w/him so he can get a matching paint for the PS res. I also decided to do a couple more pieces in that red too. I'm only doing it because it's a dark, candy red and isn't very bright or obnoxious. If that were the case I wouldn't even have considered it. I want everything to blend in one way or another. The new stuff that'll be painted:

• Wiper motor clip - the little plastic clip only. It'll be sandwiched between a chrome mounting bracket and chrome motor housing (the cylinder thing) so I think the contrast will look great. It's gloss black now, and while obviously a great choice for a color, it just doesn't pop like the red will.
• Washer fluid reservoir - This was decided because with the now lack of a white master cylinder reservoir, the wiper fluid res. matches nothing and sticks out in a bad way. What's good about this part is there's a chrome cap cover on the cap, and only about 3-4" will even be seen. My expectancy is that it will just blend into engine bay color, but stick out just enough that it's noticeable I didn't just paint it to match the bright red.
• EGR sensor - very small piece, but in the reflection on the firewall mirror the white plastic also stuck out. Black was the first choice but again this goes back to the wiper motor clip and the fact that it won't match anything. So a little color here, a little color there, and it's a well-detailed plan.

That's all. Nothing major. But it'll look good (I hope!)

I've got some pictures of the heap I'll get up soon. Nothing too interesting, just the car missing a bunch of pieces. I should have gotten some of the body parts being worked but didn't think of it.

Pretty productive night. Got the lower intake off and will begin powder prep tomorrow. Removed the vacuum tree from the fenderwell and re-routed all the lines so I can mount it behind the intake/under the pinchweld. This was the better alternative than running vacuum hoses into the interior and back out of the firewall - no thanks. I have to have various vacuum lines going to my EGR and intake stuff, plus of course the brake booster, and there's only 1 small connection that really needs to be in the fenderwell. Since the intake & booster hoses are big and ran along the firewall, they looked messy and ugly and I couldn't tuck them behind the new brake booster. So now they'll be out of the way and the only one visible will be the small one going to the fenderwell (and yes it will tuck along the pinch weld and behind the booster). Should look a lot cleaner there especially since the main harness is now gone, too!

Now that the bumper is off I have access to the crash sensors, wire harnesses, etc. so I can remove stuff for paint, cleaning, and re-looming soon.