316 - m52b28 / individual+

[nas80]

Here is how it stands at the minute.




I have no idea why but theres a lot of struggling to get bolts undone. There will be copius amounts of anti sieze when this goes back together.

[lemonayd]

Looking good Nas bet ur well excited, bit darker than i first thought maybe i had that foose colour in my head..


...all thebest mate........Ayds

[nas80]

I couldnt afford £500 per litre for foose paint...

[woody m3evo]

Looking good mate.

Mine got painted this morning.

[nas80]

seriously need to finish this car so i can come to a show and see all your cars

i have been taking a bit of inspiration from other builds and I always liked how mint problems childs and woodys' cars are underneath.

i thought the black stuff was underseal till one day i was jet washing my arches and noticed that i blasted some underseal off and theres some "gold" colour was underneath. turns out it was actually 30 years of road grime and general nasty stuff.



my jet washer was ok but even with a load of equally nasty chemicals i could only get it as good as this.



so i hired one of these it was reasonably cheap tbh - i got a free breakfast gormet burger for steam cleaning Reck's e21's engine bay



This has to be the worst ever task you can do on a car, it even put me in a bit of a bad mood lol. The worst is when you aim and it deflects off a panel and blasts you straight back in the right in the face with a hot steam and bits of flying crap. i was pretty damn annoyed for putting myself through something like this - but the results are worth it..





I was pretty miserable so i thought id do a more relaxing fun job, to cheer myself up. so I started put the new waterpump / low temp thermostat, and a couple of shiny bits back on the engine.



The bolts on my car have been re-used too many times i couldnt / didnt want to use some of them and because recoating wouldnt replace the lost metal from me cranking on them.

I bought some new ones.



next job is to get any frilly bits with a wire wheel and treat them to some rustbullet, i am not sure on what i will use to paint underneath with yet, one thing for sure theres definately noway i want that horrible sticky wet underseal crap.

[e21-Mark]

Another top quality build. There are some awesome UK cars nowadays.

[problemchild75]

Lol! Told you it was a awful job. Necessary evil though

[pandemonium001]

NAS, my plan for the underside is, lechler epoxy primer, upol gravitex, base, clear coat.
I am planning on tyring to keep the stone chip as smooth as possible.
have a look here for some good examples of under side restorations.
http://bbs.rsownersclub.co.uk/showthrea ... 673&page=8
http://www.focusrsbuildlist.co.uk/index ... &Itemid=72

[pandemonium001]

3M stuff is V good but pricey, 3M08800 is around 30 for the gun and 10 a bag
3M 08851 i think is about as close to factory finish as you will get.

[nas80]

Been and had a look on that focus rs site..

I was thinking of leaving the standard coating because its stuck on so well.. then going over the underside with a close eye and removing any flakey stuff off.. then i am going to coat the whole underside with rust bullet applied by roller. They use that rust bullet on ship hulls so it should manage..

I was thinking of body colour but i think i will have it silver so if there is any rust or dirt ill see it better?

[pandemonium001]

The under side of your car does look in good nick, I'm only removing it all as most would have been removed for repairs and its just i might as well the stage im at.
if most of your stone guard is well stuck on i dont see any need to remove just clean and degrease.
I wouldn't paint the whole under side with rust bullet,I dont think painting an anti corrosive over the stone chip is going to add any protection, only the loose rusty flakey bits you have cleaned up. then stone chip the patches, colour, clear.


I dont know if colour coding the bottom will make corrosion easier to spot, but it does look the dogs danglies. thats my reason.

[nas80]

Cheers mate.. i needed someone to convince me that painting it all would be a waste of time if the stock coating is ok. I just get paranoid about rust

[pandemonium001]

I would also do a test piece to check all your products are compatable, follow the tech sheets, paint rust bullet, then your desired system for colour clear, dont want to paint it all then it reacts. primer if you wish as well.
remember OEM is applied in near to ideal conditions so, clean, dry and keyed layers if you are not going wet on wet layers.
moisture is the enemy, blow out cavities joints after cleaning.
If i cannot paint straight away after blasting i will be leaving a dehumidifyer running in the garage as well.
Go on the 3M website automotive, they have a whole section dedicated to youtube videos on painting, paint correction, repairs, some is scattered between UK & USA
http://solutions.3m.co.uk/wps/portal/3M ... yShop_link
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... s/-/HowTo/
http://3mauto.com/how-to-center/

[Jason_323i]

Mr Pandemonium that is top info

What would reckon is best for the under side of a track car building up from bare metal, i woudl prefer a light colour producted rather than putting paint on it.

Jason

[pandemonium001]

Mr Pandemonium that is top info

What would reckon is best for the under side of a track car building up from bare metal, i woudl prefer a light colour producted rather than putting paint on it.

Jason

Thanks for the comments, I am not a pro, just a keen home builder.
If I was building a race car, i would want light and thin with good protection. Thinner so you can inspect for cracks, or spot weld pulling, you will not see this with heavy stonechip protection over the top.
A good quality 2K epoxy primer I like the Lechler 29107 It is used in a lot of marine and hot rod applications.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... ig&cad=rja

It is high solids, contains zinc phosphate & you can fill over the top then recoat,so you dont need to bare metal panels to repair, It can be tinted to nearly any colour you want, the only thing it is not is UV resistant so a clear coat would be required to stop colour fade, plus make it look super glossy. it will dry correctly at 20 deg.

There may be other epoxy primers but i just like the look of that one for home use.
here is a thread with it being used.
http://blitzen.editboard.com/t5893p150-rons-resto

From what i have read etch primers is now old hat, and only used in body shops because of time limits on jobs, all the high end builds on the net i have seen have all used epoxy with appropriate preparation.

3m red and brown scotch pads are great for scuffing in difficult bits between layers.
http://catalogue.3m.eu/en_eu/eu-aad/Abr ... ads~nocode

Do proper race cars not leave thier cages un-painted for crack inspections??