Saved From The Crusher - 93 Stealth TT Rebuild/Restore

[DrGonzo]

So I have not been able to do much work on the car lately. I finally landed a job with a local software company! Yeah... With me not getting home till 6pm during the week the only time I get to work on the car now is the weekends.

I spent Friday getting the body prepped for paint. I need to get the main body painted before it gets to cold. I removed everything down to the main body itself. Since the car was originally black I wasn't to concerned about painting the door jambs and all that. The original gloss black makes a good contrast to the flat black. Plus the paint in the door jambs is in good enough condition that a little wet sanding will bring back the shine nicely!

After sanding down the body I spent a few hours with glazing putty filling in all the little rock chips and so forth. Got everything sanded down smooth with a 200 grit. I then proceeded to tape up all the glass and the roof.

Hint: 3M blue painters tape sucks! Since I taped everything up the night before, the morning dew the next day soaked into the tape and it started pulling up! Luckily I used lots of tape so I was still good to paint.

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I debated for so time as to painting the roof flat black but with the glass sunroof being black I didn't think it would look right. I decided instead to paint the roof gloss black. That way I sort of keep the stock blacktop look and it will blend better with the sunroof!

Today I went out and cleaned all the panels up and sprayed the first coat. I though the first coat went on smooth but once it dried I noticed that it had orange peeled on me! SHIT.... Well it seems I didn't thin out the paint enough on the first batch. Luckily the hardener I am using allows me to wet sand after the first hour. I hit all the fresh paint with a 400 grit to smooth it out but still keep it rough enough for the next coat to have something to stick to.

Once I got everything sanded and wiped down I hit it with the next coat. I made sure that I reduced the paint enough this time. Second coat went on really nice! There are a few spots of the car that have some light over spray "like the hatch" but I intend to wet sand the whole car down with 1500-2000 grit anyway. Since I painted outside I have some dust particles in the paint. That is the reasoning for needing to wet sand. Overall the paint is nice and smooth. After the wet sanding and a good polishing with a dull compound it will be perfect.

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If anyone is wondering this is the paint I am using:

http://www.martinsenour-autopaint.co...ights/PCC.aspx

It is Sherwin-Williams commercial coating sold by NAPA. It is made for industrial equipment so it should hold up really well.

I still have the drivers fender, rear bumper and a few other small items like mirrors to paint. Hopefully if the weather holds out I can knock them all out next weekend. "Supposed to rain here tomorrow".

[CoreyB]

It looks good, however its just my opinion that you go with a high gloss paint job. You have done so much work restoring this car that it should look like it was restored properly. Not trying to be a dick its just mt opinion. You have done excellent work thus far.

[BadHabit]

I am kinda liking the flat black look,may give it a shot on next go round.You did a fine job on that back drivers side bumper. When I painted outside,I would hose the area around the car down so it would cut down on the dust ,seems to help trap some of it.
All in all,helluva good job you are doing..Keep it up!
BH

[DrGonzo]

I read about hosing down the ground to lower the dust. I heard it is not good to do when it's really hot out like it was yesterday. Seems that wetting the ground when it's hot can effect the paint as when it evaporates, the water vapor can get inside the paint stream when your shooting the paint and mess up the paint. I think I read that on CarCraft.com. I didn't want to take the chance of messing up all of the paint with it being 95 here yesterday.

@CoreyB: The restore part of the car is mainly the reconditioning and restoring of all componets, Suspension, Drivetrain, ETC. I love the look of the flat black ever since I saw Ryan's "Lawdogg" old car painted that color. I think the color is unique for this platform and will make for a nice aggressive looking Stealth, especially when I get the evil eye mod done to the hood.

[DrGonzo]

So I was able to get some more painting done today. I got the roof painted, The drivers fender and both door handle assemblies. I started assembling things also and I am really liking the way the car is looking.











I am most likely going to have to respray the drivers side door. I did some wet sanding on it the other day and well, flat black is not something that can be wet sanded.... After about an hour of wet sanding through the different grits the paint was smooth but had a somewhat glossy look to it that I don't like. So looks like I am not going to be doing any wet sanding on this paint. I'll have to figure something out to smooth it out without glossing the paint. I might try and dry sand it. I have some painted panels to try a few things out on.

[BadHabit]

That front end is going to look awesome..

[Bob The Great]

Great work! I've got a 91 TT shell sitting in my garage that needs the same treatment, but I'm ashamed to say it's been there for a couple of years now and I've managed to do jack crap with it. Those pesky other hobbies keep getting in the way.

That'll be a beautiful car when you finish with it. Drive her well!

[n2nsanity]

wow, that thing has come a long way
you should have your own tv show or something, lol

[n2nsanity]

oh, and congrats on finding a new job, hope it's going well for you

[n2nsanity]

08-31-2010, 09:17 PM


I got the Heim joints in today from SpeedwayMotors.com. Really fast shipping and the quality is great.



I am only missing the sway bar end links now and the rear end will be complete. I am still going to install it tomorrow as I have brake work that needs to be completed and the sway end links are easy to install.



I also as able to get some of the engine bay items re-installed. Non-ABS prop valve and lines where installed along with the clutch and some of the A/C lines.



Next on the list is repairing any issues with the body wiring harness and re-wrapping it with new electrical tape as the old tape is brittle and cracks easily.



09-01-2010, 03:42 PM

I used the same parts as are listed in this thread:

http://www.3si.org/forum/f116/aws-de...-i-did-367862/

Parts came out to like $95.00 including shipping. I picked up the bolts at a local hardware store. The joints are really nice and self lubricating from what I can tell. Shipping took like 2-3 days.

I didn't drill out and retap the holes though. I used metric grade 8 for the x-member side and 1/2 grade 8 for the control arm side. You will need to open up the hole a little on the control arm as the 12mm bolt hole is just a tad to small for the 1/2 bolt.

09-02-2010, 09:20 PM

So I didn't get to much accomplished today. I finished off the front body wring harness. The mailman brought me a gift today so I was actually able to install the harness. When I removed the harness I cut all of the old zip ties holding it to the frame. I had to order new ones and it took some time to hunt down. I finally found some that would work from a company called clipsandfasteners.com.



Push Mount Cable Tie For Imports 200mm Length

They hold pretty good in the think metal like the side frame by the wheels. Thinner metal they pop out if to much stress is applied. They are still the best fasteners I could find. After getting the harness attached I noticed the main power wire from the engine fuse box had oxidation pretty bad so I have to pick up some good power wire to replace the corroded one.

Tomorrow I am going to try and remove the front steering rack so I can finish removing the AWS lines and plug up the holes. I may replace it with the N/A rack I have depending on it's condition.

Once that is complete I need to start prepping the engine for removal from the other car and start pulling the interior as I need to wire in the new gauges and electronics into the new car.

think a few of these would be helpful for some of the wiring? i'm probably going to order a few sets, they look like they will be useful.

http://www.harborfreight.com/33-piec...ent-98559.html

also, those gauges look awesome.

any more updates on this project yet?