WilyB's 93 GT rebuild

[Wilyb]

cowl's done!!

Finally the cowl is done!! the paint is drying now and I'll make my way to the windshield frame and the finish the roof...here are a few pics of the job...and I fixed that lip too...My mig sucks... it only has 2 amperage settings and they're both too strong... so I bubble gum migged and then sealed and reinforced everything with cold weld.

[Wilyb]

...

rest of the pics.... frigg it looks better gray than black...The engine bay looks like crap... there's so much undercoating in there... I won.t touch the engine bay until quite possibly next winter when I pull the engine and boost it...I want to ensure the rest of the car is clean and straight and able to handle the 300 ponies...

[bomdoutscort]

Good job, Looks good.

[Mazda_Powered]

coming along great!

do you not like the black due to the gloss? I used low gloss black engine enamel and that special gloss trim paint to paint all my plastics/surroundings. Looked OEM black

[jumpncrash]

Lookin good dude!

Good thing Chris and I didn't think about you till later saturday cuz we were gonna come down and make a mess of your garage and hinder your progress with VTEC speak.

[Wilyb]

Lookin good dude!

Good thing Chris and I didn't think about you till later saturday cuz we were gonna come down and make a mess of your garage and hinder your progress with VTEC speak.

keep that VTEC crap away from me you turncoat!!

[Wilyb]

Next moves

For quite some time now I have been painting with spray bombs. I've actually gotten pretty good at it and now I want to graduate to spraying with a gun. Bought a cheap spray gun at Princess auto, with the intention of doing the roof of the car with a base coat, then clear coat using the HVLP (hi volume low pressure) spray gun.
I figured I would practice first so went to the paint dealer to price some stuff. After lengthy discussions at 2 different places, this is how much it will coast me to learn:
Base coat $25 1 quart
Paint reducer/ thinner $25 1 gal min buy
Clear coat $75 1 gal min buy
Hardener $35 1 Gal min buy
Spray gun cleaner $16 1 Gal min buy
epoxy or etching primer $35 1 gal I think (forgot)

Anyways, it works out to around $250 to learn how to paint.

I could spend the cash right now and do it, but I've learned that in rebuilding cars, you need to pace yourself or you'll be constantly broke...so I'll wait until the next paycheck, maybe buy the clearcoat now and some other stuff later to defray the costs a bit...

I have enough stuff to do anyways as I have those mounts I got from Ferdi I can install, the ZX2 subframe I need to get going on since I bought those stainless steel LCA bushings, my leather headliner... so I have enough to keep me busy...

[Wilyb]

next moves

So I guess I'll get moving on that ZX2 subframe since I've been looking at the MX3 and ZX2 SBFs on my other workbench for some time now.

Lots of work to do here. Remove the ZX2 LCAs, swaybar and rack from the ZX2 SBF, remove the LCAs from the MX3 SBF so I can send the ZX2 subframe, tie plate, swaybar and MX3 LCAs out for gritblasting.

Before sending the LCA's out I will need to take a close look at what I will be doing with regard to switching the endlink system on those MX3 LCA's. MX3 LCAs have droplink attachments... Looking at it quickly, the holes are already there on the LCAs, just that those welded droplink attachment points are in the way ( pic att). I'll need to cut them off and ensure the metal is strong enough around where those endlink bolts come through the LCA. The hole is there, but it looks like the big hole on the bottom of the LCA doesn't perfectly line up with the top... I don't think it will be an issue though...


So today, I decided to cut the rusted bolt from the LCA to the frame since the nut was turning freely in the hex plate and I couldn't get a good grip on it with a wrench.

Piece of advice... cut the hex plate instead ...(which is what I did after when I remove the MX3 LCAs from the MX3 subframe; last pic att.)
I mangled the holes on the frame and now will have to re weld new metal, grind and re drill...

[Wilyb]

Repair Job

OK... so fixed the subframe... and worked on the LCAs...Since all the paint stuff will cost over $250, I have to put the painting aside for now,since I have to buy the base coat and clear...I bought the etching primer and paint thinner to minimize costs a bit later... You have a maximum of 4 days to paint over primer or you need to remove it and re prime... Clear needs to go on right after the base coat... so not much sense in dong any painting... anyways, got enough to keep me busy... Pics on work att.

[Wilyb]

LCAs

lousy pics but the just of it is there...In removing the end link brackets, the hole appeared underneath, nut it doesn't line up with the bigger hole on the other side.

So I'll get everything cleaned up, LCAs SBF and Swaybar, put everything together then look wherre things line up and decide then which hole to bore.

[Wilyb]

More **** done...

-removed cross member for sandblast and paint
- removed 3 of the 4 engine mounts
- Removed the shifter rod
- Measured and cut the leather for my headliner
- cut and shaved what was left of the window weld on my windshield.

Headliner is going to look good.... I'm debating on whether to remove the OH ****!! handles in the rear passenger compartment above the windows. The headliner is recessed there and I may end up with wrinkles there...unless I fill the indentations...The yellow stripe will be about 7 inches wide...

The guy who installed my windshield 2 yrs ago will put it back in for 70 bucks.

[Wilyb]

Suspension work

Sandblasted the rear brackets and the ends of the LCA's so I could install the bushings before painting them... don't want to handle them too much after paint. I was thinking of powder coating them but that would be redundant.

Broke the vise installing the 2 bushings on the LCA's. I'll bring the rear brackets somewhere to have the bushings on those pressed in.... More than likely that machine shop in Hull. I cut the outer sleeves out of them and sandblasted those...

[labeo]

Are your new engine mounts more "advanced" than stock? Solid etc...

[Wilyb]

Yeah I weas going to buy the poly filled mounts from AWR, but decided to buy Ftjandra's poly filled mounts. He pulled those from his car since he needed different mounts for his E153 tranny retrofit. I wil be doing the same thing next winter so buying the new AWR's would have been redundant...

[jumpncrash]

dude you broke that giant vice putting in the bushings...wow
Were you using some sort of strength enhancing bar by any chance? was it on warranty?