Spooky gets a makeover

[joemama]

Forgot to show this. When I went to install the motor on the trans, I couldnt get it to slide all the way in. Struggled for a while, then I noticed the flywheel was interfering with the trans case slightly

Called the trans guy, and he said he couldnt think of any reason why this was happening. Ended up taking my grinder and slightly clearancing that area, and the motor slid right on. I had pictures but accidentally erased them.
I also got some motor parts and sheet metal cleaned up and ready to paint

And painted. Usually I use Hammertone, and find it very durable, but it becomes dull over time, so tried just Rustoleum engine enamel this time. I even painted my Bosh Blue Coil black. It was looking crappy, and I know its a blue coil. The alternator was looking bad also, so I used some black appliance epoxy paint I had laying around. I was at Walmart, and they had 2 cans of Rustoleum 2000 degree high heat ceramic paint at 1.00 each. Guess they wanted them gone, so that was used on the heat risers, and will be used on the exhaust system. Not doing anything fancy, just freshening things up.

[joemama]

Forgot this picture of the alternator ready for paint.

[joemama]

Went back to working on the body. I worked on filling a few holes no longer needed, and also repaired the steering column hole, from when I added a body lift. I had already applied a piece of fiberglass matting, to close the hole some. This was done as a temporary fix with the body and hood on.

I learned a while back that if your hardener is more than a few months old, its best to buy fresh hardener. I had most of a quart of resin on the shelf, as well as some other materials.

I used this stuff back when I originally built the buggy, and still had some on the shelf. Its a fiberglass powder that you add to resin to make a thick putty you can fill holes with. I add the hardener to some resin, then stir this powder in.

I back the holes with duct tape (if the holes are big, I put a layer of wax paper, and then duct tape), and then just use a plastic spreader, and fill the hole. I put masking tape around the hole, so I keep the putty where I want it

Holes filled

The steering column hole I added a couple of layers of matting, then spread some putty over it

Used a flapper disc on my grinder to clean it up, and brushed on a coat of resin

Its not perfect, but pretty darn good, and it will be coated with Monstaliner later. Now I just need to sand the putty even with the rest of the surface around it. Ill just use my Black and Decker Mouse detail sander. Its kind of shaped like a triangle, so quick and easy.

[joemama]

I also decided to take my motor to my friend that is a retired mechanic of 40 plus years. He is a wealth of information, and is always willing to share it. He does a little work out of his house, so I had him replace my main seal, the cooler seals (he also pressure tested the cooler) check my valve train geometry (I had installed solid rocker shafts a while back, and never felt sure it was right), and adjust the valves. I also bought some new exhaust nuts, and smaller head nuts for the intake manifolds. Good thing I went to him, as I got a call to drop by, he wanted to show me something. Well, last time I replaced the front main seal, after putting the O ring in the flywheel, I thought it a good idea to spread a little silicon gasket maker over the O ring. Bad idea. Even though it was very little, it squeezed out, essentially not letting the flywheel seat completely. Didnt run this way long enough to cause trouble, but surely would have eventually.
Very glad to have him as a resource. I learned something new.

[joemama]

Started the painting process on the body. Plan is to epoxy prime the tub, inside and out. Evercoat G2 Featherfill only the top of the tub, top coat and clear the top of the tub, and new clear on hood. The inside of the tub will get a couple of coats of Monstaliner.
This is the epoxy primer, came in the Monstaliner kit I bought. Notice it can be rolled. I chose to roll it, as clean up would be much easier, just throw away the roller and tray. I dont think I could have sprayed it much smoother, and its getting a coat of G2 featherfill over it.

Next, I spot puttied some pin holes, etc., and sprayed the G2 Featherfill.

Lots of sputtering and spitting, as its hard to keep the gun tip clear, as you wait for 5 to 10 min. flash time between coats, and pot life is 45 min. max. I think it will wet sand down smooth, just will take time. I thinned it 10% with acetone, and mixed 1/2 quart at a time. I used my turbine HVLP sprayer for this, as there is hardly any over spray, and the gun is already pretty grungy.

I had these cup liners in the box with the sprayer, from about 15 years ago. They help some in the clean up, but still a huge paint, as the feather fill starts gumming up everything. Really need to take everything apart and soak, use a brush, wires for orifices, etc. Hopefully I got enough featherfill on, and can move past this stage.

Hoping to get the wet sanding done today.

[oprn]

Seems odd to me to use a primer under the feather fill. We never used to do that in the body shop as feather fill is a primer.
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[joemama]

I only used the epoxy because Monstaliner required it for the inside of the tub when I apply that, so went ahead and did the whole tub, figure it couldnt hurt.
Yesterday I spent the whole day sanding, and Im now ready to paint. Hope it turns out well.

[joemama]

Well, I have been painting yesterday and today. I think Ill be done tomorrow and post some pictures. So far I have had a couple of obstacles due to inexperience, but going O.K. for the most part.

[joemama]

Painted the tub and tried to repair paint on hood.

I have to go back and take care of some runs on the clear coat on the hood. I feel pretty good on the hood compared to before. The paint doesnt match perfectly anywhere, but its O.K. I think I can improve a little on the transition from new to old paint on the hood, but even if I couldnt, Im happy to have saved it. The tub has a spot where I think it got too much of the metalflake, so it has a silvery patch. Im going to try and fix that.
I cant show overall pictures, because I just dont have room to have a "paint booth" and open space. Our son is living with us while he finds a house to buy in Texas (not easy right now, crazy market), and while we love having him home, trying to store his and our stuff, doesnt leave much room. Here is a view of my work area from the kitchen window.

Thats 2 boats, a motorhome, the buggy roller against the wall with the kitchen window, and hard to see but also my class 11 behind the motorhome. Once I take down the "paint booth" Ill post more pictures. Kind of stuck while Im using it. Garage is full too, spent a whole day stacking things so I could use the area under the garage door for my paint booth.

While the fan runs, it keeps that A/C return filter sucked up against it, and did a pretty good job of capturing most of the overspray.

[joemama]

Oh yeah, and also a Great Pyrenees and a Belgian Melinois in our 1600 square foot home. Talk about dog hair.

[oprn]

Clutter is a tough thing to deal with! Hood looks good.
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[joemama]

Got the painting done, except the inside of the tub will get bedliner in a few days. If you notice that the top of the rear fender area is rough looking, its because that is going to get bedliner, so our dog doesnt destroy the paint when she gets in and out of the buggy.

Here is the stuff I used, all from Harbor Freight. The spray gun was on sale a couple of weeks back for $10.00, should have bought 3. I spent more money in cleaning supplies than what I could have bought 3 spray guns for. The gun worked great! Also, the 3M spray gun cleaner worked great, but I went thru 4 cans at 7.99 each. Also a quart of acetone. The inline water/oil filter was 3.99. Also bought an airbrush I used to blend in repairs to the paint on the hood. Used a lot of the blue disposable gloves, a head sock. The mask was also from Harbor Freight, 18.00 on sale. Also used 4 measuring/mixing cups. I also went thru 2 pairs of ready reader glasses. The lenses got overspray on them.

Had an issue with the first inline filter I bought. A seam came apart.

Here is the compressor I used. Its large, probably 25 or 30 gallons? I bought it used years ago.

Oh yeah. I used an old Corvette gas cap in the buggy. It was O.K. when I first built the buggy, but over the years, it faded, looked awful. The chrome still looks good. I used the airbrush and some of the paint from the hood repair, to make this silly gas cap. Not sure ill keep it, but its easy to change.

I thought it might help someone if I listed what the paint material costs were:
Epoxy primer - 2 quart kit - 60.00 not sure I needed this, but came with the bedliner kit Im going to use.
Evercoat G2 Featherfill - 1 quart - 65.00 Since I didnt do the hood or inside of the tub, 1 quart was enough.
Metallic Urethane base coat - 1 quart - 79.00 my supplier mixed it to try and match the hood. Its close. Again, it was plenty for the outside of the tub. I think it would have been enough for the hood as well, but not the inside of the tub.
I also got a pint of solid color base coat, and my supplier split that up, and made me some yellow, and a little orange, that he mixed to match the hood
He charged me 36.00 for that.
I ended up buying 2 quarts of clear and matching hardener - 74.00 per quart kit. I ended up doing the clear twice, first time had really bad orange peel, so sanded that smooth, and sprayed 2 more coats of clear. 1 quart would have been enough for 2 coats on the top of the tub, and the hood. Not the inside of the tub.
Rick at Master Auto parts and paint supply in Sun Valley, CA. is a great guy, and helped me with advice, and trying to match the paint. I used PPG Omni.
Thank God I got thru this paint thing. Glad to move on to other things for a while. I think Ill wait a week or so before doing the bedliner on the inside of the tub.

[oprn]

Looking really good! The only thing that strikes me is that the flames are missing on the front fenders. I would have put them back on. Not hard to do, just time consuming.
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[joemama]

Thanks! Yeah, wrapping the flames around at least the front of the fenders was on my mind, and might still happen, I have the paint. For right now, Im content with it.

[joemama]

Started with something easy. My old shift boot was torn

heated boot with a heat gun and stretched it over the shifter base. Done. Now protected from dust and water.

I needed to install the seats (temporarily). Here are my seat bases. They are made from 2 pieces of aluminum angle. You can see that this allowed me to tilt the seat back. The aluminum is very thick, about 3/16", and 4". There is a metal supply place near me, and this was scrap. Lately, they dont have much in the way of scrap, I guess its gotten too valuable.

painted the old hardware, and installed the seat bases. Note: I cut off the factory slides, so Im bolting down to flat pan.

Here you can see how my rollbar is very high in the back. This was done when my kids were very young, and rode in the back seat. There were also tubes going down to the rear bumper.

I decided I could cut 4 1/2" off the rear hoop safely.
Used a hose clamp as a cutting guide.

Cut off 4 1/2" from each side. I inserted a sleeve in the bottom tube, and used a straight edge over the hoop to make sure I could measure and make even.

Here is the roll bar part done. Looks like Ill be able to resuse the cross bars I cut off. This is nice because they have a slight kick in the front.

[oprn]

Not expecting any grandbabies?
_________________
We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[joemama]

Worked on the roll cage. Reused the top crossbars, but had to shorten and notch one end. Used old Harbor Freight notching jig.

If you cut the tube so the hole saw is cutting on only 1 side of the tube, it goes much faster, specially with my worn out hole saw

The Harbor Freight notcher is not accurate and cuts a little off center. This can be fixed by using washers, or spacers to center the hole saw on the tube, but its ok to be a little off center, you can clean the tube off with a flapper disc on a grinder

Went to Industrial Metals and bought these precut tabs, they were .80 cents each, and are about 1/8th inch thick

Rounded the end and drilled a hole. Also nocked down the sharp edges. They will go on the rear hoop to attach my 3 point belts to

Here is the cage after the alterations. You can see the difference compared to before. Now.

Before

As I have a 2" body lift I will be using, it will sit 2" higher. I also painted it with Hammertone Gray.

[joemama]

Got replacement tail lights. I use led trailer lights, they are 4" diameter, and use a grommet to attach to the body. There bright, and look pretty good. Back when I had dual 40 idf, I could easily pop them out, and adjust and work on the carbs, or remove the filters thru the hole the lights fit in.

I also got some side view mirrors from Kartek. Supposedly they will hold there adjustment well, as opposed to the stock VW ones I previously used. I replaced all the bolts and screws with stainless, and painted the adjustment post. The mirrors are slightly convex, and the body and supplied bracket are stainless.

I welded a new nut to the existing mirror mount on my cage

[joemama]

Got a little done. Installed the rear shocks. I have 2 sets of shocks to pick from.

The silver ones are what has been on the buggy for years, and what Im going back to. They are KYB GR2's. I originally had KYB Gas-A-Just, but they were too stiff for the light weight buggy. I believe the KYB GR2's have been superseded by KYB ExcelG. I also have a pair of Bilsteins, but have been told those are even stiffer than the Gas-A-Just, probably best for a baja.

[joemama]

I want to put the body back on the pan this weekend, while my son can help me. so, first I need to put the body lift on. Used a heat gun, scraper, and sander to remove old bedliner and paint.

Painted with Rustoleum Hammertone black.

Where the bolts that hold the rollcage to the pan, go thru the lift, I sleeved those 4 holes per side. You can kind of see it here.

I applied some camper shell weather stripping, its 1 1/4" wide, and 3/16 thick, on the lift, to go between lift and pan. Ill use some more between body and lift.

Laid the lift on the pan and set the rollcage on it. I did a trial fitting of all the roll cage components, to make sure I had the right ones for each side.

Here is a crosspiece that ties the sides together from top of shock tower to top of shock tower. It also supports the rear seat area of the body, and supplies harness attachment points with nuts welded on the back. These were used when the kids used to ride back there. I may still have lap belts there for occasional use.

Here you can see what ties the rear to the cage sandwiching the body. And how the rear bumper ties to it.

And on the front, tying to the front beam, and supporting the steering column. There are also supports to the front of the body and front of the gas tank. You can also see the lift how it fits over the Napoleon hat.

I also use this bracket bolted to the tub, to help support the steering column.

I also have some square tubing welded into the pan lip channel on the under side

When its all bolted together its very solid. It was even more so, when I had bars tying the rear loop to the top of the bumper, but I wanted it more open in the rear seat area now. It would have been tight for anyone who might occasionally ride back there since I cut down the roll cage. And to make it easy for our dog to jump in, when we take her for a ride.
Hopefully later today, I can start putting the body on. The roll cage will have to come off for that, but now I know what parts fit on which side.