Rexanne - Gold s2 restoration project

[CHC (RIP)]

Very nice work Steve, that really has finished off the wing and the contour has been maintained - give that man a beer I say, he deserves it.
Are you still consider altering the upper wheel arches to compliment the new wheels?

[Steve-A]

Thanks Cliff

The top of the arches is yet to be decided. Once I\'ve painted the under body and got my suspension bushes installed I can mock up the ride height i\'m going for with the wheels and their adapters and find out what needs to be done. I\'m sure the arches will need some work, but I\'m not sure yet if they will need just the arch lip rolling and then a subtle pull or if they will really need over arches. But for that reason I\'ve kinda left them alone for now.

[Brett]

Clay should work fine Steve :wave
I wasn\'t a believer until I got converted a few years back!

Paint work looks good on your rex though :wave

[CHC (RIP)]

Meant to say Steve - congratulations :Party, you\'ve had over 6,000 views on your thread and you aren\'t halfway through the project yet, must achieve well in excess of 10,000 by the time you finish.

[Steve-A]

Ah good to hear it Brett, I shall be interested to see how it goes when I buy some

haha Cliff, its crazy now many posts/pages this thread has got up to already considering I\'ve only been doing the metal work! There\'s a long old haul to go.... Maybe I need to stop updating it every half hour

Speaking of which, I\'ve been out working on her all morning/early afternoon. Today I wanted to have my first play with this POR15 paint.

I started by finishing cleaning the last remains of old bush from the inside of the suspension links. For most of them a quick blast through with a flap wheel on the end of a drill produced this;



Good stuff Unfortunately the two lower links look much worse than that. It seems the rot has begun between the bush rubber and the inside of the link .



That shows one where I\'ve removed all the rubber and spent quite a while trying to file/sand the rust back. I\'m worried that if I put them back on as is, they would rot through sooner or later, and if I sand back till the rust is gone then the new polly bushes will be sloppy in the enlarged hole.

So anyone got a pair of good condition lower links?

Undeterred I then broke out the wire wheel and cleaned back the first wheel arch. I just did the arch for today, so I could test out the paint, how to apply it etc, if it didn\'t work so great I\'ve not lost a much a if I\'d prepped and painted the whole of the rear of the car!



Then I sprayed the arch and the links with the POR Metal Ready spray that they seem to say is essential. I didn\'t take any pictures as there was nothing to see, no dramatic reaction etc, then I washed off the inside of the arch with a hose and the links too.

Then I broke out the paint. As a direct comparison to Hammerite ( being the only other straight to metal rust type paint I\'ve used) it seemed slightly thinner and more opaque. I was a bit concerned by how small the tins in the 6 pack were, but I needn\'t have worried. I used about 1/2 a mini can doing one coat on the links and the arch. It brushed on easily and leveled itself very well.





Frustratingly just about the time when I was due to do a second coat, the heavens opened Only for 10 mins but enough to make everything wet and it not really the best conditions to paint this stuff! I\'ve done the second coat on the links as they are safe in the garage, but the under arch will have to wait till another day.

I think I\'ll also refresh the panel seal that needs doing in the arch between the two coats. It will mean more waiting time as if you do the 2nd coat while the first is tacky you can just paint on, but if you wait till fully dry they recommend keying the surface with some wet and dry. But I think for the best finish its the way to go.

I\'m pleased with how its gone on, so next chance I get (tomorrow if the rain holds off) I\'ll wire wheel the rest of the rear under body and get busy with the painting!


Unrelated side note, though kinda relating to a few posts back. I went to the Haynes Motor Museum near Yeovil yesterday. If you guys haven\'t been, its a pretty good way to spend a wet sunday. I went with a female friend which did result in lots of \'i like the colour of this one\' haha but it was still good fun. I spotted someone we\'d been talking about here and got a picture:

[captainbizzaro]

Aaah you should\'ve said you were going there thats ten minutes from me you could\'ve popped in for a cuppa.

[CHC (RIP)]

Unrelated side note, though kinda relating to a few posts back. I went to the Haynes Motor Museum near Yeovil yesterday. If you guys haven\'t been, its a pretty good way to spend a wet sunday. I went with a female friend which did result in lots of \'i like the colour of this one\' haha but it was still good fun. I spotted someone we\'d been talking about here and got a picture:
 
[/quote]
 
 
Watch out Steve - there\'s a spider behind you.  Is it a red back? :rollin

[CHC (RIP)]

Unrelated side note, though kinda relating to a few posts back. I went to the Haynes Motor Museum near Yeovil yesterday. If you guys haven\'t been, its a pretty good way to spend a wet sunday. I went with a female friend which did result in lots of \'i like the colour of this one\' haha but it was still good fun. I spotted someone we\'d been talking about here and got a picture:
 

 
Some real nice motoring legends there.  Some may well have been lacking in their durability but what style and passion they had - but not as good as the RX7.

[Steve-A]

Those Alfa\'s do have wonderful style to them. They just have a presence to them, from the smallest detail to the overall lines and shape.

But I do think they look nicer on a poster than they do in real life, somehow the picture makes them look even more stylish, I feel the same about FDs. Somehow when one is right in front of my eyes it looks cool and all but not quite as awesome as some of the photos of them look.

FBs on the other hand somehow aren\'t that photogenic but, to me at least, they have something awesome about them when they are in front of my eyes.

I was feeling like I could go and buy a GT Junior in just about road worth condition with my Rexanne budget after that trip, but then getting home and seeing her sat in the garden soon put my mind back on track! (Might have to buy a 90\'s GTV as my car to run while I finish Rexanne though :d)

So yeh today I did a little more, its too damp/yuk outside to do any actual painting but I\'ve panel sealed the arch that\'s already had its first coat of POR15.



And I\'ve spent about 3 or 4 hours with the grinder and drill cleaning off the rest of the rear of the car, and just done the acid etching, so its ready for a splash of paint as soon as I get a warm and dry enough day! (friday afternoon maybe?)

[TiddlesRX7]

I love the way you are being so thorough Steve. It really is nice to see. Well done so far.

Ade

[Steve-A]

Cheers mate

To be honest its standard 1st gen thoroughness haha I think Ian wins that competition by spending ages working out how to create the factory yellowy/goldy finish on some components and electro plating them himself!!!

[TiddlesRX7]

True dat! But you make it look like I could do it too. Ian on the other hand makes it look like he should be working for Mazda.

[Steve-A]

Haha, so the deal is if I can do it anyone can  (Which is the case btw, so go make it happen )


I just need someone to want to buy my poor mx7 and I\'ll be able to go suspension/brake shopping and make some real visible progress on the build.

[CHC (RIP)]

Such a significant difference in Rexanne\'s  appearance - what a change in just a few months.  Looks like an entirely different car mate.
When I get old for this type of work, I\'ll come knocking on you door - least I\'ll know it would get done properly here.

[Steve-A]

Blaaaaaaccck!

Coat one of the rear under body is now complete. If the weather is my friend, I\'ll seam seal it tomorrow then second coat it Sunday

I also did this....



I\'ve not been able to find those cammed bolts in the sizes I needed, so Bill\'s going to make the original lower arms temporarily adjustable, so I can work out what length I need them to get the pinion angle right to reduce binding on my lowered suspension, then he/I will make up some new arms to the new length from scratch