1886 replies to this topic

[Heath]

Hasn't been fitted yet, but I will let you know...

P.S. I love my car more and more each time I drive it.

[Heath]

I've been cutting my car back. My final coats were done in cold weather, so there was tonnes of orange peel lol.

Progressively working through the grit levels of course, and starting to buff in some places. I'm finding manual buffing (a cloth in my hand) to work a lot better than the 'buffer' that my mate leant me. And using the 'buffer' doesn't keep me fit either. I'm going to do as much as I can (of course there will be psychological restrictions) without the machine; so basically everywhere that isn't a large flat area...

Does feel nice when you see your paint work SHINE

[Heath]

Well I was going alright with the manual buffing a mate instructed me to come over to his house and using a good buffer that he'd borrowed from a panel shop (had 3m products lying around and shit so how could I resist?)

Photos don't really show it, but it made a huge difference. Looks like it should now. I got a bit into it and ripped out the 600 lol now I need to respray my driver's door hehehe. At least the rest of the car benefitted



And far more importantly, I found out what was going wrong with my car!
Let's just say a 202 ain't much chop without mechanical advance. Rebuilding the top end of the dizzy did nothing, but swapping the whole lot did a bit more!

SO happy I found the problem without spending a cent. Feel some sympathy for the 202 now though, because now I will actually feel compelled to thrash it. Poor thing. Gonna have to dig up some stockies from the tyre collection

[wot179]

mmmmm shiny.








Paint your guards.

[MRLXSS]

How good is cutting compound and a buff! Has to be the most rewarding thing you can do on your car! Especially if you paint with acrylic!

You bringing it up on the weekend heath?

When you painting the front guards?

[Heath]

Sure did feel good, but sanding through my door was kinda not what I was going for.

Yeah I'm bringing it up on the weekend.

STFU

[GML-31]

always pays to mask the edges and I do a final rub with 2000 before buffing

[Heath]

Masking the edges isn't really a problem; I've just been doing the edges manually and using the machine for the larger, flatter areas. Everything bar the roof and some of the driver's door was rubbed back with 2000 and then washed before I buffed it.

[Heath]

Sick of having a full UC shifter in an LH/LX console. I've done all the work for a particular class at TAFE so I thought I'd bring something in. I pulled mine down today and had a look at how it was constructed.

A circlip holds the tapered shroud thing on, makes the gearstick awkwardly long so I lost that. Cut a thread on the end of the shaft and started machining up a replacement knob, used all the best parts I had out of two shifters, changed a few clearances and stuff, seems to work a bit better. Fair bit of work left though...

The shroud thing dampens the feedback through the shifter, without it, you can feel everything that's going on (and I haven't even driven with it yet!), and it's VERY short. You can definately understand why Holden put it on. I'll test it out later on

Don't know how it will turn out yet; I might just scrap the whole idea and revert back to a shifter which is closer to the one it came out from the factory with.

https://cache.gmh-to...ms/v505/Hezath/

Edited by Heath, 25 May 2009 - 04:02 PM.

[Heath]

Well I bought it around this time in 2005 lol, but all I did for the first year and a bit was source parts here and there; I didn't know how to do anything and I had no tools (single parent family and mum & bro are mechanically inept so they didn't need tools) haha but I could read shit on here and then look at the full-scale version I had. Better than using my imagination for learning



I pulled it down in July '06, so the project took less than 3 years to get on the road... I don't think that's very long actually. If I didn't have good influence from certain friends - rodomo for example - I would have bodgied heaps of shit, learnt half as much and got it on the road twice as quickly.

Like when I started working on it, I was still recovering from a pretty bad illness, and I could be outside for 20-30 mins max and I would just have to go and lie down from fatigue. That wasn't heaps of fun. I had no income, everything task that I did, researched beforehand or picked it up on the spot, because I had no previous experience. Had no one kicking me in the arse keeping me motivated, and that was no problem; somewhat character-building if nothing else, but it is a fair excuse for slow progress

I still look at the car and feel completely dissatisfied with nearly every feature of it (nothing to do with the primer LOL), and in a way that's pretty shocking because I spent such a large proportion of my income and time on it, and my mates don't hesitate to make me feel that the project has just been going since the start of time. And it still is so obviously unfinished. It's so not perfect and I have really only scratched the surface on what I would like to do, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm proud that I did it, even if I'm not proud to show it off lol

At the end of the day, the whole obsession has only cost me a small amount; the inability to spend large amounts of money prevents wastage, so that's a nice thing to remember.

So now I need to finish it & build another car in half the time at twice the quality to feel validated.

[ToRunYa]

heath be proud of it dude, u have done a great job (even if the guards arnt painted yet!) i doubt very much u could walk up to anyones car and not be able to pick a fault with it. Boris looks dead straight! but i know it isnt! i know of showcars that have had really bad cut and shut jobs that stick out from miles away! but they are consittered "brilliant examples". dont ever thing you will get it 100% perfect cause you will be disappointed forever. U enjoy driving it, everyone was happy to see it on the weekend, nothing to be disappointed about!

[MRLXSS]

If you can get the front of the car, looking as tidy as the rear of the car, you'll have nothing to worry about mate!

[MRLXSS]

I reckon, i could have got a picture of liam in your car looking a bit like this on Saturday!

[orangeLJ]

Ive always wondered,

Whos that in the drivers seat?

Thats your old HQ isnt it matt?

Is that you then (too dark to tell)

if it is, queer hat!

[MRLXSS]

No, Maddy is driving the HQ Chris... LOL I'll tell her you thought she was a man...

[ToRunYa]

thats maddy i think! LOL

yer a pic of liam sitting on the door hanging over the roof waving while heath was driving up the street would have been gold! LMAO!

[orangeLJ]

not my fault someone took a shitty picture

dammit, I was looking forward to teasing you for wearing a girls hat.

Edited by orangeLJ, 26 May 2009 - 01:33 PM.