wow. Fat fanny!!

I thought spray painting was messy.

It's got nothing on body work . . . . . .

The rear flares needed to be trimmed to size to match
the profile of the car.

I used a linishing belt. . . . dust everywhere.

The flares were positioned in place using race tape
and then fiber glass matt strips used to glue them in position, which seemed to work ok.

The flares and some other areas needed to be bogged up and
then sanded back.

I used an orbital sander for the roughing down of the bog . . .
mega dust everywhere.

The only way I could get a finish smooth enough was to use 400
grit wet / dry paper wet.

Very time consuming.

I have no idea about body work and now have the utmost
respect for crash repairers and spray painters.

Cheers
Geoff

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I know what you mean about the spraying at home. Filter incoming vent on a big volume fan was the ticket but does take a lot of preparation.
Finish product looks good.
dp

Howdy,

Yes the car is actually finished.

I completed it in October.
I assumed that my new avatar photo was a give away to
the "Blue bastard" being complete.

The name "Blue bastard" has to do with trying to get it started.
more on that later.

Just a tip for everyone.
Spray painting primer at home in the shed is possible. . .
But without the proper ventilation it is very hot and smelly work. . . .

I tried to seal up an area to stop overspray filling the shed,
which worked but it created an area with no air flow so was
like spray painting in fog. . . .

luckily I have a good face mask with fume filters fitted and I
worn disposable overalls.

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I'm following along too, loving it so far. Great work.

I to am really enjoying this thread and the direction that it is taking. I like that you said your wife "was" very understanding. I'm assuming that the car is now finished and that this build didn't end the relationship. I'm yet to get married but my girlfriend knows very well that it all comes as part of the package.

Keep the progress coming because I'm watching intently.

Thanks for letting me know my ravings are be looked at. . . .

Time . . My wife was very understanding when it came to time.
it took 18 months of 3-4 hours most nights after work and 3 weeks annual leave at 12 hours a day to complete.

Money . . . Yes it has cost a bit.
I sold my first 1200 Coupe to Bob the Builder to help fund my Grey import R32 GTR.

The R32 GTR skyline. . . I progressively turned it into a race car with 350 Kw at the wheels. It was very fast but I did not really like the driving style required for a 4WD.

So I sold it and sank all the funds into this 1200 build.

It does help the speed of the build if you can sit down with a wish list at the beginning, and then order a ship load of parts up front.

The only way any of my race car builds were possible is that I did not have to pay for my own time and labour and I was able to do the line share of the work myself. .


Next step was getting the body ready for primer and paint.
I first started sanding the surface rust off but soon realised this was going to take forever and how do you get into the tight corners to remove the sound deadener?

So off to the sand/soda blaster it went. . . .

These pictures are of bare metal.
The sand blasting people said it would start to oxidise and rust almost straight away. . . . .

I sprayed the shell with etch primer the same day once I got it home. . That was a long day. . . .

Cheers,

Geoff

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I think we're all interested in this thead and wish we had as much TIME and money to do the same thing.
Keep posting and we'll keep reading
dp

I'm also following, this is an interesting build. I generally don't comment unless I think it might be useful.

Me too. Nice work with that rear suspension.