It has been 7 months since I last posted, though with building university commitments at the business end of the year the Mazda saw less and less time being worked on and more and more time under a heavy duty tarpaulin and a blanket. There was a lot being done though unfortunately i wasn't taking very many photos because the work done was very little. The things which I did do included: Stripping down the headlight assemblies and slowly restoring them. They are all done bar a few springs. (Which I am still looking into - also I am thinking of getting some more powerful lights and relays to function as the high beam - for a bit more safety if i take it out on an open road at night. Key word: if) I will post some photos of this as they are finished.
Additionally i have spent a lot of time painting the chassis, wheel arches and quarter panels with sound deadener and bituminous underbody paint.
The maroon/burgandy paint seen below the A pillars I used when i was stripping the original tar and sound deadener from the wheel arches - because I was working on the car at lengthy intervals I used this paint to protect the exposed metal while in the yard. Made more work for myself in the long run.
With this done I set about checking my new panels against the body ensuring they fit as well as re-tapping all the bolt holes. I have also used this time to replace the original bolts with higher tensile (probably unnecessary - but there is nothing like excess) zinc bolts to prevent rust buildup.
Towards the end of September I had to temporarily bolt the new panels to the body and return the car to its original tarpaulin state.
All that was worked on for the next few months was the front bumper. I did acquire a new front bumper and grill from the eastern states, in a fantastic condition, though from a slightly different model, using smaller struts to support the front chromed bumper - therefore I couldn't retrofit it onto my own model - thus began a long series of rust removal and gently (hammer) reshaping the front panel. Then what couldn't be fixed with reshaping needed to be bogged. I also began cleaning up this SS grill. Though I am need of a spot welder to fix some of the damage.
Although it looks a little rough here, it is very smooth and shortly afterwards I began the primer process. Though not before I removed the doors. This was a very exhausting process as all the recessed screws had seized on their lock nuts and the door hinges, and the use of a Phillips head didn't supply sufficient leverage to remove them. Also a previous owners attempt had stripped on the passenger side. I have since re-tapped and replaced all the bolts.
While prepping the panels I didn't take to many photos - mainly because the white dust covered everything, though it involved a lot of time removing old layers of paint with wet and dry. I have about 12 doors at home, and I had to select the best ones for each position, I ended up swapping out two rear doors with two "new" ones. I would have liked to replace the passenger side door as well, though unfortunately of the 3 I had, one had sustained a large dent in storage which was beyond repair a this point in time - though I will work on it later. The second has a much simpler locking mechanism though is not compatible with my own doors which is unfortunate. So I had to put a bit of time into a door which had a lot of small dents and deep scratches to the paint - unfortunately this meant more bog than I wanted to use. I have managed to (with the help of my old man) get it back to a close to original condition.
Most doors did not need any bog, though feathering out scratches and imperfections did take longer than hoped. This is not the first time this car has had a respray i have discovered. Well at least not the first time for the passenger side door.
We jerry rigged a basic setup in the garage for spray painting. Using a basic acrylic primer, I do not know very much about painting, and because of this I ended up in a less than helpful area for car restoration - Super Cheap Auto (a chain brand of cheap automotive supplies) here I was given a series of less than helpful painting advice. Though eventually it all came together with the panels.
Soon I was able to roll in the body of the car - only around 5 days ago I started is disassembly. The rear quarters are part of the chassis and not easily removed.
The rear quarters are in great nick, and there is no structural or even surface rust on the body, bar a small patch to the rear of the fuel cap. Though this I have since removed and reinforced. There was however some rust on the chromed section of the rear left break assembly. I will post photos to follow - though if anyone has advice it would be appreciated.
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| I am sure this was done with house paint, or in poor conditions, because it came of the car so easily but made such a mess. Sometimes it would separate just being rubbed down by hand when the top layer was unsettled. Though I shouldn't comment at this stage. Touch wood. |
Though this I discovered later. The plan was to use a paint my old man had on his '68 Toyota KT40 Corona - a deep burgundy - unfortunately the label had completely rusted off the tin. This resulted in a visit to our local automotive paint centre in a neighbouring suburb to get some help. Unfortunately the store couldn't match the paint from manufacturer manuals so we ended up needing a spectrometer reading of a sprayed sample of the paint. The paint came back with a match that was quite expensive and for a few litres it was looking at being around the 500 dollar mark for what I thought would be a cheap respray. I guess the old man had expensive taste. I thought this was out of my price range, so it was back to the drawing board. I was aiming to get a period colour for the car, and we absolutely jagged a very nice metallic fleck dark red/brown colour, which only reflected the fleck in certain lighting conditions.
What was also fantastic about scoring the paint was that it had been made for a respray - though the customer had never collected it - so it was on the throw out pile, which meant it was 50 dollars for four litres. Very happy. All up getting my top coat supplies cost around 220 dollars. For 9 Litres of Dupont thinners, 4 Litres of Acrylic Fleck Lacquer, 1 Litre of Oil and Grease Remover, 2 Litres of Dupont Clear Coat and half a dozen sheets of 800 and 1200 grit. The bloke even threw in a few measuring cups, filters and stirrers for good measure. Day well done.
Here is the colour, a shocking resolution photo, taken at night, on a phone. The trifecta for good photography. Excuse the dodgy job. Was my first crack at spraying fleck/spraying topcoat acrylic/spraying anything but primer.
