Base to VR4 Swap + Complete Restoration

[stealthknight619]

Freaking amazing man... are you ever going to be done?? Seems the in house powdercoating is addictive.... keep up the good work!

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[99ishVR-4]

Nice, which black chrome are you using? I got the type that is a base coat for my wheels but I imagine the top coat version applied over chrome would look the best.

I am using the bonded black chrome from Powder365

After a bunch of crashes using Tapatalk 1 & 2, I finally checked out your photos on the laptop...All I can say is that the black chrome over blasted metal looks stellar!! I am thinking my upcoming powder coating job should really pop coating over my polished parts!

Keep up the awesome progress, man!!! Definitely update this thread as you can 'cause this thing's going to be awesome when you have it all back together.

Yeah, I cant even view this thread without it crashing on my phone. Thats why it takes so long between updates. Makes me realize how little I use an actual desktop pc since I have had my phone. If you are going for the truer black chrome look, then yeah, it definitely needs a polished or real chrome base. I am going for a "titanium" color look so the bonded black chrome happens to be perfect for that look.

Freaking amazing man... are you ever going to be done?? Seems the in house powdercoating is addictive.... keep up the good work!

It is very addicting. After powder coating, these parts look basically brand new, its hard to look at even the smallest bracket in its stock old and rusted condition and let it slide when comparing it to a freshly powder coated piece.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[99ishVR-4]

Nice, which black chrome are you using? I got the type that is a base coat for my wheels but I imagine the top coat version applied over chrome would look the best.

I am using the bonded black chrome from Powder365

After a bunch of crashes using Tapatalk 1 & 2, I finally checked out your photos on the laptop...All I can say is that the black chrome over blasted metal looks stellar!! I am thinking my upcoming powder coating job should really pop coating over my polished parts!

Keep up the awesome progress, man!!! Definitely update this thread as you can 'cause this thing's going to be awesome when you have it all back together.

Yeah, I cant even view this thread without it crashing on my phone. Thats why it takes so long between updates. Makes me realize how little I use an actual desktop pc since I have had my phone. If you are going for the truer black chrome look, then yeah, it definitely needs a polished or real chrome base. I am going for a "titanium" color look so the bonded black chrome happens to be perfect for that look.

Freaking amazing man... are you ever going to be done?? Seems the in house powdercoating is addictive.... keep up the good work!


Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

It is very addicting. After powder coating, these parts look basically brand new, its hard to look at even the smallest bracket in its stock old and rusted condition and let it slide when comparing it to a freshly powder coated piece.

[99ishVR-4]

Small update, I did some more powder coating, I really hate putting these back together with the old worn out fasteners, even though it is just temporary. I will be switching my current goal to getting all the fasteners re-plated. I started organizing all the bolts tonight since I have to mix them all together when I take them to the platers. Takes awhile to measure each bolt, take a picture, and log it in a notebook, but I do not know every fastener on the car off the top of my head like some do, so I want to make sure I can sort back all these bolts back into their labeled baggies when they come back.


Pics of recent work:

Alternator pulley(went very thin on the ribbed portion so hopefully it will have no problems with the belt).



Fender Supports(tried a new black that I picked up from the local coater today, it was supposed to be high gloss black but looks like semi gloss, won't be using it again and now I will have to recoat these.)


Rear Seat latches and FMIC brackets:


Hood Latch(had to take this in and out of the oven and move the levers around to keep them from getting stuck)

[99ishVR-4]

Brake and Clutch Master Cylinder:

Before




After
















I could eat out of this, lol.

[GTO-SIMON]

i have seen some builds over here nothing like what u have done amazing,only thing is i would not want to take it out of my garage after what u have done.simon

[CoreyB]

Oh man, those master cylinders came out amazing.

[99ishVR-4]

i have seen some builds over here nothing like what u have done amazing,only thing is i would not want to take it out of my garage after what u have done.simon

Thanks man, I saw your thread yesterday, very unique car. I have to say that you guys outside the US do some good body work and aren't afraid to try something different. There are some builds being done by Ray and IPS right now that you should check out, they will really blow your mind as far as the clean, better than new look.

Oh man, those master cylinders came out amazing.

Thanks, I am definitely proud of them.

[99ishVR-4]

For those that are following this thread and like what you see as far as the powder coating goes and want me to powder coat any parts for your cars, you should check out this thread: http://www.3sgto.org/parts-wanted/11...our-parts.html

[99ishVR-4]

So I have been working on the project everyday but I don't have much to show for it(this is a boring update without many pictures). I have a pile of parts built up to be powder coated but my priority lately has been sorting and cataloging every bolt, nut, clip, ect in the car to be zinc plated. I have decided to send it out to a shop and have it all done at once instead of the diy home kits. I figure I don't need another 100+ hour project on this car in plating bolts, and a shop will have it done in a day. But considering every single part of the car will be disassembled at once, I am being very detailed in where every thing goes with pictures and a list of literally every fastener on the car. That is where the bulk of my time has been spent, and every little batch of bolts I catalog, goes through a 8 minute ultrasonic cleaning session. This is my bolt catalogging station and an example of how the bolts are all being pictured.




I started taking the exterior panels back off the car again today, looking at the pics, the car looks terrible currently.





Either way, I have a pretty solid plan on what I am using for paint. The interior will get black spi epoxy primer after being stripped. The underside will be stripped then spi epoxy primer, and I have still yet to choose an undercoating. There are very conflicting ideas about it trapping moisture vs. needing something to stop debris from chipping the paint to bare metal. From what I understand, epoxy primer alone will be good enough, but it is not the look I want, especially for the wheel wells. I would like a very fine textured undercoating with no gloss. Anyways, after the underbody and interior are painted, I will order my basecoat and clear coat and do the entire shell, and backsides of all the body panels. I am not sure if I should paint the outside of the interior panels while they are on or off the car. I feel off the car will give better results, but I am worried about the paint not matching 100%.

Some bad news, I dropped my gas tank, and the inside was covered in rust. I tried the rust electrolysis method to clean it up, had it going for 4 days, even after most of the rust was removed, the inside of the tank is just not living up to the standard I have set for this car, so I have been trying to find one locally. What sucks is that I had one in excellent condition from my NA chassis that I wanted to swap over when I lived in North Carolina but I was trying to do that the day of moving and I just didn't have the energy and it wouldn't fit in the moving truck. Oh well...

Also I took a closer look at my transfer case I bought from another member along with a new transmission and noticed the input shaft spool is worn down beyond my comfort zone, especially since the transmission has a 300m output shaft that I don't want to ruin, so the transfer case will either need rebuilt or I may just find a good condition used one.




I used up my monthly polishing effort on this ac line. I really cannot think of a more boring thing than polishing, I don't see how anyone does it for work, I would end up making $.50 an hour with how long it takes me. I think I am 40 hours into my plenum and the end is nowhere in sight. Sandpaper and a dremel are my only tools to smooth the aluminum, and the dremel just likes to make waves so I mostly do it all with sandpaper.