# my restore (well one of them) mega pic heavy!



## Aaran

Think i might go post up out current car restore. done mine and got this one in as a result. i work a normal 8-6 job at a motorfactors and then i do this in my spare time. if your bored at work then this thread is for you to kill a fair whilse. pic heavy but pics speak a thousand words as they say lol. enjoy!

this was dropped off a few months ago and we have been plodding on with it in our free time but now its time to go full steam ahead. its a fully loaded JDM Glassroof SiR (aircon +climate, glass roof, PS etc etc) dont have time to retype loads so here are lots of pics.

also brought a paint booth to go in the shed (concrete is still going down in section, will be done very soon but we got the car inside before hand) i go collect it at the end of may (fully working with heater/fans etc etc) so will make a nice change from poly sheeting lol!












































































































































































rust under filler




























hole by fuel filler










bumpers off










most of rear interior out










get a look at the inside of the arches































































































































most of the big things gone










joys of inside (hate dash removal such a pita)




























engine bay loom through the bulkhead and all tied in bunches and hung off the floor pan





































nasty!!!














































hidden rust under seams due to body filler trapping moisture (has traveled right under the seam sealer a good few inches)



















also got 2 tiny spots just starting to rust




























started with a poke around last night, did not look to bad until i jammed a knife under the seam sealer. lets just say 3 of the 4 corners need patches lol. also the inner lip along the sill is very rusty, might have to replace the floor pan sections then remove the inner floor pan skin lip to sill lip and replace it. already chopped out the rust and the drivers rear looks like its going to be a nightmare, will have to cut further back to get to some good non rusty metal

found some more filler but its not hiding anything, gonna assume rather than align the doors properly they just added filler to save some work lol. car went on jig no problems, its easy to rotate up to around 45 degrees either way, anymore than this seems to strain the rear mount (does not help that all the suspension is still on the car but it keeps the car level)

going to be a mental weekend of welding, can see some mega long hours ahead lol (thought we got away easy with having good arches to lol)

liift off!!



















180 degree bearings (spot j16's old rear wheel bearing used as the lock)










filler in here for some reason?










does not look to bad, lets have a poke down both floor pans....









































































what came out...










for some reason glass roof cars seem to suffer badly right here, sharpeis was jsut as bad both sides










chopped out dent and rust



















insides near immaculate though!










sharpies replacement section, made in his new ghetto metal bender and hammered to shape to get the right radius










drilled off the old rust outer skim do start de-rusting the middle section










lots of flap wheel + wire wheeling later










decided to see why there was filler under the fuel cap....looks like its been hammered back into shape at some point and fillered over



















few pin holes from previous repair causing rust to start forming (lesson for you all,pin holes WILL cause rust)










started removing the under seal to, probably the most frustrating and slow + messy job. its basically tar painted over spray on seam sealer, when you hit it with a wire cup the tar burns (lots of blue tar smoke) and the seam sealer under builds up heat and fires off the wire cup like silly string from a can and it covers everything. i think there is around 30 hours to fully de-seal the full underside including the arches!)










full afternoon on the car.

all pass side lower floor pan and sills are done. im sure sharpies welding gets better every time.

found the Ariel hole had been smacked down with a hammer and bodged full of filler to de aerial it....that took some grinding out and a good 15 mins of reshaping to get it roughly back to where it should be. other floor pan tomorrow and hopefully th fuel filler surround and the rear light surround on the other side.

on a note the Hadrians fuel filler surround is not the same as the crx, the crx filler is more square and the civic one is more rectangle, but it should be easy enough to cut out the sections we need and put them in













































































































drivers side. (2 of us did another 9 hours non stop again) probably about 10% into the build...lol


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## Aaran

byebye mess





































donor part from the scrapper out back (that car is such a lifesaver in terms of being able to get bits there and then)




























no pin holes










another night done. had rob up for a few hours (rustyrex) who brought me a prezzie, nice recirculating sand blaster gun, works quite well to!

most of the welding finished by sharpie, the civic fuel filler surround was more rectangular than the crx oem bit but this was solved by chopping about 4mm out of the center and bringing them together 

got those 2 tiny arch bubbles chopped out, as per usual the oem seam sealer had let it carry a good 2 inches under the panel...so chopped that out. which is the only bit left to weld now and will be done tomorrow night
































































fuel filler.










door mounts blasted.




























3 inch long rear arch strip replaced from flat sheet.










rear quarter knocked down










getting a [crud] load of body solder on order to sort out some low spots and to fire over the pitted metal. off to collect a second hand paint booth early next week so will be off this for a good few days

brought a paint booth today for the unit/shed. complete with oven and fans/lighting etc etc
spending the next few days getting it stripped down to move it back to ours


















































































one of the rear extraction fan holes










heat outside, more in the workshop and even more in the roof of the workshop! my body temp gauage says at least 36-40, not been that hot sinse i was in vegas in the summer!



















booth is now back in the yard, took me a full week to get it all out!

will build it up in the next month of two,

pinhole welds flattened










best type of wheel for stripping underseal!










gonna be a long ass day today.










hour or so later



















took a break after a few to knock down some of the welds in the sills, did not make them flush as it takes away the stregnth of the weld



















cleaned up all the welds inside to, something most places wont ever do! all back to shiny metal then lots of zinc primer










back to stripping then, many many hours later (half the floor done!)










the light grey above pic is the oem epoxy base-coat, then darker bits are actually shiny metal. wipes it down with brake cleaner to remove excess tar and then used my uberly good sanding wheel (this thing rocks! its a scotch pad wheel fitted into my drill, keys things super fast like interiors and floor pans with lots of crevices etc)










lasted very well to! about 10 hours use and its half gone

brake cleaner-ed again and then out came a couple cans of zinc










really is a shame in its past someone has jacked the car up on there support beams, might have a go at pulling them back out (weld a nail to it and use it to pull on then chop it off)










all i can hear is running angle grinder atm, [potty mouth] head ache from hell to. so about a quarter of the under-seal gone!. £100 worth of FE 123 just turned up to, will be firing all that into every section this week 

was gonna body solder tonight but decided to fe123 the car instead (covered in shot blasting grit again, but its the fastest way to get into every pore in pitted rust!)

sand blasted rust spots (love zinc primer sooo good at keeping rust away)




























fe123 brushed on thinly straight out the pot.



















turns black when it works the rust, stays white and drys clear when not on rust.

then shot 2 liters thinned first at a 50/50 water mix then again on a 20/80 mix an hour later

(thin to get into every nook and cranny, msot of it pisses out of the seams and onto the floor)




























you can see it dripping out everywhere.


















































































shot it thin on the inside to with the pressure turned all the way up (about 110psi at the gun) which forces it in between every seam




























good old trusty workbench










as its water based the runs and drips just wipe off the car with a damp cloth, worth doing as the runs dry and they are a pain to sand off. so there you go near enough 2 liters of fe 123 in every box section (love jig getting under the car is awesome!) got a fair bit left over for bits on the body and doors etc 

next up body soldering!

retrived fan no1, another to dig out yet!










spent rest of the day getting filthy stripping under-seal off the other half of the floor pan!





































sundae onto the lead! been dying to learn this for ages,

got to have the metal uber CLEAN. no paint, no dirt, no nothing on that,



















even went as far as to sand blast down the weld line to make sure it was 100% clean. then washed down with brake cleaner and left for an hour










got the gas and torch










and a mini how to guide for you all.

on the clean and degrease metal you paint on a special tinning paste, its basically flus and powered lead, paint it everywhere.










once its on you get the torch, started it on the red axy and then used a tiny bit of oxygen to get the flame completely blue, and with a very wide short flame (you dont need mega heat for this!)
heat the tinning until it starts smoking and turning brown (thats the flux) and you will see the lead melt shortly after , get a wet rag and very quickly wipe it, it will tin the entire surface with lead.










if its not shiny you have got it to hot or done something wrong!.

now the lead bars i got off eaby were [crud]. there should be a wide temperature range on a 70 lead/30 tin lead bar but this stuff has such a narrow range between melting and going runny (you need it pasty)
half of this [crud] ran off the car and is on the floor. in the end broke into my bars i got for J16 and they were superb! very wide temperature range and very very easy to work with! (go frost on this one)

the process is pretty simple but hard to get right (as i found out)
you heat both the tinned panel and the end of a bar at the same time, as soon as the bar looks like its going soft you ram it onto the hot panel and twist it and a lup brakes off. you keep doing this until you think you have enough to fill the dent.
if it gets to hot it turns liquid and runs off the panel, not enough and it wont spread

with the soft lead deposited you need to very quickly and very carefully heat the lead until it turns into butter, then using a maple padel dipped in tallow (stops the lead sticking to it) you push it down onto the lead and work it into place, this is alot harder than it sounds because you need to keep the lead soft enough with the tortch to work, so its heat, paddle, heat, paddle. after 3 hours i got the hang of it lol! (gravity is not your friend here lol!)



















anyway the process is a bit like bodyfiller. do an area, until you think its right, then using a vixen file cut it down. low spots go back and again add lead , paddle and let it cool then file.
its a long process.









sharpies file (the one you get in the £100 frost kit) is flexible, the best way to use this is to go to the good side of the car, and get the spare/correct curve of that panel, set the tool on it then use that as a guide on the other side and also use that curve to file the lead down so you know your getting it the right shape. (the curve does vary from top to bottom so check, file, check again file etc)




























anyway lots of flatting later (adding more lead when you see low spots that need more)





































should leave you something along these lines.










i was naughty and cheated and used a 120 grit flappy pad in the angle grinder to remove some excess runs and slop here and there but it is dangerous. if your planning on using a DA or sanding tool you MUST use a super good mask (im talking 2k style paint mask not a wood mask here or get a proper lead dust filter) the lead dust is poisonous and will go everywhere.
dont sweep it up or air line it off get a Hoover and Hoover it off the car and floor.
after its all done you need to wash the flux and left over acid off the lead and panel, use water with vinegar or baking soda to neutralise's the acid

i think from now on im going to avoid using body filler in bodywork, lead costs 10x as much but its so much better than body-filler, it does not shrink and show through the paint 2 months down the line, it does not rust, its at least 10 times more flexible than filler if applied right, plus its a dying art and the satisfaction you get from using it is great 

more to come during the week, still got a fair bit more to do 

not bad for my first 8 hours leading, been fun and hopefully by the end ill be dammed good at it meaning less arm ache from filing lol




































































































once you get the hang of it laying and spreading the lead is not that bad. its the fileing thats a ball ache. you should not really sand lead as it puts lead dust in the air and on everything and its dangerous . really want to get hold of some of eastwoods lead free body solder, being lead free its sandable with 80 grit on a da


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## Aaran

anyway another day gone

new welder  best £60 ever spents! (these new are over £500 gbp!)










all the tank and suspension off (took all day almsot, hate honda suspension bolts)
































































PAS rack is farking heavy!














































wire wheel the falkey paint off the out with my sandblaster (yay another day covered in ali oxide grit) to clean it all up then plenmty of fe 123 over it




































































































remember to wear all your protective gear folks!









































































getting there! lol

last of the seam sealer










the daddy of anti rust paint.

5lt of epoxy mastic 121 for the floor pan + arches and the suspension arms.
also 6lt of custom epoxy, which is the bodywork specialist spray version and unlike every other primer it IS moisture proof, so no rust causing moisture seeping through to the nice bare metal underneath.










that above cost a bomb, almost as much as the 7lt of pearl honda flint black!
worth it though as far as i am concerned its the best sealing paint (even if it is messy as hell, got ah ole in the gloves so going to have a black painted thumb for the next week or two lol)

anyway time to crack on, mix this stuff straight 50/50

hardener:










then pour the black part B and give it a mix and it all turns black, leave it 10mins and away you go!










this lot was brush painted on every weld line, new piece of metal welded in and i sand blasted the arch lips (both sides, inside and outside) and spent ages hand painting it in.
used a brush rather than a gun because it ensures you can get it into EVERY nook and cranny. its still wet but it does dry alot smoother with alot less brush marks.










tomorrow will head under the floor pan and blast a few bits doen i could not get into with the wire wheels (you can see them in the above pic) will also mask the entire upper half of the car, plug every bolt hole on the floor pan and all being well and subject to my new 2mm primer gun showing up i will spray the floor pan with the epoxy mastic 121. will fire 2 coats on it and save the rest for the suspension arms.
it takes ages to cure fully, so once thats done ill be in the engine bay getting on stripping most of that back to metal ready for the custom epoxy.

had 10 mins to play around with my new welder to. brought some new liner, welding tips, new swan neck and unraveled all the rusty wire from inside it (wire speed was playing up due to rust on the wire making a mess inside the liner and making it burn back)

i think my welding has come along wway from j16 lol. still playing with the settings (need a tiny bit more speed from the wire here and maybe a few more amps but on my test honda tin it penetrated pretty well through to the reverse.




























also waste not want not, had a few hundred mil left over from the car so started painting the jig. its mainly covered in surface rust but didnt prep it and used up the left overs, will be interesting to see if rust eventually brakes through it, and if it does how many years it takes (epoxy mastic wont ever left rust creep under in because it makes a primary bond, not a secondary bond to the surface)



















jig dry:










underside sprayed via a 2.0 primer gravity hvlp gun, nice and fresh.



















left that for 3 days to dry hard

started stripping engine bay and de greasing it














































few days alter the finish on the mastic 121 (its about 1mm thick and super stuck to the metal!)




























customer came up to have a looksie and a chat.also brought me some more stuff to sell and my new flaring tool! got every pipe size die in this, right up to a quarter inch!



















finally! engine bay dry and no grease left 

gave it a quick tac down and laid a medium coat of epoxy mastic down in it. put another thick coat down on the floor pan and in the arches to to make sure its got full coverage.

it was still pretty wet when the pics were taken but will dry to the satin finish by tomorrow night. will leave the floor pan and bay along and get on with the shell exterior and interior next (custom epoxy on those)

will deffinaty be sealed from moisture for good by that point so i can get on with the suspension stuff and painting the floor pan and bay black before putting all the rolling gear back on and getting it into the booth (which still needs building up lol)
































































epoxy touch dry. will be fully dry come sunday























































back onto leading. wire wheel cleaned, sand blasted the pits then got the outer surface to a mirror before tinning it.



















got to use my new lead spreading tool. MUCH nicer than maple paddles!



















spreads and flattens it much better.
its plumbers moleskin!

its like a thick leather shammy but its more porous, you heat the tallow, and drip it in and impregnate it with tallow.
then use it like a paddle to either spread or push the molten lead in. its epic for the sole reason of its fairly firm but it will conform to shapes, made the next job super super easy!










bit iv been leaving until last, did this in less than 20 mins from start to finish

filed it as smooth as i could with the vixen file, will need a slight skim of filler but you can see how deep the lead is, just need to re-drill the mounting holes for the Aeriel and as its lead it will tap out real easy





































bit of a change from this










got here early and made a start taking the outside back to bare metal. was just to much high build and filler used by the previous place to risk painting over it.

took me 4 hours non stop to get all of that off back to bare steel and then hit it with my rectangle random orbit sander with an 80 grit dry paper to remove any excess and put a key in the steel

after much swearing trying to find my big screwdriver head for my socket set to get the door latch off i gave up and left it on i have loads of these kicking about and i cant afford to leave the shell in bare steel because of flash rust, will dig that out tomorrow night and remove it and epoxy that when im doing the other side.

with it keyed up and de-greased with panel wipe i got to try out the custom epoxy 421 primer. its nice ,very nice. has the same consistency as a 2k high build primer, dry slower but because of this it drys smoother. a 600cc cup with my 2.0 gun saw me do all of one side with plenty to spare, it gos one hell of a long way. just a shame i have to sand it once its ready for high build but i can rest assured it is sealed from moisture so it wont rust over the time its in the shed (joys of having to sand this car thrice, the epoxy to key it for high build, the high build to flatten it and the 2000 wet and dry to flatten the clear!)

still waiting from my bristle brushes to turn up should make removing the filler on the other side alot faster!. will crack on with the roof and sides during the week and get them in epoxy, then get on with the inside as all that needs doing to lol












































[/quote]

front roof covered in a 1-2 mm skim of filler, no idea why as the metal base underneath appears to be indented. just made a messy job even more messy lol

epoxy is dry, drys just like the mastic 121 (slow) but its covering power is awesome.


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## Aaran

now thats permanently sealed up for good with no chance of moisture getting to it. going to be a long week of stripping. should by Sunday have the entire outside stripped, De-rusted, all leading done (still got the bonnet hinges to do) and just need to hammer and dolly below the fuel filler flap to get it back to where it should be (joys of shrinkage due to heat, stupid thin honda metal lol)

epoxy dry 24 hours later










no more filler










made a start on the other side sanding and bare metaling



















put my car cover over it and called it a night lol

roof and pass side back to bare metal, spent a few hours last night with the hammer and dollys (new toys for me, also the bloody fuel filler recess is in the way grrr) trying to get the area under the fuel filler back to where it should be. got it pretty spot on, still the odd low and high spot i saw after it was in primer but easy to sort.

500ml did the roof and side on this. really is good paint. had a go at sanding the dry side with 320 and bugger its durable stuff! going to take one hell of a long time to sand it all again ready for the high build primer.

still got the rear panel to do next, stone chip urned up today so will spraying that on the floor pan and in the arches on sunday after i have keyed and sanded the entire floor lol!

next week it should be onto the interior and stripping every last bit of underseal out of it, if it go;s ok should be epoxyed by next sunday meaning the shell base will be complete in primer so i can lay some filler and get on with stripping the doors and bonnet etc

getting there! 





































epoxy down!














































clean ish and de-wired . power went dead in the shed at 7pm so had to resort to doing something else (sanding by hand, joys) was gonna fire the welder up to ti fix the holes the last place drilled in to put a uk rear plate bracket on!



















hole ready for plugging










these are gonna be fun to fix lol




























filler is now a week old and super dry, blocked it down with 80 grit on a long board. deepest point is about 0.4 to 0.5mm deep. 
found a high spot of lead on the body so hit it again with the vixen file to lower it to make sure it was super smooth
put another skim over it all and will leave that for a week or so to let it dry an contract fully. should be well under a mm deep at the deepest point  . should be done for when i spray the epoxy on the rear so kill 2 birds with one stone.



















sanded.










time go byebye. to rusty and bent to bother blasting and beating




























knifing putty sanded down and the entire thing sanded dry with 800



















ground off all the other plug welds










chop chop.



















new plates made up










tacked on ebfore being moulded with the hammers and dolly so its flush before more welding.










welded










got paint down on it all














































going to just drill 12mm bolt holes in the rear plates and use normal nuts and bolts rather than studs like oem





































been doing more interior and got most of the main underside floor pan sanded ready for a few coats of stone chip. (epoxy does NOT sand well! super tough)

still umming and ahhing what do do with that dent in the lower frame rail, will decide and crack on with it on sunday, will probably try pulling it out but its pretty crushed, might have to chop it out, re-shape it with my hammers and dollys and weld it back in (very time consuming the latter lol)

should see some paint on the inside sunday or early next week














































well another weekend gone.

feeling the sanding burn now lol. interior fully 100% sound deadening free, 90% of it sanded ready to take the epoxy, brake lines gone, leaving the fuel lines in there (they look better painted imo)

even managed to clean up the mess on the floor lol. (ready to be disposed of in boxed lol) ended up using loads of brake cleaner but its the only stuff that removes the tar residue. took off a fair bit of seam sleaer to which will need re-laying once its been epoxyed before the high build primer.

polybushes are here so cheers to scott (h-tune) again.



























































































mental few weeks getting the inside to this stage.

after many many hours work sanding, hammering, cleaning its now had its final hoover/airline and de-greasing










everything masked up










lots of epoxy later
































































shells so close to high build primer and some base coat now.
total of 3lt of custom epoxy has done that entire shell inside and out. so still got loads left for the other panels 




































































































long live profile gauge!





































prefect










stripped










4 small low spots filled.










worse sealer to scrape off as its always gloopey










seam sealer





































door epoxyed both sides










moved shizz around (all the carpet and stuff these little Fozzie Bear like to chew and live in)










foud more space anyway 










fuel filler gap and shape near prefect. will finish this tommorow 










looks fine, most things do uner 10 layers of different paint lol!



















nice super deep wad of filler in here (over 2cm deep)


__
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content




























two of my bristle disks later i have a no paint no filler bonnet and loads of dust (it went over everything in the shed lol, gonne be a long clean up)










huge dent left, its strange because it looks like a dent puller has been used on the upper portion but not on the front section, cant bury it back in filler as it will just crack again




























so left with a conodrumn. either going to have to chop the damage out and weld in new sheet, or lead it. both lead to problems with heat as the bonnet is such a large peice with very little bracing its likely to warp like a sock puppet if im not careful. would normally beat this out on the hammer and dolly but the dent is right behind all the front bracing making it impossiable to get to from behind lol.
gonna think on it overnight and do one of the above tommorow, maybe both lol





































flux tinning paste.










most of a bar in here, still not great










so melted the last 1/4th of the bar in










an hour or so with the file left me with this,










was in 2 minds to attempt this as the heat is enough to warp large flat metal areas, was very careful and got away with no distortion 

alot better, a few small low spots which some bodyfiller will take care of, probably went overboard with it



















gonna cheat and use the lead cutting file to knock most of this filler flush, makes very short work of filler and lead.
will finish it with 320 grit then 800 and get the bonnet sanded with 80 and some epoxy on it tomorrow night.
on holiday from sat onwards for a week, well deserved so no updates for a while whilst i get lost on the moors fro the weekend onwards lol

filler blocked down










badge holes welded up










flushed away










thorough de-grease and sand followed by a nice thick coat of epoxy




























still 2 very shallow low spots that will require a margin of filler but put plenty of epoxy down as bonnets are a pig to sand perfectly flat, will also get a fair bit of high build and guide coat and blocked like no tommorow


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## justina3

wow cracking thread


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## andy-mcq

Amazing work so far. Fair play taking on a huge project


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## MickChard

Subscribed! can't wait to see it finished


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## stevief

Superb read. Subscribed.


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## rf860

Interested to see the outcome


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## Aaran

hopefully as good if not better than my crx (again another bare shell rebuild done last year)

customers car is going to be the oem honda Flint pearl black. mine was painted in a barn not a booth to so should make life much easier


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## neilb62

Wow, cant't wait for more... top stuff....:thumb:


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## Aaran

on holiday this week so will update when i get back (deserve it been working on this solid from march this year lol! )


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## apcv41

Read the whole thread, looking forward to more updates


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## President Swirl

Inspiring stuff mate. There are some clever sods among us.


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## liam99

Good work.


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## -Simon-

Absolutely epic work mate, incredible attention to detail...this is already a classic :thumb:


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## ted11

This thread needs to be moved to the restoration forum so people can see why proper restoration costs so much.
I havnt seen any one do lead loading for years and I tip my hat to you for learning a skill that has almost died.
This is an epic rebuild and the fact that you do not do this as a job shows your dedication and patience and should be an inspiration to others.
Its a pity that there are not more people like this even in the trade and I think you are wasted working in a motor factors.
Thank you for posting this thread, you have made my day.


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## Jcoventry

Absolutely love following threads like this, the amount of detail put into this is great, and the end result should be amazing. Really inspirational - hope to do a car restoration like this at some point during my life.


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## AndyA4TDI

Amazing, can't wait to see the end result. Enjoy your break


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## VenomUK

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an amazing thread. Its great to see a great classic like the CRX be given another chance to shine!

I use to have a white 1989 1.6 16v but mine was to be a track beast but when it come down the the nitty gritty side she was just too far gone. I would have loved to have done what you have done but due to the lack of time, skill and tallent oh and space. I sadly had to send her off the car heaven 

Glad to see you also chose white, best colour for a rex!! What engine did you put back in the D16a9 or are you going for a B-series engine?


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## Lemongrab

What a fun and entertaining thread!!!


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## Phil H

looking forward to more updates!!


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## borinous

Subscribed


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## Aaran

many thanks for all the kind words guys.

im by no means a pro, and alot of my skills iv been very fortunate to have been taught for free by people that i owe alot to. i laid my first weld on my car about 13 months ago, my mate did alot of the complex welding on my car and let me do the out of sight bits to get the hang of it. i can say if you learn from someone with alot of experience you can pick up alot of info very quickly. His family are also very kind and let me have use of the shed the car is in to work on it. i have a booth now and hopefully somewhere in the future i can jack my job in and just do bodywork.

same with the leading, i got a frost kit, some extra bars, watched a video on youtube, read the book that came with the kit a few times and had a go. honestly is not that hard, just bin the paddles that you get in the kit and get hold of a plumbers moleskin because its so much easier to spread and shape with that. i am still a long ways off doing 100% only lead repairs without having to use some filler over the top buts im getting better, and faster at doing it. there are also limits as to where and how you can put it to, you cant get the intricate files they used to use back in the 50;s so shaping tight radius's and indents is a no no, cant sand it as its toxic as hell so its all filed flat (really should stop using the cutting torch to heat it to as it runs alot hotter than the propper old style gas lamps, one of those is on the to do buy list along with a metal shrinker/stretcher)

dont let anyone tell you you cant do something, i learn to map my last b20 vtec engine myself, i built the engine myself (bar doing the over bore on it, i left that to my engineer lol). there is a wealth of info on the interweb, owners clubs forums, welding forums etc etc. its all there for the taking for free 99.9% of the time. if you have a strong resolve and determination go do it and learn a new skill 

most of my profit i am making is going on an ac/dc tig welder so i can start making up my own manifolds/exhausts and alloy bits for these. also be nice to learn to use a TiG for welding bodywork like they do on hotrods (some nice videos showing how to plug up small holes on things like tailgates. should get a pin hole free weld, a weld that will require alot less flatting and grinding off, also its more flexible than a mig weld so knocking the panel to shape should be alot easier 

anyway back off my hols so will be updating this pretty much every few days 

Cheers!


----------



## Aaran

and back to the grind stone lol.

spent al day wet sanding the epoxy floor pan, cleaning it and then laying down 2.5lt of hammerite stone-chip shield. shot it through the primer gun rather than the shutz gun for a non ripply finish.

been bloody hot today to and my arms ache lol. should be fully dry in the next few days and then its a few weeks of sanding, almost non stop because i have to sand the underside, interior, and all exterior again with 320 ready for a few coats of high build 2k primer (then that needs sanding flat lol!)

epoxy sanded (after many hours lol)


















stone chip shield down (about 3 coats so around 1.5mm thick)


----------



## craigeh123

Skills ! Love the jig bloody good idea that !


----------



## NeilG40

Amazing thread, subscribed.


----------



## Andyb0127

Good work there.
Nice to see someone leading repairs first, instead of just using filler, takes me back to the days when i used to do restorations. Your obviously learning from people with some very good skills, keep up the good work fella look forward to seeing the finished article. :thumb:


----------



## Aaran

only stone chips up top, not nice below lol



















outer door stripped










sand blasted all the rot out of the stone chips that the bristle disk would not take



















with that done put a skin of fe-123 around the basted bits , will flat that off tomorrow and get on with sanding the door both sides, also sanding the rear of the bonnet to epoxy that

will only have the tail gate left to do! glad its a bank hol weekend because i have crap loads to get up to speed on. still got 2 weeks holiday left so going to take one soon as use it to get a huge push on with this (will get the suspension done and rebushed then get it back on the car after the underside has been painted)


----------



## eddie bullit

Amazing work!!


----------



## Lemongrab




----------



## Aaran

lol i work 8.30am until 9pm ish so updates are always evenings  but normally daily bar fri and sat

another night sanding. rear of bonnets always a pig and took a good few hours. managed to get the oem decals off in one piece though

started blocking down the epoxy on a long hard board with 320.

got a few low spots in the door which have now been skimmed with filler and flatted back down. 2 more in the upper roof bar and a few on the bonnet. its a long process and a complete paint in the ass to do but its better to get them caught now rather have them show up in the high build primer when i am flatting off the guide coat (on that note always use the longest and hardest thing you can when sanding flat panels, soft small rubber blocks etc are a big no no, you will also notice how i have NOT used a DA or orbital sander to sand any of this).

should have the bonnet rear painted tomorrow night and the door where i have laid more filler and gone back to bare metal in places. will have the other door bare metaled fully and ready for paint Thursday night.


----------



## Aaran

right bonnet sanded, all filler i laid down sanded with 80 grit then finished with 320. covered in filler dust and took ages to clean all the panels but got them in epoxy.

should be able to un-hang the bonnet tomorrow and get the door in its place to crack on with the rear side of it. numpty here forgot to remove the handle first....so will have to get that out and do the inside of it lol.


----------



## jlw41

Wow amazing stuff :thumb: that was quite a read :lol:


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## Lemongrab

All parts are looking fantastic, and all the epoxy work is going to make them rust proof for decades to come!


----------



## Gruffs

What sort of intricate files were you looking for regarding the leading?

http://www.mscdirect.co.uk/CGI/INSRCH?N=4086

There should be some in that lot somewhere.

Like these:

http://www.mscdirect.co.uk/FJL-55300C/SEARCH:CATEGORY/product.html

I'm not responsible for the hours and ££££ you will spend with this company :lol:

Great work.

It's amazing how much another level of care and attention makes a difference.


----------



## Aaran

ahhh no i need larger files. ones that are about 1cm-1inch wide and have very tight radius's . they used to make them back in the days when leading was common place on production lines. but once lead was phased out they stopped making them meaning finding them is hard at the best of times


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## Aaran

rear door sanded and degreased.










tail gate after severe chopping to remove the rust. its got lead over the galvanized repair sections and a skim of filler (forgot camera yesterday so no pics, took me most of the day to do this)










what i chopped out of it




























wings down to bare metal. got a few small dents, and again (no surprise) both were made of bodyfiller....le sigh.



















sanded the tailgate filler flush.










then cracked 400ml of epoxy out and got the wings sealed














































only metal thing left is the tail gate. need to mask all that off first so will get on with that tomorrow and during the week.also need to fill the small dents in the wings, use whats left of the epoxy up on the tailgate and over the filler on the wings and its ready for it all to be sanded with 320 ready for a hell of alot of high build primer.
can then get on with building the paint booth up.


----------



## Lemongrab

Are you going to replace the wiring loom, or leave it painted?


----------



## Kriminal

Jeeeeez......this is the longest thread I've read/looked at without getting bored 

I'm just stunned at your amazing work :doublesho :thumb:


----------



## edsel

Great thread, you got skills I could only dream about.


----------



## Aaran

plugs and leads are masked up. most of that looms coming out as i have central locking to wire in (it has keyless door handles so it needs to work with the aftermarket alarm) i have miles of black cable tidy left over from my build to rewrap the loom once all the wiring is done, so not overly bothered about overspray on the odd bit of wire


----------



## nighthawk

UncleOrlando said:


> Are you going to replace the wiring loom, or leave it painted?


There's always one to pick holes in someone else's work!

The restore looks spot on mate well done for sharing it with us!
Looks like your doing a cracking job


----------



## Lemongrab

nighthawk said:


> There's always one to pick holes in someone else's work!
> 
> The restore looks spot on mate well done for sharing it with us!
> Looks like your doing a cracking job


I'm only asking because I'm genuinely interested in his restoration efforts.
I'm not "picking", I'm trying to learn more from his method.

Don't just go around pointing fingers and judging people, your comment was very rude.


----------



## Raga

Pocket rocket!!! You got some skills want you to do my car


----------



## Aaran

sorry guys im booked out well into the back end of next year. not taking anymore jobs on until i have cleared a couple more cars


----------



## Aaran

arr fail looks like i am not booked out now because i have to give up the unit after this car. booth wont be going up either. need to find a new place or sell up (which sucks really wanted to get into this full time)

anyone out there in lincolnshire want to give me a bodywork job feel free to PM me. will prob also have to sell my booth before i even got to use it lol.

still get to finish this one though so i have until march time to get it done. will be painting it alot sooner than i though to keep ahead while we still have good temps


----------



## craigeh123

Pony ! Why can't you stay put ?


----------



## Aaran

the guy that lets me have the space is winding down. I have somthing in the pipeline for next marh though so fingers crossed it all works out. jsut need to see how much in the way of buisness i can get because it will mean doing this full time solo.

but back to the car. shell all sanded inside/outside and underneath. wet sandd it with 320 grit. took me 10 hours, not got around to the doors and wings yet but did get the tailgate painted





































painted



















new toy to lay the base and clear, lvlp gun










10 hours of sanding to sand the shell completly......glad over the years i have sanding immunity now lol


----------



## alphaj12

love these car, that white one is stunning and looks like this one will be as well


----------



## geoff.mac

wow, don't know how I missed this thread, epic fab work and your attention to detail is very impressive to say the least. I'm sure a guy with your talent will either be taken on or will find somewhere to be able to set up full time because what you've got is a talent that simply shouldn't be wasted. No way should you be working in a motor factors, complete waste of a very impressive talent.
Keep up the excellent work and look forward to any updates :thumb: 

sub'd for sure


----------



## Aaran

thanks. got in 10 mins ago and shell is in high build (its actually dark grey but the lighting in the booth + flash make it look white for some reason lol)

annnd finally shell is all in high build primer!

used 3.5 lt of it (its mixed 4 paint to 1 hardener to 1 thinner) got 2 coats on the underside, 2 inside and laid 4 down on the outside, last one being extra thick. dont really have to sand the crap out of the inside or underneath but will have to block the outside flat with 800 wet on the sanding block once i fire a guide coat over it

gonna get on with the doors/wings and other fittings for the rest of this week and then next week start blocking the shell down (going to leave the shell at least 3-5 days to let the primer cure and tighten up, if you flat it off to quick you can get sanding marks come through the top coats once it drys fully and keeps contracting, the joys of paint drying lol)

anyway lots of pics, and im off for a shower because im covered in shiiitttty overspray! lol


----------



## Jcoventry

Absolutely stunning finish on that shell, looks great. Are you stilling planning on pulling out the bent parts underneath where someone has jacked it in the wrong place?


----------



## phil_m

Great project, what spray guns are you using?


----------



## Aaran

already had a go on the dent on the right hand side and thats as far out as i can get it with my limited tools here. if i had the funds free i would have invested in a spot weld slide hammer or some form of panel straighter tool (there are quite a few i would like but just dont have that sort of money free). dont want to cut it as that beam is taking alot of the shells weight as its on the jig

regards to guns my 2.0 gun is just a sealey hvlp gun.(cost about £35 new off ebay).
no idea on the brand on the other but the shop i got it from sold me my last gun and said this was better, the last one (sealey pro gold hvlp) sprayed very very well for a £50 bit of kit.

at the end of the day from what i can tell having played around with much better guns (devilbiss etc) the quality on them is much better, they are far better made and more durable and spray/atomize a tiny bit nicer. but tbh if your only painting a car once a year you can get very good results using a cheap gun. just dont expect it to last a long time (1-3 cars worth then bin it)

anyway trick to laying high build flat is to thin it the right amount. its mixed 4 base to 1 hardener to 1 thinner. the second and third coats are done with about 5% more thinner. not enough to cause problems but enough to get it to lay seriously flat.just add extra time between flashing time to make sure its evaporated fully so you dont get any solvent pop.

doors done tonight along with the wings and the tailgate. just bonnet, rear of the doors and bumpers and some odd bits left. all being well with the sanding this weekend i "should" have the underside, bay, and maybe interior in basecoat and clear end of sunday.

forgot my camera so no pics, will grab some tomorrow


----------



## Lemongrab

This is looking absolutely fantastic.

Do you have plans to add extra sound deadening to the floors, roof and doors after you lay down basecoat and clear?

This is a lovely shape car, it's going to look amazing once finished.


----------



## Aaran

yes will be getting some sound deadening matt on order and cutting it to shape to go underneath the carpet.

tbh being such a light car (fully loaded in full trim these pop in at 1050kg) your going to get some noise. tbh my car has no sound deadening anywhere and its still better than my works bipper van in terms of road noise


----------



## Aaran




----------



## craigeh123

you are very talented , i wouldnt have the patience for this !


----------



## Aaran

well if anyone gets bored this weekend and wants a crash course in sanding and laying paint give me a heads up. 3 days solid of sanding and paint to follow. (based near horncastle in lincs) extra hands always welcome and you will leave knowing why decent paint shops charge what they do  and hopefully with a set of skills to do this yourself.


----------



## Aaran

spolier sanded with 800










got rid of the tiny low spot in the door (actully found 3)










rear of bonnet epoxy sealed










started on the bay sanding (long ass job this is)





































and then onto the underside























































and this is how dirty it is (i had my overalls on, this is crap thats gone through those onto my work gear lol!)


----------



## Aaran

paint and clear are down on the floor pan and engine bay, its flapping shiny ill tell you!

cant upload pics until i get my usb cable from home. interior tomorrow


----------



## geoff.mac

Aaran said:


> well if anyone gets bored this weekend and wants a crash course in sanding and laying paint give me a heads up. 3 days solid of sanding and paint to follow. (based near horncastle in lincs) extra hands always welcome and you will leave knowing why decent paint shops charge what they do  and hopefully with a set of skills to do this yourself.


I'd be on that like a pedo in a primary school if I was closer, what an opportunity for someone living close by to be taught by a master for free 
very good offer if you ask me :thumb:


----------



## Aaran

im good at the base work but im no master. not to the likes of the custom body guys who build hot rods and can make a tig welded section look invisible with no weld line after beting it flat. plenty of time to learn though 

right off now to get the rest of the interior flatted, should be laying paint at dinner time give or take and be back late afternoon. alredy got 50 pics of the underside process and engine bay (and the test spoiler i managed to pretty much ruin setting the gun up on lol) long story so will sand that back if i get time


----------



## nick.s

Quality thread, quality results being achieved!


----------



## Aaran

pics en route. got over 100 so will take the best ones for you all


----------



## Aaran

base coat, yum!










could not get the gun to shoot right, kept firing off the base with an orange peel texture/finish with loads of runs




























basically it came out looking like ass by the time i tried some clear on it










le fail le orange peel










flint pearl looks nice in the sun mind!










had the setting on the gun wrong. i just set the pressure at the gun an 22psi....forgot to open the air control on the gun all the way open!
soon had it spraying right. spoiler was the test part so thats getting stripped and re-painted.

the next 2 days went alot better lol.

bay sanded along with floor so masked up the car



















laid the first coat of base after an hour with the panel wipe and air lining the car off.



















always lay the first coat thin, (hence why it looks brown) the idea being that it bites into the primer for the next 2 coats.

the next few coats (laid 2 more, you can see the base getting darker giving full coverage)













































































































let the paint flash off for 15-20 mins each coat (was very warm in the shed, about 28c so it flashed off nicely)
needs to come out of the gun wet and land even and smooth, it drys to that satin like finish.

left it for another 40 mins to make sure it had dried and went right onto the clear, added 10% thinner to it to get it to lay flatter due to the heat.














































humm so fooking flat!










any texture on the bottom half and in the wheel arches is down to the stone chip shield, would rather have a rippled finish that resists stone chips than a flat bling one (i did reduce it by flatting it some and thinning the shield when i laid it)

pearl laid down quite well and even (bays and interiors are a paint to paint in metallics/pearls)

















































































overall very happy with the finish.




























anyway that took me all friday and sat to do.

roll on sunday.

interior time and a **** load of sanding to start the day! (started at 8am and finished sanding at 2pm)



















dusty huh, was un to clean up (not) killed my hoover with the amount of fine dust










masked off the bits i had in paint yesterday, dont want any over-spray on the bits i have already done (learnt this the hard way with my j16 job)










de-greased and air lined out (took ages to get all the dust out of every nook and cranny)



















same as saturday, light thin coat to start with then 2 full ones.
































































again same as before. a minimum of 15 mins between coats to flash, and 30-40 before the clear (failing to do this will end up in solvent pop or other paint nastys)

2 good coats of clear later 










so smooth!




































































































very happy with the results!
35 odd hours spent on this, clear went down pretty much spot on. only got 1 run in 1 wheel arch, and i think i got 2 dust nibs in the interior, but seeming as i was not in a booth and in a large open shed i was very impressed.

next on the list is the rear of all the doors/bonnet etc etc.

then its flatting the shell and outside panels time. might flat it down with 320 until its super flat and spray another coat of 2 of thinned down primer and then flat that with the 800 to make sure its uber uber uber smooth for that mirror finish 

my customer is on holiday and has not seen this yet as he has no interweb, sure he will be happy with it all. oh and the pearl looks purple in the pics its not, its that reddy bronze color in the flesh


----------



## Neilb1

2 words "holy ****" that is some shine and project


----------



## Lemongrab

That is going to be one super minty and rust proof car. Impressive.


----------



## vagos

Subscribed. This is just insane that I can barely handle it 

Well done mate, please keep up the great work


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## JMorty

Amazing work man, I wish I could do this. Sub'd :thumb:


----------



## aetolofitis

:doublesho It is amazing. :thumb:


----------



## Peter D

Stunning work! Looking forward to the next installment.
Peter


----------



## lisaclio

amazing work there, very impressive. cant wait to see this finished


----------



## Aaran

bonnet epoxy blocked with 320 wet on a hard block last night

put 4 thick coats of high build on it tonight, and laid a black guide coat. will leave this curing for a few days and flip it over tommorow and start sandeing the rear of it with 800 wet until its super flat and smooth. did the rear of the doors tonight.

all being well should have paint on the rear of the bonnet and doors and high build on the bumpers this weekend and the shell masked off.

then next week its a case of serious flatting getting all the exterior panels flat as hell ready for paint the following weekend. going to be a painful week flatting primer me thinks. 

to think i have not used a power sander once to sand anything on this car!


----------



## s2x2

*Aaran,*

What dedication, especially so when it is not even your own pride and joy.

My suggestion is to get job in specialist car restoration firm for say nine months and learn all you can about all aspects of the business, including the pricing side of things. At the same time look for suitable premises for yourself, (ideally with living accommodation), time precious if you're doing two jobs, and start off doing your own work in your own place outside normal working hours, then when you're ready, leave the day job and go full time for yourself.

Selling cars may make you more / easier money, but may not have the same job satisfaction.

Just my tuppence.

Good luck with whichever direction you take. Your tenacity to see it through to the end will help you to do well at anything you turn your hand to.

Thanks for sharing the thread.

Back on topic now.

Kind regards.


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## traplin

Superb! Subscribed!!!!


----------



## Aaran

thanks guys.

things looking up on the unit front. asked a few of my current customers (im a motor-factor by trade) and one is very interested in letting me put up my booth and finding me some space on the cheap. another is thinking about leasing me his current booth in his garage and the local motor-sport place has a unit with showroom they will let me rent (its pretty pricey but i get paint jobs in from them like single seaters and full on trackday/raceday weapons)

will get something sorted at this rate 

anyway back on track

epoxy sanded










high build + rattle can guide coat










door shuts sanded flat










well as flat as its possible to get them










bonnet rear wet sanded with 800 (this took all of tonight lol)










paints dry and hardened nicely now. tiny bit of gloss loss but you always get this on brand spanking new paint as it cures fully


----------



## GSiFan

Fabulous work! Great thread!  Subscribed!

Paul


----------



## Aaran

underside masked off










first cost of base (thin)



















next cost




























3rd and final coat



















3 coats of clear laters




































































































got some peel and texture on the flat sections so will have to wetsand these when im wetsanding and get them flatter. (annoying as i got the curves and raised section no peeley, annoying lol)

still pretty happy with the finish 

more masking tomorrow, last of the high build going on the bumpers and offs and sods and then next weekend outside paint (after a week long of blocking off guide coat with p800)


----------



## sfstu

stunning work mate...:thumb:


----------



## steve from wath

F**king awesome


----------



## Aaran

thanks guys. more to come tomorrow and during the week (cant believe iv been doing this every night for the last 2 years lol, first on mine then on this one)


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## borinous

Keep up the great work pal looks amazing


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## nick.s

Can't wait to see the finished article  I pop in daily hoping to see more pictures


----------



## Aaran

shell masked up +guide coated. (all morning job this, all edges double masked just to be on the safe side)










whilst painting i was wet sanding the shell with p800 on my long block (you can see the point of a guide coat now)



















managed to do a fair bit more and got a few low spots and a high spot. will lay some more high build on it tomorrow and re sand and it should be flat

always do a guide coat because i will put money on you looking or running a hand over a flat section and not seeing a low spot. time consuming but it gives the best end finish (again the finish is always in the prep, you can make the worst orange peel look like show paint with wet sanding, cant if its in the base!)

3 coats of base coat down.










bumpers sanded and masked whilst i was letting the above door flash off between the basecoat and clear










rear bumper was second hand and had been bady sanded, what i mean is they sanded the paint (one less job) but also sanded the bloody black trims. had to paint all the rear bumper, front was ok so saved that (paint in the ass to mask crx front bumpers)










after clear



















got some paint down on the bumpers ready for sanding this week.



















got a hell of a long week of sanding now. can see me going pretty much from 6pm until gone 9 every night as i want this shell in paint on sat afternoon. got loads left (7lt once mixed of base so should have some emergency supplies left over just in-case i forget anything)


----------



## nick.s

Nice update  Wish I had the time and money to do something of a similar ilk to a mk1 Golf


----------



## polo_dude

This is amazing work, keep the updates coming!


----------



## Titanium Htail

Love that lead work and what a great project.

John Tht.


----------



## Aaran

one long night of wetsanding!

hands feeling the burn now from being wet for 4.5 hours lol!
drivers side of the shell is pretty much flat (used 800 grit wet, its smooth as hell, so smooth you can actually see some forms of reflections of things near it)

have gone through the primer into the epoxy primer base in places (was to be expected) but no biggie as you can put basecoat over epoxy, if it was any other color than black i would re-lay the primer again and re-sand but as its such a dark color there wont be any color mis match in the light (long live black and dark brown lol)

going to get a move on with the bonnet and doors tomorrow night.as i put 4 heavy coats on the bonnet and doors so i am going to cut and level the first 2 off with 320 grit wet. then re guide it and remove the 320 marks with 800 wet. should leave me with a very nice super flat base but save me some serious hours trying to cut 2-3 layers of primer away using soley 800 lol (it will actually make it flatter than using 800 alone, much like cutting clear with 800 or 1000 first rather than jumping right in with p1500-2000). might make a super big super hard sanding block tomorrow to, just need to find a decent flat bit of hardwood or steel/alloy

will try upload pics tomorrow


----------



## craigeh123

Looking sweeeeeeet ! How do you keep ****e out of the paint where you are ? I'm always getting crap in anything I try to paint in my garage ( just trims and the like ) !


----------



## Aaran

shed gets almsot no breeze/airflow at all.

i also go mental with the air line before painting and blow dust out of everything. also i tac rag alot. i do have the odd dust nib in the clear on the bonnet but nothing in the interior or bay (beats my last car, bright white and we were picking thunderflys out of the clear as we were spraying it. must have tweezered about 1000 off that car!)


----------



## Aaran

new paper, like a mesh with the grit on the weave (its a 400 grade). does NOT clog like normal paper and it lasts about 30 times longer.
one of these blocked off my entire bonnet and a door. would have gone through 4/5 full sheets of normal paper with the same grit!










they are Velcro backed to so easy to change










only downside is the cost of them, about £50 per box!

anyway. door masked.










bonnet and other door masked up and flipped over (used old cloth to go in between the panel and the bench/pallet)










how smooth i got the quarter last night



















anyway started blocking (use long sweeps at 45 degree angles changing the direct every so often to cut a layer off the bonnet)

black bits are low spots.




























and 5 hours sanding later left me with this. pretty annoyed because i still have a few low spots and a few high spots (gone into the epoxy)














































anyway going to push the paint back further, want this dammed car perfect now and flatter than a piece of glass so laying another coat ot two of high build through the 1.4mm gun and blocking that, should put the body pretty much spot on (its so very close now, less than a quarter of a mm in most places)

should bring the low spots up that i wont go into the epoxy again and leave me with no guide coat at all. 5 hours spent tonight sanding non stop (feeling the burn lol)

if you want to know why a good bodyshop charges alot this is why, lost count of the total hours spent sanding!


----------



## Aaran

another full night of sanding.

put a tiny skim of filler in some deep low spots and let it cure and blocked flush. then 4 coats of high build out of the gun (anout 1.5mm thick as its from the 1.4 tip) and guide coat down. will re sand the doors and bonnet tomorrow, all being well both should come out perfectly flat with no low or high spots.

managed to block a front wing and no low or high spots (hooray, wings are the worst imo)

getting there, might not see paint this weekend unless i can wrangle a sunday on it again


----------



## Aaran

im beat. serious done nothing but full 13 hour days with no break all this week.

good news is the doors and bonnet are now flat. proper flat! no low no high spots. drivers side rear quarter 90% sanded

still got some stuff left to sand, T bar, wet sand the above with 800 wet to remove the p400 dry marks (nice and easy, should do all the above in an hour). going to be hit and miss as to weather i can get time sunday to paint this.

anyho no car tomorrow, going to have a night off with the bird (not seen her for 2 weeks now lol) and go wet sand this on saturday afternoon.

will see for sunday what the weather is like!
going bath ad bed, me broken (only taken 6 months lol)


----------



## Russ and his BM

Epic effort mate, nearly there!


----------



## Lemongrab

I can barely wait for the next set of pictures!


----------



## ted11

well done mate, it will be worth all the effort when it is finished.


----------



## addzSE

All I can say is - WOW!

You have skills! Can't wait to see more


----------



## Aaran

been on it the last few days. its flat.

everything block down with 800 wet and no low high spots!

still got a few bits on the shell to sand but all being well i should maybe se this in paint tomorrow afternoon. not rushing it but temp is already struggeling to get above 16c so if its not raining and i get the door shutz and other shutz sanded its going down!


----------



## yetizone

Love the CRX - One of my fav cars - Awesome work :thumb:


----------



## seanblee

Spectacular work - it's going to look amazing when it's done.


----------



## Aaran

still sanding.

everything was all black, now back to (very very smooth and flat primer!)





































paint should be going on sat or sunday rain and temp permitting! off all next week so as soon as the shell is in paint im cracking right on with the sand blaster on the suspension. should have it painted and rolling again during the week


----------



## Matt_Nic




----------



## NornIron

Just read the entire thread... fantastic work :thumb:

Subscribed!!!


----------



## Aaran

and tonight was...more sanding! lol

advance forecast looks good. should be painting start sat AM and finishing about 6pm (should peak about 16c in the shed so will double the flash times for the base and clear) not a bad way to spend 8 hours or so lol


----------



## DOBE

Doing some job mate:thumb:

Should try and get one of these flexible blocks, follows contours a lot better than your flat block and your mirka abranet pads will fit on it no probs.

A bit pricey but well worth the cash for flattening,

http://www.kmstools.com/blog/afs-flexible-sanding-block-sanding-block-perfect-fenders/


----------



## theshrew

Great thread the one thing i love the most is you have repaired with lead which must be hard to master not just whacked a load of bog in it. Brilliant well done. 

With what ive seen on here your better than a lot of the clowns ive come accross in the body business your in the wrong job mate 

I have to ask why are you doing this just for fun or to make a bit of £ ?


----------



## moosh

DOBE said:


> Doing some job mate:thumb:
> 
> Should try and get one of these flexible blocks, follows contours a lot better than your flat block and your mirka abranet pads will fit on it no probs.
> 
> A bit pricey but well worth the cash for flattening,
> 
> http://www.kmstools.com/blog/afs-flexible-sanding-block-sanding-block-perfect-fenders/


The trouble with those flexi blocks ate they follow the contours and dip into any lows.

The new mirka pads he has are good but should be used with air suction to get the best out of them, they work similar to wet n dry but instead of water to get rid if the built up dust they use the vacuum.


----------



## Aaran

sticking with moosh on this one. i always use the hardest flattest biggest block for any sanding, especially wet sanding down the clear. you can sand curves by using the block at an angle and doing an X pattern (you jsut have to move the block alot to get it to sand fat and even)

any form of give in a block will follow contours and run into low spots, its a paint in teh **** with hard blocks but once its flat with a hard block its flat.

im doing this mostly for fun (been a member on my owners club for over 10 years now and had 10 of these, love them to bits). should make enough out of this to get my nice ac-dc tig at the end to make up a load of stainless crx exhausts. would quite happily do this for a living, already now booked out for 4-5 months if i go full time, its just finding the money to spot me over the first year in rent and setting up just in-case it turns **** up, already saving up what i can to attempt this.

anyway sanding now 98% done. started cleaning out the crap from the shed (like the insane amounts of dust on the floor and over everything! )

looking 90% sure the weathers going to be good on the weekend to get this painted!


----------



## craigeh123

looking forward to seeing the pics


----------



## DOBE

moosh said:


> The trouble with those flexi blocks ate they follow the contours and dip into any lows.
> 
> The new mirka pads he has are good but should be used with air suction to get the best out of them, they work similar to wet n dry but instead of water to get rid if the built up dust they use the vacuum.


I know where your coming from but the one in the link isn't that flexible that it will leave flat spots it also comes with metal rods for flatter panels.

I use one of these on bonnets, roof skins and door repairs and never had any probs.

If you don't have a dust extraction set up, a quick blast through with an airline will clean the abranet pads out and give you a bit more use out of them.


----------



## Aaran

been sanding every nook and cranny all week.
washed car down so only needs a panel wipe tommorow morning an hour before layingthe paint to get it ready.

never had primer give off suck a smooth reflection before lol. 

paint is going on tomorrow think im not going to reduce it with thinners as i wont see much over 15/16c temp wise and i only have probably a 6 hour window at best (so 1 thin coat, 1 -2 medium and the lat nice and heavy pre running. should leave me plenty to go crazy with wet sanding super flat so it should be like a mirror 

pics sunday guys unless i can get back sat pm to upload them!

Cheers


----------



## moosh

Keep up the good work bud and best of luck for tomorrow :thumb:


----------



## ted11

Im looking forward to seeing it with paint on.


----------



## -Simon-

Aaran said:


> been sanding every nook and cranny all week.
> washed car down so only needs a panel wipe tommorow morning an hour before layingthe paint to get it ready.
> 
> never had primer give off suck a smooth reflection before lol.
> 
> paint is going on tomorrow think im not going to reduce it with thinners as i wont see much over 15/16c temp wise and i only have probably a 6 hour window at best (so 1 thin coat, 1 -2 medium and the lat nice and heavy pre running. should leave me plenty to go crazy with wet sanding super flat so it should be like a mirror
> 
> pics sunday guys unless i can get back sat pm to upload them!
> 
> Cheers


Hope it goes well :thumb:


----------



## Aaran

epiccc!

got a few runs but there is very little to no peel.(2 of the 3 are my fault for overfilling the gun and it leaking out of the bleed cap lol ....)
had a fun day due to the wind blowing lots and blowing shizz into my workshop but it came out pretty nice. few nibs that need flatting but i always wet sand my cars anyway.

60 odd pics en route as soon as this ****ty interweb at my birds uploads them lol!


----------



## Aaran

not had time to tag most of there but you get the idea (base per layer, clear per layer) are few of the pics are not in order. got some peel but the base was well flat and as i always wet sand anyway it will come out flat as a mirror. got a fair few dust nibs, would be a nice sunny day but with wind blowing into my dammed workshop (a super rarity!) so got more than expected but none that cat be resolved. couple of runs to but as i was pressed for time i accidently overfilled the gun and as i had it at an angle it dripped out of the vent top and onto the panel (fail lol)

pretty happy. will leave it 2 weeks, get the suspension done next then wetsanding to get it mirror flat  . wish i had my booth up as there would have been no nibs and being temp controlled i could have got this super flat in warmer temps

and because i have been in the pub from 6pm im not going to tag each pic. you get the idea, base coats (layer 1, 2, 3) and clears layers 1 2 and thick number 3  )

got a few runs but would rather sand out runs than peel. got a few dust nibs to but will be wet sanding all this flush anyway (seriously the only day of the year the wind blows into this shed was today...thanks god :lol: )

overall very happy with the finish. laid very flat, no issues really other than the dust nibs lol

enjoy (lots en route!)


----------



## borinous

Great finish looking forward to more updates


----------



## andyrst

base an clear i take it? hb body clear i see in pic? really good clear, but the white tin of hb body is better, are you going to block sand flat an reclear mate?


----------



## Andyb0127

Was that HB body clear I saw in the back ground. Did you use that in the whole car. Me personally if I was spending all that time, spending all those hours repairing/prepping a car I would of used a better laquer than hb body clear. It's cheap for a reason. And if I remember has no uv protection.


----------



## Aaran

ya its the hb body 2;1 high solid scratch resistant clear. been using it for 3 years and not had any issues with it in terms of uv fading/gloss loss etc. i dont like the stuff in the white can as thats the standard non high solid stuff, would rather use a high solid paint as it builds better.

tbh its the only stuff/brand my paint factors sell other than the kapci stuff

will leave it a few weeks, wetsand it and g3 then g10 it back to a mirror. the last 2 coats went on thick (was going to go for 4 meduim coats but only had time to do 3 so did the last 2 thick) have loads to play with


----------



## toddy23

doesnt look to bad mate consider on the conditions your in.once its blocked back and polished it should look good,at least your repairs look nice and straight


----------



## pcm1980

Ive used the hb body clears before, its a good clear for money and never had aby issues with it. Also tried the kapci clear and was very impressed for money.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## talisman

Thought this was going to be a bodge rebuild, BUT how wrong i was.........fantastic stuff i would be very proud of what your doing here....this will look brilliant when you have finished even more so for a home rebuild...top work.


----------



## Aaran

been down to de-mask the car today. (always pull the mask off as soon as the paints touch dry and before you get the masking tape wet removing the glue from it is a paint in teh **** lol)

no signs of solvent pop or any other issues (yay) still as shiny as it was yesterday when i left it tightened up a fair bit to very little peel across most of the car just the rear quarters over the curves.

still got the tailgate to paint in the next few days and a few little odds and sods (battery tray,bonnet hinges etc) one of the wing mirrors is not to my liking (got some crap in the base and some heavy dust from the floor so will just re-do it completely)

really need to wash the interior out and the engine bay as they are coated in dust from blocking the shell (that shizz gets everywhere) but can now start off on the suspension and getting it rolling again this week and the doors and tailgate back on it


----------



## Aaran

blueprint lbj's










new upper arms (blueprint)










debushed










de masked



















paint curing nicely





































insides a bit dusty from the sanding gonna take a whilse to clean out me thinks lol!


----------



## Lemongrab

"Can you please make my car better than new?"

WHY YES, OF COURSE!


----------



## Aaran

last bit of paint down the other day.
inspected the bumpers and noticed the base was a little thin guessing even though i put plenty on some angles did not get full coverage took a whilse to sand off the clear, mask, re base and re-clear :lol: lesson learned, should have gone over the bumpers with a sungun to make sure it was fully covered in direct light. the only bits i missed anyway so not to bad lol!

suspensions been cleaned up, de greased de rusted and de bushed. now painted with 2 coats of epoxy mastic 121 chassis paint. now got all weekend on the car so might see it getting towards being a rolling shell with doors and tailgate on!









































































suspension painted with 2 coats of epoxy mastic 121 (will dry to a satin finish)





































evil bushes burnt out and casing out (hate rta bushes!)


----------



## craigeh123

cant wait to see this all done


----------



## Aaran

satin finish now its dry 



















new rta bushes in (clocked about 10 degrees to compensate for the drop the shocks/springs will give)










put rack back on and managed to lift the subframe and rack in one go onto the car (its bloody heavy and trying to get the bolts in was a paint in teh ****) all arms put back on after having their new bushes fitted 























































only thing that worries me currently is the spoon extended top hats, weather or not they will clear the bonnet once its shut! will have to make up a measuring device on j16crx to see how much clearance there is between the turret and bonnet.
should make the ride nicer though as it wont bottom out on the bump stops having that extra travel (they dont add additional lowering to the car, jsut give more travel in the stroke)


----------



## Aaran

one side of the rear on.
really been a saga with the old bushes being seized in and the rear brakes everything bar the pistons was seized in!

just the other side to do during the week and will try to hang the doors and get the tailgate on and then drop it on the floor for next weekend (will look like am onster truck with no engine in the front but hey ho lol


----------



## Aaran

all suspension painted and on now.

priority is on getting the car onto axle stands so i can lob the doors and panels onto it. need it on the floor so i can get the carpet in and start sorting out all this wiring loom (routing it, sorting out the alarm wiring and after market cental locking etc) 

will probably cavity wax it whilst its still on the jig mind as o can tip it to get in every box section  have pics but they came out crap due to it now being pitch black in the evenings lol!


----------



## JMorty

Great update! Really can't wait to see this completed!!!


----------



## Aaran

just blew a wad of cash on the new farclea compounding polish and the matching pad.
have used g3 for years to do all my cars with but having it wet makes it quite messy at times. will see how it works out, if its crap i will be severely disappointed. will start wetsanding at some point in the next week or so!


----------



## chrisvectra

fantastic thread fella any updates coming soon?


----------



## Aaran

yup.

g3 pro is here, used it today on the door. have a few issues with it but im hoping G3 on here will be able to give me some advice as i think the place i got it from sent the wrong pads with it. got a lovely nice long working time, probably twice as long as the megs polishes its almost impossible to make it dry out to. will grab camera at some point and get a lod of 50/50 shots during the week for you all


----------



## Aaran

car off jig. managed it without damaging any of the floor pan (yay)










started on the wetsanding on sunday, door after its been done (note im only flatting down the bits that are not covered by trim etc) also this was done with the G3 ultra. its pretty coarse and has left some swirls but the megs or menz polish will sort these right out!



















been doing the bonnet tonight but due to me having crappy lighting its so hard to get pics of a black bonnet in the dark lol.

anyway onto the g3 ultra. im finding it hard to get the right quantity on the pad. followed the video on the web on how to use it. (prime pad smear on area and polish) now its work time is insane, puts megs to shame regards to lube probably more than menz stuff. the very first initial cut is super fast so with the first 2-3 passes its compounded most if not all of the p2000 marks out of it. it does seem to take alot longer to get it to break down fully though. when its working right its a dream, near perfect finish with no holograms or swirling.

but its not prefect, the pads seem to clot in the middle very quickly. after a door you need a new pad. its a bit like menz that when the temp drops or the humidity is up it likes to clot on the bodywork to. if you dont use enough it wont compound out the sanding marks, and if you get a little to much on its a pig to break down. problem is the pad is always picking up polish which is clotting and stopping it working. will keep using it until i find a nice middle ground but if i cant get one i will shelf it and get the old g3 paste out and try the g3 ultra on a warmer day


----------



## Hazzard

Wouldnt like to see the cost for this project. Fair play. Serious amount of work done here


----------



## Aaran

finally got some semi daylight pics.

flat door










spent the rest of the evening assembling the car (still got rubber trim to fit and alot of jiggering) so none of the panel gaps are set. its just safer to have everything on the car than have is scattered around ready for me to knock it over or scrape across it!!



















spent an hour lifting this on. anyone ever tried to lift a crx tailgate onto a car solo without scratching paint is in for some fun! managed it alone though 










popped some wheels on the front for cheap insurance in-case an axle stand gives for any reason (will just bounce on the floor with no engine in) better to be safe than sorry with a bent frame to fix.
will get back onto wet-sanding tomorrow and as i have all weekend free will get my ass in gear with the rotary nail all that down then get the panel gaps sorted and the side trims painted up and some cavity wax inside every box section whilst its in the air


----------



## chrisvectra

excellent work fella keep us updated


----------



## Aaran

front subframes tie bars and other bits are on.

not on it until sat afternoon now. should be able to get loads wetsanded mind and polished up. found my old silverline wool pad so might try using that on a small test section and see how it comes out (expecting it to buffer trail like mad but remove all the sanding marks and fast) either way its coming together nicely, just a shame its so bloody dark now lol


----------



## Aaran

lots more wetsanding today, so lots of pics to come, but should be done today (i hope lol)


----------



## Titanium Htail

Great work Aaran, you are doing a fantastic job.

John Tht.


----------



## Aaran

here you go people. know you have all been waiting for this bit lol

right wetsanding time!

door already done during the week










time to sort out a little peel and try to get shot of as much urethane wave as possible




























starting on p800 wet and dry. then to p1500 then finishing on p2000.
starting on p800 to level out the "urethane wave", not get rid of the peel. this is where flatting a freshly painted panel varys from a car who got a near prefect finish applied in the factory. unless you can mimic every pass and have full precise control over the amount of fluid going onto the panel you will get it, this is why when you see show car paint on hot rods, they spray 5 coats of clear, then start wetsanding and flatting the clear with insane grades like p320/400 and work upwards.
the idea is its got to cut hard to level out the waves (which are the differences in thickness between each pass with the gun) 
very good painters dont tend to get much if any, people like me do but its down to experience. its not because the base coat is not flat or the primer is not flat, its because the clear was not laid perfectly level.

so going in one direction only i leveled all the peel and got the panel as flat as possible with the p800, on a HARD block, you need it to cut it flat not follow the wave!. same again with the p1500 working in the opposite direction (if there are any 800 marks left you can see this in the p1500 finish) and then after that p2000 on a semi firm rubber block that has some give in it (after the 800 and 1500 on a hard block its as flat as its likely to get and its easier to go around curves if its semi flexible)

should leave you somthing like this



















once thats done it was onto the G3 ultra compound. now that iv used this a fair bit its a great product it removes 2000 so dammed fast, 2-3 passes on my month old 2k hs scratch resistant clear and 90% of the marks were gone, i did a total of 8 passes per 2x2 foot square (it diminishes pretty quick and the finish is very good for a harsh compound!)



















anyway as you can gather the wave is significantly reduced and the clarity of the reflection is much improved.














































anyway onto the bonnet, being large and flat this got the brunt of dust nibs when i laid the paint, it also got the brunt of the wave so again right off with p800 wet on a HARD large block (needs to cut flat not follow the waves)

p800








p1500








p2000









started on the g3




























finish on the g3 alone (pretty dammed good imo)














































then onto the other side of the car.(somehow the car cover i had to keep dust off it has marred the clear will be binning that as i cant afford to have it happen once its polished!)

before:



















flatted same way










tried for a 50/50 on the door, its hard to see the difference





































tried my best, but the paint was pretty flat on the doors lol

sanded the other half










and polished




























under the flash you can see some of the swirls left from the g3 (very few for such an aggressive compound!)










gave the panels a wash down, used some panel wipe to get rid of any of the oils left from the g3 as its megs 82 time!

love polishing this was as soon as the 82 go's down you can really start to see the metallic pop out and the paint start to turn seriously glossy

left hand side of the door done (not sure if camera got the difference, probably not as its getting past its best as the lens is scratched)



















door done










side done










bonnet done














































came out pretty well. will hit it once its back together with menz PO85rd, likely to put some small scratches in it as i build it back up
do have the odd deeper scratch in the bonnet, will have to re-sand with p2000 and remove them only got 3 though so its only a 10 min fix but again will do that once the cars back together and the bonnet is on

should have laid 5 coats of clear could have started with p400 and flatted it back down to 3 with no wave, but times never my friend nor is the weather lol. still its vastly improved overall finish and alot of the wave has been reduced or removed should have taken a video because it would have captured it better before/after. removed jsut under 3/4 or a layer of clear so loads left to play with in the future if it ever needs it (can see me getting this back every year to detail it lol)


----------



## Lemongrab

I'm out of words, this job is truly unbelievably good!


----------



## ted11

A great job.


----------



## Aaran

well one door is currently being stripped all the way back. dont know who but i have managed to get moisture in the base on it. went back to the car 2 days after and one door was full of tiny little pops/blisters of paint.

sanded them down and there were white centers (actually white grey primer) 
heated the entire car today and the only bits that have gone pop again is that door. overhauling my airlines/filters and stripping the door all the way back to re-do (in a booth!)

refuse to let this beat me, its not leaving mine until its perfect, just happy i had plenty of basecoat and clear left over


----------



## Aaran

another full day been and gone.

cold but plenty of work to do.

got the carpet and lobbed it in (no other reason than to protect the painted floor) spent 30 mins sorting and unraveling all the loom onto it.

then then next 5/6 hours solid getting it all back through the bulkhead, got the firewall matt back over it, then pedal box, brake master + bias valve, then onto making up some cupro nickel brake lines to the rear of the car and form the cylinder to valve. then onto the hell of fitting the blower motor, then the AC condensor and main center vent section (pain in the **** the last bit, the other 2 must fit together perfectly because if not the center will not go in properly) so that took a few attempts lol

pretty much every is connected up, steering system is all hooked up and bolted on. still got that mess of a bloody alarm system to do something with, im in the mind frame that ill give it a whirl but if it wont go ill bin it out (if like some ones i have done in the past if its not been on power for along time it looses its code from the fob which then needs re inputting by a dealer)

its getting there. not on the car again until weds, got me time tomorrow night and its my 31st on tuesday so im hopefully eating steak until im sick or borderline ill


----------



## Lemongrab

Any more updates in the pipeline, mate?


----------



## Aaran

ya been on it most nights still. camera takes crap pics in the dark. off most of next week so will grab a load and do an update, going to give it a huge push to get it 90% back together and hopefully a painted engine block back in it towards the end of the week.

jsut not enough hours in the day atm (roll on summer lol)


----------



## Aaran

most crap back in the bay










before (well almost, did give it a quick spray to make sure it was a b16a jdm engine)



















started stripping off the hoses and loom










found a toad under some plastic sheeting in the shed....










all the sheeting gone and need to get the block and box up the front of the unit by myself.
took me best part of an hour but got it there and onto a pallet so i can really wash the crap off it




























first pass of jizer degreaser, used a brush and let it set for 10 mins and washed it off via a shutz gun filled with water










still plenty of shizz, so repeated again



















still loads of crap and it was thick, some was 1cm deep! ended up having to use a screwdriver to dig most of it off, then slow degreaser to soften the remains followed by brake cleaner via a spray gun at 45psi to blast it off

block looks completely un corroded due to it being covered in this amount of crap, almsot new looking!

anyway 4lt of jizer laster, 4lt of brake cleaner and 3 lt of slow degreaser it got it to this state





































will mask all the sensors and loose wire/tube off tomorrow and give it a light sand then cover it all in silver engine vht spray.
re assemble and drop it into the bay and finish off all the under hood stuff.

work tomorrow and then off for the rest of the week so weds engine should be in and by the weekend the last of the underside painted with hopefully that door i have had to re-do


----------



## vagos

Just wow work there. Keep it up. Are you about to disassembly the engine as well to clean inside?


----------



## WopaDoBop

If only I had the time/money/skill/patience to do something like this.

Hats off to you fella.


----------



## rtjc

Absolutely awesome thread! Can't believe i've just seen this. Really enjoyed looking through this and seeing a nice little SiR get restored. One of my best friends has done a couple of these, and one especially i enjoyed to see change during it's time with him. A few years later and it's been pretty much raped sadly, but this is how i like to remember it: 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Well done on this, you're doing a great job and nice to see some of them being saved!


----------



## Aaran

nope not doing an engine build. have done plenty before but my guy is skint. will paint the block and bracketry up tomorrow (off for the rest of the week so have full days to get this done) and should have it in the car tomorrow evening or weds morning, and the rest of the bay built up along with all the shafts etc back in it.

love those wheels on the white crx, looks identical to my white j16 crx. stupid rare rims like that cost soo much now, still need to find a good set to re-con and finish mine off lol!


----------



## rtjc

Those wheels were only trial fitted indoors really. They were rare 15" Toms' Racing (a Toyota tuner) for the Mk1 AW11 MR2. Looked great on the CRX though


----------



## craigeh123

id do the cambelt while its out


----------



## Aaran

stripped all the brackets off the block this morning. still had left over farking grease on it.
in the end got fed up so got the dremmel with a stiff brush end and used that.
was it down 2 mote times and then left it to dry via the infrared and air line



















also de-greased these, air con comp was thick in grease to, took a few attempts but got it clean










masked all the sensors off and a few other bits










first coat of silver VHT (ali)










let it bake dry as it was only a very thin coat.
so went and de-greased the loom and plugs, air lined them off and sprayed wd40 into all the connections










second coat of silver all over, did the heat shields and a few other bits in vht black, then started re assembling and de masking on the way





































forgot the dizzy so pulled it all apart to do the casing










aircon pump and alt all done










air con rad was a bit crappy so cleaned that up with some black vht, looks alot better










was to dark by now to drop the engine in. first job tomorrow morning and fingers crossed everything should be back in and ready to go by end of weds!


----------



## steve1975

WOW....took me 3 hrs to read all that...good work :thumb:


----------



## Aaran

roped up










on teleporter










hour later its in the bay managed to scratch the mount brackets so those will require a touch up 
but its in



















over the next 6 hours started putting everything back on. started with the AC pump then the power steering.
then rads (nightmare) being that is has ac and power steering everything was a nasty ass tight fit. cut my hands to ribbons but its all in there like oem.
shame its not like j16 because i would have been done in an hour lol!

rads plus fan were a pain to fit had to put the ac fan on first then drop the rad in (so tight cant get it in separately!) then struggle like hell to get all the ac lines onto the pump and then all the lower pas brackets/bolts in























































that bay is now 90% complete. just a rad hose to fit and a few other wires to fit and the intake and its done!
so should be able to get to laying some paint on that iffy door tomorrow and getting the rear of the floor pan done in primer for paint (subject to weather) on Sunday


----------



## Aaran

shafts in










pass side shaft seems very tight when going left hand, after about an inch and a half of the hub going right the shaft is rubbing against the shock fork...gonna take some figuring out because i cant see whats causing it!










evil door of doom. sanded all the clear off it and back to the primer/bare metal.
heated the crap out of it over a 2 hour window



















then laid a single coat of epoxy over it to re-seal the bare metal. let it air dry then heated it for the rest of the day before sheeting it off to keep any moisture off it. will block this down with 320, dry it again then lay some high build on it


----------



## Aaran

not been on car

i have been up to see a unit. which i will most probably have early next year. get to put my booth up there and the guy is happy to have it wired in to his 3 phase supply . has a teleporter/forklift so moving shells and putting up the booth will be a walk in the park. best of all out back under a sheet was an industrial size 1.5ton 175cfm diesel powered sand blaster! the workshop is out back to right next to this so getting use of it will be a piece of ****. which means rather than mechanically strip a floor pan/interior i can just sandblast them clean in 20x faster 

also lots of nice looking old cars out back (lotuses/old jags) guy likes collecting them so some work there to


----------



## VenomUK

Love the update mate. You've now got me on ebay looking for another CRX


----------



## Aaran

better off on the crx-uk forums for getting one.

they are scarce as fek this year on ebay,not seen more than 6 of so each time i look (used to be 20-30 up for grabs a few years back) to many are getting broken for parts of scrapped due to rot. i can see in the next 5 years good ones are going to be getting to AE86 money. very good ones already are


----------



## Aaran

am still alive and working away on the car, jut been so cold and dark getting pics is hard.
tank and most running gear and dash stuff is back in. will attempt to start it this week and will whore up pics for you all.

still waiting for my Gtech p1 polish and wool pad to turn up...got a small pot to try to see if i prefer it to the new farecla (aka super oil polish lol) be nice to see if it will remove the wetsanding marks faster without filling them with oils


----------



## Lemongrab

Whee! Glad to know you're well and that the car is still being steadily worked on


----------



## Aaran

well it runs.

got it started tonight, fired up right away. had to bin the alarm off and fix about 2/3 fuel leaks on the system but it went. then one of the lower coolant hoses in the bulkhead split and pissed coolant all over the floor. worst hose in the bay to change.....not best happy but its the final road home now then i get paid for it  whooop whoop!

oh the P1 polish turned up, not had time to test it yet mind lol


----------



## traveller

Don't know how I've missed this thread up to now, but safely bookmarked now! Gutted I missed the opportunity to come and lend a hand during painting - I'm only up the road to you on south edge of Lincoln city :wall:

Just to echo all the other posters, absolutely EPIC work - well done just doesn't cut it!


----------



## Aaran

thanks mate. 

still got the odd bit that still needs painting like wheels etc and i have to re-do the rear spoiler (3rd time lucky they say lol)

not had a good day with the cooling system. fixed the heater hose, ran the engine after filling it with water and let it run to op temp topping up the rad, after about 10 mins coolant was sporadicly launching itshelf out of the rad a good 3-6 inches! the normally bubble alot but never had this before. i stopped the car after about 5 mins after as it was jsut pissing to much coolant out. i think the system is blocked somewhere as the heater hsoes are not getting hot/warm and nor is the IACV valve on the inlet manifold. which means either the thermo is stuffed, the water pump has had it (unlikely) or somthing is blocking the system. means pulling everything off one by one 

on a good note all car is cavity waxed, used a full gallon of the stuff in every box section in/on and under the car. inside front wings done, rear arch inners done, inside door cavitys done. you name it its got a good 1.5mm film of wax in/on it.

started wetsanding the door i re painted, used my new G technique P1 polish, all i can say is epic. really is superb stuff, alot faster than the new farecla i brought! the finish is actually as good as that to. the panel temp after using the wool pad was crazy cool to, never used a compound like it on a wool pad and had it stay that cool. can see my buying a bulk size of this stuff for future re-paints!

i have pics will upload them later, feel sick from the smell of the cavity wax, i can stand paint, thinners and fuel etc no problems, but cavity wax never agrees with me


----------



## Aaran

fuel tank epoxied










o with the new straps and bolts (used a rubber shutz on the straps as they are pretty flexiable)



















cavity wax in and brushing the rest on by hand so not to get oversrpay on everything outside lol



















loads indie with the360 degree injection lance at 90psi




























should keep rust out of here, plenty in it





































under 5 mins with the P1 polish, still got most of the door to do and the edges but god its good stuff and it works so fast!


----------



## Shug

Cant believe I've missed this thread til now. Just read it all, fantastic work!
Wish I'd done my manta half as well as this!


----------



## Kerrcentral

Epic work! Looking forward to seeing this finished.


----------



## Aaran

front end back together. put a deep scratch into the bonnet which means a spot repair (fail lol) also still got to wetsand the bumpers and wings but its taking shape. not long now


----------



## JMorty

Been watching this from the start, looks fantastic mate! Can't wait to see it done!!!!


----------



## Aaran

nor can i because it means i get paid lol


----------



## CTR De

noooooooooooo , read the whole thread , completely absorbed in it , once i got half way i was praying id get to see it finished at the end :lol: , subscribed as i neeeeed to see this finished aaran

fantastic job mate


----------



## funkysi

Best thread in the entire world...EVER! Nothing, I repeat NOTHING will surpass this! Simply awesome!


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## Aaran

yup the next 7 lined up will. can only get better from here on in 

would love to be the crx equivalent of Magnus Walker (still a long long long ass way to go) but i have my first European customer coming the back end of next year for his full restore (from Holland!)

brilliant video this and the guy is a real inspiration, always watch the 30 min vid when im feeling fed up as it somehow makes me want to get back on the car and do the best i can on it :lol: http://www.reelhouse.org/mos/urbanoutlaw/


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## Titanium Htail

That is the dream then Aaran, you are on your way, good luck.

John Tht.


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## Lemongrab

Another great update, thanks!


----------



## reza_q

You are a legend mate....:thumb:


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## Aaran

bugger getting this on the floor with 2 jacks lol.
took me 2 hours but got it down 




























rear ride height wants some tweeking, still got a spare notch on the koni's to drop it an inch or so

spent the rest of the day fitting the rear bumper and wetsanding, had to get the old screws out of the bumper bar to fit to the new JDM bumper, had to drill one out and use a stuf extractor on it.
could really do with a new bar if one crops up at some point as this one was hella rusty!

but it fits perfectly. also test fitted the rear lights to make sure everything lined up





































wet sanded the roof down, rear bumper and some other bits, got to humid to start polishing though.
need to wetsanded and polish the lights all over to as they are mostly faded pretty bady.

good temps all week so will be on the car fitting the interior back into the car and finally getting round to paint stripping the new wheels.

only thing left to do is brake system, get a working alt , valve cover and then glass 

should be done jan at some point, will be ropeing him into doing the glass with me


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## Andyb0127

Looking good Aaron. Great work so far be a stunning looking motor when it's done.:thumb:


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## Aaran

ahhh onto the wheels.
paint stripped them as best as i could, some of the OEM rota primer was seriously tough to shift though. 
normally just blast them but cant afford to waste days on the lips making them shiny lol!.

sand them all wet starting on p800. then up to p1500, then finished on p2000




























then out with the drill arbor and the mini polishing wheels.
started with coarse grade soap, then finished on the black fine grade, then all finished with autosol by hand.










came out alright 



















double laid up some thin masking tape (to stop me damaging the lips when sanding the wheels)










all masked off and then onto the p120 by machine and hand to remove any left over paint










then degreased and painted in etch primer.










taken me pretty much all day to do these, now to hope the customer will enjoy having to autosol them every week to keep them looking good.
i wont clear over shiny rims, it eventually gives way and you get spiderwebs under the clear which looks awful and is a paint in teh **** to fix.


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## 4d_dc2

Cool update. I had the original Desmond wheels these are a replica of. Crazy light. Wheel only Waid 3.8 kg! Keep up the good work.


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## Aaran

wheels in high build but then fog rolled in so stop spraying let them air dry off for 4 hours then heated them for a few hours each and put them under cover until next weekend.

was doing the rear braes in the meantime drivers side decided it wanted to play silly buggers by not disengaging the release mech for the cable. had to waste 2 hours stripping it all down (internals) to sort it. all works now though! malso managed to scratch the nice shiny red paint so will have to toutch them up again lol. 

glass in this week, wheels sanded and hopefully on sunday brakes all round, and driving out of the shed and into the front garage for its final polishing/trim fitting. gonna be a close one for an end of jan deadline but fingers crossed!


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## Benn

Wow, you do fantastic work, this rebuild is great. Car looks like a different car after. Paint looks really nice and flat.

I know and see can you know what your doing, but you know when welding on/in a panel or part of a panel if you do spot welds leaving gaps between them then going back and filling the gaps in, that it keeps the temp down alot and wont warp the panel as bad, meaning no hammering, prob no need for the lead loading (unless you prefer to use it) and less filling. Can save alot of time and money and work/labour. 
Not meaning to teach you to "suck eggs" so to speak.


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## Aaran

its honda sheet metal, it was all tacked on with the above method and then done that way, problem is it heat soaks instantly as its so thin. if we cool it with an air line or a wet rag it shrinks the panel making it even worse. just the joys of **** thin honda sheet. welding my mums old corsa b for an MOT was a breeze, pretty much weld that continuously lol


----------



## aligtwood

Hmm all it needs is a turbo b16 engine Haha. Amazing restoration well done


----------



## Benn

Aaran said:


> its honda sheet metal, it was all tacked on with the above method and then done that way, problem is it heat soaks instantly as its so thin. if we cool it with an air line or a wet rag it shrinks the panel making it even worse. just the joys of **** thin honda sheet. welding my mums old corsa b for an MOT was a breeze, pretty much weld that continuously lol


Ah ok, tbh most cars metal is **** thin hence the spotting method..
But all good then. I didn't find lead loading fun.


----------



## VenomUK

This is one awesome rebuild thread, been following this for some time now and just love it! Cant wait to see it back on the road.


----------



## jdquinn

I've been following this thread for months now, regularly checking for updates etc. I've been very impressed with the quality of paintwork you can achieve straight from the gun. I showed this thread to a friend who is building a triumph GT6 and was going to spend £2-3K on a paint job. He is now going to paint it himself. 

Well done on the progress, threads like these really put into perspective the amount of work required for a top class finish. Can't wait to see it finished.

Jonny


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## stevo260

Absolutely amazing work it must have taken years to acquire all the skills needed for this restoration. I'm very impressed, I would love to be able to spray paint a whole car to the finish you have achieved. Subscribing to this and may point a few mates in this direction as well. Keep up the good work


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## Aaran

cheers guys.

been on it all week, new braided lines are on the rear, wheels get base and clear on sunday, glass roof is back in, should be able to fit the wheels sunday and get the front brakes on and hoses then get some fluid through the system (hate bleeding from empty) 

will whore up some pics sunday most likely


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## Aaran

glass roof in










wheels sanded










in basecoat, had to lay loads of coats down and super thin due to it being so cold




























first coat of clear (very thin one following PPG's tech sheet, was touch dry within 5 mins)










then a medium coat



















left them at 3pm sat and crossed my fingers the super cold temps would not ruin them (did sheet them over to keep condensation off them)

next day










so they came out pretty good. not my best work but trying to paint wheels with a normal size gun is a bugger, its a recipe for runs, one got a few little ones but as they are on the face and the spokes are flat i can wetsand them out










then a day of working my ass off for pretty much nothing.

driver shaft would not seat into the INT shaft, tried knocking it in with a hammer and no joys. after 40 mins of being under the car i gave up and pulled everything out of the arch and separated the inner tripod from the inner cv to get a good slab of wood on it to belt it in.
no joys after 40 odd mins. i have bags of shaft spares so tried another....no joys. sharpies old man was about and had a go. an hour later still not got one in. checked everything, all the splines on the int shaft and on the cv cups, the snap rings (even tried a new one on both)

in the end i tried a 3rd option (you never know) and volia it went right in. i have no idea what the other two wont seat in it (one of them actually came off this engine and box!) so pretty much wasted from 9am until 1pm trying to do this.

went to fit the brakes on the front after putting it all back together. epic fail again. disks provided are the right PCD and size (282mm) but the top hat is way to deep for the calipers 
when tightening up the locating screws for the disk it pushed the disk onto the carrier. not happy by this point esp after a morning on the floor in the cold. tried a std crx disk and it sat perfectly in the carrier bang on in the middle.
put them next to each other and problem is the top hat, the 282mm ebc one is to tall and is messing with the offset. so gave up doing the brakes for the day 

did fit the new TRE so now have full steering.

popped the rest of the wheels on



















(at least the rears brakes are all working)



















rear wants dropping some more, Koni shocks are on adjustable perches so will need to knock them down to the bottom pearch (should drop it about 2/3 of an inch) on the rear and put it somewhere close to the front

spent the rest of the day putting in a rear quarter window glass. managed to stab myself violently in the thumb with a sharp knift it so it officially has my sweat and blood in the car now lol. glad i got the new trim clips (super ££ as per normal) but makes installing the glass and seal easy.
for some reason photo bucket is being gay and wont let me upload the quarter glass ones, will grab them at another point.

jobs for the week are to get the dammed brakes on the front when i get some new disks from work tomorrow. will hopefully have them bled up and working so i might be able to drive it out of the shed and into the closed front garage (meaning the car wont get covered in condensation every night so i can get on with compounding and polishing it lol!)


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## Andyb0127

Looking good Aaron. 
Well done for how this is turning out, its a credit to you in every way. Is that max Meyer laquer I spied in the back ground. :thumb:


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## addzSE

Amazing!!!


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## Aaran

no its maxmayer thinner 

used ppg deltron 800 on the wheels (my supplier sent me some glasruit fast hardener with it due to the temps im now stuck with). first time with another clear other than the HB. it mixes weird, tdc says to go 2 clear, to 1 hardener to 1 thinner (or a half thinner if for a higher film build) 

after that night curing its pretty solid, its feels solid to the touch and does not mark easily like the HB does until it cures, hopeing the gloss level does not drop off (loose about 10% with the hb over a few weeks) really could have done with a day in the warm to play with it so i could have gotten it to lay flat, no peel in the finish mostly just a fair bit of urathane wave (but thats down to using a full gun rather than a small spot repair one) 

next car im spraying im going to go with glasruit or letcher i think, hopefully booth will be up in the next 3 months in my new place so i should with some practice and a decent gun (and controlled temps) i should be able to try for near perfect finish out of the gun (its still not bad coming from a £40 lvlp gun and in the cold lol)

really need it out the shed, desperate to wash it as its just covered in dust and finger prints lol. excuse the crap pics, i have a scratch on the lens and it wont take decent clear pics anymore (another thing to add on the need list lol)


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## 4d_dc2

I love all the effort gone into this. Just a shame I think the wheels let it down for me. But that's just me that don't like polished lips on wheels, would have looked better flat black. Are the disks mg zr discs? If not there the ones you need. But I'm sure you know that already.


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## Andyb0127

Nothing wrong with ppg deltron but it's along time since a used it. Thing I liked was the fact that how you put it on is how it stayed never seemed to drop that much.

Most of the hs clears are 2:1 plus ten percent thinner. Glasurit clear we use is, and when I use Lechler macrofan that's the same. If your planning on using one of those two Aaron, Lechler hs macrofan is what I use for private work, never ha any problems with it any drop in gloss levels. Reason I like it is because its easy to apply, flats nicely, and polishes up really easily with a good gloss level.

If your thinking of glasurit. It's alot more expensive, application wise at work, its a three quarter coat, followed by one full wet coat, that's it done. Obviously it will flow out dependent on what hardner, thinner, you use. Full repaint a will be slow hardner, slow thinner, this leaves it open abit longer so the laquer will flow out more. The finish will depend on what this of gun your using, for laquer I use a sata jet RP witha 1.2 set up. But with glasurit it can be a pain in the backside to polish as once its cured its very hard to flat and polish. But once it is polished the gloss levels it achieves are outstanding. I think it's one of the best laquers I've used, others may have different opinions of course.

I'll put a couple of pics below this is glasurit laquer. And the finish that can be achieved. And I don't see any reason Aaron why you couldnt achieve the same results.


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## M3simon

Looking good.


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## Aaran

cheers andy  .

im assuming the macrofan is a softer clear than the glasruit?


----------



## Andyb0127

Aaran said:


> cheers andy  .
> 
> im assuming the macrofan is a softer clear than the glasruit?


Yes mate glasurit is alot harder. :thumb


----------



## Aaran

pass rear glass in










paint was thin on the edges here, my own fault from spraying it should have double checked the edges but nowt that can be done to fix it bar re-paint. so out with the p800 and sanded all the edges down to th primer










also managed to put a whopping deep and big scratch into the bonnet corner when fitting it. sanded that all back out again down to the primer










made the masking tape into edging tape (fold the edge over on itself bu 2/3mm, stops it making a hard line when the base/clear go.s down) took me ages but got it all done










had to mask everything (entire car)










put the base back onto it, did 4 super thin coats its ruddy cold here

(one of the coats not sure which one, prob the first/second)










in the meantime whilst all this paint is flashing off and drying im getting the other glass ready










have to knife this off, its a bugger because the rear glass on these are not laminated, i have pucked up one of these before and had it explode into 10000 odd bits before for no reason. took me a few hours to cut all the seal back



















also had some damage on the front and rear bumper which needed sorting



















used the ppg again really like this stuff it drys so well and feels so hard. after doing the clear on it all i popped the window in




























its a bit of a paint in teh **** to do as you have to fit the orange clips at the same time and putting the glass on and getting the seal in (or rather making sure it does not move) 
after 20 mins it was in.
pretty much took me all day. its ruddy cold and i have the flu but have a full day again on the car to hammer on and get as much done as i can.


----------



## Gairo

I'm in absolute awe of what you've achieved here mate, I've just read this from start to finish and your dedication and devotion to this project is utterly awe inspiring !
The colour is so gorgeous and it really does suit the car, why the hell are you working in a motor factors you crazy man ???!!! You should be working for a UK equivalent of West Coast Customs or something like that. You've managed to revive some long forgotten arts and done a bloody good job to boot. All credit to you my friend, I hope the customer is as impressed with it as we all are on here. Well done mate, you deserve the accolades


----------



## Aaran

thanks 

wokeu p this morning and managed to ring in ill to work and pretty much passed out right after. currently sat here bored and full of uber killer flu lol. so shoved up the pics from sunday, was a bugger crappy day imo! everything went wrong including the boot cable going snap which ment i had to sit in the snow in the scrapper crx getting a working cable out of it. (prob why im even worse now)


----------



## Pedro.Malheiro

what an amazing job you are doing! cant wait to see the final result.


----------



## M3simon

Great work.


----------



## Aaran

ahhh the great brake **** about.

finally got the correct disks for it turns out the 282mm rover calipers are an early set and require 2mm grinding out of the carrier inner face to make clearance for the disk.
proceed 2 hours with the angle grinder and disk cutting mm out, being that i only have std size disks and grinders i had to that what i could not get to with a die grinder.

needless to say all on.










whilst under there attempted getting the aircon belt on. again utter ballache die to lack of space, had to pull alot of steering pipes back out to get it on and tensioned up










PAS V belt i got is not long enough so will get a new one tomorrow from work.

spend the rest of the morning bleeding up the brakes.








being that everything is new it took ages. need to invest in a vacuum bleeder again !

sheds been a state for a good while, better tidy up










and onto final polishing. wet sanded all the edges to remove any overspray from my edge repair.










and pretty much spent 5 hours buffing the crap out of it.

started on the farclea g3 ultra.

then onto a pass with the P1 nano polish

then a good long spat with the megs on a medium megs foam pad.
then finished on megs 82 on a soft buffing pad.

pretty much done a door all front end, still got the rest of the car to do.

screen seal should be here during the week so will get the glass in and car out of the shed. 
still got mirrors to wire in and the remote locking. also spoiler needs to be painted this weekend and back on along with the rest of the polishing. also bumpers need masking off so i can paint all the old scabby trims black.





































so dammed close!


----------



## Lemongrab

Wow, you're almost there! I am very curious to see the car ready, fully polished, detailed and sparkly clean


----------



## stevo260

Excellent job mate I'm so impressed with all the different skills you have and a definite must on your own premises. Hope all goes well for you


----------



## :: blade ::

just gone through the whole thread, top job your doing, cant wait to see it finished


----------



## Aaran

doh supposed to be getting this car finished this weekend and my g/f messed up with her work hours and has shot off to work leaving me with her kids. lost a half day so gonna have to put in a super late night tonight. need car out of shed today as owner is going away for 6 weeks and i need a few tractors moving and car in other garage lol

bloody typical sods law lol


----------



## Aaran

repainted trim and skits on



















screen and seal in after seal fell apart during....fun not!



















rest of trim in










oh it vanished. 2 hours to get the ****er out of the shed due to the mud quagmire at the bottom of the unit lol. (most of that was spend doing a 40 point turn to get it lined up)










first time in some form of daylight




























should have washed it as its filthy and covered in compound and dust.

central licking installed, was a pig, to many wire so could not run them through the OEM loom, had to drill a hole and thread the wires up through the dash blind (took me ages)
then locking units decided they wanted to play up so spent ages fettling about with them so they would both lock and unlock....grrrr










and yes i have 90% of interior back in it. just wants the roof and screen inner trims fitting , door cards and a few odds and sods.


----------



## Lemongrab

Very nice, almost there... do you have any plans for the headlamps? Or is that "yellowing" inside the lens?


----------



## Aaran

that yellow lamp will get wetsanded, taking the front bumper off shortly to mask and paint all the rubber trims black so it matches the rest of the satin trims


----------



## onza100

That took a very long time to get from page 1 to 22! Have to say it was well worth the read. The princes trust helped me start up my place. Might be worth a look?


----------



## Aaran

seats in. just door cards left now










yellow headlight wet sanded p800 then 1500 then 2000










wipers and arms on










bumper trims painted up



















laguna lip fitted took a while to get it dead on










ligght after some g3 ultra










bumper back on










still need to trim the ends of the laguna splitter up but its a 10 min job










all lights wired in, all trim on, time to roll it out of the shed 























































lights work much better now on the h4h bulbs normally very crap import lights due to the fading



















spent the rest of the day servicing the car and looking over it closely and wet-sanding out any deeper scratches i had managed to put in the paint during the rebuild (might as well just have wet sanded the entire bonnet flat again as it looks like a patch work quilt now lol) . leads supplied were wrong..all to short plugs supplied were right well 3 of them some how the last one had a mower spark plug in it..go figure lol!
plugs were seriously black which explains the misfire i was getting. with 3 plugs in it was running spot on finally!

all thats left to do is run a wire + switch to the rear fog, change a suspension fork bolt fit a few split pins, top up gearbox oil and buff the wetsanded scratches out, and figure out how to wire in the power folding mirrors to the switch. will spend any extra time on the car with menzerna PO85rd really getting it uber shiny and mint.

collection date 23rd feb all being well. so will mass whorage some pics of it before she heads off (in some sunlight hopefully lol!)


----------



## Lemongrab

That's looking superb, for lack of a better word.


----------



## aerodynamic18

What do u mean collection date?


----------



## Aaran

when the owner comes to get it


----------



## Aaran

well another week of everything going wrong.= lol

mot failed.
most annoying was th headlights not having the correct beam pattern. import lights do not fire out a uk legal beam pattern so today had to:

swap lights from his to min e and vice versa so they will pass.
raise the front shocks up 4mm because the springs would come 3mm off the top seat (another mot fail so he reacons) but done on the car, just glad the koni shocks are on adjustable bottom peaches! 

checked al the bulbs but failed on a rear plate bulb. turns out its got a bad connection and its sporadic when wiggling the wire to them lol.

so wasted one of my last 2 full days sorting all these faults.

will be polishing and tidying up the car tomorrow, will try to grab pics but i cant promise them (be nice to get them in the sun thats forecast)
worse case ill get them next sat when the car is collected. then paint booth time!


----------



## aerodynamic18

so you had to sell it in the end then?


----------



## mechrepairs

Well that was a great read, I seem to read it as this was done for a customer?

Just so many questions regards selling it etc. hope I got the right end of the stick.

Cheers, Carl


----------



## Aaran

its not my car, never had been but now wish it was after 500 hours work lol!. its a guy from my owners club car, he paid us to do it after seeing the work on mine. so no its not sold (no idea where you are getting this idea from?) but yes he is collecting this Sat dinner time.

anyway pics incoming


----------



## Aaran

engine bay washed with astonish degreaser





































went over the entire car in the sunlight marking out any scratches i have inflicted and bits that needed wetsanding




























entire car with P1 polish to remove any sanding marks










by that time the bay was dry










then over the car with megs 84 on a medium pad to remove any buffer trails then finished on menz po85rd




























shiny and mint (just a same any dust makes it look bad again not fond of black cars tbh)



















pearl in the sun hard to see this but its there










the finish after a wash to get rid of any oils (hence the water spotting)



















treated all the hoses etc with a blackener to make them somewhere black and shiny again










looks loads better just valve cover to do this week in wrinkle red.

was gonna save this till the end but could not resist posting it (will replace with a better one with the car actually complete!)

video :

http://s167.beta.photobucket.com/user/aaran_album/media/SiR/eta5day1_zps3941700c.mp4.html

will fire some wax onto the car this week and fit the last of the trims. most of the car is over 90days old paint wise so im happy its aired out enough for a few coats of smartwax and i know what bits i have had to retouch so will leave those


----------



## Chris 9-5

Aaran said:


> looks loads better just valve cover to do this week in wrinkle red.


Superb work Aaran!

Can you do that battery clamp too though :thumb:

Awesome stuff


----------



## Aaran

harr if i get time lol! got trims to fit, headlights to swap over again so i can have my glass lights back on mine lol. should be able to though


----------



## Lemongrab

Looking great! What kind of badges does the owner want? Original, or those JDM-like ones with a red background? Either way, it's going to look great


----------



## Aaran

rocker stripped with paint stripper (comes off fast and easy) washed then de-greased _ sanded with p400 then 3 thick coats of vht wrinkle red and slammed it right into the infrared to get the alloy cover nice and hot its supposed to make it dry "tighter" . left it there whilst i fitted the lower tail gate trim and the rest of the trim on the car (now has 100% trim)

wrinkle red paint drying and turning crinkley (weird to me i like smooth shiny stuff lol)










thouch dry byt best time to fit it before i damage it lol



















used a knife to cut off the logo and raised letters whilst is was semi tackey, should tighten up a fair bit more overnight and fully cure with engine running for a few hours.


----------



## DOBE

Been watching this thread from the start, great job you have done mate.

Will you be sad to see it go, or will you be saying thank f**k when it drives off into the distance.


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## 4d_dc2

Aaran said:


> well another week of everything going wrong.= lol
> 
> mot failed.
> most annoying was th headlights not having the correct beam pattern. import lights do not fire out a uk legal beam pattern.


Your mot man was telling porkies there mate. The company I work for have imported hundreds of Hondas from Japan and every crx 60+ have passed mot with standard plastic headlights. The only time hey will fail is if there really manku and gone all yellow and cracked.

Anyway it don't matter it's done now.
The job you have done is fantastic. I admire your skills.


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## Aaran

been out on this every night for the last 3 weeks. only jsut got back in now lol.

pretty much done. bar a split pin in the brake pedal lol.

looking forward to a massive rest !


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## GlynRS2

Great work and an epic project.
Look forward to seeing the final finished pictutures :thumb:


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## Aaran

well it all went wrong today.,

customer turned up to get car.

flat battery had to jump it.
misfire i had got rid of came back.
my camera died, no pics!


on way to tyre fitters the koni rear shock spring seat lower went pop and came away from its seat and down the shock. limped it there and had to use their ramps to sort it.

stupid system where the shock has grooves machined into it (used to control what ride height you want) the bottom seat floats and what holds the seat on the shock is a little 1cm wide clip (the idea is the seat sits onto the ring/clip and compesses it in which holds it there)


so cleaned out groove with a wire brush, check it and the clip all fine. 
put the seat back on and volia all sorted, seated and good.

could not get the car tracked up right, not enough adjustment on the new TRE's. now assuming that the power steering racks have a unique TRE compared to the uk vt and 16v. 

customer decided to take car and run it back to me when i get in a new unit and am up and running to fix these issues.

low and behold to finish the day off though ll was well and get a phone call saying the shocker seat again had gone poof on him.

no damage to anything but ****ing annoying as hell. he is currently sat on the a1 waiting for a flatbed to get him home.
think when i get the car back once i am up and running i am going to weld the ****ing shock seats to the shock body like 90% of shocks are. he though this would be a better idea then having those clips and seats carrying the weight of the car lol

just glad the guy is fine with it all and is not angry etc  (i should have said no you cant take it let me put the oem suspension back on the back for the time being, but no time for him) but **** happens. should have forked out for insurance for myself and put a few hundred on it so i could have got any niggles out of it. jsut typical that this rears its head now and not going to/from MOT with the mech, and not during the mot etc.

so part one over with.

will start part 2 once i am up and running and turn this into the uber Crx (and i might actually get to put a few hundred miles on it myself lol)

pretty pissed off now, off for a beer ! and yes this is the LAST full shell strip and rebuild i am doing for anyone, will happily do a bare shell on its own, customer can build it back together and take it apart lol


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## -Simon-

Gutted for you a real shame that this experience ended this way...but we all learn more when things go wrong....I doubt your will let a future car go without a full shakedown, whatever the owner says :wall: Don't be too tough on yourself this was a mega project and you've learn't masses along the way...I'm sure the owner will understand and be happy as Larry once the niggles have been resolved! :thumb:

Thanks for sharing the journey...


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## Alexmuk

That is just straight up chicken oriental, just spent the whole morning looking through all this ! Well done !

What music did u listen to whilst working ?!


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## Aaran

i dont. you cant hear crap over welding/grinding and tools running anyho 

will have this car back shortly to sort the suspension out, will prob change the lot out for some proper coilovers etc. time to get some traders insurance sorted and get into my new unit and booth up


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## sfstu

Aaran said:


> will have this car back shortly to sort the suspension out, will prob change the lot out for some proper coilovers etc. time to get some traders insurance sorted and get into my new unit and booth up


cool, onwards and upwards...:thumb:
have really enjoyed following this thread and can't believe the finish you got working in a barn...:doublesho:thumb: lot of hard work but i think well worth it in the end, definately, and a good showcase for your talent...:thumb:
really wanting to see some completed pics though..? preferably with a full detail...

suspension wise, is it me or does the car sit too high..? gotta be honest, i'm not that familiar with them and i think from what i remember the owner wants the OE look which is cool but in those pics of when you wheeled her out of the workshop, it just looked to me it should be lower...

look forward to pics of the full detail as well as new workshop...
stu


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## Aaran

standard suspension is super high on these this has had a drop of 25-35mm give or take.

mine is dropped a fair amount, about 40-45mm all round and i know people can dump them as much as 50/60mm but it starts playing havoc with the roll centers and negative camber on all the wheels. mine at most has about 2 inches floor pan to road clearance, i cant get my jack under it i have to pre jack the car with the OEM in car unit to lift it an inch before i can get a decent jack under it lol! this one i can jsut get my 3 inch tall jack under the jacking points on the sills


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## JMorty

What happend to this in the end?


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## Aaran

cars coming back to get finished once im in my new unit  (in the next few weeks)

its needs a new dizzy (its got a missfire so igniter unit is the culprit), have a few teething issues to. also iv never been 100% happy with the finish on the rear bumper so im repainting another that i can just swap right over once it turns up. also get some propper decent pics of it all for a change


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## JMorty

Aaran said:


> cars coming back to get finished once im in my new unit  (in the next few weeks)
> 
> its needs a new dizzy (its got a missfire so igniter unit is the culprit), have a few teething issues to. also iv never been 100% happy with the finish on the rear bumper so im repainting another that i can just swap right over once it turns up. also get some propper decent pics of it all for a change


Ah, good good!

Love these so will be great to see this one finished.
You're a credit to the industry! :thumb:


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## sprocketser

Just saw this thread , tough job in there aaran ! keep it on mate !


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## Lemongrab

CrippleRacer, no offense mate, but you quoted like 30+ pictures just to say "Fantastic"... that pollutes the topic :-\


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## Tintin

Delete the repeat pics please. Scrolling through 30 copied pics on my tablet makes this page of the thread practically unreadable now.


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## CrippleRacer

UncleOrlando said:


> CrippleRacer, no offense mate, but you quoted like 30+ pictures just to say "Fantastic"... that pollutes the topic :-


I'm a large Kn*b, sorry.

I've never seen so much hard work by one person for another. (other than my wife, carer, mother and lover).


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## Brizee

Hi Aaran, have i missed the final pics??

I'm desperate to see those tyres dressed...it's weird how something so simple like a tyre can let the whole look of the car down.

Fantastic job though...i'm bloody envious of all that you've achieved...i'd love to do this sort of work.


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## PootleFlump

Great project, was thinking about this one again, it's a massive undertaking restoring cars, I hope the owner is paying you good wonga for this one. I've done a few light restos over the years on cars and it's a massive undertaking. I'm currently doing a bike, much easier to work on, pretty much 1 late night and 1 day and I got 90% of it done  Spent an hour or so each night over a few days repairing the plastics but much less stressful so far.


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## mikechesterman

Great thread. Always liked these cars.


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## s29nta

Top stuff mate keep it up looking forward to more:thumb:


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## Aaran

sorry guys still not got any updates on this as of yet lol (not enough time atm lol).

new units semi cleared now finally! spent today getting a shell for the rotten pig restore i have on here also (its gonna need most of it! ) and pulling the engine and box out of that to go in the new one lol. also sorting out my new bargain gti devilbiss guns (dont think they have ever seen a cleaning session in their lives lol)

this car now has a dent in the bonnet, shelving gave way in my customers garage and all the shizz landed on the car  so have that to sort once it gets back so now added to the list of jobs to do in it lol.

i need a clone of a mini me


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## Aaran

and ITS BACCCKKKK :lol:

sat in my drive, and it drives awesome! 

and whthin 5 hours its been a pig.

pretty much sat solid in a garage from the day it was collected, not even been washed and done about 100 miles tops.

washed car tonight, washed a wheel and the ****ing tyre valve blew rights out the wheel! so flat tyre and no valve.......

put spare on, went out to car 20 mins later and that ****er is now flat 

so have to walk all the way home from my birds house, get pump and walk back lol!

already turning into a saga with the boot release mech refusing to lock (return spring i think is shot lol) so spent an hour trying to fix the bugger or to at least get the bot to shut to stop all my tools getting tea leafed during the night.

at least i get to use it for a month and it got dropped back with a full tank of fuel in it and e being told to drive it as much as possible.

pics incoming!


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## Aaran

right got it back here 

washed it again (including all the crap from the arches) quite miffed that the paint is so poor compared to how it was when it left me, will put that down to it getting driven twice in snowy salty roads and put in a garage (its not been washed sinse i left my old yard! that was october)

started on the drivers side, got loads of scratches on the lower doors and a few on the quarters. P1 took them out thank god and it looks great that side again. jsut need to work around the car all week (the sat has pretty much ruined the wheel lips i hand polished to  grrrrrr)


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## GSiFan

That's better than they ever were from the factory! :doublesho Fabulous work! :thumb:

Paul


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## Aaran

cheers.

need a new clay bar, **** knows whats up with the paint on this buts its so badly contaminated  . took some sort of reddish brown crap off the drivers side and its all over the car, paint feels rough as hell. taken me 3 nights this week on the drivers side to get it smooth as glass, polish it 3 times to get it perfect and get 2 coats of awax and a coat of sealent on it (does look good lol) 

cant belive how much damage being covered in salt has done to it over 8 months (then again it was left dirty and thrown in a garage  )


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## enc

Aaran said:


> cheers.
> 
> need a new clay bar, **** knows whats up with the paint on this buts its so badly contaminated  . took some sort of reddish brown crap off the drivers side and its all over the car, paint feels rough as hell. taken me 3 nights this week on the drivers side to get it smooth as glass, polish it 3 times to get it perfect and get 2 coats of awax and a coat of sealent on it (does look good lol)
> 
> cant belive how much damage being covered in salt has done to it over 8 months (then again it was left dirty and thrown in a garage  )


Sounds like the owner doesn't give a ****  which is a **** take considering what you have put into it


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## rich1880

Awesome thread, youve certainly got the skills to produce a great paint finish. I'm doing a project of my own and just had a couple of quick questions. Did you use 2K paint? I did a small amount of primer in 2k just in the engine bay and used a paper mask, not ideal but was very low pressure in a vented garage for about 15mins. I wouldnt want to risk it any longer than that so I got one of the filter masks which are apparently good for 40 hours.

What mask did you use? I'm not applying lacquer simply Mipa 4:1 High Build and Colour.


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## Aaran

devilbiss airfed.

filter masks are not suitable for 2k. (3m for example state on their filter masks that they will not stop isco's )

you will get away with it sporadicly or for very very light usage but for long term use you have to use airfed via the correct filters (or the moisture/oil in the compressed air will **** you instead lol) 

also note i shot my car in a large open air shed in the middle of no where, overspray and fumes form a garage can cause issues with passers by or neighbors to. the only time i use a normal mask is for spraying paints like epoxy or single stage stuff that dont contain iso's , os going into the spray area after a good long airing out to check the progress of how its drying and watching bugs make a mess of the clear lol


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## rich1880

Thanks for that, I'm just doing the engine bay, already done the etch which isn't 2k but wanted to get some high build 2k on next. A friend had a bad chest a few days when he didn't use air fed so good advice.


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## Silva1

Makes me miss my crx 

Still got almost all the parts there if I ever buy another one 

Great thread :thumb:


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## Daz.

It's just took me a long time to read this thread!

Amazing work to get it where it is now - thumbs up from me!

Calipers are shocking though!


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## appy

Great thread, great write up. Must of taken nearly as much effort to write it up as it took to do the car!


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## jamie_s

Amazing thread and amazing effort, please put some tyre shine on though it's killing me :lol:


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## Aaran

BUMPPPP got a small break in my workload to get this done!

decided to sut replace the entire front wing, rear spoiler and rear bumper for minty ones (pass wide wing is bent and fouls the edge of the door. these wings are **** thin and once bent are pretty much perma fubared)

anyway. high build flatted, basecoat (3 coats on a wide fan) then 2 coats of ICI/Nexa clearcoat (pretty mcuh ppg clear as its all the same shizz) reallyl ike this clear, lays down like glass (was shot ambient room temp so about 14 deg c) no thinners in the clear for this either. really likes to flow out of the gun. mixed 3/1 with maxmayer fast hardener.

couple of dust nibbys nut thats it


















































































good old flint black pearl in the paint. booth lights always make it pop like mad





































right lsit of shizz to sort.

for a dent in the bonnet to sort. going to smart repair that area and re-clear the entire upper bonnet. same again with the pass door, smart the dent and paint on the edge that the wing damaged and re-clear all that.

pretty much the paint side done.

got a ! inch civic master cylinder to go on and need to swap the 242mm rear brakeso ut to 262mm rover ones (already has the rover 282mm front setup 1 inch cylinder is needed to run bigger brakes all over due to the vast piston increase over OE)

central locking needs looking at again and the boot lock is buggered lol.

pretty much going to get machine polished again and off she go's after a good detail and an MOT 

sure this is the most viewed thread in the paint and body section now at over 65000 views lol!


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## Aaran

sanded it all with p1500 today for new clear (the entire panel not faffing about with blends on this)smell dents sanded with p240 and filler in them, flushed this off today and shot 2 coats of high build over the area (about a foot in size over/around the filler) will flat that down tomorrow, then base (fading out) then re-clear it all.

in all fairness looking how awesome the bumpers came out im tempted to just re-clear the entire thing as its only 2 quarters and the other door :lol:


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## Aaran

primer down before sanding back










base coated the primer areas and faded out across the panel



















clearcoat on 2 coats 














































got some peel and texture in places but this nexa clear sands so nicly and buffs up a treat so will flat it all down with p1500 then 3000 and buff like mad

only downside to using a different gun from the cheapo lvlp gun (using my devilbiss gti's) is the laying down of the pearl difference!

lays down pearl base so well it pops like crazy (this is the same mix of basecoat from when i originally painted it so its the exact right shade and shot the same way very wide fan and thin coats etc)

so going to flat down the rest of the body tomorrow shoot a coat of base and re-clear the rest of the car so it all matches.



















will look brand spanking new again


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## Aaran

entire car flatted with p1500 on the block 9needed next to none on this) then with a p3000 trizact disk on the sander (love these! mega bucks a box but make life 10X faster)




























then right onto compounding using the new g3 ulta "improved formula") works a treat and no mess. win. car needs going over with a finer polish (megs 84) as its a dark color and i have some buffer trails in it but back to its glass like finish. all new and spiffy.
if it gets covered in dirt and shut in a garage again ill not be happy  !
































































pearl now pops all over the car 



























































































like this rear arch shot. not a bit of peel at all in this 



















can wait to finish polishing it with finer stuff and getting it outside in the sunlight! will be monday as craigs is due in the booth then later on in the week stoo's and my tracksport guys bits need to go in finally lol


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## Aaran

had to jigger the cars around this morning. twinks out booth as needed craigs in, also had to shift the DA teg on its wheels to do this lol.

way to waste 2 hours lol. nm grabbed a couple of quick pics of it outside lol














































popped the bumper back on and a good bit of the trim and under sheet it went. will get this finished as soon as i get half a day free lol


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## neilb62

This just gets better and better... :thumb:


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## BRYHER

neilb62 said:


> This just gets better and better... :thumb:


What he said, I'm subscribed,have been for a while.
Michael


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## squiggs

My old laptop wouldn't load this thread (pic heavy) - but I had a day off today, a new laptop and have spent a very pleasant afternoon going through this thread.

What a fantastic thread ..... Thank you!
And the following words just don't do your work justice (but it's the best I can do) .... 
Absolutely fantastic work Aaran :thumb: Well done mate!


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## Aaran

cheers all. be nice to have a mass exodus from my unit of all these cars so i can get the next batch in (well they are coming in in the next few weeks) 

no time to spare right now lol


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## mr paint

are you doing all the prep and painting in the booth Aaran ?


T


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## Aaran

mr paint said:


> are you doing all the prep and painting in the booth Aaran ?
> 
> T


on this occasion yes! my unit is rammed, and i mean rammed full currently.

got a big ass DA integra outside the doors on alxe stands undergoing lots of welding, got another crx in the only other space facing the door, and to top it off around leaning up against the walls in the unit: crx tailgate, all the DA integra panels and bumpers, more crx bumpers and a full r33 gtr tailgate with massive spoiler (this is ontop of all my tools and 8 new lights for the side of my booth i have yet to shove in), half a f3 car and on the booth roof a mugen crx rear bumper, an r33 skyline front bumper and loads more bits. (would fit more up there but ducting for the heating takes up all the room between the booth and the units main roof lol)

pressed for space is an understatement this month!

i always wet flat clear down in my booth and polish in there as its normally the cleanest well lit place in the unit :lol: (except this month) the amount of times dirt has blown into the unit form the dirt track onto a car i am polishing or wet flatting is crazy. (everyone knows that hellishly painfull screech you get when a bit of grit go's between the paper and the fresh clear and the mess it makes the instant you hear it lol)

makes no odds as the booth is brushed clean top to bottom after and before every car and then the floor mopped after (and just before i spray again, helps stop any bits of dust that make its way in)

so strapped for time due to work i have not even had chance to etch all the walls, get the new recessed side lighting into it, and get the thing stripped and painted 2k gloss white so i can get tacky spray on the walls. i need clones, like 5 of them . still need to weld up the door and move the hinges over to make the door opening wider, currently to get any car into the booth i have to shove wheel skates under the rear wheels to turn the cars back end 90 to get into the door due a floor rsj being bang in the way of the units main entrance and the booth main doors lol (mini was the exception!)

not to mention i still have not sorted any shelving out of the workshop.

no time and no signs of slowing down. could do with 4x the space i have now, 3 cars indoors is my limit currently until i can get all my stuff onto stands and wall racking then i can go for 4 cars or 3 and some space lol


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## tricky tree

Unbelievable.

Started reading before work this morning and just finished now! 
Fantastic work, thanks very much for posting


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## Commadee

Absolutely brilliant thread you've nailed it with how well it been documented start to present 
And at the start of the thread flux tinning paste on the bonnet 
I've never seen that before
Hardly a spec of dust or crap on the car before flattening/polishing 

Well done 
Awesome thread


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## supernova-dw

Yep awesome thread and brilliant work! Any updates of recent?


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## sprocketser

Wow , you made that CRX a Showcar mate ! I wouldn t drive that ride ! lol


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## Aaran

ummm nope. still sat around back waiting for me to do a few final job. have it until july. customer has the car insured now, agreed valuation of 10k against it to  good job i took load of photos hehe.

will do one more of these to this standard but it will be my own personal crx, unlike anyones going to pay me £18 per hour for easy 600+ hour work o na crx (well not for another 10 years at least lmao)

will grab some pics once its had its final polsih and off back to london


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## sprocketser

Hey cool , tought it was yours !


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