MusPuppis

I lay it as wet as I'm able to, hehe. What I do is lay two dust coats, one fairly minor, one a little thicker all over the car to give the base something to stick to. 5 minutes tack on the dust coats, then I start to lay down wet coats. I go as wet as I can without risking a run. Im using DT895 Reducer to aid in wetting out and make sure it lays down smooth. I give a 12 minute tack time between wet coats. Our booth sits around 85 degrees once its up and moving, ideally, i think I could manage a better over-all finish if I could effectively keep the temp down some. Maybe 75-ish. would give the base more time to wet out. We also have too much air flow IMO. Causes the base to dry up a little quicker than i would prefer when going for the best possible finish. In a production enviroment the booth would be great, spray it, dry it off and get it out, lol, but for this, I'd like a little difference here and there. Its nothing that wetsanding cant cure, but the better the finish in the onset the less time I have to soaked in clear residue and soapy water saying a prayer to every god I can think of I dont burn through and bork the job. Pearl wont blend (more than likely I simply lack the skill..) and it makes me sad. The car is re-prepped and goes into the booth tomarrow. edit: On the base.. I've been reading up on pearls and such and some painters like to do their wet coats and when the whole job is done they like to pull back, turn up the pressure and pattern some and lay a dry dust coat over the whole car in one massive motion. The idea is to evenly distribute pearl over and across all the panels so everything flows more properly. I did a couple test panels but didnt notice a difference myself, but the test panels were small, so that could very likely effect the final product.

Two stage with the pearl in the base. this time around the car will be completely assembled. Buckets and doors on, hatch, everything. I'll be able to walk the car properly this way and the pearl should flow properly from peice to peice since they wont be painted seperatly. Im still steamed about it.. having to redo it. Rags is likely to kill me, lol.

Well, I screwed up, car is being entirely repainted Tuesday. I painted several panels off the car and the hood standing straight up.. This resulted in a 'patchy' appearance from panel to panel.. the pearl just didnt flow correctly. Im a moron. Its a shame to, cause it laid down so well, hardly any orange peel, wetsanding was a breeze and you should have seen it buffed out.. Good lord it was slick. I lost and entire day wetsanding and partially buffing to before I noticed it.. In the shop lighting and in the booth you couldnt tell but under real sunlight it was noticeable. not by much mind you, but you could tell if you looked long enough. I made a scene to.. started cussing and kicking ♥♥♥♥, was pretty funny, scared the hell out of some high schoolers who were touring the campus, hahahaha.

I wouldnt mind to share one bit, Im actually doing a write up on the process' I followed. Ive had a couple requests from folks. It'll be done in a day or two. Yeah, time to cut and rub... Very nervous time, lol. I plan to wetsand it with 2k very carefully, then use 3m's 3 stage. I like that stuff and have had good results with it in the past. foam pad, lower RPM on my electric buffer (I know some poeple prefer air, but I like the electric personally), gonna tape all the edges and just be stupid careful. Foam pads, wool cuts alot faster but I dont care for the swirl marks. Ok, on the Iwata, I love it. LOVE it. We have a SATA NR2000 at school with the build in digital regulator, very nice gun, I think my Iwata outshines it in pretty much every way. The Iwata is really light. Noticeably lighter than the Sata which to me is a real plus. Makes the gun easier to handle and doesnt kill your arm when you have to extent over a roof or the like. The iwata is also fairly small which could be a good or bad thing. It fits my hand really well, but a friend of mine says its not as comfortable for him as he has large hands. The gun cleans easily and is very very well made. Also of interest is the needle. The 1.3 1.4 1.5 and 1.6 tips all share the same needle, making it easier and cheaper to buy and swap new tips. The atomization with my 1.4 is superb. The paint lays down like glass and the gun is very consistent and easy to dial in. Mine is also the LV model which, which is Low Volume. 16psi at the inlet makes the required 10psi at the cap and the gun only needs requires 9 cfm, much better than the GTi and Sata's 15+. Makes it much easier to use if you dont have a godly compressor and means the gun is a little more forgiving of less than perfect hose and regulator setups. All in all, a fantastic gun. I have to say though, the built-in regulator on the Sata is a slick feature. I consider it worth every penny I paid for it and alot more besides. Oh, the color is just OEM Nissan Black Pearl. Original color on the car. Very good looking paint to, has me considering doing my SHO in it.. Assuming I ever get the money together to finish out the body work and paint the damn thing, lol.

Well folks, here she is in color and clear, wetsanding and buffing comes Monday. Car was sprayed with my Iwata LPH400lv w. a 1.4 tip (thanks Rags!). PPG DBC Black Pearl base w. Sikkens Autoclear HS+ clear. (Rags and I checked for product compatability before we mxed brands). More to come when I get a chance.

haha. Nope.. It never ends. DSMs are stout, dangerous little cars. They sound like lawn mowers though,

One of the screws is NOT budging. Not at all. I didnt want to risk breaking it. Ill type up my process when I get a chance. Im actually clearing it right now, just killing time while this coat tacks, ha.

No stickers? Look, if your gonna post on Hybrid you need to learn a little more about performance before opening your mouth. No stickers and you say it goes 12's? i call bullshit. Period. Aint gonna happen. Not without atleast one NOS sticker and if you dont have a Greddy sticker on there as well I'd have real trouble beleiving you. I mean, really. Learn your stuff before you post this garbage. Honestly.. One question, in all seriousness.. 24psi on the stock turbo? Ive never heard more than about 16-17 before the Td04 enters very dangerous territory. Not saying your wrong, just never heard of boost like that stock off that turbo! Edit about the turbo. Dont some later models come with a 16g? Maybe thats the turbo that allows those boost pressures, though I thought it ended around 18-19psi I really want one, lol. If I do get one Im planning a simple set of bolt-ons and nothing else. Its gonna be a DD. Apexi DP, larger injectors, larger MAF, better air pickup and a front mount, tuned ECU. I dont think I'll be going anything else. Turn the boost up when I wanna play, keep it down for normal driving.. I'd like to pull a consistent low low 13 out of it @ 16-ish PSI. I think its possible. One thing Ive always thought of as a downside to the DSMs is the engine bay. I dunno what it is but somehow they just never look real good. Ugly little setup IMO. a few poeple have done em up ok, but in general its just so cluttery in there.. Thats one thing I love about the SHO, engine bay is clean and simple since the motor dominates the whole thing pretty much. Sorry, not trying to hijack, lol, just pic whoring a little.. My SHO engine bay when it was clean;

hahah. I had the same comment about Donnie in another thread.. Thats not me, a good friend and very talented and meticulous fellow. Donnie kicks ass, lol.

Ok, details first my dear and then the pictures.. or something. Yeah.. '78 Black Pearl 280z. Rags brought it down from Jersey for body work and paint. If anyone remembers my "So you want your Z painted" thread, its that one! Painted and body worked for the materials cost only, as a way of saying thanks to the community. These pics are of the Z in final masking and then sealed. By all rights we should have spent the day not sealing and prepping but wetsanding and buffing, cause the damn thing should have been in color and under an asston of clear YESTERDAY, but I am a student and so subject to the wretched whims and massive idiocy of my classmates. They arent allowed to touch the car, only myself, Bryan and Donnie (the fellow you see in some of the pics) But they still manage to get in the way and throw me off. Like when a few of the yokels primed a bumper 4 feet from the Z right after I finished wetsanding it.. Overspray? Oh yeah. Whole back end had to be re-sanded. Then they took, literally, an 8 hour day to paint th hatch on am SUV. 8 hours just to mask and spray color on a hatch... Not to mentioned some mystery scratchs on the doors no one will own up to. I had a small melt down about those. The end result is two days behind where we should be, but we're still chugging along and first thing tomarrow morning when I get to school im hosing down the booth, cleaning it up WELL, and sprayng color and god help any idiot that gets in my damn way or opens that booth door when Im in there. I'm gonna kill em dead with my bare hands, lol. Further details on the car will have to come from rags as I dont know what motor is planned for her or just what the car will be when its done. what i do know is its gonna be Black Pearl and massively sexy, Rags will be finishing the build, Im just doing the paint and body work (to his extreme credit though Rags had done a fair amount of body work to it already and it was top knotch,) and his work is stellar, so this should be one fine ass Z when its back on the road. Hopefully tomarrow will see my posting some pics of her in color and then in clear! In the meantime, here ya go; (Oh, notice donnie not in a paint suit? Me either, both ours were stolen earlier this week.. see why Im a little irritated with my classmates? ha)

DSM's are great little cars. The crank walk thing mentioned isnt an issue with the first gen 6 bolt motors. It gets tossed around alot and people repeat what they heard and such.. Misinformation. Now, they are, or tend to be, creaky and cheap in some areas but that motor is very very stout. Once I get my SHO painted (if i ever get it painted) it goes up for sale, that coupled with some very hoped for income in the near future should give me 3.5k or so to buy into something else and a DSM is at the top of my list. 92 AWD ONLY. 6/4 combo, best of the DSM's. I hope to get one if I cant buy into a nie 325 series bimmer or pick up a Miata ultra cheap and have money to build on it some. Ive had several friends with DSM's and I love the little turds, bone stock with nothing but a little extra boost and they scoot. A few simple and somewhat cheap mods and you end up with a nasty little car for pretty cheap. Beware the 2nd gear grind though, ha.

Im pretty positive they are the same motor. A guy at my school has one (one of the instructors) and Ive looked at it. Exact same motor and rated output. That truck is a BEAST.

Yeah, searching is the best option. At some point in time just about every engine swap imaginable has been proposed, researched and/or completed on this site, and pretty much all of them have very informative threads with a plethora (I promised myself I'd use that word today) of information on anything you could ever want to do. Want somethin really fun? Look up the Busa v8.. hehe.

Is there a level 7? "Screwed and your stupid for trying?" I want to rate my Z there. Well, if I can find enough of it to rate that is. ATM its not o much a Z as a, um, paper weight or sumthin.

The turdcel should have the 3efe motor in it, ultra efficient, they go forever. Really, even though they come with a 4speed its geared well. You can find a 5 speed out of an early 90's Paseo and if I'm not mistaken its a direct bolt-in, I think you have to swap shift linkage or something and thats it. However, that transmission is geared close and I'm betting the 4spd in the 'Cel will out do it for fuel mileage. My Paseo (Yeah, I hear you poeple laughing. It even had the J-spec 5efhe swap, ha) cruising at 70mph was sitting at like 3300rpm, not so efficient. Man, as mentioned though, you cant beat the CRX HF. A bud had one that we eventually ZC swapped, but before the swap, that little ♥♥♥♥ was INCREDIBLE. It didnt even take gas. You just drove close to a gas station and sat for a few minutes, just let it absorb some fumes through the body panels and you had a weeks worth of driving in it. When it ran outa gas, I think it just switched to friggen solar power or somethin, cause it never stopped, ha.

Sup Racer, Yeah, everything is going well, about to fly to Tampa for 10 days to help a friend out for a little bit, hehe. I think I just might pick up a set of those blocks when finances permit. I noticed that about the paper, I had wondered.. Normal paper crimps if you give it a little too much bend. Found that out the hard way a couple days ago, lol.

On stubborn roofs I use an O/A torch to shrink the metal, if its being a pain. In general, this is my method for filling and smoothing: Back it to bare metal, do what metal work you can. Another thing to be cautious of here is when backing the panal to bare metal, go easy, grinders can build up enough heat to slightly warp panels on occasion. Once thats done, get your filler and fill the primary low spots, I cut it with 80 grit and leave it at that. When your satisfied the spots are decent (not perfect, just high or very close to correct) I go over the whole roof with a thin coat of the filler again. Cut the parafin(sp?) with 80, then take an air file with 180 and basidly rest it on the roof. Dont apply any real pressure, just the weight of the file and start filing. Direct it so it rides front to back, over and over and just let it keep going until you start seeing bare metal. Its a slow process but the file does the work, so you can kinda daydream, lol. Just let it go until your satisified with what you have and you think its very very nearly done. NOW! Apply another skim coat of POLYESTER METAL GLAZE (I LOVE that stuff) over everything and fnd yourself a semi ridgid sanding block. You can rebuild the crown now and make sure everything is completely smooth. (I use 180) This is the slow step because now it has to be perfect. Just be careful and maintain the contour. Also, primer should ALWAYS be the bridge between your filler and the metal. Once the your done with the polyester coat and satisfied, prime the hell out of the roof and block her! This is a technique we used on Rag's Z's roof and it came out pristine. Also used it on an S-10 and a Malibu, comes out slick and flat. It seems like its alot of material on the roof, but in the end it all sands mostly back out and you get this ultra thin, ultra smooth layer over everything. Hope that helped, if I need to clarify any points please let me know. Oh, Racer.. You use those blocks? I have been SO wanting to get a set but wasnt sure if they were really as good as they claim to be. Your opinions?

Make sure to get some plastic or something to enclose the carport (leave some room for ventiliation of some form. I'd also wet the place down and clean the living hell out of it before spraying.

You could always rock the smoke screen my SHO does, just screw up your rear main like mine, so whenever you get on it dumps a tad bit of oil onto the exhuast, its great, only, like great in a really crappy way =[. I knew a guy once who had a Nova with the floors rotted out, we could pour crap through the passenger side floorboard straight onto the exhaust, man but we had more fun with that than we should have.. lol.

My understanding of them is they work alot like nitrous, in that its used in spurts and you dont get many of them before you have to recharge. It would seem to me just throwing some nitrous on the L28 would afford the same results, while being lighter and cheaper. Those batterys add some weight. I dont speak for the kits quality, but all the reading and reveiws Ive read on these type of supercharges basicly says "Why not just juice it?". Also, for 1600$ why not just get an L28et (You can find them as low as 1/4 of that cost) and work from that.. Its already got boost!

What the hell is wrong with poeple, lol. Those wheels are hideous, though the car is looking pretty sharp. I agree as to it not looking finished though, it needs something.. I couldnt say what, but I'm not a designer! The Stratos.. Yeah. So, hum.. Ok, ok, Heres what we do, we find the guy(s)/gal(s) that designed it right, and we say "Wow, awsome car! Let me take you out to eat to thank you for such a fine vehicle!" So, since its likley that since they released that monstrosity, they have been unemployed and unable to find employment, they'll need to eat, so they'll agree without a fuss. Then, and heres the kicker, instead of taking them out to eat, we take em to the post office right, and then we mail them somewhere. I dunno where, the middle of the atlantic ocean maybe.. Mars? Whatever is cheap on postage really.

He needs to be a tad more careful..

Damn, lol. Sounds like that thing means business..

leather vinyl! You know, from plastic cows! Sharp looking. Theres a white one running around Lexington, or was about a year ago, looks almost identicle to that one but with different rims. Sorry, but wagons make baby jesus cry. (lets all pretend I can spell and type and function as an adult)

Heres what you want to do, Come to Kentucky and buy my SHO 220hp/200trq. 4 Doors, leather, 5 speed. Your lookin to spend 30k, I'll only charge ya 20k! OMG! Anyway.. lol. I had the occasion to ride in one of the new Saab's the other day. i wish I could tell you the model.. Man, that thing was slick. 4 doors, leather, auto sadly, turbo though. We werent able to get on it cause of traffic, but it was smooth and silk, I was very impressed. I couldnt say if it falls in your price range though. Tough to go wrong with a Camry. The new ones look pretty slick to.