Well according to my schedule, I bad at schedules. Had some hicups with parts but that should be straightened out by this weekend. Now that engine work was not progressing it let me focus on body work since for me to break the engine in, I need to commute in it and since daylight savings time I need headlights. Its allllll coming together now.
1st order of business on the body work. engine bay!
here is also kind of where I shoot myself in the foot, I am not a body mechanic I don't know paint but I do spray bomb really well. This is no exception. Some areas reacted because I used lacquer acrylic paint from duplicolor, some oil based enamels might be hidden underhood and various other stuff so some areas look funky but its all gonna get dirty soon anyways.
Photo took several cans of this stuff:
Time to go down the lacquer rabbit hole...
Lucky for me a dollar store nearby was selling this stuff on the cheap. $1.89 per can to be exact, which was good because it didnt cover worth a dick and took tons of coats and I bought out the entire supply, probably spent about 25-30 dollars on spray paint.
So I didn't have any sawhorses or stands so I grabbed stools from the old restaurant I used to work at, they just ordered some new ones in and gave me the old "beat up" ones for free.
and they work great (covered with painters tarp) I sure as shit wasn't going to make any or buy any, thats for sure.
I repaired the driver side fender and I had a minty fresh passenger side to prep. MY car was ORIGINALLY blue, these fenders were both originally red and the passenger side had certainty been repainted before.
after a few coats:
I utilized my compressor by spending about 15 bucks on a harbor freight sander and I had a bunch of 120 grit laying around still from the original burban repaint/bedliner project. so that worked out.
Here they are all primed up:
I have an rx7 for a roommate and she's kind of a douchebag, she doesn't pay me rent! In fact... she takes up my space and charges me money, what a country!
Some parts await final cleaning still before they can enter the dry/heated storage/pre assembly room/future roommate room???
ANYWHORE! back to the bodywork. Obviously the new lights required some body changes. fenders took minor trimming (unseen) the gaps for the pop up lights on the hood need to be filled and the front bumper needs to be seriously modified. Luckily I have a spare white bumper (which got cleaned, sanded and primed) and after ruining the prior bumper I had pretty good idea of measurements for hood pins and where to put what. and spare parts. Bitches love spare parts.
Obviously this is not going to work, front bumper wont mount like this and it looks jank.
Here is a close up:
a sharpie works well on what I need to trim and where, pretty close though... Normally the FTP (flash to pass) lenses or clear dummy lenses go here. Those were missing from this bumper, like most are 2nd hand these days...
Passenger side is trimmed (about 90%) and driver side is stock. Also, I made sure the rallyboobs would fit with the new holes I drilled, everything looks kosher.
Here is the teaser shot, headlight covers need trimming and the hood is only filled/sanded still needs to be primed and only the low beam/low beam function is being utilized. I mocked up the wiring diagram at work today to make this work, gonna need a fuse box from a junkyard or make my own power/relay distribution box with room for 5-7 std bosch/tyco relays. Anyone have suggestions?
in this photo the fenders and bumper are primed FYI.
Oh herro, look what came in the mail today...
overnight parts from Japan? I don't think so jesse, week long journey from Ontario... California! Thank you mazda also they were really expensive. $55.55 each :/
This week-weekends plans? finish the hood and get a HF spray gun and hope I dont fuck the paint up, never used one before. wish me luck...
I dont want to spend 60 dollars on spray paint cans and run around everywhere and with this whole enamel/acrylic/lacquer/oil/water based Im giving in and buying a quart of duplicolor's lineup of championship white, it seems to be everywhere and most whites tend to match my paint pretty well. Oh also the meijer by me is having a clearance on nearly everything automotive body related so I snagged 6 giant cans of duplicolor lacquer acrylic clear for $1.37 each
then finish engine pre cleaning and pre assembly. Stay tuned... or don't - I really don't care. its nice to have a build blog that follows how this car has progressed for my own interests