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About this blog

I'm a complete novice, but learning as I go!

Entries in this blog

Made a wooden rotisserie today!

Today, my father and I built our wooden (a.k.a. redneck) car rotisserie using a few videos from YouTube and a couple of articles as a reference point. About $65 worth of lumber using three 2x6, a 2x4, and  in a number of bolts (see receipt image)  we were able to create a stable and safe rotisserie.  It was relatively easy to make and I'll be going back to get a few extra bolts for added security so when you look at the receipt below you want to add another 4 or 5 bolts.  Also, I'm sure there's

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Media blasting is nasty business

So I purchased a 20 gallon blaster in my attempt to blast the remaining crud off the bottom.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with the result, but it's slow going as I am really only able to work once a week.  While I am happy to be learning something new, I am starting to think I either need to rent the monster blaster my local Taylor Rental has or I bit the bullet and get it done professionally.   And as I've mentioned previously, that tar undercoating is some tough stuff!     Here's wh

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Engine tear down

Today I did a full engine teardown. While I have yet to do the head of the engine and remove all the valves and springs, I was able to completely disassemble the block.  While I already knew the tops of the pistons are likely not salvageable, the rest of the engine looked in surprisingly good health.     What surprised me the most was the shape of the clutch as it looked barely used.   What was most surprising, was the fact that I found two broken and to dipsticks in the bottom of the

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Dustless Blasting Today!

Today was a big day, as I have the car duster blasted by Monster Blasting out of Avon, Connecticut and I couldn't be happier with the results.   We found some interesting bodywork under the paint, but otherwise things went very very smoothly.  He used a very high-pressure industrial blaster mix of water and fine grain glass  that easily cut through the paint and a little bit of rust that was on the car.  There was no metal warping.    I will say there was a fare amount of glass mixture all over

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Prepped for dustless blasting

I'm having the exterior of the car dustless blasted (water) next week, so today I spent time removing all of the aluminum trim and other associated clips from the car. A few trim removal tools made easy work of the trim and it is in very good shape for me to re-attach.   To my surprise, there was no rust underneath any of the rain gutter trim and only limited rust around the chrome in the windows. Overall, it was a pretty easy process and I look forward to having the car blasted next weekend. I'

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Annnnndddd.....I'm Back!

Ok, so it's been a while.  Actually, a long while, where does the time go!   Now that youth hockey season is concluding and the weather is bound to get nicer (except for the MAJOR nor'easter we're getting tomorrow,) I'll be able to get back to some appreciable work.  Since this past Thanksgiving and the holidays, I was hard at work putting the finishing touches on my sub-frame and re-attaching it to the car!  I was able to do this over my holiday vacation and am more than please to have the car

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Quick Sub Update and CV Joints

Things are still progress, albeit slowly, as I continue to miss/forget to order a random bolt or washer for the front and rear sub-frames.  That said, my last pieces are arriving this week and I'll be able to mount my front struts, springs, shocks and I should be good to go to mount the front and year over the holidays, weather permitting.  In the meantime, I am putting some new CV boots on and re-doing all of the grease and such.  Wow, was the current grease black.....no grit or anything and al

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Front sub-frame completed

Quick update.  Finally finished up the front subframe, and am working on refurbishing the steering box.   I'd have that done too, if it wasn't for too much force on the metal gasket ring inside the box.   I hope to do the rear subframe this weekend and over the Thanksgiving holiday, the front shock and springs.    

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Sub-frame update, some mistakes, new seats, and new acquisition

It's been a while since I've posted, but there has been work going on!   Over the last two months, I've had some set back due to my purchasing of wrong parts and damaging a few as well.  So here's what I've been up to:   I finished up the underside and it's completely coated and I installed the bump stops at the rear and put in the parking brake cables.  The rotisserie has been removed and as I mentioned before, it was a real life saver!  The car is now sitting in the garage re

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Major milestone complete - undercarriage

I finished up the undercoating today, and I'm really happy with the result.   It was a long road, but the results have been worth it.  I have all the parts for my next phase - refinished original sub-frames and all new I.E. spring kit, shocks, assorted bushings and all new nuts, bolts, etc.  I'm hopeful that in the next few weeks, I'll have a rolling chassis. Here's a few before and after photos.   

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Major Milestone

Today, I finished up the underside of the car and have a great even undercoating.  It's been a long dirty journey, but I think it came out pretty good.   I'll be adding some rubberized undercoating in the coming week.  Within the next two weeks, I'll be assembling the front and rear sub frames with new shocks, springs, etc. and will have a rolling chassis.  It'll be great having a rolling chassis.....and being able to move on to the next job.    

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Underside Stripping....Next Phase

After a couple of weekends off, I rotated the rotisserie so that I could gain easy access to the driver side front and rear wheel wells.  Again, the tar was really thick, but after about 5 hours, I was able to clean them up pretty good.  I got a good look at some rust in the front tire well, and some bent metal at the rear.   I wonder what the previous owner hit?     The next phase is a "gentle" medium blast and I should be good to clean and prime.  I'll want to put some  undercoating

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Phase 1 Priming Complete

Last weekend, I cleaned and etched the new blasted metal and today I was able to put a coat of primer on it.  It's the first time I've used my paint gun since last year, but my technique came back quickly.  All-in-all a pretty easy job and I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out.     Next up up will be blasting the entire rear, then up the driver side.  I plan on doing the same steps of blasting and priming as I go, and will do one overlay coat on the entire thing when done.  I gue

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Metal cleaned and fast etched

Wish I was able to get my coat of primer on today, but ran out of time.  I was able to clean the wheel well and half of the upper part of the underside.   It cleaned up well, and I am pretty happy with the result.   I am hopeful to get out there in the next day or so to get a coat of primer on it before moving on to the next part of my blasting.  

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Christmas in June. New part mother load!

Summer activities have slowed things down, however, today I received a couple of big shipment of parts that are going to get me one step closer to a rolling chassis.  Today, I received my Ireland Engineering spring and swaybar kit, as well as other assorted parts to have my subframe completed!   Over the next weekend or two I plan on finishing up the cleaning of the undercarriage and getting primed sealed and painted. At which point, I'll be able install my new metal brake lines that I received

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20 Hours, but the underside is bare!

So after about 20 hours, I've got the underside as bare as I'm going to get it.   The question now is whether or not I do the entire body, then send it to the blaster company to get it to 100 percent bare metal and then prime it myself.   Still on the fence on this.  Anyway, I'm pretty psyched to have this part done and for the sake of a few grinding discs, I'm pretty happy with the result.  And I'm still shocked at how rust free this car is!  

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It's a grind

Good grief.....what IS this stuff that BMW (or whoever) put on the bottom of this car!  Three stripping discs later, and I'm only about half way through with stripping the bottom.   And I still have to go back and do some fine tuning as I'm having issues getting into so,e of the nooks/ crannies.   I wonder if some paint stripping/chemical use is the way to go there?   All that said, I've made some good progress and am relatively happy with the results thus far.   I hopefully can do a b

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Putting the rotisserie/tilt to some immediate use

I was able to put my rotisserie to some good use today and was able to start peeling off the layers and layers of tar from the underside of the car. I don't know what this stuff is, but it seems to have saved the vast majority of the underside of the car from rust, but not dents.     Last summer I was able to get the vast majority of the tar off, but I was surprised to find how much more remained. So today I scaled off the rest the best I could, and used my grinder to start taking off

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And the undercarriage cleaning continues

I was able to spend a few hours today using my angle grinder and stripping wheel to continue with the descaling and stripping of the underside of the car.    Geez, what a nasty job.  I ended up getting to the entire passenger wheel well and some more of the driver side  pan.  I'll be able to post up a few more pictures, but I'm pretty happen with the results considering the amount of tar, primer, and paint there is to cut through.   I'm hopeful to have the entire underside done by the end of the

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Back into the workshop

Today was a little bit like Christmas, as I unwrapped my car from its winter slumber.   OK, that may be a bit dramatic but I was able to take the tarp off the car and move it back into the garage so that I can actually start working on the body. Between myself and two of my buddies we were able to pick up the car and bring it into the garage, with my wife supervising the move.    It is absolutely what you wanted to do under Mother's Day weekend.     Next up is to finish removing the ta

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Sub-Frame Painted

The weather and family schedules finally aligned and I was able to paint my newly clean and primed sub-frame!  I've not done anything like this before and have never used a paint gun.  I did however sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. (Or watched a ton of YouTube!).  It took a bit longer than anticipated as I was being pretty cautious, and I'm sure I've got a bit of overspray going on due toll the nooks and crannies, but overall, I'm pleased with the the result.  I used Eastwoods 2k ceram

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Let there be paint!

The weather is finally warming up and I am now able to paint my sub-frame this weekend.   My new toy has arrived and I can't wait to use it.  Do I know how to use a paint gun, no.  But, I'll be watching a ton of video and doing a bit of practice before I attempt anything.   With some luck, I hope to have a full sub-frame painted by the end of the weekend.   I'll post some pictures once completed!    

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On big update

Since I hadn't updated my original blog since November 2015, I'll just do a big information dump.   So the long short is that after I found an header leak and subsequent cylinder head chip, I pulled the engine and have since stripped the car down to its bare shell.  Since then, I've got the engine in storage and have had the subframes stripped and primed, but now I wait for the weather to warm up so I can paint.   The plan is to strip the underside of the car and reapply pain

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Memorial Day 2015

I spent Memorial Day finally getting my hands dirty. I spent from about 1230 to 530 working on the car, removing the hood, draining the radiator fluid, removing the spark plug lines and distributor cap. I sprayed liquid wrench on literally everything and was actually able to get the exhaust manifold off the car.  And after cleaning the manifold up, I have since found that it is off of a TII model which was the more  powerful version of my car.  Next up will be the removal of the exhaust downpipe

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