MusPuppis

Sorry to resurrect an old post.. I'll be using DP90LF on my 240 when it comes time to prime her - which should be in 4 weeks (hell yeah!) You said the DP90 was (about) 40$ a quart and the catalyst is 22$ a pint. So, do I need to buy one pint of the catalyst for every quart of the DP90? I plan on buying 4 quarts, maybe 5 to pull it all off. I'll be applying a light coat to tihe interior that I'm stripping. Unless I decide to just use the cheapy primer I have on hand to do the interior, and just cover it up when I spray the DP90. Think that will be enough to safely coat the whole car? It's probably going to sit in primer for close to a year before the actual paint gets sprayed, unless some bizarre stroke of luck I manage to get the money together while attending college fulltime, lol. Also, should I decide to keep the DP90 (I REALLY like the look) what kind of top coat should I look for to protect the paint long-term.

Supply shops are here are pretty few and far between for some reason. I'm gonna see what Louiville has to offer me I think. I dont like the prospect of an hour drive each way but its worth it to deal with poeple I like and products I trust.

HA. I got my air compressor hooked up and running properly. Got all the fittings, water filters, hoses, oils, tools and general crap needed to make it useful. Here it is. The yellow thing is the cord I made. 25 feet of 10/3 so I can run it into my bathroom and use the dryer outlet till I can run a dedicated outlet in the garage for it. Really though.. what fun is something large and loud if you cant inconvenience other in the household while using it? Dry your cloths? Hell no - I'm sanding a fender. I went out today and picked up my paint gun. Eventually I'll be buying a detail gun and another gun like this one so I can have one gun for primers and one for actual paints. I was told this was a good idea. *shrug* I'm poor - so for now its a one-gun-does-it-all mentallity. Its an Ingersoll-Rand HVLP gun. 270G. Set me back like 99$ from Lowes. I could have gone with a cheaper gun and really got the same results, but I've read the HVLP guns are more efficient and a really nice over-all design. IR makes good stuff (from my experience with them anyway) so it seemed worth the money. Its nice quality, comfortable, solid feel and sprays really nice. Granted, having never used a paint gun before this one I dont have anything to compare it to, but it seems nice regardless. I went to a local Sherwin Williams that sells automotive paints and finishs and bought some cheapy primer to practice with. I got a two part primer called 2k HS Primer (RS3702). Ran me like 28$ for the quart + hardener. The Z's hood fit the bill as a canvas. It wasnt really *ready* to be primed, but I intend to sand it back down anyway. I just wanted to test everything and see how it went. Now, I had originally intended to use strictly PPG paints on the car. Mainly because they have the primer I want to use.. Stuff called DP90LF I think. Gives a satin black finish that looks so damn nice its hard to imagine painting over it, lol. BUT. I used their dealer locater to find dealers in my area. I pulled up a few Porter Paints locations and some Do-it-Better hardware places (or something similar to that) as well as a couple Ace Hardware locations. I started with the Porter Paints shops and started calling em. Well, by the time I was done my IQ had dropped 15 or so points and I had a headache. Three of the four stores told me they dont sell automotive paints - whatever. One told me they sold PPG stuff but it was order only. "Fine by me", I say. Lemme get a price on some things and place an order. "Well, we only place orders over 500$." This answer came on the tail end of close to an hour of phone calls to btw. I ended up having to call store managers, regional managers and some guy named Gary who had something to do with Porter Paints ordering and such. Ya know what? **** you. If you dont want to help me, fine. I'll find someone who doesnt seem inconvenienced by my desire to give them money. Was I looking to spend alot now? No, like 35-40$ but good job missing out on my business down the road. With my own car needing proper primer and paint and three friends of mine practically friggen salivating over me learning to paint there will be a hell of alot of money from me in the next 6-8 months. Sherwin Williams was extremely helpful though. They were chatty on the phone, invited me down to just look around and go over ideas with them (even though I said I wasnt buying anything more than a little bit of "practice primer"). Good folks and pretty knowledgable. They sell Western Automotive Finishes. I dont know how good this brand is or isnt, but Im heavily inclined to deal with them from here on out. Ok.. Rant over, sorry. Was a little annoyed that trying to buy paint would turn into a totality of close to three hours calling around like an idiot talking to random poeple who knew LESS than me in many instances - which is just retarded. Anyway, heres a pic of the hood. The pic is alot better than the actual hood. It wasnt actually ready to be primed, lol. The body work is even but I havent feathered it in yet and theres a couple little dings that need to be handled. It was also sanded down with 60 grit and will need to be smoothed out with 180 then 320 before it gets its final coat. As a blank canvas though it was pretty nice. I got one run down towards the bottom of the hood because as I was spraying the hose got hung up and the gun hesitated in one spot a second too long, lol. Thats it. This post served no real point - but I'm thrilled as hell after today and the work on the Z, which was on hold while I got this compressor and such squared away will begin anew tomarrow. Yay for more sanding!

Wondering this one myself. I spent the better part of an hour on Google trying to find it - heh.

Ive looked over quite a few paint and body books online, but its tough to figure out which one(s) are good, which ones suck and which ones are fantastic. Anyone bought any books on basic body work and paint (nothing tricky, just the basics behind repair/prep/painting) that they would recommend to a newcomer? Just trying to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can..

I wouldnt recommend it. I wouldnt push more than about 450 through a 5.0 before working the internals. If it was an only car, or a heavily used DD I would beef it up around the 400 flat mark. The 5.0 is a great engine. Relatively small and light weight (for what it is, heh) HUGE HUGE aftermarket support and inexpensive parts. Very strong engine. In stock form though the block can be a tad dodgy when your making big numbers. I know more than one person thats ended their engines life by pushing into the mid to upper 400's. I got to know these engines pretty well when my trucks non-roller 5.0 finally gave up. I like them alot as Z swap candidates but the 350 swap has so much more support and available parts its the better choice (imo) for most poeple. But really, ya cant go wrong with the 5.0.

What a raging dissapointment that was. I like the Beamer. Very 240-esque. I like smoother slowing lines personally, not so much into the hard-edged look I see around these days. Still nice looking though.

Great read. Thanks for the book recommendation as well. Tossing that on the list with Maximum Boost anda few others I need to buy and commit to memory, lol

Thats a little weird. Make sure you have the plugs in and gapped correctly. Next I would check the cap and rotor. Make sure neither is damaged. Also make sure you have the firing order correct and didnt put the wires back on wrong. I've been guilty of that one more than once, lol. Try checking the distributer as well, make sure its not loose. Its possible its slipped or rotated out of time somehow or another.

Nice swap man. Those 5.0's are stout little buggers. Should be fun as hell in that RX7.

Nice work.. And, amazingly enough, I dont have any rust there, lol. Who'd have thunk it?

You can use any type of sand with these or do I need to look into "special" sand?

HAH! Nice one. Yeah, Automatics make me sad, but the companys are gonna make what sells and auto's sell. Beamers get away with manuals cause the beamer crowd is a little more performance oriented than the Lexus/Benz/Etc crowd. Dodge cant make a good auto? My F-150 has the Ford 4R70w in it. Wanna talk about a peice of ****.. My god. No doubt Dodge's auto's suck to, but I dunno that theres much that holds a candle to my 4R. I could shat in an empty tranny housing and hook it up and it'd probably perform better, lol.

Always nice to have yet another area of rust concern, lol. I'll give my car a look and see if its rusted. Im sure it is. Every other inch of the ENTIRE car is rusted, rusting, or preparing to rust. If it wasnt a Fairlady I'd just junk it and find a better shell.

I figured as much. I was thinking of using some plastic sheeting in my garage to make a generic little room around the peices that I blast. That should (hopefully) contain it in some way atleast and allow me to collect and reuse the sand. If I can anyway. Its my understanding its good for about 2-3 uses before it becomes to fine to do much.

I change my own oil, hell, I do everything myself to my cars. If I cant do it then I'll learn. If I cant learn it wont get done. lol. But, not so much in the guys defence or anything, but he may have recently bought the Supra and some dealerships offer X amount of free oil changes for X amount of time after the purchase of a used car. A friend of mine bought an 03 Taurus a few months ago and got 1 years worth of oil changes with it or something. Also, its my understanding some warranty's require the dealer to do the checkups and oil changes so they can verify the owner isnt doing anything overly stupid to their car. It also simplifies things if the vehicle breaks. Granted, I dont seem any poeple willing to put a warranty onto a used car like a Supra thats almost certainly going to be driven violently.. but ya never know.

Curious, http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=38375 Is that worth a damn when it comes to automotive stripping/cleaning?

Umm.. I'm not real sure what your wanting to hear.. You can check ebay and the classifieds section here, the one at Zcar.com and track down any other Z-related sites and see whats being sold there as well. It may take a little while for one to surface, but they do, just gotta be on your toes so you get it before everyone else looking for one does, lol.

I sure could. Something folks seem to be missing here is it being the car owners choice. If Speed asked poeple to come out for a competition then sprung this on them thats one thing, but poeple go into this knowing full and well what their doing. Their putting their vehicle on the line against someone elses. No ones putting a gun to their head, no ones making them do anything. If they wanna gamble, let em. And ya better beleive, If I win, I'm taking their car. I'd take the car, pull the fuel door off, sign it, and give it to the guy that used to own the car, lol. Another thing.. I dont think Speed should have to pay anyone anything. As stated, advertising. Poeple go to this (a fair portion of them anyway) to show what their shop is capable of doing and to show off and advertise. Speed gives them a forum in which to show a very very large audience what they've accomplished. Even if they lose, their shop gets the prestige of having been seen on national television. Also, that Honda. Looks slapped together to me. They probably spent some money on it, no doubt, but I dont think it was any serious investment. Most likely it was put together (and taken apart some since its a shell, lol) just for this show. Looks to me like its all engine and little/nothing else. Ive never seen anyone race for pinks either.. Its one of those urban myth type things. Ive seen alot of street racing, which I try now to avoid. Its fun and I did have a blast doing it but the risk to others is too high for me. Im a firm beleiver in self destruction. If you want to put your *** in danger, go right ahead. I dont mind putting my own in harms way for a little fun, but when the danger has a chance to spill over onto those poeple not involved - thats where I draw the line. Street racing is really fun but the potential to hurt innocent folks just cruising by is too high for me. I had a friend some time ago named Tim who had an early 80's Trans-Am. Had the usual bolt on stuff done, nothing special. Fun car though. He was racing a guy in a Mustang and lost control. The wreck sent the car into the oncoming lane where a minivan *barely* avoided being smashed into. The car eventually flipped and smashed through the front office of two buildings on the far side of the road. Had it not been a weekend poeple would have been in those buildings. Basicly, one guys mistake could have killed 3 or 4 other poeple. Thankfully Tim was a little beat up but not seriously harmed. God only knows how he managed it, but he walked away. The car was in two peices.

Dart blocks are great. I cant speak for World products as I dont have any experience with them but I have had a little with the Darts (302's) and they were superb. I honestly couldnt say where to go to get them cheapest though.

I saw that chord. The smallest length they had in stock was 50 feet, and it was priced at like 51$ + tax. I ended up getting 25 ft of 10/3 30amp wireing. Its nice stuff, insulated to hell and back and designed for outdoor use. Im really happy with it. Its was a little costly, 38.00$ for 25ft but its pliable and high quality, so it should be safe. Got a dryer plug for like 9$ and hooked it all up. It looks rediculous laying across my bathroom floor, but it works, lol. I got the compressor turned on and let it pump up. Doesnt take long and its really not that loud at all. Not like I would have thought anyway. I dont have the little rubber feet on it yet either. I have it mounted to a pallet at the moment. So proper floor mounting and the rubber should kill alot of the vibration and sound I would think. Now I need to get some heavy use air tools on it and see how it does under real load. I expect - give that its a cheaper compressor - I'll have to be a little careful with sanders and the like but it should do the job regardless.

Thanks guys. I've looked into putting it into the bathroom next to the dryer but the way the bathroom is laid out, it wont work. Its a narrow room with an indent in the wall that the washer and dryer it in. If the compressor were to sit in there you wouldnt be able to walk past it, the room isnt wide enough, lol. This is a temporary fix to btw. I will run a dedicated line eventually - I just need to inlist the help of someone experienced in that sort of thing. I'm confident I can do it, but I'd rather not risk setting something on fire.

If you go DSM, dont pay 900 for one that doesnt run, lol. Also, crankwalk was a major problem from 94-97. The 1st gens dont really have the problem at all. Atleast not in any majoy capacity. The *best* one to look for is a 92 AWD Turbo model. Eclipse GSX or Talon TSi. I honestly dont know if the Lasers were ever available in an AWD model. Those have the 4 bolt motor and the best rear end of the bunch. Both from a gearing and strength strandpoint. DSM's are good little cars. They drive pretty well and as stated, can make some nice numbers. If I were ever looking for a good sport compact to pick up on a budget to build as a DD or whatever a DSM would be it. They do indeed have reliability issues. They also suffer from being a damndable pain in the *** to work on. The engine bay is extremely cramped. The biggest problems with them are the trannys and inability to idle worth a damn. If you get one that doesnt have a new or rebuilt transmission and 3rd gear isnt already going out - be prepared, cause its on the way. The crank walk issue is highly overstated on them all though. The poeple seeing it were in freak circumstances or poeple makeing alot alot of power. Generally, if you find one thats past 100k, if it was gonna happen, it would have already. The cars are ok handlers but really, they seem more drag racers to me. Their deceptively heavy to be so damn small (something like 3200pds dry and no driver). Might be 3400.. Dont remember exactly. Either way, nice car. If shes interested in Auto-X though, why not look into something like a Miata? I'll admit I dont know alot about them, but I know their supposed to be fantastic road course cars and a real blast to drive. Ive heard turbo kits are becoming more plentiful as well, so getting one to kick some some horses wouldnt be too difficult either.

Ok, this is sorta tech, but I dont see any other section that this really belongs in since its not really car related. I have a question for you all.. I just bought an air compressor (thank god.. I finally have one.) and will be wiring it up tomarrow. I'd like some recommendations as to chord size from you folks. I dont know anything about it really and its not something I want to screw up. I know the compressor isnt super crazy amazing good or anything but its the best by budget will allow and all I really want it to do is run an impact, DA sander and paint gun. It should be sufficient for those uses in my garage. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?acti...0HFV&lpage=none Thats the compressor. The manual says the following: Voltage: 230/1 phase FLA: 16 Breaker Size: 30amp The chord needs to be about 25 feet long. I know thats long, but I dont have a 220v outlet in my garage, but luckily my dryer outlet is right around the corner. So, I'm just gonna run a long chord and do it that way. Inconvenient as hell, but *shrug* what works, works, ha. I have access to Lowes and Home Depo. I know what plug to get and such, I just need recommendations on wire gauge and the amp rating of the wire. I see some thats like 10 Guage, 15amp, etc. Would I need to match the wire amp to the breaker size requirement? I dont know how the two corrolate (sp?). Anyway, any info would be appreciated.

Ive seen a little bit on the bio-diesel stuff - but again, it comes down to the same problem Ethanol has (I beleive anyway) even if its "cheaper" is there anyway to produce enough of the stuff to make it efficient as a widespread fuel? Also, what kind of energy goes into producing the stuff. I think its a pretty good idea for a couple poeple here and there to do, but imagine 10-15 poeple in one city all vieing for the spent grease of resturaunts, heh. "Wanna go to the park?" "Nah man I cant." "Why not?" "That ******* Ben beat me to Denny's."