MusPuppis

Thanks very much Ernie. I love this forum and the poeple here. I learn so damn much, lol. I have a notebook full of little notes I take from posts here and write down as I go. I printed out your last post Ernie and added it, lol. Im learning gradually how much I'm NOt learning in school. I need to get back on track with my personal research. Do you have any good books to recommend Ernie? That does explain alot. The first coat of clear was wretched, I just made it worse as I went, lol. Yeah, the o-peel will come out with more wetsanding. its just annoying, lol. Had it laid down like it did the first go-round it wouldnt have required half the sanding this one did/does. Fortunatly I got a healthy three thick coats on the car so we have alot of clear to work with. Hm. dont suppose you could toss me a PM about getting the clear to flow out better since you dont want to post it publicly... hehe. Always interested in different methods. The more info I amass the better I become.

Definatly keep us updated on the DSM I wanna see what that little bugger runs. I just want a flat 13 high 12 second one.. hah. *sigh*.

Well, if I ever do get around to working on the car I have no clear plans honestly. Molded headlight buckets, shaved side markers, ZG flares (I'd love a wide-body but its not gonna happen). Color? No damn idea. I see-saw hourly. Engine? I have no idea. If I had the budget, RB or LSx. If not, L28et. If I really had alot of money to throw at it, I always thought a built, stroked, twin turbo (more for looks than anything) SHO motor would just be neat. The interior is rough. The dash is cracked all to hell. The whole car is rough, simple as that. Its been through alot and it shows. Ive certainly seen a whole hell of alot worse but its no peach.

I look at it. I touch it. I love it. I just cant work on it. I dont have the time, money, space, nothing. I'm trying to look ahead to when I'll be able to start but I just dont see it anywhere in the next couple years. I dont want the car to just sit and atrophy. Theres nothing I despise more than poeple who hold on to a vehicle for no other reason than stubborness, when all the while it simply degrades and fails, a little bit at a time. I dunno, just giving it some thought. The car is complete, less the engine. Its a shell currently, completely torn down but I have all the parts. One frame rail from the sway bar forward is dead. Battery tray is borked, floors were worthless so I cut them out. Fenders need work. Little assorted spots here and there. Rockers are squirrely. Honestly I dunno.. Kind of voicing my thoughts out loud at the moment. I guess if i did get rid of it, I'd simply give it away to a good owner. I cant see anyone paying much for it, I have no idea as to the value of a cut up, stripped and gutted '73 Fairlady, but I bet its not much. I want the car to have a good home but I just dont see when I'll have the time and motivation to give it the work it deserves and requires. *sigh*

A DSM I dont own yet.. lol. Hoping to buy one around February when I sell my SHO.

Its comin along! Build me a nice 4g63 and I'll finish the body work and paint for ya for the cost of materials!

God help me.. PvP obsessed, Well, I used to be. Anyone ever play Shadowbane here? ToC/LoC/TDA. We were untouchable. In WoW? God.. 60 warrior, 60 Shammy, 60 rogue, 50 some odd Druid. Dont play those games anymore.. Otherwise I forget what the sun looks like.

Yeah, the pearl refuses to show in any pics that I take. The crappy cast to the day doesnt much help either, You can see some of the o-peel I'll be resandind on the rear driver seide quarter though. I just want to know why the clear sprayed the way it did. I fought and kicked and it just would not lay down worth a damn. Maybe Ernie has an idea? Reduced 4:1:1. PPG 2002:DCX61 (if I remember correctly): DT885. On the final coat I went about 20% heavier on the reducer to get it to wet out a little better and it worked to an extent.. but not real well. Booth was approx. 75 degrees, give or take a swing of +/- 3 degrees. Iwata LPH400LV, 16psi at the inlet (as recommended), 1.4mm tip. I know using the 895 would have been preferable but we were out and I just dont think it would have made THAT much difference. Something else is squirrely here. Its a mystery to me honestly. The Sikkens clear I sprayed the first time around laid down like GLASS (as evidenced by the pics) and the 2002, which I understood was a better clear to begin with just went on like arse. Very annoyed. I half wonder if it wasnt an issue with the clear itself? I know we lent about a 1/4 cup to some guys to spray a pair of door jams and they used their own gun and it sprayed similarly poorly. Dunno.

Wetsanding How-To, By John Rodwell (aka MusPuppis) If this is worthy of sticky status I can make any changes required. By way of intro let me say that I am a student. I am not a profesional. This is one way to get the job done, not THE way. It works well for me and has been compiled and altered based on information found here, in books, my own experiences, my teachers info and just general tid-bits that I pick up as I go. So again, this isnt the definitive, one and only way to do it, but it should serve as a reasonable guide. Heres how I do it.. First and foremost, get all your tools and materials ready before hand. This includes the space you'll be doing the work. I like to start by cleaning the hell out of the area I'll be using. You want an area thats very well lit and as free from crud and debri as humanly possible. Really, doing the work outside in an open area is one of the better ways to get it done if you dont have an extremely well lit and clean garage or a paint booth handy. Good lighting is important, you need to be able see what your doing. It needs to be clean because if you get crap on the paper or finish while your sanding or buffing you can very quickly and very easily put some NASTY scratchs in your paint. Cleaning up and keeping it clean is one of those little steps that can save you a massive amount of grief down the road. Now comes time to get your tools, chemicals and materials in order. I'll list a basic run down of what I use and why. Water Hose - A constant supply of water is great. Keeps the surface cleaner as you work which improves your visibility and just makes it simpler as you go. Bucket - Obvious.. ya fill it with water and haul it around. Sponge - Put it in your bucket damnit. Ha. Simply a medium to get the water from the bucket to the car. Helpful for wiping panels off as you go. Spray Bottle - Put water in it. Use it to clean the paper as you sand, spray the surface off, just handy all around. Wet-Sanding Blocks - Dont wetsand by hand. Some areas it cant be helped, but they tend to be very few and far between. Wetsanding by hand is a good way to put little finger shaped depressions in the clear as you go. It can result in a wavy finish. Sandpaper - Good paper lasts longer and does a better job. Mirka is decent, 3m is dope. The exact grit will be discussed below. Make sure its wet/dry paper. Squeegy - Used to dry the car as you sand so you can see what your doing. Wetsanding blocks without paper can also be used. That happens to be my prefered method. I just keep one pad with no paper to sheet the water off as I go. Cutting Compound(s) - Used after you wetsand to remove the sand scratchs. There are a number of products on the market, some are "all-in-ones" a single use compound that cuts and rubs.. Transtar makes one I beleive. I dont have experience with them and simply list them to make the reader aware. I use and highly recommend 3m's 3 stage system. It consists of a cutting compound, a rubbing/swirl mark remover and a final glaze. Very good results, easy to use. Cleanup can be a butt-hole though. Proper preperation which I'll discuss later will cut down on cleanup considerably though. Buffer - If you dont have a good buffer stop right here and get one. Dont even bother using a POS, its not worth your time. A variable speed buffer is VERY VERY important. Some poeple like air powered, some like electric. For my own part, I prefer the electric over the air powered. White Pad - This is the cutting pad for your buffer, its a more aggressive pad than the black and is designed for use only with the cutting compound. Not the polishing. They come in two types, foam and wool. Wool is the meaner of two. It cuts faster, making shorter work of the job but has a higher chance to burn through and will leave more swirl marks in the finish. Foam is my personal choise, cuts a little slower, but its easier to get the swirl marks out as they arent nearly as bad and its a safer pad. Less chance of a burn through. Its worth it to go the extra mile and buy a good pad. Black Pad - Less aggressive pad for use with the rubbing compound. As far as I know they come in foam only. Same as before, quality, buy a good pad. Soap - Keep a small bottle of car wash with you. You use it in the spray bottle and bucket and such to slightly lubricate the surface. Keeps the paper from digging in as you sand and makes an easier job of it. Masking Tape and Fine Line Masking Tape - Used to protect body lines and edges. Lint Free Rags/Clothes Safe for Finishs - Used for a number of things. Dont just use paper towels, they can actually put little marks on clear coats. be careful bout using random household rags as well, they leave lint that can get caught in the buffer and leave swirls. Once you have everything you need its time to prep the car. This step is another one I see alot of poeple ignore. Skimping here can result in big trouble later as well as a much longer clean-up time. Clean the crap out of the car. Wash it very thoroughly. You want to remove anything from the finish that can potentially scratch or damage it. Now look over the car and try to work out a plan for sanding and buffing. Look for things that dont need to be sanded and mask them off. Think of it from a buffing and sight point of veiw. Can you see that indentation? Does it need to be buffed at all? CAN you buff it? Take the indents in a Z's doors for example. When no handle is present their quite visible but once you put a door handle in you cant see much of them at all. Their also difficult to get a buffer in to without risking burn-throughs on the raised edges.. So, why buff them? More work with no return. Mask em off. I also go along ALL the edges on a car, every damn one and mask them along their entirety with the fine line masking tape listed above. I use fine line because it leaves less of an edge to butt up against when sanding and buffing. Do the same for any sharp body lines or other edges on the car. These are the most likely places to burn through and should be protected. Dont worry about it effecting the over-all finish. You'll be masking such a miniscule portion with the fine line tape it makes no difference in the finished product. Now use the regular masking tape to mask off crevices between body panels, around the door jams, any and every place you dont want to get compound as you cut and rub. That stuff will get everywhere as you work and its a turd to clean up once it hardens. It can literally take hours to completely clean a car that wasnt prepped correctly. Spend an hour prepping and save yourself countless hours cleaning and fixing burn throughs. A quick note on sandpaper.. I personally use 1500grit. Now, the 3m cutting compound I use is rated to remove 1200 and up sand scratchs so you can use 1200 if you so desire. Hell if your extremely careful, or just plain crazy like my teacher you can get 800 grit then go over the area with 1200. I like 1500 grit because its (to me anyway) a safe medum between cutting too quickly and risking burn-throughs and cutting too slowly and being safer. If your worried about burning through due to inexperience or if the clear on the car is thin, 2000grit works quite well and is a fine paper to use. Just takes a little longer. Ok, its time to start sanding. Get your wetsand blocks, squeegy, bucket, sandpaper, sponge and spray bottle ready. Wet the car down with a hose, or lacking that your sponge. Also, put a small dab of car wash in the spray bottle and bucket, just a small amount. It acts as a lubricating agent as you sand and makes life alot easier for you. Wrap your paper around your wetsand block. Now, make sure its wrapped tightly and that the paper is completely clean. Also make sure it doesnt have any kinks or ridges in it from being bent or other-wise damaged. These can show through as you sand and cause you trouble, or at the least a less than perfect finish. Wet the crap of your block and paper and re-wet the panel you'll be working on. Start sanding. As I sand I like to sand front to back at about a 15 degree angle. This cuts well and goes along with the sight lines of the car. As you work keep even pressure on the sanding block, but dont smash it down. I dont use much more than the weight of my hand when sanding most times. Keep the spray bottle in one hand and spray the surface of the panel as you sand, this pushs the sanded out clear out of the way and keeps the surface and your block wet. I frequently pull the block away and dip it in the bucket. I also use the spray bottle to periodicaly spray the sandpaper itself off to make sure no little dirt nibs or other gremlins get into the grit and cause damage. As you go wipe the panels clean from time to time with your sponge and squeegy the panel off, keep a close eye on your panel. You'll be able to see the o-peel gradually disappear as you go and keeping track of exactly what your doing by frequently wiping and drying the panel is very important. Sanding blind is a waste of time and a risk of damage, nothing more. Swap out paper as often as you think is required. I use one half sheet of paper for every panel generally. You'll be able to tell when the paper just isnt cutting as well as it used to. Remember, dont sand where you dont need to/want to/cant buff. Watch what you do, keep your paper, water and car clean, keep track of what your doing and in no time (ok, well, after millions of mind numbing hours) you'll have a thoroughly sanded, orange peel-less, ready-to-be-buffed finish. After the car is wetsanded to your satisfaction clean it up again. Get all the sanding debri off the car, it'll appear as a milky pasty crud. Clean the hell out of it and dry the car completely. Replace any masking tape that didnt survive the wetsanding process. Wipe the car down with one of your rags. Grab your buffer and put your white pad on it. Now grab your cutting compond. We buy it by the gallon at school so I bought one of those cylinder ketchup bottles from Wal-Mart like you see at picnics and put the compound in it. Makes it easy to squeeze out onto the surface. Make sure to shake the compond well before you use it. Squeeze a small amount onto the panel your working on and use your buffer on the lowest speed setting to spread it around the area your buffing. Do fairly small areas at a time. I usualy visually divide a panel in two sections or more sections and do one section at a time. Once you have the compound spread around, turn the speed up and start to buff it out. Work in small areas, moving the buffer constantly. Dont apply too much pressure, but at the same time dont go too lightly or the compound wont do its job. Its hard to explain just how hard to press and exactly how to move the buffer, so i would suggest starting on a large flat panel like the hood, this should give you a solid, low-risk area to get used to the buffer. As you work you'll be able to see the finish buff out from a hazy, ugly mess to a shingy, glossy finish and as you go you'll get the hang of how to use the buffer properly. Its all about feel really. Compounds have a rated RPM their recommended to be used at and if your buffer comes with some manner of RPM guide, use the recommended speed.. Mine did not, so I have to guess.. lol. Really though, you can easily tell when your going too slow or not putting enough pressure down as the finish will still look dull or hazy after you buff it out. If this is the case, just put some more compound down and buff it again. Frequently wipe the surface off with a rag as you go so you can easily see your progress and so you remove the little bits of compound that get slung all over creation by the buffer. Oh, also, I tend to use one half of the pad at a time. I hold the buffer at very very slightly angle, just enough to keep the back half off the car. This keeps me from accidentally hitting an edge or body line with the back of the pad and causing damage. On large flat or open areas I lay it flush thought. A quick note on edges.. You should have yours taped off, but even still, always buff with the edge, not against it. By this I mean make sure the buffer is spinning in the same direction as the edge. Lets say your standing in front of your car and your about to buff the hood. Lets assume your buffer turns clockwise (mine does) you can buff the right side of the hood with the top of the pad but when you go to buff the left side you'll need to use the bottom of the pad. I hope that makes sense.. I'll try to take some pictures at some point. As you buff keep an eye on what your doing, work in small areas and dont be afraid to use generous amounts of compound. Do the whole car in each compond step at a time. Cut the whole care before moving on to rub, rub the whole car before moving on to glaze. Try not to get over confident or careless. Pay close attention as you go and be very careful. Between each step of the process look over the car carefully and make sure you didnt miss and sand scratchs. It sucks to think your done cutting and move on to rubbing only to realize you missed a spot and have to go back. When you have the whole car cut, go over it with a cloth and wipe off all the excess compound that you can and swap out to your black pad. Repeat the above procedure for the rubbing compound. You should see the finish get deeper and even more glossy, as well as a complete removal of the swirl marks. If you go over an area and the swirl marks are still present, go back over it until they arent. Wipe off as you go.. Essentially just repeat what you did for the cutting compound. Now grab yor rags and your final glaze. Final glaze is interesting stuff. It acts much like a wax by even further deepening and glossing the finish and protecting it from crud and chemicals. A freshly painted car SHOULD NOT BE WAXED. The paint will continue to dry and cure over a number of weeks and for this to happen properly the solvents have to evaporate out of the finish.. Wax will create a seal that will not allow this to happen, final glaze however is designed specificly to protect, shine and still allow the finish to cure correctly. The 3m final glaze that I use is applied by hand, just like wax. Buff it on with a clean cloth in a circular motion, buff it out with a clean cloth in a circular motion. A quick note on buffing and rubbing pad care.. After use, clean them off completely. Spray them down with water and get all the compound out of them. Squeeze them out so their just lightly damp and store them, each to its own, in a zip-lock bag. This will keep them supple and pliable until their next use. Un-mask the car and clean up any compound that managed to get where it doesnt belong. For hardened compound q-tips and rags with a small amount of wax and grease remover on them works well to break it up. Windex with amonia also works. Wash the car good and proper with your car wash, sponge etc, dry it off and sit back, smile and revel in your glory. Buy yourself something nice, you deserve it. If anyone has additions, issues, improvements or anything, I will gladly edit them in with full credit to the contributer. I hope I was thorough and didnt forget anything, its 5:30 am and I havent slept in a while, so Im a little muddled.. ha.

Ive been wracking my brain for a couple months now trying to decide what to buy in to once the SHO is sold and my next FA chunk floats in around February. After much consideration and an attempt at a realistic and reasonable budget I narrowed it down to either a 325i, Miata, Z or 1st Gen DSM. Once I settled on that list it was time to trim the fat and settle on a single car.. Budget is around 3-3.5k (hopefully, ha) First, '93 325i (93 was the year they changed the styling from cool to stupid sexy). Best of the bunch honestly. Not the fastest, if I were to get one it would receive very minimal engine work, I'd tinker with the suspension and such and it would just end up a DD/Autoxer. Eventually it was knocked out of the running though due to cost. I found a few here and there in my budget but it was really too big a stretch. Finding one I could afford meant it was a little more 'used' than I cared for, or had a buttload of mileage on it. Repair and maintenance isnt all that cheap either. It hurt, but I crossed it off. Second, 1st gen Miata. Nice from a couple angles. Its RWD, its small, its quick (relatively speaking), HUGE aftermarket, lots of potential. Best part? Cheap! I could get one around 1.7k, and have 1.3-1.8-ish to dump back in to it. Would be modding for speed at first (I cant really stomach selling the SHO for something noticeably slower..) then suspension/chasis work. Would be all around, little drag, little auto-x, lots fun. It got crossed out in the end though. I dont really want to buy a car and have to spend a month with the engine half torn apart while I try and work a turbo or the like into the mix. Its also really, really small. I like little, but I have a 200pd dog I cart around with me as often as possible and he needs some form of back seat.. He simply wont fit in the front seat. No way, no how. I'm also not a huge fan of the 1st gen styling. Now, the second gen (by the way, if Im misquoting the gen crap here, give me some margin for error, not well versed in Miata lore) are just sexy and if I could afford one, it would likely have won out based on looks alone. Oh, I'm also a big guy. Not tall, only 5 11 but Im stout and dont fit overly well in small cars, lol. Third came the Z. Any Z, lol. God I hated to knock it off the list. I'm not even gonna list its attributes, were on a Z site full of Z lovers, I think we know what it has going for it. It got knocked off though for a couple reasons.. I dont want something old right now. Old cars have lots of problem. Old cars have RUST and I dont want to 'restore' my DD. I just dont. Also, I'm just not a fan of modding the L series NA and I dont want to do a damn motor swap as soon as I get the car. Amazing car, I want to drive one again so badly but for a running project, go faster/DD its just not practical. All this lead me to the 1st gen DSM. Here we have speed out of the box. High 14 sec 1/4 mile with little more than turning the boost up and performing a couple of free mods (hacking the air box up, stuff like that). Here we have HUGE potential for more speed. Honestly, these little buggers see the 13's without that much work. Here we have a stout motor that can take an ass-kicking. Here we have a car I can buy in to well in my budget and still have money left over for the first string of 'mods' I intend to perform. It has a back-seat, pitiful but its there and Jeff can likely manage to fit. AWD makes me happy. Boost makes me happy. I really dont dislike the styling. They arent costly to work on really and when (I say when, not if) I blow the motor up, more are to be had, lol. Of course, they have their downsides to. They tend to be abused and buying one without lots of gremlins can be a task. The first gens DO NOT have crank walk issues, but the ONLY year I'll buy will be a 92. No crank walk in the 6 bolt motors and the '92 was the only year (atleast in the 1st gens, dunno bout the 2nd) that came with the 4 bolt LSD rear end. This limits my choices and makes finding one tough, but I'm patient. Well, thats a lie, I'm not. So Im giving all my money to a friend to hold for me.. lol. I have a decent amount of experience with these cars as well and know my way around them, as well as a number of their quirks and common problems. First mods.. Ha. Well, ideally, in a perfect world I would have 3.5k to spend. Buy in around 2.5k and have a grand to put in to the car. First thing I intend to do is pull the motor. lol. Yeah.. Pull it right the fork out. Do a thorough check and mainenance.. Timing belt, water pump, blah blah etc. Do everything I can to put it in tip-top running condition. Then clean the living crap out of everything.. Do to it what I did to the Festiva's motor. Some minor painting and touch-up stuff. Likely color match the valve cover and a couple other tidbits. Next would be to rip the engine bay itself down. Strip it, clean it, scuff it, then spray it black. As a matter of fact, spray it black pearl! ha. Well, if the car itself is already black I'll just clean the bay up real well.. Eventually the car will be getting a re-paint unless I somehow luck in to buying a black DSM in excellent shape, which I doubt. Put it all back together and start to delve into whatever is left of my budget. First go-fast junk will be good tires, Apexi N1 turbo-back exhuast, manual boost controller, real boost gauge (not a go fast mod really, but required IMO). K&N.. Blah. The usual stuff. Eventually I'd like to work out a big 16g, FMIC, short shifter and pretty much call it a day from the engine front. Body mods.. Like I said, paint it black. Probably black pearl. Maybe maybe some constructive shaving. Very minor. Color match the side pillars on the roof. if you've seen DSM's you know what I'm talking about. Normally their trim black, that kind of satin color. I think the cars looks better with those painted to match the rest of the car. Oh and some stickers, a HUGe wing. Actually three huge wings bolted together and a body kit thats as gross and wretched as I can manage. Suspension work would be minor. Slightly sportier springs to tighten it some and drop it a tad but really not a whole lot on the handling front. I'd love to get the car in to the low 13's but I really dont have much desire to move past that. I just wish the SHO was worth modding but I just cant stomach putting the money in to it. 182k miles on the odo. FWD, very nice motor but expensive to mod and the cost to get it into the mid to low 13's is HUGE compared to the DSM. Blah. Sorry for the long rant. I dont think this serves any reasonable purpose.. but its here none the less. *shrug*

haha, thanks Ernie. The car is done! Well, little more o-peel than I care for on one or two small spots I'll re-sand and buff come Monday when I get back into the shop, but for all major purposes, it is finished. I like it. And yup, the pearl is laid like I wanted it. Even distribution, flow from panel to panel. Very happy with it. These pics arent the best by the way. It was a really overcast and dreary day, so it doesnt show how shiny the little bastard really is. If its any better this coming week I'll snap some more in sunshine or push it back in to the booth, ha. Oh, ha, the o-peel doesnt pick up much in the camera but it was definatly there. Something was squirrely with the clear, it sprayed VERY poorly. It was textured all to hell and back and required some pretty major work with a wet block, ha. Most of its taken care of though, couple minor spots I'm gonna rehit and I want to completely rebuff the car but thats an expenditure in time of about a day or leisurely work, ha. I am still planning to do a write up on the process' I followed, but havent had the time I thought I would. This weekend has been SLAMMED. Ever tried changing a water pump on a 99 Contour? Yeah.. I know the trick now, but GOOD GOD.

For the last year my bud and I have had an 89 Civic DX 4 door as a DD. we named him Blinky cause when we bought him he had a Briggs and Stratton tractor headlight RIVITED to the fender where the old light used to be. He looked pretty slick. Wingnut and stud to hold the hood closed. Mangled fender, hood and other assorted bits and bobs. Oh yah, no exhuast past the cat, so it sounds oh so great. No passenger side headrest, lttle holes all along the fender lips where i got bored one day with a nail gun (I didnt know if it would puncture sheet metal.. It will). We routinely hit road barrels, cones and guard rails at speeds in excess of 30mph, dumpsters, herbies, our own cars, whenever we park blinky we run him up and onto curbs, we call it our parking brake. Ahh good times. Oh, super spidered window, completely borked.. Hood flew open at 50mph. The tractor headlight was removed some time ago and we took an 89 Mustang headlight and zip tied it in place. I will soooo miss Blinky. Still get to ride in him though, Bob drives him every day. He also added duct tape racing stripes and a side exit exhuast pipe.. Ya know, to heat the rear wheel for traction when drag racing.. *cough*. Man, you get some looks in that car when your sitting next to a Cobra R and very seriously trying to get him to race. Sad thing is Blinky has a few kills under his belt.. He actually beats the occasional ricer, its golden. 302k on the clock now. We drove it to 300k, sold it for 100$ to a guy in our auto body class and now he DD's with it. Ever done a reverse burnout in an 89 Civic? well neither have we, cause Blinky wouldnt do it, but buddy, it didnt stop us from trying on a semi regular basis. It seriously felt and sounded like the transmission exploded every time we did it. We also race EVERYTHING WE COME ACROSS in that car, its great.

Dont forget to get smaller carb pulleys, I hear with a smaller pulley the carb spins faster and makes more amps so your spark plugs fire faster. Or something. Light weight muffler bearings will help as well.

Sumo, Im pretty positive its in the mid 15's somewhere. 260hp but the thing is around 4k pounds or so. The new ones are faster Ive heard and someone mentioned something about a GXP but what that actually means I dont know, lol. This was the first or second year of the GTP that I ran. Ive ran a number of them actually and only lost to one but bboooyyyy did I lose. It was actually a turbo GTP, the guy junked the S/C. Very impressive car. He claimed a flat 13 on street tires and I beleive him... good god I got destroyed. Yeah, I need to fix them in the SHO. I'm likely gonna yank em out over the Christmas break and just weld them up. New ones are horribly expensive, its idiotic. I'll just rock some hard mounts, ha. doing another little writeup tonight actually on one turd stain in my class. The guy is plain amazing. Oh, that focus story reminds me of something that happened a few months ago. Friend of mine and I walk into an O'reilleys to get some random part for god knows what we're working on and theres two guys at the counter chatting. As we're tellin the guy what we need and such I'm kinda eavesdropping on their conversation cause I heard mentioned of a Cobalt SS. Well, they prattle on about this guys friend who has one. I'm just gonna list the mods and you can judge for yourself my reaction.. I'll try to use as close to the exact wording as I can remember. Two Blowers. (two.)(not one. two)(on a 4 banger.. two) Stage Three Everything (I dont even know what that means, but the guy said so.. Must mean he has upgraded stickers?) Chevy pays him so they can use his car to prototype performance parts (cause ya know, Chevy doesnt actually HAVE a Cobalt.. they just build them,, and they found some guy in SOMERSET Ky to use.. Yup) Times? he doesnt know but he DOES know its faster than a Mustang. Exact quote.. whatever the hell that means. I sure hope it is faster than a Stang with a pair of blowers and stage three everything! Oops! One more! Short one this time. Cousin of a guy we go to school with is in the shop, talking about his Trans-Am. beautiful car. Its an 02 I think, blue, ram air hood, LS1, fantastic I love em. He has some tuner hooked up to it so he can tinker (so he says, I dont know details) and said he was using the tuner to CHANGE THE GEARS IN THE REAR END but didnt notice any difference between 4.11's and whatever the hell else he was trying. Interesting! I wonder if you 'tune' a supercharger on your car? Or 'tune' other mods? Interesting. My guess is whatever he was changing was a speedo calibration thing.. 'le sigh. God.

Pics today as a matter of fact! They arent that great really, but they give an idea. The re-paint came out very well, except a very orange peely clear. I cant figure out why it sprayed so poorly.. Oh well, just means alot of wetsanding. Little info right quick, these shots are of the care cut with 3m cutting compound (step one in their 3 stage system) after being wetsanded with 2k grit. I'm not happy with some areas. They still came out orange peely so I'm going in tomarrow and hitting most of the car with some 1500 I picked up today to flatten out the trouble spots some then just rebuff. But, still and all the pics give a decent idea what it'll look like all said and done. Keep in mind, its still only the first stage, and its shiny as all hell. I think I have officially decided to use this exact color on my SHO if I can EVER get the money together to paint it. Of course 12 seconds after its painted it gets a for sale sign on it, but till its sold I'll look good drivin it, ha. Soooo gonna buy a DSM.. or Miata. Off topic? Sure.. Anyway, here is the Z as of today. Tomarrow will see it backtracked some, but the end resuly will be worth the trouble. Who needs a mirror? Everyone wave to me!

So, I'm sittin at school today doin the lunch thing, trying to understand why Burger King sells these stacker burgers for more than a whopper when their half the size. I'm in a high state of temper and a little wired cause after lunch I'm putting color back on the Z and dont want anything to go wrong. So, up pulls this black GTP and a guy about my age gets out and walks over to us. Now, the car seems clean. Bone stock in appearance, tinted windows. Really, I love GTP's. Sharp cars with a backbone. Stout DD IMO. Anyway, I digress. The guy gets out like hes in a movie. All slow and purposeful. Hes sporting a fuax worn out Abercrombie cap, some khaki shorts and some manner of similar shirt. Ok, so, A: Its overcast and he has on some Oakley shades. B. Its shy of 50 degrees by a fair margin and hes rockin some shorts. C. He really does look like he thinks hes in a movie. He's moving in like self slow-mo half the time. Now, I start to laugh. I love poeple like that, they make me smile. But, hes coming towards us so I figure I should keep a civil tongue, atleast till I see what he wants. Oh goodness. Little did I know how hard that was gonna be. The guy approachs and asks if we're in auto body. I walk out some and tell him we are indeed, does he need to speak with the instructor? Nah, not just yet. He wants to get his car painted and would like us to look at it and tell him what all he would need. Sure, why not? I like GTP's. So, heres me walkin over to his car with a couple friends in tow, wondering what hes gonna want done, cause its obvious that nothing is wrong with the car t begin with. Now, let me skip ahead some, otherwise I'll be here all damn night. On the body work front, nothin major. Wants a few things shaved, wants the car in silver with some black accents. Ive seen a couple done like that its pretty slick. Anyway, I rattle off a really basic estimate in materials and we start in on talkin about the car itself. Oh My Gooses. He opens the car talk with "yeah, it runs a 12". Now, just the wording of that and the way it was delivered belies (sp?) his foolishness. This came out of left field and a 12 huh? Low? High? Mid? Big difference bud. So, I ask what was done, and the shyte starts to fly like the dude had Taco Bell, beef stew and a 5th of whiskey stewin around in 'em. He looks at me and tells me the car has turbos. He points to the supercharger and tells me "their in there". So, I start to giggle. He then tells me he changed gears in the rear end. I start to chortle. Then he moves on to tell me he put an exhuast on the car (It looks BONe stock to me..) and he figures that added about 80hp or so, and since the car makes (in his words..) about 400 already, that put him close to 500.. Atleast I can kinda add. Now, at this point Bryan is standing behind the guy in hysterics. All the guys walked away cause they couldnt stop laughing. Im staring him dead in the eye, about to completely loose control of myself. I manage a somewhat stranged "Thats pretty slick man" and watch his face.. He is eating this up. He's on cloud 9 bullshitting about this damn car to someone he thinks beleives him. He goes on to tell me he's gonna put on NOS (notice, he said NOS not nitrous) and that the car was so fast he got kicked out of a local track. No longer am I smiling. No longer do I giggle or laugh or chortle. I just break down. I made a sound not far removed from a dieing animal (about 15 minutes worth of laughter I held in kicked out in about a second) and just broke down. I laid in to the guy. Told him the story with his car, what he had, what it ran, etc. He got pissed. Flat irate, I thought the guy was seriously gonna fight me over it. Im a stout little bugger though and he was deterred. Well, The guys have totally lost control of themselves after my outburst. Its not like they had it in the first place, but now, Bryan is literally on his side laying down in the parking lot laughing and trying trying to talk but all hes getting is a kind squeaky sound. All I can make out is my name and SHO over and over. Bob has tears coming down his face hes laughing so hard, Jordan has a look of complete disbeleif and I cant breath from laughing and half yelling at this guy. So, its arranged rather quickly. We'll scoot off a little and I'll run him in my SHO. Now, I drive my SHO like its an indy car. Seriously. I talk about it like its a damn Lotus or something and it looks a little like a fallout zone refugee. The front bumper cover at the moment is actually in my passenger seat. (repairing some massive rips in the plastic.. might do a write up about that if anyone cares). Alot of the car is covered in MarHyde yellow primer and its been blocked, so little patchs of black pop through here and there. The roof is still in guide coat cause Im lazy, the spoiler is cracked to hell and back and is infact IN the trunk, not on it. The hood, both front fenders, both front doors and the dr. side rear door are in black primer (final coat to be wetsanded out.. ran outa primer before I could finish.. hahaa) my windshield is cracked and my fuel pump sounds like a single engine airplane. Oh yeah, my engine mounts are so blasted the motor is more or less just laying in there. Welcome to my high performance, exotic race car. I'll have better, but when your a 60 hour a week student with rent, and the usual bills, even the minor stuff your car needs starts to get daunting. Hell, I had to sell some of my assorted crap to finish out the Z, lol. I'm gonna miss those subs.. That crossover, my DVD player and my surround sound.. ha. Anyway, Now, my SHO looks like arse, but it runs like a champ. It goes a pretty consistent 15.2 and I really beleive if my motor mounts werent non-existent I could manage a 15 flat. Hardly amazing, but its fun and suprises alot of folks. GTP's go around 15.4 if I'm not mistaken. A close race really. With any reasonable mods I a GTP will eat me (I found that out a couple weekends back.. lol). whatever.. We drive out to this little closed road we use for things such as this and bryan flags us.. I'm not going in to any details other than this: I killed him. He told me it was because he missed second. In an auto.. Sometimes I REALLY, REALLY worry about humanity, I do. I honestly do. *sigh* hahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaa.

Wont let me veiw the pics for some reason, odd. Glad the shiter has been moved. I heard about that a while back, but never saw the actual placement. Sounded stupid to me though, lol.

We cut through in a couple areas, which is why we wanted to reseal. We also had Sikkens Clear and were laying PPG base down over it, which made me a little nervous. This has been one of those Murphey's Law cars so I didnt want to risk any possible screw-ups. I ended up just buying some DP90LF in black. 600 grit on the clear, as recommended in my PPG refinish manual. I resprayed the car today. It went well and everything seems to be in top shape. Of course, I thought that last time to, lol. I went over the car very carefully though and didnt find anything out of whack this time around and I dont expect any issues (knock on wood). I painted the car as a whole, all the penals on and in place, I walked the car, followed your instructions and I'm pretty happy with it. Oddly enough, the PPG2002 clear didnt lay down as well as the Sikkens did. It wet out ok, but just didnt spray as smoothly. I pissed around with the gun for a while thinking that was the issue, but it was just more textured for some reason. Its still a smooth finish and what texture there is I'll kill when I wetsand the car, but I was disappointed. I had high hopes for the 2002 as I'd heard good things. I was un-impressed though. The Sikkens I sprayed the first time around was like glass, man it was smooth. Of course, clear has more properties than just spraying well, lol. Hopefully this stuff will harden up like a rock, but not before I get the orange peel out, lol. Pics to follow tomarrow. I forgot my damn camera today =/

I read this post and now have a headache.. lol. So, not to thread hijack.. but I have a J. Stevens Arms Company single shot .410. I figure its 80-90 years old or so. Wont fire.. firing pin seems borked. It leaves a tiny little dent on the shells, but my guess is its not enough to actually fire them. Anyone in Ky wanna fix it for me? lol. or buy it. yeah.

Yup. Recent upset and total lack of time have it on the back burner but the little turd is running. Starts up and idles well. Looks like one of the injector o-rings was damaged at some point and its spraying gas all over the place (lol). Bought the o-rings but havent had the time to pop off the rail and change em just yet. We have to finish plumbing the coolant and fab up the shift linkage and we are ready to goooooooo. Well, thats not counting the little odds and ends that creep up at this stage of a project. Leaks, minor wiring issues, things like that. we also picked up a set of 14in drag slicks for it that we'll mount to the Capri rims once its on the road. I was right.. Running it open DP sounds exactly like a really angry riding lawn mower, I'm very happy with it. Sounds so awful its bound to get alot of poeple gassed in traffic. Problem is the turbo is LOUD. REALLY loud. Gonna be a dead give-away. Once Rags' Z is done and done and done I'm gonna try to give the Festy a week of my time and get it on the road. Then I have to get my SHO painted and sold.. Anyone wanna buy it? 2k! Runs like a champ! ha.

Thats the turbo that comes on the B6T's. 323's and Capri XR2's. We have that exact little bugger on our Festiva. hahahahahaa. Anything past 15psi is dangerous. Damn that had to be nasty..

Steering rack can be rebuilt from LHD to RHD if I'm not mistaken. I dont know the details on it.. A member here did it on her GTO if I remember correctly.

Nothin wrong with a Honda at all. The new SI is supposed to be a mean little sumbitch to. I had one try me in the SHO the other day.. Ok.. well, he didnt try me, I blasted through two lanes of traffic and busted a u-turn so I could try him. It killed me on take-off (bad engine mount, I cant launch the car real hard, lol) and held me about halfway through second. I was getting worried, but I started to walk out pretty good as I wound out second. We did a 60mph roll down the road some (away from other poeple, lol). Was right with me till about 80.. I killed him to about 125. All in all though, very stout, fun cars and man they sound great. Its gotta be a blast to have 9k RPM's to play in, lol. Got any pics? Never seen the engine bay on one or the interior, lol.

Thanks Rags, I appreciate your patience. It will be done any day now and its gonna look just plain sexy. RacerX, THANK YOU for your observations and experience. Armed with more knowledge, this Z will be that much better when I respray. Which should have been done today but Highway 80 forgot to put my order on the damn truck =/. So, TOMARROW (god I hate that word) I'll be spraying the car unless the sky should fall or some ther catastrophy befalls me, which is a possibility thats flat out reasonable given the string of idiocy that follows me around these days. Something I'm interested in knowing Racer.. Can you effectively tint a sealer? I have some light grey sealer I would love to darken to as near black as possible. If I cant manage it I'll just weasel a deal for some DP90.. A guy at the shop as a half gallon I might be able to work a trade for, lol.

So, in order to sleep tonight. In order to ever sleep again I'm gonna just hope that car is a raging joke, being played on everyone who sees it by some random person with alot of money and a sense of humor. I hope.. god I hope.