Weather permitting this weekend, should have my bay and inside boot painted. Will post some pics once done.

Picked up a NA S4 rx7 water pump and housing this week this week, just cleaning it up so i can paint the pump, send the housing and thermostat housing off to be soda blasted when i get the housings etc done.

Also got some rotor shaped door lock knobs and finally found someone to repro the MOMO SISTEMA decal for my wheel and make a couple fo other custom resin dome decals for me. No one in AUS seems to be able / interested in doing this type of work. Got quoted $75 for the little MOMO decal here in SA. Got an awesome guy in the states to make my decals and stuff now. Great quality and service.

Also got these today........Been trying to get them for a few years....




For those not in AUS these are standard issue government plates from the early 70's. You can now purchase these original combination plates again provided that the registration has lapsed for a minimum of 5 years. These lapsed a few days ago, so I grabbed them as soon as I could!!

No yearly fees or anything as they are just normal SA plates.

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

Cool plates, we have a VERY similar law in Ohio that allowed me to use original 1986 plates for my Oldsmobile.

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-Cam
1988 Mazda RX7
1980 Toyota Celica
a bunch of cool other cars I'm not allowed to list

SO weather started out shitty, thought I would do some final sanding and prep work just in case.......and well then the sun came out and warmed things up.

Painted the bay, inside the boot, back of the boot lid, fuel filler hole and back of the fuel flap. 3 coats on each followed by 3 coats of clear.


Want to put another coat of clear on the bay, hopefully Tueday morning, and then let to sit. Came up quite nice, no runs, and quite glossy. Bit of a polish and it will be sweet Will let it sit for a few weeks before any polish though!!








Plan is to do the back of the bonnet, front apron this weekend as well as the black on the tops of the doors and also the b pillars.
Anyone got any pics of the blackout section on 2 coupes? I want to keep it factory looking in this regard, I don't like the door frame and pillar being body colour. When this section is blacked out it makes the car look pillarless which I like

Any pics would be great.

Also spent some time on the water pump bits that aren't being soda blasted. Fitted the new pulley to the pump as well. First time it's been out of the box in a couple of years!! My wife bought it for my 32nd birthday, I'm nearly 34 now!!





More updates and pics to follow....

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

Engine bay paint looks fantastic.

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-Cam
1988 Mazda RX7
1980 Toyota Celica
a bunch of cool other cars I'm not allowed to list

Nice work, I give it 5 out of 5 chef's hats.

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occasional blog: http://ewokracing.tumblr.com

Brought to you by me as I browse Geocities webpages using Netscape Navigator while listening to Jam & Spoon.

Thanks for the comments and support guys!! Had a look in daylight, definately needs a good wet flowcoat of clear and then should be good as gold.
Has a little bit of peel in it, nothing a polish won't flatten off.

It gets a little frustrating when you do all this work yourself, I find that I am very critical of it and focus on what's wrong with the work that I have done as opposed to looking at what is right with it.

Growing up on the show car circuit gives you a great eye for picking things to death!!

I probably just need to remember that this car is entirely home built on a budget that is less than what some people spend on wheels and brakes alone. It was never meant to be a show car, just a weekend cruiser that I can enjoy and fly the flag for classic Japanese cars!!

Hopefully some new pics and paint updates this weekend!!
Come May the car should be very shiny orange and have a lot of the undeside bits and pieces re-installed. Just need some tyres and front brake hoses and she will be rolling!!

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

I tend to get a bit picky at times too, then I look at some unrestored cars from the 70's and the build quality on them, particularly American ones, is woeful. Whatever work you do will be far better than what Mazda churned out back in the day.

(like where they missed painting the rear lip of the bootlid on my 1300!)

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occasional blog: http://ewokracing.tumblr.com

Brought to you by me as I browse Geocities webpages using Netscape Navigator while listening to Jam & Spoon.

Very nice Benn, you've almost caught up to me If you are getting excessive peel, maybe try bumping up the air pressure a little OR turning down the fliud knob a touch. I ended up buying a decent gun which cost a few hundred. It took a while to get the hang of setting it but with a little practice I can now get it to spray with very little peel almost glass like when I get everything spot on. There is a big difference between this gun and the cheapy guns. The biggest difference I notice is I can get a much larger flatter fan and it seems to atomise the paint far better. The old Star gun I have also can do a nice job however the fan is much smaller. Still, it doesnt matter how good the gear is, every now and then I still mange to screw things up ! My biggest problem when I first started was seeing the wet edge when painting. I think that is a big problem with painting light colours........ A friend donated 4 large fluoro's lamps. That'll make a huge difference when I go to do the shell.

I dont want to show much more until the unvailing later this year

Hey Gypsy, so what you are saying is that your thread is a fair bit behind where you are actually at.....

Everyone has to keep something up their sleeve.....

I re coated the bay today. After practising on some old front guards and reading so old school stuff from guys that painted with acrylics back in the day, I have come up with some techniques that are working a treat!!

Still using my Scorpion gun, loving it. Getting the hang of it now, using about 45 psi through a 1.4, fairly large fan with lots of overlap. I know what you mean about the wet edge, hard with clear, but this setup seems to fairly forgiving with that.

Tried out a trick i read about, doing the last coat very lightly with just straight thinners to help flatten it off. Works really well, but must be very light. I went a bit heavy on the top of the radiator support panel and ruined the finish, so will rub it back tomorrow with some 1500, give it quick hit of orange, and then a few coats of clear. At the final coat using about 80/20 thinners to clear and coming out quite nicely. Going to give the bay a gentle rub with 1500 - 2000 and polish by hand. Happy with the result thus far!! (apart form the rad support )

Also started restoring the jack, wheel chock etc. Painting it in blaze blue, very similiar to the original air cleaner cover blue, just for something different. As I will have no access to the original jack mounting position, due to my boxed in boot, I have bought a 24 inch black canvas tool bag and have the old school mazda writing on the sides of the bag.
Not going to have much room in my boot with the spare, battery, washer bottle and tool kit in there

Will post up some pics after I have redone the rad support panel and the tool kit when I have finished painting!!

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

Been getting bored waiting for paint to flash off, so have been doing this in between coats.........

Obviously not original colour, but I like it!!

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

Painted under the guards today. Went with 3 coats of underbody sealer. Bought 4 litres of the K&H brush on underbody, tipped about a third of the can into an icercream container and added about a third of thinners.

I have a syphon feed gun that has a 2mm nozzle that my Dad bought from an auction years ago. It was part of a boxed lot. I had never used it so I though I would give it a crack.

Mixed the underbody spray up evenly with the thinners, filled the pot, had a bit of a play on an old guard till I was happy and went for it.

Really happy with the result, came out very consistent.

Also gave the undercarriage its first coat while i was laying on the floor!!



Next is some more orange....need to do the jambs and the underside of the bonnet.....

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

Looks impressive Benn, I think youre just about to pass me in terms of progress.

Did the siphon gun spray the body deadener smooth or textured like factory ?
I bought a special gun to get the textured look. Cheap at $30, can be used for spraying wax as well after you finish painting.

The finish is textured, but from memory not as "lumpy" as the factory stuff. I can't really remember what it was like as it was stripped off years ago.......

Feels quite good too, slightlt rubbery.

Just need to give the underside a few more coats to get great coverage. Must say it actually looks like I have achieved something
I keep wandering out to the shed and having another look!!

Also found something on the net that I will have to order - a foam pad polishing kit with 75mm pads that go in a right angle die grinder!! Should make polishing the bay and door jambs a whole lot easier

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

I see, may give it a go using 2.5 nozzle.....

I picked up one of these cheap ages ago for the exact same reason you got one. Its a 3" right angle polisher for tight spots like door jambs, engine bay etc. Hopefully it wont get used too much ! Also came with a wool pad. 3M make 3" foam polishing pads in case you didnt know. There are a few others out there as well. Cant recommend any though as I havent used them. Great for touch ups in those tight spots. Its air powered for those that dont know.

A lesson learned.....

I thought I might share this with you.....might come in handy......

Never, ever, ever skimp on a good quality respirator....
It seems that not long after my last post I discovered that my cheapo respirator failed.....BIG TIME.

It appears that one of the cartridges has stopped filtering whilst I was spraying the deadener on the car......

Result.....couple of hours after I did the deadener, I went inside feeling quite chuffed with myself. Had a shower to wash all the overspray and crap off. Started getting a sore throat. No big deal. A couple of hours later, throat and passage down throat to lungs started to feel sore. Shortness of breath and wheezing. Soon after that laying in bed with my respiratory system feeling like it is on fire, convinced that I may die...MASSIVE headache that has lasted for approx 50 hours. coughing up some pretty redical shit.
Breathing has almost gone back to normal today, 2 days after the apraying occured.

Let this be a lesson to all. Buy a decent Respirator. I'm going shopping for new one tomorrow.

Even with the garage doors and windows open, and fans going, the vapours will get you.

Let me tell you, it's a pretty scary feeling, and far worse than when I knocked the steering box out of the vice and broke my big toe. Least I just have a piece of bone floating around in that!!

Gladly, as I am still breathing, I can resume my normal updates on the car.

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

Oh my God! Glad you're okay. I was looking at respirators the other day, and leaning towards a cheaper option...yikes. If I was a mod, I'd make this post a sticky. This is information everybody needs to read.

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-Cam
1988 Mazda RX7
1980 Toyota Celica
a bunch of cool other cars I'm not allowed to list

Aaron Hogan had a very similar scare while painting with POR15. He was in the same way, really really nasty stuff.

Were you wearing Jesus slippers when you broke your toe Benn?

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occasional blog: http://ewokracing.tumblr.com

Brought to you by me as I browse Geocities webpages using Netscape Navigator while listening to Jam & Spoon.

Sorry to hear that Benn... here are my thoughts, no respirator is going to 100% solve your problem. I use a Sundstrom mask with a carbon filter and only use it when handling solvents (with carbon filter attached) or whilst sanding (without carbon filter) but with the pre dust particle filter and dust filter attached.

I did a fair bit of research into the topic before buying a positive pressure fresh air system and cover myself from head to toe including solvent proof gloves. Respirators are only good where you are working in an area where all the air is continuously refreshed very quickly such as a down draught booth. A good booth will suck any airborne matter out of the air right away.

Respirators do not filter all matter passing through them, however they do improve the air quality you are sucking in. If you have spray mist everywhere there is no way a respirator will do as good a job as if there is little mist around. Its an open topic however Ive never seen a published document saying how long an active carbon filter will last. In an area with poor ventilation some pros say the carbon will stop filtering hydrocarbons solvents and Isocynates in as little as 10 minutes. What I have seen manufacturers do is quote how many parts per million a carbon mask will filter and its not everything even when used as designed ! The other good brand that comes to mind is the 3M, they have a good website, maybe read the product safety sheet.

The other trap people fail to realise is that just because you cant smell it doesnt mean you're not breathing it in. Yes carbon does filter odours however paints do contain chemicals that are odourless, which is probably why you were feeling sick For me the decision was easy, Ive already saved 15 - 20K on panel and paint so getting a fresh air system was good for piece of mind knowing Im breathing 100% good air all the time.

My only suggestion if you dont want to spend the money on a fresh air system is spray the car outside on a nice sunny day wearing a carbon mask if you live on a large property or rent a paint booth.

Some wise words there Gypsy!!

Yeah a proper booth would be gold!!

Planning on going with a 3M respirator and getting a spare set of cartridges for the spraying session in the next couple of weeks.

Normally when I paint I have the garage doors WIDE open, the windows at the other end open and fans going to push the air through the garage and keep it fairly fresh and have never had any issues.

I might borrow another compressor and set it up to be blowing some of the excess mist out of the garage door while I am painting...... and maybe revise my fan setup to include some extras...

Was still finding today at work that I got short of breath quite easily. Feel like an old man!!

And surprisingly, I was actually wearing leather shoes when I dropped the steering box..... Normally I am wearing my Japanese Safety boots .....except when I weld.....learnt that the hard way too....."its only one quick weld" as the MIG spits and sends a hot rock straight in between my thongs and the sole of my foot. Still have the scar from that one. Ha ha.

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

I can go one worse Benn... I generally wear a pair of old thick canvas type pants while welding. They are generally OK while using the MIG except for this particular day while doing some overhead welding. A small hot steel ball flew off, burned through the crotch area and landed on my balls... never moved so fast in my life If that wasnt bad enough it happened again moments later Lesson here is keep your legs together when doing any overhead welding.