Have you picked out the wheels yet? The paint is looking good.
I am trying the best I can to keep the "stock" look for the car so I tried to order a set of the gold anodized style that are in most of the Huffaker pictures. I can't seem to really ever talk to anyone at Jongbloed racing about the wheels so I am taking member Dave Deerson's advice and going with Kodiak racing wheels. They are the closest to stock and they offer the option to anodize the centers. Here is a link to their selection:
A little update with no pics. The truth is that I have been battling a heart issue for a while. I have incredibly high blood pressure ( 195/130 ) due to my job and I am only 37 years old. I am soley responsible for the security cameras, access control, and remote monitoring of all PG&E power and gas sites throughout California as part of the Homeland security policy. I am now on medication that has dropped it to 140/100. The problem is that it makes me very tired and keeps me from doing the car. I have a ton of medical tests to address over the next few weeks. When I painted the hood in the last update, I felt great and was able to complete it in a few hours. I promised to do the decklid next but frankly did not have the energy. Today, I was able to take the door skins off, re-lube all the moving lock parts, window tracks, and that damned outer dew wipe. I also did some reshaping of the power door lock rods and now they work smooth as glass. The reason for me to take the door skin off is when the lower IMSA rocker panels are added to the door, you no longer have access to work on the sill plates. Now, I can sand, fill, prime and paint the sill plates easier. I also have to create lower mounts for the rocker panels since the molded one rubbed on the sill plate so I had to cut them down. I will be posting photos soon of the progress.
One other thing, since there is such a problem with these outer dew wipes, I am remaking these out of a thicker steel, using the front mirror mounts, 2 screw mounts near the front, and the rear screw mount and eliminating the need for the 2 screws that are a pain in the ass to get to. I'll post pics as soon as I get the material. I will provide all the information on how to make these ( if they work out ) but member DIY_Stu is currently selling these and I am not going make these and take business away from him.
Alright....the planning continues. I am at a no-turning-back stage with these door skins. My plan is to use Dzus fasteners to hold the door panels in place, rivet the lock mechanism plate to the door frame, remove the lip that hooks on to the top of the door window strip, cut away part of the area where the door handle is installed so the door skin can be unhooked from it, fill in the stock mirror location, add aftermarket mirrors to the blank stationary plate at the front of the windows.
Here is the door sill with the marking points for the fasteners. I may or may not need the top center one. I also am keeping the 4 that are under the door.
Here is the rear of the skin with the area marked for removal
This is the mirror location that I was thinking to use. They do not open up with the doors. They are stationary.
Just a top view of the mirror. The only thing is that I am losing my stock power mirrors.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 06-04-2008).]
Got home late and removed the stock lip that hooks where the original dew wipes would be. Here is a part of the drivers side door with the Dzus fasteners for easy removal of the skin. Part of this is to make the car look like the original and the other part is to provide the easiest access to the inside of the door if I ever need to. There will also be 4 of these on the bottom of the door in the stock rivet locations.
Tonight, I spent a little over an hour modifying the door handle and molding. The reason that I am doing this is because of the removable door skin. I have to be able to take it off without disturbing the lock assembly.
This is what the stock door and molding looks like
Here is the modification to the door skin as well as the molding to allow the door handle to slide out from under the skin
The piece that was cut out was used behind the door handle. That way, I am assured a nice fit that is level with the door skin.
And finally, I riveted the lock assembly in place since it normally is attached to the door skin.
For those wondering....I know the handle looks like crap, the molding is knicked in spots but for those of you who know my work, you know that everything will look brand new when I'm done
Thank you. Its the little details like the door panels that kill my time. Every part I touch on this car ends up getting modified somehow. I took apart my door lock actuators, gave them new brushes, sanded down the grooves on the commutator from the old brushes. Now it sounds like a gunshot goes off in the car when I lock and unlock the doors since they work so well now. The next item is to pull the power window motors and make them quicker.......wait a minute.....the next item is to paint the door skins with the Huffaker logo, stripe, and "55".....then comes the window motors
The wheels will be custom made. I am using a different type of coilover. Most coilover springs run the entire length of the strut with the aluminum adjuster tube at the bottom of the strut. My coil overs are short so there is little to no wheel interference. The plan is either a 15x10 rear wheel or a 17x12.
These are the coil overs in the rear. The half-cut plate at the bottom is the stock seat for stock springs. You can see these springs are about 8" tall
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 06-08-2008).]
I just installed rear coil-overs from Held & just got my car back from alignment; it probably sits about 1" lower now & the ride is much firmer. With your shorter, stiffer springs I can imagine how rough the ride may be on city streets.
Progress has been a little slow due to work but here is a small update of what has been going on. After the last update where I made the door skin removable, now I have to focus on blending in the rocker panels to the doors. They were bonded to the door skins a while ago but I never finished blending in the edges. First of all, like a moron, I used the wrong hardner in the Evercoat. I should have used blue and I used red. I really didn't see a difference and I try to use very little filler so hopefully, everything will be ok in the end. The first pic is the door filled and sanded.
The rear edge of the door...
The typical "pinholes" in the fiberglass...
The front edge of the door sanded and primed....just to see if I like the curvature...
And finally, the same front area. You can see the pinholes I was talking about earlier. These all are removed very easily with filler.
Been taking it easy due to high blood pressure ...... today I sanded and primed both door skins. I temporarily installed the molding and put down some masking tape. The molding will be red, the line where the masking tape sits will be silver and the rest will follow the race car scheme.
The first thing that I always do is lay down the design in low tack vinyl to make sure that the proportions are correct. I can make any changes at this point and actually changed the sizes 3 times to make them fit accurately. One flaw in the Fiero design....well, not really a flaw, is that the body lines gradually slope downward towards the front of the car. This is a painters nightmare because the question is what line to follow with graphics? Do you follow the molding or measure from the bottom of the door. I went with the original design of the race car and lined the numbers up with the molding which is why the numbers are closer to the rocker panel in the front and higher in the back. This is how the original car looked so I don't feel so bad having it look a little off. Oh....by the way, I used a wide angle lens which is why the door looks bubbly.
Friday, I will paint these guys and post more updates......health permitting
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 06-29-2008).]
Your health is important. Your project will always be there, your health may not. Again, keep up the good work. I am really looking forward to the final product and really enjoying this thread. The Duzs fittings are a nice touch.
I was supposed to paint today, but my CF card took a crap in my camera. I only sanded, primed, painted, and cleared the red molding today because I want to show the whole door painting process, not just the finished product. Tomorrow, I will paint the door panels and post pics once I get another CF card.
Ok.....first off, I just wanted to shed some light on a cheap but incredibly useful item. Many auto stores have bar stools for 10-20 bucks. If you get one and either add a couple of 2x4's or a board, you will have a great turntable to spin the item as you are painting it. There is nothing worst than having to walk around the item you are painting risking dust or fuzz from your clothes becoming part of the paint job. I rather stand in one spot and turn my work.
With that said, I gave the molding a 4th coat of clear
I then masked off the door at the line where the silver will start and sprayed the black basecoat
After that had set for a while, I masked the black and shot the white on the top of the door
I ran a little test fit of the molding just to make sure I liked the color of red I used. The part looks dull because I use an intercoat clear at certain points......a necessity for airbrushing so you don't "wipe off" your airbrush work. Even though the main colors are not airbrushed, I just use intercoat out of habit.
The paint has to dry completely before I can mask the black and spray the silver stripe. I will do this tomorrow as well as the silver "55" and the white "Huffaker" logo. Here is the silver that I am using. It really should look great next to the black.
So today, I wetsanded the door and layed the silver stripe under the molding and the "Huffaker" logo in white
The toughest decision was on the "55". The racecar has the numbers cut so they follow the molding line and are staggered at the bottom. For me, I really would rather have the numbers level with the bottom of the door so I layed the vinyl at that point.
Ready for the silver
The final result. The camera flash actually reflected on the silver flake so much that it made the "55" look white but trust me, it is a very bright silver and as far as the molding line, it doesn't look that bad. As I said, since the molding slopes towards the front of the car, I would rather have the numbers level with the bottom of the door and a little off on the molding line.
Next step is wetsanding and clearcoat.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 07-24-2008).]
Just a suggestion on the number. Couldn't you make the number near the front of the door smaller. Reshape the bottoms of them slightly and thry follow both lines then. No one will know because to the naked eye it will look right.
Just a suggestion on the number. Couldn't you make the number near the front of the door smaller. Reshape the bottoms of them slightly and thry follow both lines then. No one will know because to the naked eye it will look right.
I could do some custom cut but for me, the numbers should be the same size. If you notice the numbers in this pic, they made the back "5" shorter and staggered it up to follow the molding line. I just wanted the numbers even height and level.
Alright.....after a long battle with some health issues, I am now 98% better and hopefully can continue work on this car Today, I decided to do a decklid vent modification using a stock 84 grille that member MRJ was nice enough to sell me. The first issue with the 84 grille is that is is designed to bolt on to the decklid. I decided to cut the grille to a smaller size and blend it into the decklid. The first thing was to measure the side vent panels and mark lines on the decklid where the actual louver part of the vents start and end.
The next thing that I did was place the 84 grille on top of the lid just to get an idea of where I want the opening to be.
I then trimmed the grille to size
The next thing was to cut out the decklid skin where I had made my lines.
And finally, the fitted product before I bond it to the sub-structure.
If you notice the sub-structure through the grille, it will be boxed in, painted black, and a fine black mesh will be installed under the grille by the time I am finished. Since the decklid will be entirely white, a black mesh will look great and hide the sub-structure of the decklid.
