Peter's (malaga_red75) awesome subaru conversion is now in for paint! This thread will be very similar to my thread in layout and I will go into detail about how and when everything takes place . Peter will be helping me as much as he can as we are trying to work towards a 2 month deadline.


Here is his really nice conversion! I must say the radiator setup looks awesome!
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=85845

Here it is as delivered.

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When Peter left I decided to get working on it to see what I had to work with. Started @ 8:30pm, finished @ 11:30am. 3 total hours

Not pictured, but I removed the trim along the front window. Then I filled the antenna hole

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As I was grinding the hole down, I could see that there had been some repair to this area before where someone had gone to metal with the car and used a skim layer of filler over the car. It looks like good work, and in fact there is only that layer of filler, then a basecoat/clearcoat, then in some area's primer over that (probably from dents as I can see in Peters subaru swap thread), and then obviously the rattle can primer.

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Removed the headlight as well, Picture is for refference on wiring.

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There is a little bump on the edge of the door, I cant get behind it with a dolly, so this will probably have to be fixed with the door off the car.

And then it had only been just over an hour so I spent some time getting the fender down. I used 180 grit, and on some area's where there was either chips or rust bubbles I went down to 80 grit. These will either get glazing filler or primer filler.

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This fender is now ready for primer epoxy, It doesnt look like it needs any filler or even primer filler, So it'll be a thick layer of primer epoxy then we'll shoot primer sealer near bodycolor right before spraying color.

The whole car seems pretty straight except for the pass rear, which has an oilcanning issue in the front large section of it. I'll probably have to get the torch out for it and read up on the tricks to get rid of it. I'll detail this problem area later.

Very excited about this!!!

Now would be the time to roll the fenders rather than just before you're getting ready to spray (like me)

I'll be watching this thread, yours had great pictured updates of the progress.

Can I talk you into painting our new vw pick up we just got?? very straight and original paint

Mike

Mike,

You certainly can, but I have a full plate on other cars, so if you dont mind waiting maybe a year then ya! Send me a PM on when you are thinking and I'll send you the details on $$

Panelbilly, We will be rolling the rears at least, (However someone cut the lip off very professionally, I'll get a pic of it)

Cool! I'll be watching this one too. I think he did a great job building the subie. I'm glad all the cooling issues are dealt with.

Not as good of a day as I had hoped in terms of time frame, but I did get enough done for me to be happy with the day. I had a 4 hour detour in the middle of the day delivering some wheels. That and I had expeced my fiance to return home sooner than she is (and she didnt keep me informed), so I stopped earlier than I really wanted.

Lets start with the morning push.
Worked on the door and rear fender for about an hour then had to leave.
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Started up again and worked for about 2 hours then I got hungry
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A LOT more nicks than I thought there would be, a couple of scratches, ect. Scratches, dings, and chips were brought down to metal or to the end of the chip/scratch with 80 grit, then the area's around were feathered.

Next step is epoxy primer, and then i'll fill the low spots.


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Here is a pic of the rear fender lip that was trimmed.

I hope you're good wit dat. Cuzn youz signin up for it. Long term. Or youz best be puttin' down some rulz fast like.
Just teasin'.

Seriously, nice work 'rew. Part of me is wishing you would finish the massaging of the flares pure metal. I love the Bontempi style bulges, and thought it was cool you stretched the metal that way early on. Would you try that again?

Rand,

She was out with her friends at Great America so she was probably on rides and such

I would attempt those flares, but they just take so many hours. I think its less time consuming to cut the tops of the flares and then fill in extra metal and shape from there.

If time was no object, ya I would love to try it out. Maybe on my next 914. (Because I doubt someone will pay my labor rate @ 20-40 hours per fender...)

I am still kind of new to the 'rolling the fenders' idea. Could you guys post some pics and methods of how you rolled your fender? I'd love to see what it looks like.. also, what size tire/wheel are you running under there.

My main reason for rolling th fender would be to fit a 195 (or 205 if possible) on the VW offset empi look-a-like wheels.

lets see what you got!!

-Peter

Peter,

Attached are some pictures of the 3.6 with rolled fenders. It's slightly widened and you can definitely fit more tire in there, while still maintaining a very stock look. you can only tell it's been widened if your pretty familiar with the car and look closely. This specific car was done using the 'baseball bat' method.

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Thanks! I didn't notice it in the first two pictures, but in the third one, it looks like there is a crease or flat spot on the upper part of the fender? Is this just the sun/picture playing tricks on my eyes? Because this is something that Andrew talked about.

Thanks again! That car looks great!

also, Andrew, I am going to call today about the paint. I have read online that the paint Porsche uses is a water-based paint. Are you going to be using water-based? Let me know

-Peter

I'm running 215/16 tires with very little fender rolling. These are on 16/7 wheels

The opening you have in the front bumper will be fine if the rest of the cooling system is correct.
Thats about the same total size as I have on this EG33 powered car.
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I think that's just a 'bad reflection' because it's the same side pictured in picture #2, but I see what you are talking about, it certainly does look like it in that picture.

I would really recommend the whole process!

Peter, I was talking about larger rolling/stretching of the fender without stretching the metal. As big of a stretch as you are looking at/ thinking about wont affect this in any noticeable fashion.


Also I can go with any base material you want to paint with, The shop will just color match based on pigment mix #'s. Single stage Urethane is what I recommend going with and is what I went with on my car. Dont buy the actual paint till we speak again, I want to make sure the pricing is right and you buy the right reducer and such.

PS Feel free to text me

I'll loan you my Eastwood fender roller if you want to try it.

Had to google that, but it looks awesome!!

Looks like a much more consistent way to roll the fender as opposed to the 'baseball bat' method.

What do you think Andrew?

Thats probably a really good idea, With no weight in the back and wheels that are not what he wants to put on ( however we could probably space them out with washers) It will be a little difficult to use a baseball bat for rolling the fenders.

Hey guys,

Be careful with those rollers, as sometimes the polyurethane on them has a tendency to not push uniformly, causing waves and flat spots. We just went through this when my Father was lowering his Ferrari. I suppose if your using it on a stripped car it's cool, but on one that is already sprayed or semi-prepped, I would be concerned.

And yeah, the bat method is a bit more 'old school' and can certainly be a little difficult.

There was a thread a few days ago on fender rolling. Also search on here will tuurn it up.

Jack

I used it on a local 914. No problems. I just used my heat gun to warm up his paint and it was good to go. You can change the tension at any point of the fender to fine tune it. If you guys want to use it, figure out how to get it from San Ramon to Modesto.

I will probably go help andrew this weekend. I am coming from the peninsula and should be no problem for me to pick it up because it is only about 10 minutes off of 580. I will PM you and keep you posted

-Peter

Right on! If it is easier, you can pick it up from me at work in San Carlos...

Right on! If it is easier, you can pick it up from me at work in San Carlos...

Awesome! We'll get these fenders rolled this weekend! Before and after pics and measurements will be posted!


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Got 1/2 hour of work in tonight and stripped the hood with 80 grit. There are two rock chips that need to be taken care of but the rest of the hood is nice and shouldnt take much work.

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Loads of paint... I think the hood took a rattle can in itself.

OH, and the Pass side headlight doesnt have a turn knob thing so I couldnt raise and remove the headlight. I probably have a spare knob in the back, but I didnt have time to look for it (and it was dark.. I dont like spiders..)

Like this fuzzy fella ???
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Jack

What are those, wolf spiders?

We have black widows over here.. Its been 2 months since I sprayed and the heat has gotten bad so they are comin out. I'll probably spray this week.

Looks great andrew! I like how you are saving the right-rear fender for last ... hopefully it wont be that bad when you start on it.

also, did you notice the turned-up corner on the hood?

It should be passenger side all the way towards the windshield. I had a screwdriver laying on the car when i opened the front trunk one time and it bent up a little. SHould be just a little tapping to get it back down.

Hadnt gotten to the edges yet (Except the front edge) so no..
If its just bent up a little it shouldnt be a big deal. I'll fix it tonight with more sanding on the edges of the trunk. However I have to either raise the trunk up and set it down it on 1' blocks or remove the trunk in order to get to the edges without sanding the fenders.

Im anticipating the worst for the RR, I think we have to go to bare metal for most of the fender. I believe there will be some time spent on this... But, its not impossible!

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Fixed that corner, didnt get a good pic of it so I didnt post it. Finished up sanding the hood down, Probably have to go over it with 180 prior to primer. I put sanding blocks on the corners and tied the hood down so I could get the edges. Also got some sanding done on the fender. Looks pretty good but will need a little bit of filler.

Just a little over an hour and a half tonight.

Awesome Andrew!

I thought about it some more and I was thinking that we should go ahead and fill in the side markers.

what is better for you saturday or sunday?

Saturday is much better for me, fiancee is out and about all day so Im free.

Im glad you decided to fill the side markers, that is a really good choice!

Got in 2 hours today.

Not pictured, but finished up sanding the front fender, then proceeded to knock out a couple of low spots in the top of the door.

Door will need some filler due to some chips it had. (actually had a bunch of them..)


Started work on the rear 1/4 as well. Just under 1/8" of bondo the whole front portion of the fender, Looked at the oil canning and came up with a solution to fixing it, I'll go over that with Peter on saturday, it should be easy, but there still is a bunch of filler that I removed, even though it looks fairly straight, there are a lot of little dents in it, and it looks that at some point this area was hit causing the fender to be pushed in.

We might need to try to pull the fender out some more. I think i'll take some measurements of the drivers side and compare it to the pass side.

Pics. Pics 3 and 4 are the out and in of the oil canning.

Lots of dust. Thats my size 13 for reference.

Progress looks great! Excited about tomorrow. I'll PM you today about details. Ill also most likely bring over the rest of the parts tomorrow and just have you fill the bumpers. My uncle is on dissability for his back right now and can only work a little bit at a time.

The bumpers should be easy. Should be no more than a couple hours for both.


Bring your checkbook Were going to have to go shopping for paint supplies. Its possible that we may lay down some primer tomorrow and I dont think I have enough primer epoxy.

This work was from Saturday.

Peter came over, we went and picked up some supplies and talked about a gameplan.

We successfully rolled the rear fenders, and in doing so it eliminated the oil canning issue that we were having. The fenders need a little hammer and dolly work, but i'll do that after stripping them a little more (Specifically the Pass side), Overall they really look good.

Front turn signal lenses are welded up and the bumpers are ground to metal and ready for me to finish welding the holes and then a little bit of filler and primer. They were tweaked pretty good, by the holes I welded, but straightened them.

Peter also sanded the rear trunk down most of the way.


We decided to go ahead and lay the filler down now, then i'll lay primer filler and finish the bodywork, then i'll lay primer epoxy to seal everything up and then paint over that. This eliminates the first layer of epoxy I was going to do but then realized that there really is no point to it.

And here are the pics!

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Last.

I started working on filling the bumper, but I got stopped when the fiancee came back from her dress shopping trip.

BTW, 4 holes are filled, I just only got a pic of one side. We decided to go ahead and fill the tow hook hole but i'll probably get to that tonight.

Looks good guys! Your making really good time!

Peter, I like that you decided to fill the front turn signal holes, I think you'll be really happy with it! Are you going with Euro turn signals between the door and wheel?

Great thread, and great work! Can't wait to see some paint

Thanks!! I am also very excited the progress. A lot quicker than I thought, but it is still getting done correctly. Andrew really knows his stuff (at least he makes me think that he does) haha.

I am also very excited about filling the holes. I realized that if I didn't I would need to get new lenses and seals and the cost of that was more than the cost of Andrew filling the holes, a no brainer decision. I will not be adding in the euro turn signals, it will just be smooth and flat. can't wait!!!

I will be sanding/grinding down the valences before next weekend, so i will post pictures when i do that, hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

also, andrew- I was going to start painting the chrome pieces, but I forgot what you said about prepping them. 180 grit? or scotch brite? primer then flat black? or just straight to black.

-peter