1997 neon acr coupe 2012 challenge/DD build

Take Pete's advice on working one panel! Helped me a lot. 

Can't wait to see what It looks like when you get it scuffed. 

I was racing daylight last night and rushed. Also, tats my first time ever mixing the paint,  using the gun after setting up all by myself. Usually art helps me and sets up the gun/mixes paint. But his mom passed yesterday and he was out getting E36 M3 faced. So my wife, daughter and i did it. We sagged every panel. 

Tonight/tomorrow ill hang all the panels back on for consolidated storage and try blocking.  

What size block to start with? 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I'd go straight for the 18", I find the smaller ones easier to roll around tight cuves though 

Use the biggest one practical for the panel.

I've seen a lot of people sanding doors on a stand where their block is longer than the door.

I'm planning to buy some of the 30-36" ones when I get to that stage myself. 

So the "doors on a stand" brings up a thought ive been working on. 

Is it better to block and use filler with the panel put in place and aligned properly on the car, or on the stand where its a convenient work height? My mind says in place so any stresses and bends from mounting are accounted for. 

As long as everything fit on the car well, and your gaps line up, there shouldn't be any stresses to account for unless something is wrong. 

Beyond that, it really just depends on what kind of hair loss is acceptable in chasing flatness. 

If you're going for SEMA/Pebble Beach levels of flat across all the panels, then yes you'll have to block everything assembled. But frankly, you don't want to go there.

I like the panels to be on the car because I block across the gaps. Give a nice crisp look to the car.

Are you setting the air pressure at the gun? My line drops a good 15 psi from regulator to gun, I set the pressure at the gun handle with the gun flow wide open. pull the trigger and adjust at the tankside regulator. Remove the pressure gauge at gun and away you go. Do a few test passes on something to check fan size. 

Your epoxy has a 24 hour open time where you can shoot the next layer. After that yo need to scuff with paper of scotchbritte pad.

As to block size, use something at least have as long as your panel is wide. While in theory you would want to be spaning the entire panel at all times, it gets hard to control a block when you you are sanding over the edges of the panel. Look at the panel when you start sanding, if there are two high spots you want to span the two so they come down even and the area in the middle is untouhed until the high is sanded down.

previously

budget spent: 1449.53

recoup: 894.75

new money

180 media blaster

traded 3 dohc heads. Mopar PCM, DOHC intake, adjustable cam gears, long tube, rear strut tower bar, dohc heater tubes, dohc muffler, E36 M3box sheetmetal and title, and Wiring harness to another neon guy for epoxy primer, gallon high build, gallon bondo, gallon clear, two quarts color and all the reducers and hardeners and stuff. I think I got the better end of the deal, he thinks he did. So were both happy.

Gasket set: 28.73

New total: 1658.26

recoup: 894.26

so, when we left off, we had it stripped down to a roller. I spent a few days cleaning bolts and got a 56 pound box of hardware sent to arrow plating in Texas for a fresh coat of black zinc. Ill see what the total is, pull out all the neon stuff, and weigh it and put it in the budget. But working with brand new (essentially) hardware will be SO nice.

20200425_162935 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

pushed the car outside, hit it with the pressure washer and purple power again. After all, cleanliness is next to godliness as we all learned in the boy scouts.

20200426_193752 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

munchkin then went to town on the leftover urethane in the window channels using one of those 3m coral looking discs in a drill. We found that heating with a mapp torch and scraping the urethane out with a putty knife first, followed with cleaning with the coral wheel worked best. I ran the torch, as shes 11!

20200426_171336 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

we then called my buddy with the mobile blaster. Years ago I had rewired the unit, done a bunch of maintenance stuff, and painted the trailer. In exchange, I was to get two cars blasted for materials. I was calling to cash in number two, and found out he sold the blaster three years ago. But according to him, he told the buyer that we had a deal, and to follow through with it. So I called the guy. Long story short, I paid for it all. Carolina mobile dustless blasting came out and did the car. Two hours and bare metal. The man was quick, pleasant, and efficient. We put his labor rate in the budget per challenge rules, but not the machine/consumables as interpreted by the dyno clause.

Anyway, I had spent 4 hours and a bunch of 80 grit paper and gotten ¼ of the roof done.

20200428_090705 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

In two hours he did the whole car, minus the lower door jambs and interior. We found some rust that needs fixed, and lots of thin bondo in lots of places. And surface rust lurking underneath the paint on the roof. So im glad we did this.

20200428_101731 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200428_105147 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200428_130225 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

ultimately, this makes the budget far tighter than is really feasible. But munchkin wants to go to the challenge as a daddy daughter team, and by god im gonna try! To hopefully pull it off, I needed supplies. Matrix came highly recommended as a good low buck brand, and available locally. I worked out a trade with a fellow neon nut as outlined above for the materials that will stay on the car. I figure roughly $8xx in parts for $6xx in materials. He and I are both happy. So damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

I enlisted my bodyman Sherpa for help, Art. He came over the night after the blaster, and told me to dress the whole car down to 180, wipe with lacquer thinner, and spray epoxy primer.

IMG_1021 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

got the whole car done, and rolled outside. We had the idea to use foam earplugs to fill in all the threaded holes to keep paint out of them to reduce the possibility of chipping the paint. So munchkin did that.

20200501_140328 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Wiped down with the help of my wife and daughter. Arts mom passed earlier that day, and I couldn't wait to shoot due to humidity and flash rust. So my wife mixed the primer 1:1, and I ran the gun. Mary “masked off” the steering rack with an old sheet and propped the one door open with a bucket of rocks while we piped down. I then went full on Mr. Safety and shot my first coat of primer. Pulled the 9.99 harbor freight gun out of the box, ran a little lacquer thinner through it, loaded it, and sprayed it. Seemed to shoot nice the way it was adjusted out of the box, but I still ran and sagged the paint in every spot possible. Its bad. Hopefully ill get more comfortable before color. Or talk art into running the gun in his bosses downdraft booth (his boss owes me a favor too. I like being the guy that everybody owes sometimes. Other times, its really annoying cause ¾ of the time I get the E36 M3 end of the stick like with the sandblaster)

20200501_190437 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

IMG_1031 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200501_190449 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200501_190512 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200501_190516 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200501_193318 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200501_193324 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20200501_193334 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I signed the panels heavily. Every single one. Multiple times.

20200501_193914 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I had dropped the ported and polished head off with dad after getting it pulled from the blown up engine. Hes gone through it, cleaned valves of rust, and checked it over/cleaned it up the best he could. He says its healthy. So im going to put it on the new engine. May not get me anything, but dammit I want to use my ported head. So I bought a gasket set.

Screenshot_20200427-150247_eBay by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

next is rust repair and blocking the body. And starting body filler. And.....

October is way too close.

In reply to NOHOME :

Is there an online tutorial for gun setup youd reccomend? Cause honestly i pulled the gun out, cleaned it, and used it. My wall regulator for the compressor (pre 100ft hose) was set at the normal 100psi. No idea what it was at the gun. I did use the harbor freight filter inline though! 

And i like the idea of bolted together better. Just seems right, and simpler to get good results. 

This morning I broke out the 18 inch durablock.

Hiw do i tell whats deep enough to need filler and what high build will fill? Also, hows the best way to take pictures to get feedback?

Dust a guide coat of darker paint over the whole car. Block lightly, and dark spots will will be low spots.

Yes, October is very close.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

That's what we had to do on my iris car. 

Also I'm shooting for July 4th, I feel like I'm in a big crunch. 

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

In person the shades of grey are very obvious. But black lacquer primer is on the shopping list. 

This is Munchkin again 

Ear plugs in the threaded holes works kept out the paint 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

For the dusting, I believe flat black spray paint is just as good. I'm no body man, so I hope someone tells me if I'm wrong, but if it's all coming off anyway, should be fine. Of course, if you can see it anyway...

Good thinking, Munchkin!

art came out to give me pointers.

Half the drivers side is done already!!!

A guy who paints $100k cars told me he uses the $1 black spray paint for guide coat

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Looks like you have the gun way too close to the panel. Likely a major contributor to the paint sags. 

Also, be really careful next time you wash your truck. Even though it's a "dustless" blaster I'd guarantee your truck is covered in a dusting of fine abrasives. 

Also, also, this might help.

Yes. Noticed a lot of fallout on the truck and other cars, so i first blew them.off with the leaf blower, then rinsed with the hose. Rain has done another couple rounds of rinsing. 

And the gun chart is great! How fat away should I have been?

And i tried spray paint for guide coat on the miata and clogged paper. So, maybe it was too good of spray paint?

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I use $1 Walmart cans. 

Im beginning to understand the nohome approach of skimming the whole panel and then blocking. Seemed like more work initially,  but now seems like less work overall. I also need to get better at laying the filler on thinner and smoother. 

But im done for today. I think. Drivers quarter is on whst i believe to be last round of filler and blocking. Then im doing the roof. 

Light hands on the roof.

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

Good point. Its essentially a mountain dew can. Maybe leave it for last so i develop a better feel by then. 

I spent most of the weekend on honeydo list. Don't feel like i made much progress,  but forward movement is forward movement. 

Gotta figure out how to control dust in the shop with as hot as its getting outside. Javas system won't work for me due to the constraints of my building. 

I tried dry guide coat. I like it was better than spray paint. Doesn't clog paper at all. 

I too need to get better and thinner smoother bondo coats. I used lacquer to thin it a bit. Makes spreading easier. 

About a foot, maybe a little more. You have a little wiggle room either way depending on how you set the gun. Also, keep yourself and the angle of the gun consistent relative to the panel and no oscillate except for the very end of your sweep to blend out the edge and avoid hard stops in the paint lines. This will get the paint to lay down more evenly.