Another GT Look-a-Likey Project thread, Made a gas strut lifted air dam to clear my driveway Options

[john77]

Ahhh, okay, now I see what PanelBilly meant. I had the "removable valance" question on my brain and thought he meant that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I just reread the conversation I had with @914Dave and I misspoke, he's running 9s in the back just like I will be.

He told me he had to have .100” machined off the mounting surface and the fender lip cut down to about 1/8”, and they only just fit with 1/16" clearance.

Maybe it's because the offset is different from fuchs, i don't know.

Either way, it looks like I'll have to get the mounting face machined down .100" or somehow widen the flare a little to get them to fit.

One option I was thinking about was using my shrinker/stretcher on the lip to stretch them a little and then english wheeling out the flat face of the flare to give them a little more shape. Although I'm a little hesitant to alter the original shape of them too much.

15x9 245/50 lips folded up,,,my other 914, are widen 1.5

[John]

I run 9x16 on all 4 corners on the track car and have for more than 30 years. I never machined any wheels. I have had several sets and they all fit. Of course, these flares have been on the car since 1983-ish. I fully expect to be able to do the same with my current project (flares I bought in a group buy back in 2004-2005)

[john77]

@John Were any of those sets Group 4 Campagnolos? This is literally what I’ve been told by someone who’s running the exact same wheels I plan to run. Maybe the offset is different.

I run 9x16 on all 4 corners on the track car and have for more than 30 years. I never machined any wheels. I have had several sets and they all fit. Of course, these flares have been on the car since 1983-ish. I fully expect to be able to do the same with my current project (flares I bought in a group buy back in 2004-2005)

[914dave]

9 x 16 have a more favorable offset than the 9 x 15.

[john77]

Slowly making progress metal finishing the weld on the first flare today.

Can someone tell me, as the flare comes off the top of the fender and starts to roll down toward where the turn signal barnacle would be, is that supposed to flow into the flare with a smooth transition (pink) or is it more like an abrupt crease (yellow)?


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[Literati914]

@john77

Wow I was surprised to read your thread and come across someone else willing to roll paint onto their car !! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) . I have my project car (which is outdoors/unprotected) in epoxy primer now after stripping it down to bare metal, then rolling it on with 4" rollers from Home Depot (don't laugh). The thing is, I expected a good amount of orange peal - which I got, 'cause I plan on blocking it down (filler work was done before the epoxy). Then I plan to roll on polyester primer surfacer (2K high build primer).. and block it down too. My time is free, so..

But that brings me to a consideration that I wonder if you'd thought about.. and that is, while the epoxy primer creates a sort of hard shell that doesn't easily/quickly soak up moisture - the 2K high build would. So you'd want to be ready to spray once you get the 2K blocked down straight. But nothing says it couldn't be sprayed a panel at a time.

I hate to admit this but I've actually even thought about rolling on the UA single stage paint that I'll be using. I mean, I do have the compressor and spray equipment but if you plan to wet sand the entire car anyway.. I'm not sure it wouldn't work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) . The advantages for me being that I would not have to invest in purchasing and putting up a temporary garage to shoot in, seal it, purchase exhaust fans, etc. Also, the lack of highly aerosol-ed paint may not smell as bad and get the attention of fewer pissed off neighbors. Not to mention, may be less hazardous to me - I don't completely trust the respirator/masks (though I'd still wear one) - and professional paint is dangerous stuff. But, I have not decided against spraying either. So I will be getting an idea of it's feasibility by rolling it on the under-side of the car, wheel wells and longs first. I know this is probably crazy, but we'll see before going all in on the visible parts of the car. Anyway, your project is coming along nicely, keep it up (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[john77]

@Literati914

The roll on epoxy I have is 2K and, if Eastwood’s to be believed, is self-leveling. As long as I prep the metal correctly I don’t see orange peel being an issue.

My plan is to only do epoxy so I don’t have to worry about moisture. I’ll only do primer surfacer and block when I’m ready for color/clear.

Can you sand color? I was under the impression if you do you have to do another coat or it will show through the clear.

@john77

Wow I was surprised to read your thread and come across someone else willing to roll paint onto their car !! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) . I have my project car (which is outdoors/unprotected) in epoxy primer now after stripping it down to bare metal, then rolling it on with 4" rollers from Home Depot (don't laugh). The thing is, I expected a good amount of orange peal - which I got, 'cause I plan on blocking it down (filler work was done before the epoxy). Then I plan to roll on polyester primer surfacer (2K high build primer).. and block it down too. My time is free, so..

But that brings me to a consideration that I wonder if you'd thought about.. and that is, while the epoxy primer creates a sort of hard shell that doesn't easily/quickly soak up moisture - the 2K high build would. So you'd want to be ready to spray once you get the 2K blocked down straight. But nothing says it couldn't be sprayed a panel at a time.

I hate to admit this but I've actually even thought about rolling on the UA single stage paint that I'll be using. I mean, I do have the compressor and spray equipment but if you plan to wet sand the entire car anyway.. I'm not sure it wouldn't work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) . The advantages for me being that I would not have to invest in purchasing and putting up a temporary garage to shoot in, seal it, purchase exhaust fans, etc. Also, the lack of highly aerosol-ed paint may not smell as bad and get the attention of fewer pissed off neighbors. Not to mention, may be less hazardous to me - I don't completely trust the respirator/masks (though I'd still wear one) - and professional paint is dangerous stuff. But, I have not decided against spraying either. So I will be getting an idea of it's feasibility by rolling it on the under-side of the car, wheel wells and longs first. I know this is probably crazy, but we'll see before going all in on the visible parts of the car. Anyway, your project is coming along nicely, keep it up (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[campbellcj]

I'm going to be getting a new front valance to match the shape of the flares, but I have a problem...

The driveway up the side of my house to my garage in the back is pretty steep, and the valance I have on the car now scrapes across the sidewalk as I hit the bottom of the driveway.

I'm wondering if there's a way I can make the valance quick release, so I can take it off when I drive in and out of my house? But not so quick release that it flies off on the 405 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif) Dzus fasteners maybe?

Has anyone done this?

Mine is set up as semi-quick release - I used two dzus fasteners on the L/R sides but ended up using screws w/ nutserts in front for added security. It comes on/off within a couple mins unless I have the brake ducts connected, for which I haven't yet figured out a quick-release setup. I did this for trailer ramp clearance many years ago.

[Literati914]

@Literati914

..block when I’m ready for color/clear.

Can you sand color? I was under the impression if you do you have to do another coat or it will show through the clear.

Ok so you're using base and clear, the clear would be wet sanded not the color .. and for that reason rolling paint on may be even less of a good idea - might not work out so great if the color is lumpy and the clear as well. It may be doable though with a single stage, we'll see. Good luck with your project.

[john77]

Can't believe I started this in October - I've been making slow progress so figured I'd post an update.

Right now I have both front flares on and epoxied, and the wheel wells stripped to bare metal and painted with POR15.

Everything's taking longer than expected though because it turns out the entire car was covered in a thick layer of bondo, and as I'm stripping it I'm finding a bunch of stuff. Luckily, it wasn't hiding any terrible rot, just some bad previous "repairs" that I'm having to correct as I go along.

To give an idea of how much bondo, this was the passenger rear quarter after I'd stripped most of it off, and it appears the entire car is like this:

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1612210885.1.jpg)

[john77]

I'm really happy with the way the passenger side front flare turned out, which means I'll probably end up circling back to get the driver side up to the same level of finish. The transitions from the fender into the flare all flow nicely and should need a minimal amount of filler.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1612211720.1.jpg)

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After stripping the door I found some previous damage that had been repaired pretty badly. There were two drill holes (I'm assuming they were made to pull a dent) that were then just left and filled with filler.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1612211722.3.jpg)

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Because of the crash support behind the skin I'm not 100% sure how to deal with this one. The door skin is pretty lumpy and it may make more sense to find a replacement door - I've epoxied it for now and will figure out what the best fix is once the time comes.

[john77]

This is how the car sits right now. Both front fenders are in epoxy, and I also stripped the entire passenger side down to bare metal and epoxied that too.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1612213383.1.jpg)

The rear flares had some imperfections at the bottom of the arches where the stamping had crushed metal on top of metal, so I spent a couple of hours this weekend cutting out and patching those.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1612213384.2.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1612213384.3.jpg)

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I'm still pretty new to tig so I turned a copper pipe cap into a heat sink to help me with blow through if the butt weld gaps aren't tight enough.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1612213385.5.jpg)

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I'm hoping to start welding on the first rear flare next weekend.

[john77]

I finally got the flares finished, can't believe it's 8 months since I started this thread. I mean, I can, because everything takes me way longer than I think, but still...

The car is going to be in epoxy for a while while I get other random projects done like making a custom front grille, fog light grilles, redoing my engine GT engine lid, making a new oil cooler shroud, and most importantly replacing the hammered sh*t door skins with new FG door skins.

The driver's side door was certainly a highlight so far. To look at the car you never would have known there was bondo on it, yet somehow this survived 20+ years without cracking and I ended up using a hammer and chisel to remove it.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622752401.1.jpg)

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[john77]

Some other stuff I got done...

Stripped all 4 wheel wells and then prepped with rust mort, painted with POR15, and then coated with Raptor bedliner.

I know a people either love or hate POR15 but I've found the trick with it is that you always have to etch the metal first as it absolutely hates bare metal and that's when it peels off in sheets.

For the Raptor, I just waited an hour until the POR15 was still a tiny bit tacky and they rolled it on with a low nap roller - I had the spray gun but couldn't be bother with masking everything up to stop overspray, and the instructions say you can just mix it up and paint it on too.

So far, no issues, and it's solid as a rock.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622752768.1.jpg)

[john77]

This was the state of the driver door after I'd removed all of the bondo - yes, they just bondo'd over what I'm guessing are holes that were drilled to use a dent puller (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

I epoxied them because I'm not sure how long they'll be like this, but I have FG door skins on order to replace them. So completely stripping the doors down to their shells is in my future at some point.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622752952.1.jpg)

[john77]

The bottoms of the flares didn't run in a straight line with the bottom edge of the fender, instead they slightly sloped down.

This was going to be an issue if I wanted a consistent gap between the top of the rocker and the rear fender once it was flared, so I decided to chop the ends off and remake them straight.

I probably could have just made a few cuts, hammered the edge straight and rewelded them, but getting a really sharp line like the bottom of the fender would have been tough, and sometimes I like to make more work for myself. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622753458.1.jpg)

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This is one done and test fitted to the car.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622753460.4.jpg)

[john77]

I was inspired by another member (can't remember who, sorry) to make some adjustable brackets for the FG bumpers.

The fit of the original brackets was not good, plus once I clamped the ones flat to the back of the front bumper the angle was completely wrong and made it impossible to screw them through the original mounting holes in the front of the car.

So I made two pieces - one out of the FG bracket with a channel so it could be slid forwards and backwards, and a second piece out of aluminum L that mounted to the car.

Fixing the FG part to the back of the bumper in the right place still took some work, but here's how I did it:

I mounted the brackets to the car and then offered the bumpers up to them so they mated flat to the back of the bumper and were in the correct position..

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622754678.1.jpg)

Then I put tape inside the bumper where the brackets would mount and sprayed a thin layer of insulating foam...

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622754679.2.jpg)

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I then waited a few minutes for the foam to start to set and then lifted the bumper up to the brackets and held it in place for a few minutes.

I didn't get a picture of the result, but basically the foams sets with an imprint in it of exactly where the bracket needs to be mounted.

You can then cut away the rest of the tape/foam, use a sharpie to mark around the tape that's left (i.e. where the bracket will go) and then chuck the last bit of tape away. This leaves you with a clean surface to fiberglass the bracket too.

Here's the brackets mounted to the front bumper (I used a hydraulic press to widen the angle of the aluminum L on the front bumper brackets so the mated up to the FG pieces properly):

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622754950.1.jpg)

And the front bumper on the car. They need a little fine tuning, but overall I'm pretty happy with the fit.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622754951.2.jpg)

[john77]

One last post for now, here's are some pics the flares being fitted and the car as it sits right now with the bumpers and Patrick Motorsport air dam fitted.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/live.staticflickr.com-17027-1622755421.1.jpg)

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[john77]

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[gereed75]

Wow. Looking really good!