Rocket, I had to sell my N/A a few years ago. It was a good, good car and I miss it.
I just wanted to give a quick update. The frame's finished and I've spent the last 2 months doing bodywork, body mods and paint. I'm at the point that I'm quite confident with fiberglass work now. (Not necessarily good at it but I know I can do it
)
This body was in rough condition. There was damage to the front and back as well as a lot of stress cracks in the fiberglass. Also, it was wavy as can be. It must have come out of a second rate mold when it was made. At best I'm an okay bodyman but luckily I'm a pretty good painter. I'd say there's a real 200 hours of bodywork into this car (I work slowly
)
Painting in the driveway in the sun is challenging. Between bugs, floating fluffies in the breeze and the burning sun, it's hard to lay a good coat of paint on. This paint turned out acceptably well for the conditions.
This is some of the stuff I did :
I mixed my own paint from cheapo quarts I've purchased over the years :
The results of two solid months of bodywork :
I did things like modify the front turnsignals. Here are the front turnsignals the day I bought the car:
I had four of these swap meet specials in my parts stash :
I cut up a couple of paper towel rolls and taped them up to fit the diameter of the lens :
Cover with packing tape :
Lay some fiberglass over it :
When it cures, remove the paper towel roll :
Open up the hole in the body to fit the new fiberglass tube:
Cram it in there :
Start glassing it in:
Cut the excess off:
Grind, sand and fill the low spots with fiberglass matt and resin then top with fiberglass reinforced bondo (and do that a few times):
It's stuff like that that has sucked up my time. I modified the mid-hatch, the rear trunk, the front turnsignals and the rear panel.
While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I started messing with the XR-2 engine. I changed the water pump, timing belt, tensioner pulley and the thermostat (I FOUND IT!!
). I fired it up and started fooling around with the exhaust but that my friends is a story for another time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBVGz2WIgScAt this point, I'm over a year into this build, have worked like a dog and spent almost $8000.