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12 minute(s) of a 111 minute read
9-2-2012
9-2-2012
Back from the dead...
It's been a while since I've updated this; almost a year, in fact. Let's rejoin the tale.
I didn't get a whole lot of work done over the winter; winter is cold, and cold sucks. 
Wasn't about to try to paint anything in that crap, even if I'd had the parts to paint, so I got a little bit of wetsanding done and tried to reassemble some stuff. Orange peel has been my nemesis on this whole project. I clearly (ha) need to practice some more on spare parts or something, because so far I haven't been very good at laying the clear down smoothly. I ended up with quite a lot of orange peel in the clearcoat on pretty much the entire car.
The only remedy to this is wetsanding, also called color sanding. A bucket of water with a few drops of dish soap mixed in, a squeegee, a sanding block and lots of sandpaper were my best friends and worst enemies for a good long while. The squeegee helps to get the water off so you can see the texture underneath; you don't want to sand too hard and burn through the clear into the color or primer. DAMHIK. 
The wetsanded surfaces are smooth, but the clear still has a bunch of tiny scratches in it and these need to be buffed out.
For this I borrowed a buddy's adjustable-speed Makita rotary buffer and got some foam pads for it. I used Meguiar's compounds in two stages to get the sanding scratches out and then polish the compound scratches out. When you've done all these steps, you realize why you ladled four coats of clear on there initially; you're taking what feels like a lot off the top.
Unfortunately it is easy to take just a little too much off and burn through to color or primer. I've got a few tiny spots where there's white primer showing through, and a couple where it's red but not cleared. Not too bad in the overall picture, but still. Using a rotary buffer can also be a dangerous task, like when you're going along and the edge of the foam pad decides to catch and dig, burning into the clear. I have a couple of those too. 
This is not a show-quality car, but to the average observer it looks damned good and even I don't notice the flaws anymore (and that has taken some doing because I've been such a perfectionist on this project lol). Overall, though, it did turn out rather well.
Anyway, after I got the car sanded and buffed, it was time to start reassembly of lights and trim. Those headlights are a ***** to get back in with a new, unstretched bumper cover! Quarter window trims are no easy task, either. But, with those in/on, it was starting to look like a car again.
I had begun this project without even having all the body parts that I needed, and due to lost motivation and lack of funds over the winter, I had not made any further progress on that front. In order to finish the car, I needed to acquire and paint just a few more finishing touches. The new acquisitions were sideskirts and door moldings, and I had to paint the door handles, mirrors and gas door that I already had. I was running low on base coat at this point so I wanted to do all these in one batch so as not to waste paint.
Prepped and ready to go:
White:
Red:
Bein' goofy (paint fumes getting through the respirator?)
Finally, I managed to lay down some glassy-smooth clear, and on no better part than these!
Time to start putting stuff back together. Had to pick up some bits and bobs from the dealer:
Some of the '95 pieces work, but there are a couple spots where you need the '97+ bits:
Side skirt with all clips/studs in place:
25 images per post......
Swapping clips between door moldings:
Done up and looking legit!
It was time to turn my attentions to the interior, so I cleaned up and fiberglassed the rest of my door panel and put it back in:
Turns out I forgot to plug in the seat position buttons so it's gonna have to come out again at some point 
Painted my badges satin black - they're not plugged into the holes all the way yet here so they look like they're floating, but I like the overall look. Beats the hell out of gold.
Now we get to a few months ago.
I took it out of the garage and drove it up the driveway, and realized that the power steering system was pretty fubar'd. Horrible feel and noise when turning, although quiet when stationary. Between that, the rear tires being all jacked up, an overheating issue, and wanting to sell it in favor of another motorcycle, not much happened on the car for a while. Last weekend I decided that I should figure out the power steering so I flushed the system - no difference. I pulled the solenoid and cleaned the (clogged and filthy) screen - big difference. That got me inspired enough to get two new rear tires mounted, the spare put back, ride height set, and a shakedown run planned. I did most of that yesterday morning and headed into town. Within a hundred yards down my dirt road, I figured out two things: one, the power steering wasn't as fixed as I'd hoped, and two, that the rear end was about to fall out from under the car. The whole ass end of the car was swaying and shimmying so badly that I had to actually countersteer to keep the car straight. Figured out quickly that it was massively misaligned from the subframe swap (*cough* two years ago *cough*) so I limped it in for an alignment. Due to my power steering rack being shot to hell they wouldn't align the front, but they got the rear toe (all two degrees each side of it) and negative camber dialed in so I won't wear out these new tires in 500 miles and can track straight down the road.
Getting gas in town for the first time in over two years. Did I mention I lived on a dirt road?
Headed to the car wash after gas and alignment. Sprayed down the engine bay and rinsed the dust off the car, shined up the tires and went across the road for some quick pics. It's been a long time since I've taken pictures of cars, so forgive me for the crappy composition and lousy phone pics. Plus, due to the steering being hard and loud as hell, I didn't exactly want to move the car a bunch of times. 
After that I headed into Denver to meet up with a guy for a couple of SC parts, got food, etc., and ended up doing about 140 miles total. Not bad for literally the first time the car has left my driveway in two years. The power steering is completely shot and the rack will definitely need to be replaced, and I'm going to put mufflers back on it due to the drone and redneck cackle of the open X-pipe, but aside from that it seems to be in fairly decent shape. I almost want to keep it now. 
So now is the dilemma - keep it and do stuff to it now that I can actually drive it and it looks pretty, or sell it so I can buy another bike? I'm looking hard at the '08-'10 Buell XB12X Ulysses, which is essentially a sportbike with a comfy riding position that can handle mild offroad (like my road) and carry some luggage (which I need if I'm going to be able to commute or make useful errands from home). After yesterday I'm half tempted to slap a rack and pinion and a radiator (oh yeah, it gets hot at a standstill) in the car, drive it on weekends and occasionally to work, and look for some wheels, redo tint, maybe a mild system, etc. But, I'll have to wash it every time I even leave my house if I want it even halfway clean, and it doesn't get the kind of mileage I'm looking for from a bike, nor is it nearly as fun as being on two wheels. I think I'd use the bike a lot more than I will the car. Decisions, decisions.