Well .....? Throw us a bone .... keep up the good work!

I'm going to be checking back for details on the connector channeling Vince talked you into. Do you think it could be done easier prior to installing connectors with advice from you guys in the form of measurements?

Thanks for checking my hibernation status the other day. It means a lot to have support like that... Oh, and speaking of support contgrats on the rotisserie.

Now, I believe Chief wants pics! Bring 'em on.

Ha! Sorry, was still gnawing on that bone:)

I finished the base prime tonight. It took waaaayyy longer than I expected to just get the base prime on. I spent the entire day yesterday wiping the car down with wax/grease remover and then masking off what I didn't want painted.

I'm not happy with HOK epoxy primer. I sprayed an entire gallon on today just on what you see. I did a little priming in the trunk and the outside of the front inner fenders and dash face that I didn't get any pics of.

I'll sand all I primed today, tomorrow, and hopefully get the car cleaned up again and spray the entire outside of the shell with the high build primer.

Glad to see you back over here Robert! Gotta keep you motivated:bump:

I think you could get them fitted to the car and just do a few tack welds to hold them in place. Then, lay out the lines and trace out where they crossover the connectors. Then remove the connectors and cut them and make the modification. With that said, to me, it seems easier to do with them already installed. Vince may know otherwise, so you might want to hit him up for that. However, it wasn't difficult to do the mod with them installed already. It took me about 5 or so hours to get them cut, make the channel and weld it in and then finish out the welds.

Thanks, the rotisserie makes life so much easier working on the car. It sure helped while doing all the priming I did tonight. I couldn't imagine going this far into a build and not using one.

:popcorn2: Looks very nice .... what didn't you like about the HOK epoxy? You gonna spray your liner right over the epoxy, right?

Looking good :thumbsup:

Thanks Chief!

It took me a while to figure out the best way to spray the HOK epoxy. I'm used to using regular epoxy and the HOK version is a bit different. The tech sheet says you can use between a 1.5-1.8 tip and reduce up to 10% if wanted. I started out with a 1.5 tip of unreduced product. My gun, nor I, liked spraying it like that, so after the gun was empty the first time I started reducing it and switched tips to a 1.8 tip. It laid out much better this way. However, this stuff is very heavy and has quite a bit of over spray.

When I was reading through the tech sheet, it never stated anything about a recoat window, so I contacted HOK and they said it is meant to be sanded before the next coat of product. I was wanting to go right over the epoxy with the high build without sanding. I'm going to have to sand everything I sprayed today and then reclean the car before the next stage of priming. I should have read the tech sheet before buying the product. It has a good amount of build to it, though. HOK stated it is a high build epoxy, so that is a plus as I can have more build to sand. Hopefully it sands easier than the DuPont epoxy. DuPont's version is not meant to be sanded and I hope to never have to sand that stuff anymore. I block sanded my car prior to what you see now and it was like sanding concrete:bang:

Now, I gotta sand, clean and prime again. I used up all the HOK epoxy, which was 4 quarts of product that I had on hand. I don't know if I'll buy more of this or not. I still have the doors, fenders, trunk lid, hood, header panel and front lower valance to work on.:rolleyes:

More progress photos:popcorn2:

I had hoped to have more done by today, but progress is progress. I managed to get the bodywork done on the dash face, seam sealed all the seams on the firewall and the front floor pan seam, and glued the dash face in with 3M body adhesive. I also seam sealed the rear wheel house seams. Now, I just have to sand the body again and spray the high build. After that is finally time to spray some color on the bottom of the car in the form of Raptor liner. This week maybe?

Cool project. On the tinted raptor, what color are you going? Depending on color, I have had it not match close enough to my liking. It also shrinks so if you don't have a good bond, it will pull away from reverse curve. I have used SEM liner on last couple cars and it color matches including metallics pretty good.

I'll be painting it mixed with blue. What would keep it from not making a good bond? I have every thing sanded with 180 grit and have wiped it twice with wax and grease remover

not paying close enough attention to prep. I had a big issue with one car in particular, but it was from poor prep of ex employee. Didn't start showing up until about 6 months after it was applied.

If I have sanded every millimeter with 180 to the point of leaving my DNA on the car, re-epoxy primed all bare metal sandthroughs and then wiped with wax and grease remover till the towels are clean after wiping, what else could I do to properly prep for the Raptor liner?

You are doing a very good job on your car,that's a lot of work sanding over and over but it is gone to be very well done and you will be happy with it,when you start seeing some blue paint soon all the extra work will pay off,great job so far.:thumbsup:

Thanks Jeff! I'm dreading the next round of sanding that is currently waiting on me. My hands are still not healed from the first round:) Fortunately, I won't need to sand the car as extensively this round as the last.

I take back anything negative I said about the HOK epoxy. I wasn't used to spraying it, so I wasn't enjoying spraying it. It is a high build epoxy, which I'm not used to spraying. I was trying to spray it too fast. I was letting the gun work me rather than me work the gun. This stuff, though, lays out slick as glass and is a breeze to sand. It takes very little effort to sand smooth. This has to be some of the easiest sanding paint I've ever sanded.

I'd say HOK has made an excellent product. I'll keep using this and will slow down next time. Maybe I'll like better how it sprays then:)

Woes in the shop:

I was out in the garage yesterday afternoon installing my dash and I loud boom went off in my garage and then my air lines were leaking. I freaked out and started, at first, running out of the garage. Before I could get out, I looked over at where the air was rupturing out from and noticed my cheap plastic water trap I've had setup on my wall had exploded after 11 years of use. Man, talk about a heart stopper. Luckily, nothing was damaged or hurt and I already had a new and better water trap to install. I just hadn't ever gotten around to putting it on.

As I was half way through my first cup of spraying epoxy the other day, my swivel I had attached to the end of the air line shot the o-ring seal out of it and began rupturing air. I had to quickly remove it from the equation and fix the air hose so I could get back to spraying.

Needless to say, I've had a few air line issues in the shop lately. Hopefully that is all of the excitement I will experience.

Jeremy ... things are looking good, I'm glad you figured out the HOK epoxy dilemma. I know if things aren't going smoothly I get frustrated ..... you are doing a great job :excited:

Good luck with the Raptor liner ...." if it's worth doing it's worth doing right!" .... Dad.

:poke: That is nearly Perfect... now all you have left is to re-sand every square millimeter and wipe it down to remove your DNA and you should be good to go!:stirthepot:

I am kind of partial to that Frankenstein green epoxy, what sort of Blue are you going to use? I was thinking you were doing Silver for some reason.

I just recently plumbed my garage with 3/4" rigid pipe, with about 30' before my big 3/4" Norgren water trap/filter., followed by a 1/2" filter/regulator and a new Flexzilla reel.

Thanks Chief! Your father is a wise man

I'm gonna be slow sanding this car on round two. It took me around five days the first go around. Thankfully I don't have any sanding to doin the interior. I thought about painting it, but after ling it all with Dynamat, there really wouldn't be any reason to paint there anymore.

You know, at first I thought this is a terribly color to make the primer, but it's extremely bright and shows up all the imperfections quite well. It certainly has made the interior not feel like a cave anymore.

Post up some pics of your new setup on your build thread. I bet that took you a good weekend to get all plumbed up. When redid mine a couple years ago it took me a good day to redo all mine after I installed my new compressor

I managed to get about halfway through the second round of sanding this afternoon. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get through the other half till after I let my fingers heal up for a few days. I don't think I can even pick up a piece of sandpaper right now if I wanted to:buttkick:

Anyone know how much of this area in the picture needs seam sealing? All the seams here or just some of them?

Forgot to mention what color I'm using. I'm going with HOK fine metallic Stratto blue

none of the seams in that pic require sealing. that is the area where the wiper cowl drains.

Thanks Musclerodz. I suspected that were the case for the reason you mentioned.

Needs seam sealer!
 

Jeremy ... the leading edge of the cowl was originally seamed on my car. The front of the rocker panel had plumbers putty installed in between the triangle gaps (I welded mine shut with a blank panel) ...

I would seam all the gaps EXCEPT the bottom where the water is supposed to drain out!!!!!

My .02 cents.

Thanks Michael

It's been so long since I had sandblasted my car, that I couldn't remember what was suppose to be sealed and what wasn't. I knew some of it was sealed though. I know how moisture can get trapped, so I wanted to make sure I didn't seal more than I needed.

Musclerodz (Mike) has spooked me a bit, so I have come up with an alternative to my original plan. It will take me a little bit to execute, as more prep work will be involved, but the end result will be justified.

Winter has officially reared its ugly head here. This will slow down progress a bit as I'll have to try and maintain a warm temp in the garage to keep the metal on the car warm enough. Although, we have relatively mild winters here. It can still get cold!

From giving up and selling the car... To primer... Are you having fun yet? This supposed to be a hobby... Nice work. Keep a it!:D

Thanks Greg!

Tough to give up on something I've put so much blood, sweat, tears and money into. It keeps me busy and occupied. I enjoy it, but what pushes me is the end result I envision in my mind. It frustrates the hell out of me sometimes, though:bigun2:

Hopefully I did not spook you too much, just making sure guys here hopefully learn from some of my misfortunes.

I appreciate you sharing your experience and I certainly encourage to keep giving tips if you see something I may need advice on.

My new slight change of course is only going to cost more :G-Dub:

Progress on the money pit today consisted of floating body filler of the drivers rocker, couple low areas on top of the driver quarter, small divot along the roof just about the rain gutter. Took me about 5 hours to accomplish that. Geez I'm slow. Good thing I work by the hour:lol:

Maybe it is a secret... but what is your new course of action? :confused59:

My plan was to sand the cars bottom, apply 2 good coats of epoxy primer, then seam seal and then shoot on Raptor. All this within 2 days, (to stay in the window of the epoxy primer accepting a top coat without need of sanding.) Did you figure out a better plan?

I am following your build very closely to absorb as much info as I can! THANK YOU for sharing all of you tips and ideas! :popcorn2:

Maybe it is a secret... but what is your new course of action? :confused59:

My plan was to sand the cars bottom, apply 2 good coats of epoxy primer, then seam seal and then shoot on Raptor. All this within 2 days, (to stay in the window of the epoxy primer accepting a top coat without need of sanding.) Did you figure out a better plan?

I am following your build very closely to absorb as much info as I can! THANK YOU for sharing all of you tips and ideas! :popcorn2:

I have completely block sanded the entire car, AGAIN! I hand sanded most of the bottom. Block sanding the bottom would take weeks. I have been doing some filler work in some areas that needed attention. I am not finished with the filler work, but am very close to being done. I should wrap up all the filler work that needs to be done tomorrow. After that, I can finally put the final primer on the car. Of course, I'll have to sand it again:)

I have run out of 180 sandpaper, so am about to head out and pick up some more so as to not have any interruptions in my plans.

I'm posting up a few pictures. I've been focusing on body lines. I still need to swipe a skim coat of filler down the center body line on the quarters so I can sharpen up that line. She's ugly right now, but she's becoming laser straight.

Thanks Jarrod and you're welcome:cheers:

Your plan is fine. I've just been on the fence the whole time about putting the Raptor liner on the bottom of my car. When Musclerodz posted that improper prep work could cause problems I started to go back to what I had originally had planned from the beginning. Also, my father kinda talked me into it as well. I'm going to shoot bc/cc on the bottom of my car. I'm still going to use the Raptor liner, though. I'll just shoot it into the interior of my car instead. I really want to see blue in there as well, so I'll use it in there.

I looked at your build and you are doing one heck of a job on your car. I really like how you are being a stickler to getting all the body lines perfectly aligned. Your car is going to be very well built once finished.

Lookin good Jeremy, I see the rotesserie helped out a bunch. Keep up the good progress!!:thumbsup:

Thanks Smitty!

Not much progress as of late. Frigid weather and torn rotator cup has me moving at a snail's pace

It looks beautiful to me!

If your ever over at the drag strip and (if you know him) see Mike Franks tell him Jon said hello. I used to pull my junk up there and race every once and a while. I am not sure if he still runs the track at Fulton still. He is a great fella for sure.

I've been to the Fulton track a few years ago, but haven't been in quite some time, though. It's about an hour drive from me. I usually raced at Byhalia, which is 15 minutes from me. Also, at a few times at Holly Springs and of course the big track at Memphis Motorsports Park.

I haven't done any racing or been around any tracks much since a sold my TransAm a few years ago.

What part of North Alabam are you from?

Thanks:) Only a true car guy can appreciate what it looks like right now. It resembles a calico cat to me right now:lol:

I've bought the rest of the primer I needed to get the prep stage finished this week, so I plan to get back at working on the car. I decided to purchase some Evercoat Slick Sand, as I feel this car would benefit from it. I've been trying to work with some waves in the roof across the front at the windshield and just can't seem to get it completely where i want it with just body filler. Also, the NOS quarters I bought and installed had some minor damage to the driver's side from sitting around so many years. The quarters at where they make the bend into the tailpanel have some stamping imperfections in them there, so working on getting the smoothed out there.

Hopefully within a week or two I can have the car in its final primer. Block sanding on the body filler and really given my shoulder fits. I'll just have to deal with that and work through it as quick as I can.

I revel the day I can see this thing together and in paint!

Good grief! I should proof read my posts before I make them. Hope everyone can understand my broken English:action-smiley-027: