Barnfind in my own garage: Bringing a '73 Tii back to life

[JsnPpp]

Fast forward to now. Last post was February and here it is mid-June. Dang.

 

I've had to divert my time to other projects, but am now back. I made some small progress since then but nothing worth updating about. Until about 2 weeks ago!

 

TL;DR

 

Not sure if this is the money shot or not but at least it gives visibility into how it is today. Super cool. Baikal is difficult to photograph. Looks more gray in the photos than real life but note it's under LED lights + camera.

 

Summary of progress:

• Finished detailed cleaning/sanding/prep of engine bay - to bare metal
• Epoxy prime protection
• 2K primer surfacer 
• Final sanding/blocking
• Base coat / Clear coat
• Up Next: Color sand

 

During this week of work I had to keep myself focused on the goal. Clean, durable, shiny and straight. "Pretty" would happen if everything came together. I was looking to acheive a 1 - 3 footer. I'll let you decide what it is, but I'm happy with it.

 

It was a ton of work. I took 3 days off of work + long weekend to get this done. Nearly continuouswork - I estimate 50 hours easily in those 5 days alone.

 

More details as to the effort. 80% of it was prep. Priming, painting + clearcoat took effort but not nearly the same level. However, stress level was much higher once laying down top cover b/c it was harder to recover - once painting, it was a dance of timing. No going back.

 

So, here we go! 

 

Roughing in the work

First job was to get down to bare metal. A lot of this I had done back in Feb but I had to go over all of it with 80/120 to prep for the epoxy.

 

The devil is in the details. Every corner had to be inspected and sanded. (Note that I never removed that orange cap for the harness plug. I was scared of breaking it! Seemed to work out ok.)

 

These corners were especially difficult.

 

Seams cleaned carefully. I'll add seam sealer once ready to paint.

 

The heater box area was especially fun. This photo was from early on. I brought it to shiny metal prior to epoxy. Ton of time in this area alone mostly because it was so hard to access. Also added new seam sealer.

 

I had to rework this corner. It turned out well. This is not the finished product.

 

I did a better job than this for taping it off prior to paint, but I could have done even better. Regret #48.

 

 

Headlight and nose was especially PITA. Many cuts on my hands, arms and fingers.

 

 

These areas took a ton of time too. Ok the whole thing took a ton of time.

 

Both sides of the apron had these dents. I took this photo after I had done a bit of work on it. Good thing is that they came out. I'll tune them more once ready for paint (they are better than the photo below currently).

 

I felt bad taking this sticker off.

 

 

 

Finalizing for primer

Fast forward a bit more. After all paint removed and all corners prepped (even under fuse box) I had to prep for the first coat of epoxy. What you don't see is the what felt like endless sanding of all surfaces to make it clean and smooth yet with enough "tooth" for the epoxy to stick. Everything sanded to 80/120 as per the PPG directions. Then wiped with wax/oil/grease remover about a dozen times. Everywhere.

 

I also ospho'd everything, which is why you see a copper colored zinc coating. Some of it was scrubbed away but I feel good knowing all corners and seams were prepped.

 

Prior to priming I removed any sign of dust/chemical/etc. The nose I purposefully didn't go down to bare metal unless had to. Why? It was rust free and also not an externally visible surface.

 

 

Metal shaping on the nose

I really enjoy the work of bringing metal back to it's original form. So, even though I wasn't painting the nose I let myself remove some slight bends/dents/imperfections on the nose. These are slight, I could have glazed it later (or even just used surfacer) but I want this car to be as "pure" as it can be without going absolutely nutz.

 

First sharpied it and lightly sanded with high grit and a 11" block. Low spots are the dark areas.

 

After that, I would tap with a dolly and hammer. You can see the dark spots shrinking.

 

Sharpie again, multiple times.

 

 

 

Better for sure.

 

Not bad, I'll return to it when prepping the outer panels.

 

Epoxy primer + surfacer

Epoxy was more of a mental hurdle than a physical one. It meant I was "ready for the next step" and wouldn't have exposed steel any more. And for the most part, wouldn't be going back...

 

No photos of the actual painting! It went well and primer is forgiving.

 

A couple of coats of epoxy and then 3 coats surfacer makes a smooth consistent surface. Easier to see imperfections (and also that for the most part it's nice).

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent a lot of time in this area to ensure it was clean and ready for primer.

''

 

 

 

Sanding the surfacer - 220 - 320 - 400

 

 

 

 

 

Laying down the base coat + clearcoat

Aaaand, here we go. It was a 90+ degree day and so used the slowest reducer.

 

I didn't actually shoot it from this far away, was meant to be an "action shot" 🙂 

I used an Astro EUROHV105 EuroPro gun with a 1.5mm nozzle. I really wanted to use a 1.3mm and may switch when I do the rest.

 

 

+ insert a bit of insanity as I painted, inspected, waited and added coats +

 

Then:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks super gray in this photo. Not the way it looks in person.

 

This photo for whatever reason is closest to how it looks to me in the garage. I'm looking forward to having it in full sunlight..

 

And because life happens (and I don't do this for a living), I completely missed clearing a 6in square on the top of the nose panel. Grrrr!!!  I thought about it for two days and then just decided to sand/scuff and reclear it. I carefully did not go down to base.

 

A bit thick of clear in some areas. It will flatten as it dries. This particular angle is pretty harsh it's not necessarily like this.

 

I was outside the window of clear coats slightly but I still hoped that it was wetter than it ever would be and the clears would bond like they should. A week later and it looks great. 

 

So! I plan to color sand the exposed top areas, there are a few dots of clear and orange peel that I can take care of. I won't spend much time in the engine bay b/c it's the engine bay.

 

Overall it feels soft and smooth.

 

Lessons learned!

There are ALWAYS lessons in this stuff. Now that I did it, I'm actually ready to do it "for reals". 🙂 This is my third car but always something to learn (or relearned). Here are my takeaways:

• Sand everything till smooth prior to epoxy primer
• Be aware of how much clear you are laying down
• Pay attention to the fan pattern and PSI on the gun
• Sags and drips in the base coat can be removed, don't worry
• Sags in drips in clear coat can be removed, don't worry
• Pay attention to where you have cleared, look at it from all angles
• Pay attention to the VIN tag and plate taping.
• Don't lean over fresh paint to reach another area to paint

 

Up Next:

I need to finish the nose panel. Chin had rust where leaves or dirt or both had sat and ate through the metal. This has been cut out but need to recover. Similar situation for the passenger side footwell, right in the corner by the transmission there is a hole where water sat. I have photos of that already but will make it a new post.

 

After nose + rust I'll then pivot to the two front quarters. Mostly metal work to ensure straight. And then keep moving toward the rear of the car.

 

Do I feel good it's done? Absolutely. Is it what I wanted? I'd say yes! Did I relearn a lot? 100%.

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by JsnPpp

[ray_]

Awesome!

 

Cheers!

[jgerock]

Awesome progress!

[zinz]

Holy mackerel, Jason… that’s damned impressive. 
 

Ed Z

[0257]

On 6/18/2023 at 4:04 PM, JsnPpp said:

Fast forward to now. Last post was February and here it is mid-June. Dang.

 

I've had to divert my time to other projects, but am now back. I made some small progress since then but nothing worth updating about. Until about 2 weeks ago!

 

TL;DR

 

Not sure if this is the money shot or not but at least it gives visibility into how it is today. Super cool. Baikal is difficult to photograph. Looks more gray in the photos than real life but note it's under LED lights + camera.

 

Summary of progress:

• Finished detailed cleaning/sanding/prep of engine bay - to bare metal
• Epoxy prime protection
• 2K primer surfacer 
• Final sanding/blocking
• Base coat / Clear coat
• Up Next: Color sand

 

During this week of work I had to keep myself focused on the goal. Clean, durable, shiny and straight. "Pretty" would happen if everything came together. I was looking to acheive a 1 - 3 footer. I'll let you decide what it is, but I'm happy with it.

 

It was a ton of work. I took 3 days off of work + long weekend to get this done. Nearly continuouswork - I estimate 50 hours easily in those 5 days alone.

 

More details as to the effort. 80% of it was prep. Priming, painting + clearcoat took effort but not nearly the same level. However, stress level was much higher once laying down top cover b/c it was harder to recover - once painting, it was a dance of timing. No going back.

 

So, here we go! 

 

Roughing in the work

First job was to get down to bare metal. A lot of this I had done back in Feb but I had to go over all of it with 80/120 to prep for the epoxy.

 

The devil is in the details. Every corner had to be inspected and sanded. (Note that I never removed that orange cap for the harness plug. I was scared of breaking it! Seemed to work out ok.)

 

These corners were especially difficult.

 

Seams cleaned carefully. I'll add seam sealer once ready to paint.

 

The heater box area was especially fun. This photo was from early on. I brought it to shiny metal prior to epoxy. Ton of time in this area alone mostly because it was so hard to access. Also added new seam sealer.

 

I had to rework this corner. It turned out well. This is not the finished product.

 

I did a better job than this for taping it off prior to paint, but I could have done even better. Regret #48.

 

 

Headlight and nose was especially PITA. Many cuts on my hands, arms and fingers.

 

 

These areas took a ton of time too. Ok the whole thing took a ton of time.

 

Both sides of the apron had these dents. I took this photo after I had done a bit of work on it. Good thing is that they came out. I'll tune them more once ready for paint (they are better than the photo below currently).

 

I felt bad taking this sticker off.

 

 

 

Finalizing for primer

Fast forward a bit more. After all paint removed and all corners prepped (even under fuse box) I had to prep for the first coat of epoxy. What you don't see is the what felt like endless sanding of all surfaces to make it clean and smooth yet with enough "tooth" for the epoxy to stick. Everything sanded to 80/120 as per the PPG directions. Then wiped with wax/oil/grease remover about a dozen times. Everywhere.

 

I also ospho'd everything, which is why you see a copper colored zinc coating. Some of it was scrubbed away but I feel good knowing all corners and seams were prepped.

 

Prior to priming I removed any sign of dust/chemical/etc. The nose I purposefully didn't go down to bare metal unless had to. Why? It was rust free and also not an externally visible surface.

 

 

Metal shaping on the nose

I really enjoy the work of bringing metal back to it's original form. So, even though I wasn't painting the nose I let myself remove some slight bends/dents/imperfections on the nose. These are slight, I could have glazed it later (or even just used surfacer) but I want this car to be as "pure" as it can be without going absolutely nutz.

 

First sharpied it and lightly sanded with high grit and a 11" block. Low spots are the dark areas.

 

After that, I would tap with a dolly and hammer. You can see the dark spots shrinking.

 

Sharpie again, multiple times.

 

 

 

Better for sure.

 

Not bad, I'll return to it when prepping the outer panels.

 

Epoxy primer + surfacer

Epoxy was more of a mental hurdle than a physical one. It meant I was "ready for the next step" and wouldn't have exposed steel any more. And for the most part, wouldn't be going back...

 

No photos of the actual painting! It went well and primer is forgiving.

 

A couple of coats of epoxy and then 3 coats surfacer makes a smooth consistent surface. Easier to see imperfections (and also that for the most part it's nice).

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent a lot of time in this area to ensure it was clean and ready for primer.

''

 

 

 

Sanding the surfacer - 220 - 320 - 400

 

 

 

 

 

Laying down the base coat + clearcoat

Aaaand, here we go. It was a 90+ degree day and so used the slowest reducer.

 

I didn't actually shoot it from this far away, was meant to be an "action shot" 🙂 

 

+ insert a bit of insanity as I painted, inspected, waited and added coats +

 

Then:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks super gray in this photo. Not the way it looks in person.

 

This photo for whatever reason is closest to how it looks to me in the garage. I'm looking forward to having it in full sunlight..

 

And because life happens (and I don't do this for a living), I completely missed clearing a 6in square on the top of the nose panel. Grrrr!!!  I thought about it for two days and then just decided to sand/scuff and reclear it. I carefully did not go down to base.

 

A bit thick of clear in some areas. It will flatten as it dries. This particular angle is pretty harsh it's not necessarily like this.

 

I was outside the window of clear coats slightly but I still hoped that it was wetter than it ever would be and the clears would bond like they should. A week later and it looks great. 

 

So! I plan to color sand the exposed top areas, there are a few dots of clear and orange peel that I can take care of. I won't spend much time in the engine bay b/c it's the engine bay.

 

Overall it feels soft and smooth.

 

Lessons learned!

There are ALWAYS lessons in this stuff. Now that I did it, I'm actually ready to do it "for reals". 🙂 This is my thiurd car but always something to learn (or releard). Here are my takeaways:

• Sand everything till smooth prior to epoxy primer
• Be aware of how much clear you are laying down
• Pay attention to the fan pattern and PSI on the gun
• Sags and drips in the base coat can be removed, don't worry
• Sags in drips in clear coat can be removed, don't worry
• Pay attention to where you have cleared, look at it from all angles
• Pay attention to the VIN tag and plate taping.
• Don't lean over fresh paint to reach another area to paint

 

Up Next:

I need to finish the nose panel. Chin had rust where leaves or dirt or both had sat and ate through the metal. This has been cut out but need to recover. Similar situation for the passenger side footwell, right in the corner by the transmission there is a hole where water sat. I have photos of that already but will make it a new post.

 

After nose + rust I'll then pivot to the two front quarters. Mostly metal work to ensure straight. And then keep moving toward the rear of the car.

 

Do I feel good it's done? Absolutely. Is it what I wanted? I'd say yes!

 

 

Very impressed with this work.  And it’s nice to see a paint tutorial in the process.  Gives courage!

[mccusername]

Great progress, Jason! And great pictures. You should be a teacher in your second life. 

[JsnPpp]

Momentum, must keep momentum. Not only on the car but also updating this thread.

 

It's been about 2 weeks and the weather is hot here in Austin. The paint definitely "shrinks" a bit as it dries. I'm pleased that nothing has surfaced to make me regret anything I did. I've found a few sags in the clear but that can be fixed. 👍

 

So, now I pivot to the nose. Over the last 20+ years there must have been dirt/leaves/junk stuck there. While this car was mostly garaged, it was driven in all sorts of weather. It's only lived in Northern California and Texas so thankfully no salty roads.

 

The area behind the grill down low is not easy to clean unless you take the grills off. Recommend everyone who drives their cars to blow that area out at least once in a while.

 

So here we go. A scab that had to be picked.

 

Not great. Not horrible.

 

Cutting time. In hindsight I should have used a dremel (more fine control) but this got the job done too. Action shot for the blog only.

 

Not great, but looks worse than it is. The perferations were in the exterior metal. No holes in the back but some scale. The metal is about 22 guage, pretty thin. 

 

A small hole prompted a similar cut on the other side.

 

Larger than necessary but I wanted to make sure what was behind it.

 

Surface rust only, thankfully. I'll clean, epoxy prime, top coat and then build a patch.

 

 

Clean and Prep

Unfortunately I didn't photo the work I did to clean the areas. While mostly surface rust there were some pockets of scale that had to be worked carefully. It was also awkward position and difficult to reach some areas.

 

There is no easy way out of this, no magic tool or chemical (unfortunately). It's just work. And the more work you put into it, the better it will be.

 

I first wirewheeled. I found that a small wirewheel on the end of a drill perfectly fit inside the pocket and enabled cleanup on the upper inside of the area. Then a larger wirewheel more directly on the surface. All scale had to be removed prior to topcoat.

 

I also ran 80 grit paper and some green and red scotchbrite to remove contamination.

 

I then ospho'd. Clean steel changes to a copper/etched color. Black spots meant that rust was present and was rightfully changed to iron phosphate. However black spots also told me there was potential for hidden rust. There were a few spots and I couldn't take that chance. A small pick at the end of a dremel helped me remove them. Not physically difficult but time consuming. I stopped when it was done. My neck had a crick in it from laying on my back and working sideways, looking up. Good times.

 

The same for the other side but it was much lighter.

 

Fast forward and here it is after epoxy primer.

 

View from the top in the nose. I will need to re-top coat this.

 

 

 

Building the patch panels

This is actually the second panel I created. And then I just created a third. The first was too thick of metal. This one was a piece that had a bend in it but I didn't like the angle and the fit wasn't right. Into the trash canb it goes.

 

Lining it up.

 

I oversized it slightly to make sure I could make it straight.

 

Measured 17 times. Cut it out with snips.

 

I started the bend by tapping the larger piece over hardwood. It worked but I need to tap it out to straighten it. The second line is where I need to cut it back to fit.

 

Tapping it flat.

 

Cutting the extra off. Cool spiral of steel. 👍 

I then ran it across a large file to remove burrs and ensure it was straight.

 

Not done yet but it's moving in the right direction.

 

Tomorrow I'll clean them up and hopefully cut the shape out of the nose to fit.

 

My goal is to have both sides top coated and welded in over the weekend. Would be nice!

Edited June 30, 2023 by JsnPpp

[Son of Marty]

 So IMHO, in light of the blog thread, this should be a blog not in the general posts. Not that it's not good imformation but the gerneral board should be more  Q/A than detailed resto work.

Edited June 30, 2023 by Son of Marty

[JsnPpp]

On 6/29/2023 at 10:19 PM, Son of Marty said:

 So IMHO, in light of the blog thread, this should be a blog not in the general posts. Not that it's not good imformation but the gerneral board should be more  Q/A than detailed resto work.

 

I'm happy to request it moved. Appreciate the input.

 

Edit: I understand it can't be moved over the the build section. I'll try to keep the posts tighter and more scheduled to keep in the spirit of General. 🙂 

Edited July 1, 2023 by JsnPpp

[ray_]

20 hours ago, Son of Marty said:

 So IMHO, in light of the blog thread, this should be a blog not in the general posts. Not that it's not good imformation but the gerneral board should be more  Q/A than detailed resto work.

I understand your point. But I think Jason's posts do lead to discussion (that which this page is headed with). The page is not entitled, say, "BMW 2002 Q and A."

 

By your interpretation, there should be no "Share your old pics" topic, or , "What did you do to your 2002 today."

 

... I don't think it's a very big issue to have these types of posts in General Discussion. 

 

Yet!

 

;-)

 

Cheers,

[Son of Marty]

Jasons post are excellent and I'm not calling him out for anything, just that some threads do get long and may be better presented in several shorter threads. Just say'n. 

[JsnPpp]

Hi folks - I've moved my future updates to the Build area (aka Blog Archive) follow along if you wish! I won't post more here other than perhaps a wrap up post once it's "done".

 

I just posted a small update and hope to have more this weekend.

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by JsnPpp