Just Wondering..! I just bought some skirts off Liam (LAAM) and will be fitting them myself using this post as my Jedi Warrior Mentor...! I presume it's better due to all the sanding and finishing, to paint them after finishing the fitting...?
Also... ...I was wondering after I've fitted n trimmed n refitted n trimmed, then rubbed back the parts that will need the Sikaflex, do I apply the Sikaflex to the skirt or to the Car Body and how much do I use... do i need to apply any to the underside (lower, bottom edge) of the skirt or does that just hang??
My bad..... appologies for not responding quicker use some 125 grit paper to "ruff up" all the gellcoat, its easier to do it OFF the car, once fitted its damn near imposiable to get into the tight corners Get the paper from Mitre 10, comes in a 4" wide roll and is colored yellow once ruffed up, prime with a liberal coat of highbuild primer. once dry, sand back with 180 grit paper and re-prime again with another liberal coat of highbuild primer, sand back again with 180 grit paper, they are now ready to fit. Use self tapping screws to hold the skirt in the desired place, these should be predrilled before the glueing stage. TIP/ it helps to drill a small pilot hole first before fitting the screw. Gluing: place large dollups of urthane along the skirt in places where the skirt to body clearance is minimal, this will give the best adheasion, also wipe down the actual cars sill with General purpose thinners so its clean of gunk. The dollups should be about 200mm ~ 250mm apart. Use self tapping screws to hold the skirt in the desired place whilst the urthane cures. 48hours later...... remove the screws, drill out the screw holes and apply more urthane into the holes. add additional urthane to any gaps between the body and skirt IE: door reveal area. Under the car..... add dollups of urthane between the skirt and body to form a "block" of rubber,about every 250mm is good DO NOT attempt to seal off this area, it WILL cause the sill to rust out, its best left so water can get IN .... & OUT.... so can air I repeat.... IT WILL CAUSE RUST IF YOU SEAL IT OFF. Kingy
been awhile ....... and plenty has happened since the last post First up: been a few alterations to the actual colors and the way they would be laid down..... For the tech chasing ppl... its a 3 layer paint job... base color clear base clear each 'layer' has atleast 3 coats and special bits added to that coat as its laid down and so it begins..... on goes the 'JET BLACK' base coat, after this was done it was blocked back using 1500grit wetndry paper yep using big pics as small ones wont show poopies
Basecoat dries really quickly, and we had to do some work on the bonnet and nose panel so in goes the cover to stop the drift onto the red basecoat... snug as a bug
the secret stuff goes on...... Now..... before we go any further ....... I'm NOT going to give out the details of what has been laid down and at what ratio mix or what was even in those coats, for those that know paint, a pearl red is NOT available, so one has to ...... well make it For that reason a bloody good mate came and swung the gun for the day, this process took from 10.00am through to 5ish. 'Juddy' is a panel beater and my 'teacher' as such & we've been bloody good mates for many years, he's work see's mainly custom work these days and may vary from jobs like this to old car restorations ..... This ZX has a FULL CUSTOM PAINT JOB, its a one off and it WONT be duplicated. Kingy
the 'pearl' starts to come to life the 2nd pic is probably better to see the 'kick' we are after, the drivers side shows the pearl changing the color on the tighter curves on the rear valance and spoiler....... wait till the clear hits it and it really comes out
The first of 3 clearcoats goes on........ its too late now and yes it filled the shed with fumes so the pics are actually 'smokey' in appearance, was imposiable to breathe without a respirator let alone see what was going on clearly
The same 'pearl mix' that we laid on the red was also put down on the black basecoat ...... this is the BLACK nose panel with the 'pearl' and clear coats laid down, as you can see we have a purplish tinge shining through the black when the light hits it.... and these pics were taken in the shade of the shed. you should see it out in the sunlight
Midnight ....... off comes the masking paper I love unwrapping..... its when the car starts to come back to life after a huge opperation in this pic.... check out the differance in the old shit red and the new red by the comparision against the enginebay's inner guard and the fresh new red. got a bright red ???
1am...... wheels are back on, last of the masking paper is comming off You can now start to see the effect we are chasing with this paint job... look at the differance between the area around the door handle and the area around the fuel filler.... notice that they look like two totally differant colors.... this is the pearl effect we were after, the car litterally changes color as you walk around it Even the bonnet and nose panel change color dramatically as you mover around the car. (last night we had a high powered torch in the shed and spent a couple of hours just looking and enjoying the awsome color flicks / changes we got, this car doesnt look the same from every angle )
All the above took places on Saturday and Saturday night ........ Yesterday the car spent the entire day relaxing in the 40degree heat and in the sun from 10am till around 5pm..... needless to say the paint has now flattened out almost perfectly and theres been a constant stream of visitors all day wanting to see it in the flesh, man word travels fast today I'll start refitting the interior from the boot foward with the front clip going on lastly, then in a months time we'll give it a full cut and polish Hopefully the car will be completed in time for the goldfields run...... minus the cut n polish ofcourse, but even without that, the color and the layout has of the colors has certainly been well accepted by all that have had a sneak peak so far. Obviously there's a heap more pics of the car that i havent hosted and probably wont at this stage.... and yes there's more to come...... you havent seen it with the bits all back on it yet and for those that dont want to figure out the big pics...... go to .... http://profile.imageshack.us/user/badzx/ the pic size will be like a normal photo sized version. Kingy
Pics from the Goldfields run that Craig took yesterday ... (yeah it was worth staying up to 2am to finish off the car for this run) nb: the paint hasnt been cut or polished .......... these pics are off the spraygun More pics in the post event thread....... http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=307814 Enjoy Kingy
I hope to hell your boy doesn't wrap that around a pole edit: plate would look a lot better at the top middle, supported by a bracket which screwed into the underside of the top of the mouth so as to not damage the front.
