Intro from Montana: '73 2.0L rustoration thread Options

[bbrock]

Craigslist compressor already sold. The dog has a vet appt. today so I'll be in town and can go shopping. Will probably come home with a compressor.

[preach]

That sucks Brent. Hope you can recover in time.

[bbrock]

Here's where I sit at the moment. Waiting for my neighbor to come home to help me lower it down.



It's a two-stage so that should be nice. It barely shoehorned in the SUV. I have a pickup I can't drive because it has 4 bad tires and a trailer that is full of scrap metal (I'll give you one guess where it came from). Everything is on deferred maintenance until the project car is painted and I've been skating along with no backups, hoping for the best. Today, the house of cards fell.

I'll probably need to head back to town for some plumbing fittings to hook this thing up. Hoping to have it operational tonight so I can get some paint laid down tomorrow. If not, I will have to wait until after this winter storm passes which means I'll have to scuff sand all this fresh primer because I will lose my recoat window. One loud clunk in the morning and my whole plan went to shit.

[FlacaProductions]

For all the things that could have gone SO wrong up to this point, this is minor.
Keep moving and keep your eyes on the prize - if this is the worst thing that happens, you're in great shape!

[johnlush]

Damn crappy compressors. Was the one that failed a single stage direct drive? Minor detour for you. Let the weather pass and jump back in. Better now than in the middle of laying down color...

[bbrock]

Damn crappy compressors. Was the one that failed a single stage direct drive? Minor detour for you. Let the weather pass and jump back in.

Yes, the crappy one was single stage direct drive AND oiless. It was just not a well thought out purchase. I'll never buy an oiless compressor again. Unbelievably cheaply made and maintenance is quite expensive since the teflon piston rings/cups wear out quickly.

The new compressor is hooked up and on its break-in run. Already like it better. SO much quieter than that old POS. Of course, I don't have the plumbing fittings I need to hook it to my lines and my neighbor who helped me unload stuck around to chit chat so it was too late to run back to town for fittings. Will make and early run tomorrow.

Better now than in the middle of laying down color...

EXACTLY. If the break down would have happened one hour later, I would have had a pot full of rather expensive urethane surfacer in the gun that would have gone to waste. Breaking down while laying color would have been way worse.

Onward ho!

[bbrock]

For all the things that could have gone SO wrong up to this point, this is minor.
Keep moving and keep your eyes on the prize - if this is the worst thing that happens, you're in great shape!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Worse thing so far has probably been having to have metal flakes drilled out of my eye. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

[raynekat]

You get 'em Brent. The winter is a coming.

[Dion]

A minor hiccup for you! You got this man. Yes, very happy it didn’t crap out during colour phase. Hope the weather window improves quickly for ya.
Good karma and all that , etc! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[JOEPROPER]

, very happy it didn’t crap out during colour phase

Could be a blessing in disguise. Move forward!

[bbrock]

Status update:

Plumbed and operational -


Loose panels sprayed with 3 coats PPG K36 Primer Surfacer. I was happy to see this will contrast well with the gray of the epoxy. It is windy as hell today so having a little trouble with trash (mostly bits of dry grass) blowing under the tent skirt and onto the panels. I'm not too worried about it since everything will be sanded down, but it's a good example of why I need to have things sealed and more sanitary before spraying color.





A couple better shots of the chassis in epoxy before it rolls into the tent for surfacer. While the loose panels are drying, I'll go over the chassis with glazing putty to clean up any gnats ass blemishes I find. By the time I'm done, I should be able to move the panels into the garage and roll the chassis into the tent for paint. Weather is turning but I think it will hold for a few more hours. Fingers crossed.

[ssuperflyoldguy]

I had to take my compressor apart to get it where it had to go - Heavy! And I aint getting any stronger. Also, the days of having friends come over to help are waning - they too are getting older.

Amazing thread! Inspirational!

[bbrock]

I had to take my compressor apart to get it where it had to go - Heavy! And I aint getting any stronger. Also, the days of having friends come over to help are waning - they too are getting older.

Amazing thread! Inspirational!

Ha! Yeah, I think we both got hernias getting that sucker into place. The one that broke however, was pretty easy to manhandle by myself. That says something about the quality I think.

Okay, another update. I'm not going to lie. There was nothing fun about today at all (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pain30.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/boid.gif) As of last night, today's forecast was partly sunny and 70s but windy. What I got was 50s and light rain. Obviously the winter storm front is moving in ahead of schedule. This made working in the tent miserable but I went for it anyway. Lot's of cussing. Came close to breaking some shit but managed to control my temper. Whadaya know? I didn't know I could do that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) In the end, I persevered. Here are the best shots I can get right now. In a couple hours I'll roll it back in the garage.





It has three coats of primer surfacer. There were some issues but overall, not bad considering the conditions I was spraying in, and that I have never shot this kind of paint before. I got a couple runs on the windshield frame. No biggie since it all gets sanded anyway. Just as I finished laying the first coat, a couple drips of water fell from the tent roof. Most hit masking plastic, but a couple hit paint. After inventing some new words, I blew them dry with air and then re-positioned the car to try to get all the drips on plastic instead of paint. Another piss off is that the Raptor bedliner undercoating is like teflon. That's a good quality in general unless you are trying to stick masking tape to it. At one point, I stepped too close to the car and my shoe caught the masking over the front wheel well and yanked it loose. More new words and wallowing on the wet ground to get it half-assed stuck back so I could finish the job.

Anyway, this part is done. I'm looking forward being able to slow down the pace.

[worn]

Take a bunch of deep breaths. One thing i found out in Wisconsin is that when winter moves in you are just plain stuck. I tried to get in under the wire with my painting the 3.2 and it didnt turn out as i wanted it to. Looks OK, but when you do it yourself you can always find the flaws. I wish i had held off the final spraying till spring. With no booth though, the bugs will always land where the paint would have been perfect.
I wanted to have color on so i could spend the winter with assembly.
On another note i like the story of the mason who dressed the back side of the stones in addition to the front. When it was pointed out to him that no one would ever know, he replied that God will know. My father told me that story, as he also showed me how to make furniture. I would never have been able to work on 914s if I hadn’t made furniture first.
I can’t tell you how much i have enjoyed your posts. Good luck with the weatherand stay warm.

[bbrock]

Take a bunch of deep breaths. One thing i found out in Wisconsin is that when winter moves in you are just plain stuck. I tried to get in under the wire with my painting the 3.2 and it didnt turn out as i wanted it to. Looks OK, but when you do it yourself you can always find the flaws. I wish i had held off the final spraying till spring. With no booth though, the bugs will always land where the paint would have been perfect.
I wanted to have color on so i could spend the winter with assembly.
On another note i like the story of the mason who dressed the back side of the stones in addition to the front. When it was pointed out to him that no one would ever know, he replied that God will know. My father told me that story, as he also showed me how to make furniture. I would never have been able to work on 914s if I hadn’t made furniture first.
I can’t tell you how much i have enjoyed your posts. Good luck with the weatherand stay warm.

Love the mason story! Sounds like you've been exactly where I am now. The reason I made such a push to get to this point is because 1) we should get at least a couple more nice weather spells in between small snow squalls before winter is here to stay. If I have my ducks in a row, I should yet get a change to spray color under nearly ideal conditions and under a much more relaxed situation 2) at this stage, imperfections can still be fixed. I know spraying today created more mistakes than had I been able to spray yesterday, but I know they won't affect the final product. 3) if I miss my fall window, I won't have acceptable weather again until late June, and like you said, more buggy. And 4) the wife has been very tolerant of this project but patience has limits...

So yeah, I'm tired and pissy and I have some runs and other flaws to clean up, but I've bought myself a chance to get a color coat I will be proud of before the real snows hit. We'll see... She's inside now. I'm going to let it just sit for a week to let the surfacer shrink before doing anything to it. I'll spend that time sealing up the tent i prep for color and hope for the best.

[914_7T3]

Just know, the 914 G-ds will watch over you and it will all work out!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

[bbrock]

Well this figures. It's been calm, sunny, and in the 60s all day today. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) Perfect painting weather. Snow is no longer in the forecast and the winter storm that was predicted seems to have been erased from our future here. Oh well, it was nice to get back to my day job today and not worry about f'ing with this car. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

[bbrock]

Back to doing fun stuff while I let the high build primer rest. I decided to mount the front trunk lid so it would be in its final shape when I do the final blocking. All of the 914s I've owned had a bit of spring flex to the lid when shut. I assume that is by design. Anyway, I blasted the hinges and installed them and the latch.



Then I spent some time shaping the lid to edge match it to the body. Maybe I should have done this earlier, but having everything this uniform light gray color helps to see clearly. My process was to find the low spots and place a rubber block under the outer frame member, then close the lid and press gently down on the high area with an open, flat palm to flex the lid to crown the way I wanted. Then I removed the block and shut the lid again before finishing shaping by pressing gently down on the newly reshaped crown until it was level with the adjacent body panel. This was surprisingly easy to do and worked great.





I'm really pleased with the alignment. I didn't spend the time to get the gaps absolutely perfect since the hood has to come off again. It is really close though and I'm happy. I know you can't tell squat in these pics but I'll post them anyway.





The latest forecast still says no snow today but they have put it back in for tomorrow. That leaves me awfully confused about what this stuff outside is though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[mepstein]

I saw that as much as 4' might be on the way. Crazy.

[bbrock]

I saw that as much as 4' might be on the way. Crazy.

Yeah, I think NW and North Central Montana are going to get walloped. We are on the southern fringe of the storm which is why they are having a hard time with the forecast.