Story of my life

dang

2011-08-17T22:37:00.000-07:00

so cortina is up for sale. it actually made it on BAT!

Pretty bummed on having to sell her, but having to move blows too. So it was between the mini and cortina, and well...having promised the old owner of the mini that the car will be around when his kid turns 16, guess the mini stays....maybe a honda swap??

We'll see if she sells, and if she does, all good, learned a lot from the build and I can't complain.

Maybe next I'll post a mini build or a 49-51 Ford Shoebox build if I can get some work space!

so...

2011-04-04T22:04:00.001-07:00

this past weekend was a rebuilding japan from los angeles car show. got the buddies together for a little car show.. a link to some pics from the show!

http://www.night-import.com/2011/04/event-coverage-rebuilding-japan-from.html

the cortina actually made it to little tokyo this time without breaking!

haven't done much

2011-02-18T23:18:00.000-08:00

no working on the cortina, no driving the cortina...

I gotta get around to driving the thing instead of just looking at it in my driveway. maybe monday we'll take her for a spin to work, see if anything breaks.....more to come!

2011-01-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! cortina is running a bit hot...must figure out...but for today..HAPPY NEW YEAR

oh yea, video would be good!

2010-12-15T20:12:00.000-08:00

lol wow.

2010-12-15T20:03:00.001-08:00

so...it's been a bit.

Got the car running, drove around a bit, realized the car was smoking more than it should...

ran a compression check, (which i probably should have done before the engine went in) and realized #1 was dead. So after checking prices on a rebuild and a new motor, i went with a new used.

Same 4AGE, but the black top version: from Wiki:
The fifth-generation 4A-GE engine produced from 1995 to 1998 is the final version of the 4A-GE engine and has black cam covers. This engine is commonly known as the "black top" due to the color of the valve cover, and yet again features an even higher compression ratio (11:1), the air flow sensor is replaced with a MAP sensor, the diameter of the four individual throttle bodies was increased from 42 mm to 45 mm, the exhaust port diameter was increased, the intake cam lift was increased from 7.9 mm to 8.2 mm and the intake ports were significantly improved in shape, contour and also the width at opening at the head was increased. Additionally, the black top had a lighter flywheel, a larger plenum, and revised rubber velocity stacks, and was also offered in 1997 with a six-speed C160 transaxle. This revision increased the power to 165 PS (121 kW; 163 hp) at 7800 rpm with 16.5 kg·m (119 ft·lbf) of torque at 5600 rpm. These figures were issued by Toyota and are considered optimistic. It is assumed that Toyota ran the motor without ancillaries to inflate the power ratings, as some companies did before the adoption of the SAE J1349 rating standards in 2005. Still, the 'Blacktop' has become a favorite among enthusiasts and is used as an easy power upgrade for the early Toyota Corolla models, especially for use in the drift scene. Squeezing extra power from such a highly strung N/A engine can be expensive because of the relatively high state of tuning of the stock motor, and most gains come from higher lift cams and engine management.

So that's what I bought, and that's what went in:

recent pix

2010-09-20T18:02:00.000-07:00

wow

2010-08-14T07:44:00.001-07:00

so it's been a few months....

Got the Cortina started, got a driveshaft made, finished the interior, cleaned up the wires, registered the car, insured it, and today will be my first maiden voyage.

Hopefully she'll be ok, we're going down to the Nisei Week Car Show in Little Tokyo in Downtown LA to put her in and see how it goes.

Pictures to follow later!

Holy Crap! It's already December

2009-11-11T07:05:00.000-08:00

how is it, it's already december, and I haven't updated jack?!?
Well, some things going on, above is a pair of 16P calipers I scored on the Ebay. They are in need of a complete overhaul.
Cracked open/blasted and waiting on rebuild parts....which was months ago, but still haven't bought the parts. The car will never be finished!
Got around to making some new kick panels, as the ECU and Fuse box show, and I wanted them covered. Started making it out of some MDF.
Placed on kick panels, must have speakers for some tunes!
covered in fleece and glassed in.

Resin Drying out..
After it was dried, cut out the speaker holes and shaved them down a bit.
Sanded and waiting..
Lil bit of filler to take out some imperfections..
had this idea of epoxy all over the sucker...didn't turn out all that great..

Worked on the pedals, realized they needed to be bumped over some..so brought out the torch and got em bent the way i needed them. I got more pix of some little progress, will have to put that up soon.

Interiors and such

2009-10-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

So I started working out some of the inteior in the last few weeks, 1st started off by making/modifying the seat mounts that I had for the pair of free seats I took from my younger brother. Tabs were 1st made.
Cleaned up the old rails

Started welding the tabs onto the rails.

Almost there, didn't think to take pics of the finshed product along with the seats mounted in the car, will have to do that soon.

Next started working on the rear deck panel. my old one was crumbled and had holes in it, so a new one was made with a bit of wood.

Andy here cleaning up the wood that was wrapped in a bit of foam

Laid out on the table to spray the adhesive on both panel and black vynil

Putting Andy to work fitting it all up!

Next thing we're working on was the door panels. They'll look somewhat orginal, with the centers but a little different. We'll see how they turn out...

cut the outer sections out of interior cardboard type material, was then traced out on the vynil to see how everything was going to fit.

Masked off the areas where the adhesive shouldn't be...

Once the boards were covered in foam and trimmed, more adhesive was laid out on the foam to cover with the vynil.

Board covered in foam covered in vynil

This will all be assembled later on the door panel we made. it's a bit different and so far it looks decent, will have to put it in the car and see how it all ties in.

Ran out of adhesive, so will have to go back to the interior shop for some more, along with more of that cardboard stuff to make the rear panels. Also just got a pair of 16P calipers, so will have to tear those down and rebuild them.

Lots to do with lots of time, but so little funds!

The way she sits today

2009-09-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Took a picture of this the other day, this is how the Cortina sits. On 4 jackstands and no suspension in the front, I kinda like this photo. Side View

Blew apart the front suspension to get it all rebushed. The strut assembly just looked completely tattered, so everything was blown apart here and cleaned..

Ground down the struts, cleaned up the back plates, installed new ball joints...

A shot of it cleaned..somewhat..

Everything was then painted in gloss black (ran out of satin black)

When rebushing the drag link..what was interesting was taking out these metal sleeves so the poly bushes would fit...but probably never being changed since 1965...taking them out took a bit of heat...

Melting the rubber away...

Rebushed, with new hardware and installed back in the car. Noticed the tie rod ends were in need of replacement, so that's (another) thing I'll need to be ordering soon.

Some pics

2009-09-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

So while my dad (still!) has my camera, my dinky camera on my phone will have to do. Last night, I was able to blow apart my front suspension to rebush and replace the ball joints. So much crud on the tie rods! I may have to search for a pressure washer to clean up underneath the car. Also debating if I want to spray some undercoat over the bottom side of the car, or at least just the fender wells.

Lower arms from another subframe I had will make it's way to the Cortina. The old ones on the Cortina were all bent and made the driverside wheel push up into the fender. Cleaned, fresh coat of paint and rebushed.

Picture of the header we were working on. It's a cheapy OBX header, made for a 16 Valve RWD Corolla. Cut/welded/tweaked to fit on the 20 Valver and into a Cortina. Had to add a tab to the manifold so it would bolt up flush to the engine.

Andy here measuring out the tab needed on a piece of stainless

Hopefully I'll have my camera back soon and will have more progress pix.

No updates

2009-09-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a bit, my dad having robbed me of my camera, I have no new pictures.

What I've been able to do so far:

Ran all my fuel lines from the cell to the engine, and back from the engine to the cell.

Made most of my brake lines, the rear is plumbed, and when I rebush my front suspension, I'll have the rest flared and ready to go.

Rebushed the rear suspension, sort of, I realized I hadn't ordered 2 sets of new rear shackle bushes, so I had to reorder one more set.

Lowered the rear with 2" blocks, although I'm debating if I'd rather go with a 3" drop.

Got my Locort wheels primed, painted and cleared.

Got the battery mounted in the trunk.

I was working on installing the trans tonight, but ran into a bit of a problem, there's a 1/4" gap all around and the trans isn't sitting flush with the motor. Will have to pull the clutch/flywheel apart to make sure I have the right pilot bearing. Realized I should buy a new clutch too, so I'll have to order that as well.

Seems like nothing wants to fit just right on the 1st go around on this car. Oh well, I suppose that's part of the fun....

Some old photos

2009-08-16T21:25:00.001-07:00

Some old photos dug out recently, top is Scott's Integra..

My 2nd AE86, on it's way to Pomona, only to not be able to run it due to no mufflers..

Bored in H.S. painted the hood after a fenderbender..my 1st AE86

My Astro Van that I bought on a whim..but it turned out to be a friends hauler..so quickly got rid of it.

My 73 240z i had with tripple mikuni 44's

Pics of me and my bros car at my dads old shop.

My brothers pickup from the front

My brothers Celica with Panasports that I later took to put on my AE86

Brothers Celica with Epsilon Mesh

Same with Autobahn Mesh

Brothers 22R running dual Mikuni 44's

Cheech at the Battle of Imports

I don't remember who's celica this was

Tak's Celica

My 1st AE86
Mini Pickup Project I never finished
My 1st Mini!

Anyways, bent most of my brake lines, made my fuel hard lines, now just have to flare this week and install the lines. Hopefully I'll have pix and have finished all my hard lines this week.

The Fuel Cell....

2009-07-29T21:29:00.001-07:00

So last night, I got around to plumbing the fuel cell a bit. Went around the garage to see what we could canabalize to grab some AN fittings. Eventually I was able to find most of the fittings from Andy's RX7 and parts off his old Dually. The MSD EFI pump and 300ZX fuel filter ..
found a 90 degree bend and some old -8 lines from the cell off Andy's 7, this is used for the fuel vent. Also to the left of the cell, found a -8 to -6 reducer to be used as the fuel return line. aslo got about to pinstriping a bit of the cell, I think I'll add one more color to it. on top of the reducer, found a 90 degree -6 AN fitting that will be the fuel return line.
Underneath the car, a -8 90 is used and fed through -8 line to the fuel pump..
From the filter on to th engine, it will be a -6 line. I'll have to hit Earl's this weekend to buy line, and a couple more fittings.

Fuel Cell

2009-07-20T20:48:00.001-07:00

Finally getting around to installing the Jegs Fuel Cell. Was trying to figure out if I should mount the cell directly into the trunk, or have the cell stick out through the bottom a bit. After a bit of fiddling around, finally decided on just putting the cell inside the trunk. Should be about where it sits, also in this picture, you can see the bedliner that was applied to the whole of the trunk.
Couple shots with all the windows in. still need to install the window trims.
Another of windows.
Another shot.

So next was to make a plate to go inside the hole where the original fuel tank was mounted.

Test fitted.. Next installed the fuel gauge sender unit to the cell. Gave the plate a couple coats of paint, then mounted the plate directly to the trunk, and the cell will be mounted on top of that as soon as I order my AN plumbing.
Some shots we took last night after a quick wash
It's starting to really really look like a car again.

Still have to run brake lines/fuel lines. Install all the new rubber bushings, lower the thing, and get tires for my wheels. but all in all it's coming along.

starting to look like more of a car....

2009-07-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, went down to San Diego to Catch Rise Against and Rancid. Rossi got us some backstage passes and it was F'ing awesome!

Back to the car! I've not got all windows in, still have to install the chrome pieces along the front and rear windows, but I'll save that for a day when I've got some patience...

I've also added some bedliner to the whole of the trunk, got my rear taillights installed along with the rear bumper/license plate lamp and rear plate. Pix to follow for those, now I'll have to get to installing the fuel cell and run some fuel lines!

Assembly Assembly Assembly

2009-06-30T21:32:00.001-07:00

So over the last couple weeks, I've slowly started assembling the Cortina. 1st up was the 1/4 windows. Now stupid me, I should probably have never disassembled the 1/4 windows, drilling out the riviets etc, because as soon as it was time to reassemble.....well I didn't have any riviets that would work.. What to do what to do....
So Andy came up with the idea of using screws..which seemed to have worked out fine! I tapped the old window lock, along with the arm that lets the window open (what are those things called anyways) and screwed the whole thing together with some good ole locktite.

Pictures of said screws: Not sure what this was all about, but let me tell you about the rubbers. Man, weatherstrip install blows!

1/4 Windows installed and bolted in, only to realise I had to unbolt them later again to install the windows.... Couple days later, the front windows went in along with new rubber and felts
Looking more and more like a car!
So, we finally got a warm day around here to get the headliner going...
Seriously not one of those jobs I'd ever want to do again, this was the headliner purchased at ACME in Long Beach, had to trip the loops that the rods went into a bit, but all in all, was a pretty decent fit.
Laid out all the bows 1st, then started to glue up the edges..
Andy got some hairy arms..
Back 1/2 installed, off to the front 1/2!
By the time we finshed, it was pretty dark, so I don't have the finished product pix. Next up is getting the rest of the windows in...this should be fun.....

Color Sanding...

2009-06-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

So over the weekend, the weather seemed nice and cool enough to colorsand, so I started with the front ent. Went over the front with 1500 grit, the two front fenders and the hood

Went and bought this polish/cutter I read about, System One X3, you supposedly use one compound for all 3 stages of polishing. Did the passenger fender with it, and it came out pretty nice. Wasn't so lucky with the hood, it needed a little more love, so we went back with the 3M compounds to polish that up. Had Andy do most of the polishing while I was sanding and enjoying myself some beer...

Coming along nicely...

Front section all colorsanded and polished! Installed the wing mirrors...

Another shot of the wing mirrors, and oh, almost forgot, the HID's are all wired up

Put on the corner lights, and the grill...

Added on the headlight rings...which I'll need to buy new ones of. They're all dented and not too shiny..

Next up, colorsanding the polishing the rest of the body...at least the front finally looks like a car again!!

Hrm.

2009-06-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

So there hasn't been much updates lately. I've been waiting for about a month now to start color sanding the body. While I've been waiting, I got the following done:

Wired all the lights to a switch on the dash, checked to make sure the HID's turned on...and it did.
Wired the turn signal lights, now those work as well
Got the Toyota clutch master to work with the Cortina pedals, that was somewhat interesting
Started wiring the wiper motor, but realized that the wiper motor is bad...so I'll have to come back to this at a later date
Wired Cig Lighter
Ordered a set of VDO Series 1 Gauges from Egauges.com w/electronic speedometer
Ordered all rubber and suspension rubber from scottsoldrubber in OZ
Ordered and installed B-Quiet sound deadner in the roof/doors and quarter panels. Will do the floors at a later date
Got my rear 1/4, front wind wings and posts back from the chromers (mmm shiny)
Scored a pair of Locort wheels on ebay, and another pair from JohninCM (thanks John!) so now have a set, and they'll go to the blasters this week
Started wiring in the Hazard lights, but realized I needed some diodes to make it all work, so that's stopped until I go shopping.
Ordered my headliner in Black from Acme Headliner in Long Beach (thanks cortina list!)

I'll have to take pics of the progress again soon. Still a whole long list of things to do/buy. Hopefully I'll get to color sanding and polishing this week, then the rubber and glass go back on the car, that way the cortina may start to look like a car again!

Finally!!!!!!

2009-05-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

So Friday night was the day...the car was rolled into the booth and the sealer was shot. Sealer laid out pretty welll, I really can't complain
1st coat of the base was next shot
Then a 2nd Coat ...
What was kinda scary was when the base was laid on, it almost looked pinkish...which was interesting to say the least...but when it started to flash, it almost looked like primer.
Next the pearl was laid out..
so the count was, 3 coats of base, 4 coats of pearl
Then cleared..
Rolled the car into the classroom to let sit after the paint was baked for 30 mins.
Kinda looks somewhat primer in this picture as well.
Now it looks somewhat purple..
Pushed out into the sun!
It has a grey/blue look to it..
Then it flops to purple in some angles..but a real suttle purple.

Now, the Instructor has advised that I color sand the car, lay out the silver for the flash, and then re-clear the car. Although the solid color is growing on me, not sure which way I want to go, but either way the paint needs some color sanding love on it. Overall, the car won't win any shows, but I'm really happy with it, it's got a few flaws, some parts I should have taken care of, just noticed it after the paint was laid on, but you know what, I'm planning on driving the heck out of it so I'm not worried!

Milestone!

2009-05-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

So, for the month of Apri, there wasn't a whole lotta exciting stuff. Got around to blocking out the rest of the car, cleaned everything up, and this past weekend, was finally able to lay color to the door/hood/trunk jambs. Everything was all masked up, and the sealer was 1st applied. Decided to paint underneath the trunk lid as well...the inside of the trunk will have bedliner.

All masked up and sealer laid out.

Finally the base went on...after that tacked up..pearl was sprayed.

Finally finished off with a couple good coats of clear.

Tried to take pictures of it out in the sun, but you really can't tell the color in the pix. It's an 2008 Lexus GS400 Color, Opaline Pearl, sort of an offwhite base with blue/red pearls in it. Some lights it looks a little blue/white, and then in the direct sunlight it's got a pretty cool pearl effect going.

So this week, the rest of the car will be painted, hopefully by Sunday, all will be painted and cleared. Ordered up my weatherstripping from Scotts Old Rubber in OZ, also ordered the light gaskets from mk1-cortina.com, also in OZ. Window trim is out to the chromers so that should be coming back in a few weeks.

Getting that much closer!

2nd Round of Primer

2009-03-02T12:29:00.000-08:00

Haven't had much of an update lately, just been block sanding the 1st round of primer. Blocked that with 150 dry, then 220 dry, now it was time to reprime the car. Here's us mixing the primer, i'm using Valspar 98N, this was recommended by our instructor. A shot of the car, before the primer, everything looks pretty decent

Another shot:

Here's a few shots after the primer was shot. I must say, the body is turning out fairly well, and the primer laid out really nice!

The primer dries with almost a "wet" look

If I wasn't planning on painting the car for a long time, I really wouldn't mind running around like this

After letting it sit in the booth to dry out for a while, I pushed it out to the sun to let it bake a couple days.

Back to class this week to wet sand the car! oh joy!

Past Sunday

2009-02-10T20:46:00.001-08:00

This past Sunday, with all the rain we've been getting, no work has been done on the Cortina, so we decided to take a day trip to San Jose to pickup John's new toy. Oh, before that, some pinstriping I did on Dave's bike. Still need more practice.

Day started with me waking up an hour and 1/2 late. Was supposed to meet up at 4am, i woke up at 530, and off we went around 6AM. 1st thing I noticed was waking up at the Jack in the box..
Next stop was the McD's....then on to Sonic. Something is seriously wrong when you stop off at 3 fast food joints before you even get to your destination. Although the Strawberry shake at Sonic was pretty awesome.
Finally got to San Jose around noon, and loaded up John's new Toy. an RX2 round on craigslist at a junk yard. The pervious owner did some insane hacking on the car...we'll see if we can save this one.
John looking to make sure nothing's going to fly out of the car on the way home.
Took a pic of the rear, last time we took a picture like this with one of John's other 2's, the bumper was stolen a couple days later off the car, but at least we had a picture...
I always loved the rear end of a 2.

Looks pretty sexy. This wasn't sexy at all...John and his plumbers crack.

The street where the yard was, was one of the weirdest places I've ever driven through. The whole block was this huge parking lot, with cars for sale on each side. I guess every weekend, people put for sale signs on the cars and drag it down to that street to see if it sells...weird and horrible horrible traffic because of this. On the way home! Didn't get back till about 8ish, stopped off at Harris Ranch to get a Tritip Sandwich. We'll see how long John keeps this, I'm sure he'll get bored with it, like the rest of his rotaries.

Photos of the Rides GNRS

2009-01-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

Grand National Roadster Show, Pomona, CA

2009-01-26T08:46:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, took a day off from the car and went to the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona. Tons of great looking cars, and a bunch of great looking stripes. My 1st time there, so I really didn't know what to expect. Now that I know what kinds of cars are there, I'll make it a point to go every year. Here's a few pics of the stripes on the cars. I'll upload pics of the cars a little later.

More Wires!

2009-01-22T19:34:00.001-08:00

John brought back my steering wheel from Japan for me. Now I've got a wood Nardi for the Cortina. Just have to find someone that has a hub for it! Got to wiring the ECU for the 4AG. It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. Had all my wires marked, had everything pretty much set up before i got it started, so once i started, i was able to get it all done in a afternoon. ECU is now mounted on the passenger side, and the fuse box on the driver side.
Still have to wire up all the guages, accessories, and indicator stalk. Luckily, all wires are labled, so this shouldn't take a whole lot of time. ( i hope )
Last shot is in the engine bay. All engine wires are now through the fire wall. Still have to plumb fuel lines/brakes lines and a few more wires, but i figure i can do that after the body is painted.
the Cortina will be towed back to school tomorrow, hopefully in paint by Feb/Mar. We'll see how that goes, but with class 4 days a week, i think i should get a whole lot done, as long as i don't get lazy!

More Wiring

2009-01-12T07:30:00.000-08:00

So I got to wiring up the chassis harness over the weekend. started out by clipping the wires that were of no use. Then ran the tail section wires to the trunk. That will be finished up later when I put on the tailights. So I ran the wires to the front section next. Since I got rid of the harness plugs that go through the firewall, I ran them along the inner fender well.
Wires ran up along the inner fender, down to the headlamps, then using the factory grommets on the front side of the fender, ran the passenger side wires to there.
Here's a shot of the right side inner fender. Left side looks similar, but w/o the coil, ignitor and map sensor. You can see the HID Ballasts mounted up along with the HID relay.
Fuse panel is mounted on the driverside of the car, as the ECU is mounted on the passenger side. There's just too many wires!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-09T23:43:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! Been having a bit going on lately. Been running wires galore. 1st it's been figuring out the engine harness, all sensors have been found and marked. 2nd, got my coil, igniter, map sensor and HID ballasts mounted. Haven't taken pics of those, so those will go up in a couple days.

Got a header for the AE86 to modify and fit to the Cortina. Realized that w/o modifying it, the pipes foul the steering box, the body and pretty much everything right of the engine. So, we decided to take out about 1 1/4" off the runners closest to the flange. Here it's measured out, the zip ties will guide us..

Pipes, cut, had to cut a bunch of notches on #4 so we could swing the pipe back into the flange holes. After this, we mounted the header back onto the car, realized, there's still a whole lot of modifying to be made. Andy suggested using a FWD stock AE111 or AE101 header and modifying it to RWD. So I'm now searching for another header, maybe that may work better than this one, if not, we'll be going back to this.
Yanked the motor, hopefully for the last time. Making my engine harness off the car at the moment, and will have everything cleaned up before the engine goes back in. Also, getting the gearbox prepped with new throwout bearing etc. to mount back onto the motor and she'll all go back as one.
Also got my chassis harness from EZ Wiring Harness. Looks like I'll be running wires over the next few days for all the lights etc. Oh, also got a 15 gal Aluminum fuel cell from JEGS. Will have to mod that a bit so it'll fit in nice and snug. Class starts up next week again, so after the wiring, the Cortina will be going back to school for block sanding, final priming, then wet sanding, and hopefully paint.

It's starting to get exciting!

Wiring and wing mirrors

2008-12-28T21:39:00.001-08:00

So, after trying to figure out how to run the ECU for the Toyota motor, I got around to making my relay panel. This will go to the ECU/Injectors/Fuel Pump/Starter Relay. Kind of looks like a tangled mess, but I do think this should be most, if not all the relays I need for the ECU.
Also, finally got my pair of Lucas wing mirrors! Can't see a whole lot out of them, but I've always loved the way they looked so I had to put them on. Here's us measuring out where they looked best.
and since I wasn't man enough to drill my own fenders...I had Andy start the drilling..
Kinda scared...
and here they're mounted. Not bad for working on Christmas day in the rain.
Side view, can also see the blocksanding of the primer with 150 grit.
One more shot of the mirrors

2008-12-16T20:18:00.000-08:00

No updates

2008-12-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

Haven't done any work on the Cortina in Two weeks.

Just ordered fuel line and brake line from Jegs. Still need to order a fuel cell/pump/wiring harness.

Hrm. probably will be towing the car home Saturday, start doing the final blocking at home, maybe get the motor wired up.

So much to do, so little money.

How the hell did I miss THIS??? HAPPY BIRTHDAY SACCHIN!!!!

Block sand and primer

2008-11-23T19:46:00.001-08:00

So..finally started to block sand the primer. Started with 80 grit. realized i missed a few spots along the way, so a little bit of glaze needed to be used. more shots, after the 80 grit, went on to 150..
I realized that a lot of spots didn't have more than 1 coat of primer, so i sanded thru to the metal

So this past Saturday..rolled the car into the booth to prime the whole car.

Finally, it's all in one primer color! Body work turned out to be pretty decent. I haven't noticed any big spots i missed, couple of little low spots i noticed, but those will be taken care of quick. Now for the not so fun part. Start dry blocking with 150 again, then on to the wet sanding.
Almost there...almost there!

Roof needs a little more work..

2008-11-03T12:50:00.000-08:00

So the roof has 1 coat of primer. It was sprinkling on Saturday so we figured we needed to protect the metal some. Still needs a little more work on the roof, but overall it's pretty much done. After working on the areas that need a little more love, next is time for some block sanding! yay!......

I've also have been informed that the Saturday classes at Cerritos college have been dropped for spring semester...now I have to find another school where I can finish up and paint the car. With only about a month left for this semester, I doubt I'll get it in paint by mid December.

Oh well, off to search for another school!

2008-10-21T20:23:00.001-07:00

roof..................

2008-10-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

So I started stripping down the last and final panel last week. I noticed a slight bubble by the passenger side drip rail....and found this....is there not one clean panel on this car????
It almost looked like the roof split in this area, and the person who did the body work last, tack welded every inch or so, and just filled the rest...one thing for sure is that this person knew how to sculpt filler good! So now I have the joy of doing a bit more welding, and pulling out this dent.
Rest of the roof taken all back to metal.
Another shot, the rest of the roof is fairly clean, found a couple of low spots on the driver side, but nothing major seems to be needed.

I have to finish up this last panel quick so I can get around to block sanding the primer!

Finally...

2008-10-05T09:44:00.001-07:00

Ok, so finally I feel I've gotten something done to the Cortina. I guess since my last post, I've been working over the same 1/4 panel for almost 3 weeks. Every time I thought I was close, my instructor found highs and lows. It finally had gotten to the point that I was sanding different layers of filler, at different speeds/cuts that we decided to put the thing in primer, that way I can block the primer and not the filler. Although when all was said and done, the 1/4 is pretty damn straight.
Working on the 1/4 I figured I might as well finish working on the sill. So that was blocked and straightened.
A picture before the primer was shot. I shot the 1/4 with my Valspar 21N high build primer. The primer was starting to go bad, since I had it for about 2 years, and I guess the can wasn't sealing completely well, so we baiscally mixed the rest of my gallon, which was 3/4 full, and shot my car and a classmates El Camino.
Finally the primer is shot! I realize now after looking at this picture that maybe I should have masked my wheels and tires as well...but oh well! It's not like those are going to be the wheels I'll be rolling on anyways!
Pic with the masking paper still on the car...
Final product in primer. I'm just happy that the body is now straight, and the body lines are where they should be. I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Now time to take the roof back to bare metal, and once that's in primer, time to block the whole car again! oh the joy!

I hate filler

2008-09-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been about a month since I've updated this thing. School is back in session, and the Cortina is back at school. Started working on the right rear 1/4 panel again. Had a bunch of small imperfections along the top of the 1/4 panel. Was able to pull some lows and knock down some highs, but the thing still needed filler. So the filler goes on, and sanding...oh man, a lot of sanding..

Trying to keep and work that upper body line is a pain...

I think I've done about 3 sessions of filler, with each step sanding off more and more.

Hopefully it's about ready for Primer, but we'll see what the instructor thinks about it. Tonight I'll be sanding it down with 80 grit, then to 180, hopefully ready for primer..

um...progress??

2008-08-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've finally got around to doing some work. most of the holes in the engine bay have been welded up, tops of the shock tower mounts have been patched/welded and filled.

Another shot of the filler work, looks ugly, but a lot of it is sanded off.
Other side of the bay, more filler work, and more sanding..oh the joy.
Once everything was sanded, I hit the bare metal spots with some self etch primer, and then most of the bay is primed. I decided, again, to change colors after I saw pix of the new GTR, and decided on Gun Metal Grey Metallic.
Another shot, still had some work to do by the master cylinder mounts
So while that was done, I decided I wanted to chrome the 1/4 window posts, so out they came..and more surprises...
one corner was completely rotted. this would came and bit me in the ass later..
another shot of the great rot.
SO...I had to go and make a new section , tacked welded, this will be cleaned up and welded in before I send this out to get chromed.

some holes patched, and welded shut.
Schools back in session in a few weeks, I gotta get this bay done before then!

Firewall

2008-07-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

So some updates. Here's a pic of my modified trans mount. It uses part of the AE86 trans mount and pieces of metal...
Now on to the firewall! the hole is filled with 5 pieces of metal to make the firewall box. Everything is placed onto the car, all tacked into place to make sure the fit is well.

Some more shots, there still needed to be some griding and fitting done on the car, but overall the fit was well.

Once the fit was done, the panels were tacked together, and pulled out once. and then Andy got to tigging the panel from the rear. once that was done, the panel was tacked back into the fire wall and the welding began.

The panel now all welded into the firewall. After this a coat of filler was added, and now I have the joy of sanding down filler again!

Not much

2008-07-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot has been happening on the Cortina. Been having to travel for work etc etc. and haven't had much time to work on the car.

What has been done, is both engine mounts have been made, trans mount is made and welded up. Started working on the fire wall last night, and have my metal roughly cut. Now I just have to clean them up and weld them into the car. My goal for this month is to get the engine bay done before school starts, hopefully I'll have the engine bay in paint by the end of this month. That should really give me some motivation to get the rest of the car in paint.

Things to order:
New steel brake lines
Fuel Lines
Fuel Cell
Fuel pump
Find a damn clutch pedal & Master

Still need to wire up the damn motor. I think I got most of the wires figured out, I'll have to do that in the comfort of an A/C'd room.

Pics to follow later this week.

Engine out...Engine in???

2008-06-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

So I finally got around to yanking the old 1500 pre-crossflow motor out of the Cortina. It came out super easy and ran into no troubles.

A nice and empty engine bay.

The old 1500 out of it's old home..and I'm sure it will be donating life to another Cortina sometine in the near furute.

So after looking at the 4AG, I figured out that I needed to make some clearance for the distributor to clear the fire wall....oh how I didn't realize how much...

The next thing I noticed that wouldn't clear was the water pipe I fitted to the back of the head.

With the heater box removed, and with the heater box bulge cut out, I thought I might be ok...oh how I was wrong!

A little bit of cutting happened next...basically the center of the firewall needed to be cut out to clear the dizzy and the water pipe. I cut out more that I wanted to...but I guess it's what's needed for the 4AG to fit. Also, I've noticed the that 4AG is a few inches taller than the original 1500, so the motor needed to be set down a little. The hole will be boxed back in, hopefully done clean so it won't look too butchered. I guess I won't be running a heater in this sucker!

So, next I had to rework the orginal motor mounts on the front subframe. They were a few inches too long, so these were cut down about 3 or so inches and using steel plates, I made caps for the cut down mounts and re-welded them shut.

Passenger side mount cut down, welded and painted.

Drivers side cut down, welded and painted. Next is to make the mounts for the engine side. Suprisingly, no work needed to be done on the trans tunnel. I guess the car originally being an automatic, the trans tunnel was bigger than the manual trans cars, so it basically slipped right in, almost lining up with the original trans mounts.

On a side note, over the weekend, I was out cleaning the filter by the pool/pond and noticed a noice by the filters...and I caught this sucker moving towards the filter. Got the ole pool net, and caught him! After looking on the net, I think it's a Cali King Snake, but I may be wrong. He's about 2ft right now, so we now have another addition to the family. We're turning into a freaking zoo!

Pond now has, 1 Snake, 2 Koi, 1 Carp, 1 gold fish, and Neo our Catfish.

More work on the 1/4 panel..

2008-05-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

So after taking a small break again, I finally got around to working on the passenger 1/4 panel. started working on the area that was patched 1st. Sanding out the filler and getting the area as straight as I could get it. Next was to strip down the bottom 1/2 of the 1/4 panel with some 36 grit discs to get it ready for some filler work.

Andy finally getting around to welding his doors.

So now with a coat of filler over the whole side, I used the trusty air file and started hitting it with 36 grit.

Sanded...but still need more sanding with 36, by this point I was starting to feel a little burned out from the day.

So last night, Andy's friend Wang (lol) comes over and brings over our new addition to the pond. He caught this Carp at Lake Lake down in Whitter. I'm gonna guess it's between 5-8lbs. Sucker is huge! Although Neo wasn't too happy about the new addition and kept attacking the carp. I'm sure we'll have a dead fish one of these days soon.

Big and UGLY!

The Pinstripe Class

2008-05-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

So in our pinstripe class, we usually just practice on glass, so yesterday I thought I'd be fun if we tried to stripe on a car. My Accord became the mule. 1st put in a center line with the stabillo pencil for some reference, and then I laid out my simple design. Next I had Daryl add a little bit to it.

Then Vinnie came in and added a little bit of his own thoughts to it.

Next I had Louie add is own little flavor to it.

He decided to go big...

Daryl coming back in to add more to the overall design.

Striping on a car is way harder than just messing around on glass!

and here, finally is a little design the 4 of us did on my Accord. Maybe on Weds. we'll come in and add another color to it. not too horrible for us newbies!

The Joys of Rust repairs..

2008-05-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

So work on the car is finally on the way again. This past weekend I pulled the two creases that were running along down the side of the rear 1/4 panel. This was done using a stud gun. Smore more shots of the amount of nails used...

There were a couple more shallow spots on the 1/4 so those were pulled in the same fashion as well.

Next the sill was ground down of filler and primer, noticed that I'll have to patch the leading edge of the sill, closest to the front tire. It just looks like a bad patch job w/o the back of the repair being treated in anyway.

Some dents on the rear of the sill, this was pulled as much as possible, the rest will have to be done with filler...I'm not good enough to do this repair w/o filler.

Shot of the lower rear 1/4 panel. You can see the botched patch job here.

more of a full view of the patch, I was thinking what the best approach would be, and decided to cut the sucker out. Seems that's my answer for a lot of the repairs...

Section cut, you can see the panel behind that was rusted as well. This panel was ground down with a wire wheel, and sprayed with a rust killing product from eastwood.

The old panel that was cut out...

Panel as it was trimmed and coated with the rust protector. and here, is the start of the welding. I did a bunch of little tacks yesterday, and should finish up the welding tonight or tomorrow.

Until the weekend! unless I do work during the week.

Valve cover etc.

2008-04-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

So after a few weeks of not working on my car at all, for various reasons, I've had the energy to do a little filler and paint work on my valve cover. Here, I've done a bit of fiberglass patching to mix a missing chunk of the plug wire cover, and ground out the TWIN CAM 20 and Toyota Emblem.Same for the cam gear cover, the center was cracked, so it's ground down and fixed with some epoxy.
Here's a shot of the 16 Valve water pump backing. I've made the heater block off plate and painted the sucker purple..
Now with everything sanded down, I did a little bit of polyester filler to try and get everything decently flush
Then a silver base was sprayed out of a spray can...
Next top coated with this purple anodize paint that's from Duplicolor I think. I kinda dug the color so I went to town with it.
Same goes with the cam gear cover.
For the valve cover itself. Andy sandblasted the cover for me and I sprayed out this gray/silver paint on it. I think it actually looks pretty decent. Kinda ricer'ish but .... who cares?
and now some photos of Andy's pickup. He's finally had some motivation to work on it: The interior's been painted for the most part, well at least the interior panels that are metal.

Some shots of how the rear of the pickup's going to look. Running those stupid big dually tires he's had left over from his days of owning a dually.

Hopefully after beerfest this weekend in SFO, next week will be a week of body work before we wrap up the semester and the Cortina comes home for the summer for a new engine.

Some striping

2008-04-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Right side rear quarter

2008-04-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

This week got me started on the right side 1/4 panel. I knew there was going to be a bit of damage, but I didn't realize just how bad.... started to grind out the panel..and I notice filler. Ok so to this point, there's been filler all over the car..but this one surprised meTried to take this photo, so the green/white is filler, then pink filler, then gray is filler, finally metal peaking thru...
the bottom rear of the panel will probably need a big patch, I'll have to grind back the old patch panel to see how bad it is...you can see the madness on the floor...
Slowly but surely, the filler/paint is coming off
this is a mid way clean up I tried to get the tool in for a reference but I honestly think there was at least a gallon of filler on just that panel.
So this is the damage done on the panel, it looked like the area just above the center of the wheel well was pushed in about 2 inches. Instead of fixing it...the last owner just sculpted bondo.
Another shot of the filler.
we used a hydraulic press to push out most of the major part of the damage. worked from the outside in, pushes here and there, with a bit of hammer work, and both sides, left and right 1/4 are now where they should be.
Another shot of the fix still needs nail gun work, but the major section is out.
No school for another week due to work stuff, so maybe I'll work on the engine during the week.

Engine and fish

2008-04-01T20:57:00.001-07:00

So some shots of the rear of the head..
Here's the shot of the plate that goes over the back of the head
The AN weld in bungs, for the loop on the head. The heads been drilled for the 16 valve water pump set up, but the hole looked a bit small so we're welding in the bung with a 180 degree fitting to flow more water.
Here's what it'll look like when welded.
and now, it's time for our fish. Here's our ghetto filter set up, just a harbor freight water pump going into a Hydro Pond 4 Filter, trickling down to a trash can full of Lava rock to filter it.
The water actually cleared up and now you can see our fish.
Glen brought over two koi...but we haven't named em yet..
and here's a bad shot of Neo...bottom right corner..he's our cat fish!

Some water line work for the 4ag

2008-03-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

So the 4AG 20 valve never came in a RWD application. The above photo shows where the water outlet for the top of the radiator used to go, and the holes in the back of the head is where the thermostat used to sit along with a pipe to go to the lower radiator hose. The previous owner of the engine did the 16 valve water pump conversion on this motor, but it was a bit ugly. So I did what anyone else would do. Re-do some of the plates etc.

Here is the blanking plate for the exhaust side of the head:
Cleaned up, fitted to the head with new bolts:
Next came the hose outlet for the intake side. This one goes from the head to the top of the radiator. I used what I had, and cut up the old flanges and pipes.
Must have beer while you work!
Two of the pieces now welded together, getting ready for the flange for the head to get welded on.
and here is the piece before grinding down the welds and making it look pretty.
Oh and not much work on Andy's truck lately. Today he used some rust converter for the hard to reach cracks and a bit of the floor to keep the rust at bay. If you look closely, you can see the dash mocked up and see how insanely small that windshields going to be.
Last but not least, it's kinda hard to see in pix, but last night I did a spray out on the two colors I decided to paint my car. When the paint was 1st laid out, it didn't look as though they'd match, but after letting it dry out over night, and placed in the sun...damn it looks pretty nice. I just have to take it to class on Monday and bomb some clear over it. That should give me a pretty good idea of what the overall look my Tina will have.

Back panel done for the time being

2008-03-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

So this past Saturday, I got down and finshed up the rear panel. There were a few little things that needed some polyester glaze so a skim coat was applied and sanded down. Sprayed the rear panel with high build primer and for the most part the panel came out alright. there's a little ding i missed right above the right tailight, but I'll come back to that when I block sand the primer.

Closer shot of the rear panel

One more..

Oh, and so I started to dig around on the passenger side 1/4 panel. This is going to be fun. I got my angle grinder out with a 36 grit disk to cut into the old filler. So I sit there and grind a bit, grind a bit more....where's the metal? grind a bit more...and finally i see the metal. I have to say, the filler work in this lower section is about 1/2' thick at the bottom. Man I gotta love the last owner who decided to fill rather than fix.

Looks like there's about 3 layers of filler!

Class is out for the next two weeks, so since I now have some engine bay measurements and my new engine, along with a good used front subframe, I think I'll be mocking up the engine in the subframe and making engine mounts for the 4AG.

Center Console and Engine!

2008-03-11T20:38:00.001-07:00

Finally got me a center console for the Cortina, it was a little beat up, but I expected that. It actually was cleaner than I had thought!
So the whole thing was taken apart..
Found a crack in the center of the console...
Bit of MIG welding and all was good!
Everything was then ground down of little rust spots and old paint.
Another shot
Then sprayed with just regular Rustoleum Satin Black.

It came out pretty decent I thought.
So my next big news is....I finally got my engine for the swap. It's a 1600cc Toyota Twin Cam 20 Valve. 4AG. Came with ECU/Harness and pretty much what I needed.
Looks so good......
MmmMmmmmmm...ITB's!

Work Continues...

2008-03-09T16:43:00.001-07:00

Work on the rear panel has started. Stripped the rear panel back to bare metal, nothing too surprising, both lower corners were a bit pushed in, but nothing a nail gun couldn't fix. Both corners were pulled, along with a couple low spots on the center portion of the panel.

Driver side, somewhat complete and in primer. Still have to block sand the primer.
I wasn't feeling the emblems on the back of the Cortina, so all the emblem holes were welded up..
I left the two holes on top, I figured I'd have to put a plate somewhere...
Welds ground down flush with the body..
And of course, filler work. I guess it's something that has to be used, As long as I keep it low, all should be good.
I went to cars and coffee before class this past weekend, and took some reference photos of 4 Cortinas. Was pretty amazing to see 4 in one place, was a really cool show, so I may have to try and get up at the crack of dawn again to check out all the other exotics..I was way too focused on the Cortinas. http://www.flickr.com/photos/12867379@N00/sets/72157604084513341/ linky of the reference photos.

Stupid Camera Phone

2008-03-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

I keep forgetting to take my camera to school, so I'm stuck using my stupid camera on my phone. Finally, the car's starting to look decent, the driver side from fender to quarter panel is all in primer, next stop, rear panel and I think I'm going to weld up all the emblem holes and go with no emblems.

The sill didn't have a whole lot of damage, only a small patch towards the front, that I welded up at home, a few lows that were pulled and as always, a little bit of filler.

My instructor wasn't very happy with the way the door was turning out, so he layed out some polyester filler on the door and sanded the whole thing down for me. Showed the class on how to use the air file, and how to straighten out a panel using only air tools. I actually learned a few things that day!

After the door was worked, took it into the spray booth and bomed some high build primer on the sucker, I should have checked the spray pattern before I layed out the primer, I really messed up the bottom of the door, but it's only primer so it should all sand out, just more work for me.

This past weekend, I stripped the back left 1/4 panel, and to my surprise, that's the cleanest pannel on my car so far, only a small section was rotted, so I had to make a patch about 2" square

Picture of the stripped panel

The great thing about a straight panel, is that I don't have to go and mess about with the body lines.

Finally a picture of the panel primered. It's actually looking really decent. Now on to the rest of the car!

Working on the door

2008-02-22T10:41:00.001-08:00

So I finally started working on the driver door, after stripping it all down, there wasn't too much to do. the previous owner did some welding on the two lower corners of the door, but the welding was pretty bad, so I had to redo some of the welding.

Dunno when Andy did this, but he got a pic of me welding. After the welding and grinding was done, had to do a little bit of filler work. the center section of the door had a few bumps, probably from door dings, so a skim coat went over that.

Some new pics of andys ride, the tops of the doors were done, but the gaps were a bit off, so he's gone and cut them down again to readjust.

Both doors were done...but again, the gaps were a bit off, last night he went and took off the drip rails.

Back View of the cab, oh the center of the roof was cut out and braced, looks like he's going with some kinda opening roof.

More of Shiges Photoshop

2008-02-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

I've nailed down the body color finally, 2008 Lexus Opaline Pearl, but I can't decide on the flash.
Above is with Aston Martin Racing Green...which kinda looks muddy in the photoshop so maybe green won't be a good idea.

Above is with a BMW Gold, I think it's off the new BMW's paint code: #376. It looks really subtle, I'm not sure if I want the flash loud or suttle...man I can't decide.

So...over the weekend..

2008-02-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I was able to work on the front end a little more, It still needs some massaging to get it perfect. Gotta guide coat it once more and do some more sanding of the filler. But before that, I picked up a Sylvania 7" round HID kit for the Cortina. No longer will I be driving in the Dark!!

Sanded most of the old filler off, had some pinholes here and there, so I layed out a thin coat of polyester glaze to fill in the pinholes.

Same on the fender, although some high spots came out from the welded piece that went on the fender, so I had to hammer those back and redo the filler work. Hopefully I remember to bring my camera to class and take better pix.

More to come on the weekend.

So it's been a while.

2008-01-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

Class is back in session, so before I had to drag the tina down to school, I pulled all the windows. Most of it came out without too much trouble as the rubber was just trash.

I had some time on my hands while there was some sunshine so I made the cut in the dash for the GT Pod set up. The cuts didn't come out too bad, and the pod sits nice and flush with the dash.

Another shot of no windows.

I had to do a little more filler work over the areas that were patched. Looks like the previous owner welded up an antenna hold on the fender, the weld wasn't too bad, I just had to re-do a couple of spots and a light coat of filler.

Oh, I guess this picture should have been before the last one. I just finished stripping the fender of all the old painter/bondo/primer.

Overall the fender was really clean, here's to hoping the rest of the car is like this fender...
Few more coats of filler...I gotta admit, I don't mind doing filler work, I'm actually getting better at spreading the stuff. Comes out a lot smoother than it used to! More piccy's to come as soon as class is back on Saturday.

Updates..

2008-01-02T15:07:00.000-08:00

So had a little bit of time to get working on the cortina in the past couple weeks. Here's the 1st pic of the new front panel made. It almost looks factory...almost....

Next on the lsit was trying to fix the crack in the fender. Thought I could get away with just welding it back...but I was wrong as usual...

So, out came the dykam and the scribe to make a new panel..

Then Andy and his trusty angle grinder that i'm still afraid of haha it's got no control for me..so I ended up buying a cut off tool...that should give me more control for the next patch panel...and yes...there are more!

Panel cut out, getting prepped for the new metal to go in..

New metal being tacked into the fender:

From the front, the old panel that we cut out didn't look too bad...

The back side is a whole nother thing...this piece will go in my box of F'ed up metal..

The panel all welded up, ground flush and ready for some filler.

and so I used some body filler for the front end. most of it will be ground off, I guess it just has to be done. So this is where I'm at right now. I still have to weld in a patch on the lower back corner of the left fender, that should happen tonight, and make another patch for the sill, maybe this weekend on that.

On to other things, Sacchin was very kind in getting me passes for the Petersen Automotive Museum, so we went over the weekend. 1st thing I was walking in through the doors was a Impala, and that green caught my eye. Maybe something similar to this green for my flash..

They had some really cool exhibits, all the things that I like...Lowriders and Microcars.

That was very very cool of Sacchin to get me those passes. All this time living in LA and I've never been to that place. It's smaller than I imagined, but still a whole lotta fun to check out.

And last but not least, some updates of Andy's project. The rear is almost done...

And he's been working on the front corners along with the window channel. I gotta admit, it's coming out really nice.

I'm on a roll!

2007-12-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

On a roll I tell ya! I gotta figure out how to post pictures in order, or how to move the pix up and down....anyways...the area where we welded a tab to pull the body tore the sheet metal around it, so instead of just trying to fill the holes with the mig, out came the cut off wheel, and out went the old metal.

Using the dycam (sp?) I made quick measurements of the area, made a patch panel and scribed the area of the new patch. Then made some careful cuts...

I must remember to bring my camera, or leave it at the new joint..but after posting a message to the cortina list...it was the general idea to make the cut outs again. I'm pretty glad I've listened to the great list, cuz w/o the holes, I guess it just didn't look right. So we used quickad or something of that sort, measured out the holes on paper (which Andy pretty much figured out for me, because I know if i did the measurements, thoese holes would never be in the proper areas!) Scribed the holes, made the cut. I thought I had a picture of the finished cut..but I can't seem to find it. Next post I'll have to remember to put it up. I'm pretty darn happy with it...almost looks factory!

Ok, so decisions...

2007-12-18T09:54:00.001-08:00

So the top pic is of my new front panel with out the holes cut out, the bottom is John's Locort with the holes cut out. Now...do I leave a smooth panel, or cut out as per orginal. I'm going to not run a front bumper, so the bumper holes will not be cut out.

What to do...what to do...

Finally some progress!!

2007-12-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

So Saturday and last night, I was finally able to get some work done on my front panel. But before that, here's some pix of my new roomies Chevy Pickup. 6" lopped off the top

Ok, so here it is, after mulling it over, having a few beers, Andy convinced me to cut out the old panel. The metal was so weak around the old front panels, that everytime I went to tack the panel, it started blowing holes in the old metal. So...here's the front panel cut out...

New front panel tacked in...with the old crusty on top..

We 1st created the main middle section, bent to a slight curve to follow the body line, then cut the top lip with a curve to also match the body line. This is then tacked about every 1 inch or so.

and then....it starts to sprinkle. Thinking it wasn't the greatest of ideas to weld in the rain, we made a ghetto plastic tent so we can finish tack welding the front in.

After we were happy with the middle and top fit, we decided to lop off the extra metal on the bottom of the middle panel in order to make the lower lip. This should give us the extra strength in the front panel. I was kinda afraid of Andy's cutter, so he went to town on it..

Here's a pic of the bottom lip tacked in. I'll have to drill a couple of holes in this panel on the bottom lip to tack it to the body. That should keep the valance from moving.

And so, here it is. top, middle and bottom tacked in, ready for a final weld. Now I'm debating if I want to cut out the original holes in the middle to make it look right, or have it slighty modified w/o the holes.

Fall Semester is now over

2007-12-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

So school is out till Jan. and the tina is parked over at my soon to be new home. I'll probalby finish welding up the front panel this coming weekend, so at least that'll be done before class starts.

No updates this time around, tho I did have a try at my 1st attempt at airbrushing flames. Pin striping seemed so much easier than airbrushing...all i know is, if i wanted to take this up, i'll need to buy a airbrush of my own and do some serious practice

Happy Holidays!

Bit of an update on the cortina...

2007-11-21T16:44:00.001-08:00

Pix seems some what out of order, so from the bottom up... looks like someone welded the front fender down then middle before...so when we pulled the corner...it tore the weld...
Had to weld in a little tab, where we could put a clamp on and pull the corner with a morgan knocker.

While I was waiting for the instructor, I poked around at some bubbles that were forming on the surface...only to find more rust spots...oh joy, looks like I'm gonna do more patching..

The clamp on the welded tab. This corner was pushed in about an inch, it didn't take a whole lot of effort to pull it right back out.

Kind of hard to see, but this corner is where the metal was buckled.All in all it wasn't a very productive day, got the corner pulled out, the top lip of the valance straightened out, made the patch for the valance. and ready to start welding once we get back to class.

This week is Thanksgiving break...so...Happy Thanksgiving.

Another pinstripe class

2007-11-14T23:03:00.000-08:00

Another one I was somewhat happy with

Stripe

2007-11-05T21:59:00.000-08:00

Being out of town last weekend, and this coming weekend, the body work on the Cortina is put on hold, probably a good thing as that front valance bummed me out. So during the week, I've had my pinstripe class start, and I'm starting to sorta get the hang of it. Here's one of the designs I was able to do today:

So what to do....

2007-10-27T23:52:00.000-07:00

So I finally ground down a really good chunk of bondo...

and I found out that the front valance was previously patched..

But somehow, the guy who did the body work before me decided to patch it sunken in about a 1/4 inch....

The top part of the valance is so wavy that you can surf on it...
Another shot of the panel that makes me sad...
The valance is a mess, my instructors advise? Cut out the bad repair
and so I cut...

Cut some more
And we cut out the whole of the bad patch job. Now my dilemma, the panel is a mess, I mean there's so many lows and highs, I almost don't know where to start. Right now, I'm considering spending some money and buying a new valance, I don't even know if we can save the panel or if it's even worth it...

More to come later..time to crack open an ABITA and get me some sleep

I'm so depressed I want to burn my car down

2007-10-20T23:50:00.001-07:00

So, I was happily sanding down the filler work getting ready for primer....

Getting as much of it off as possible, getting my lines right...

Then THIS! What the F*** is this???!?! Separated the fender from the front valance to straighten insane bodge job that the previous owner decided to just fill...

and fill.........

more filling....
Holy Crap how far does this go....

in some areas....this crap was at least a 1/2" thick...

I want to cry and dump my car in the garbage...oh how I love finding out how bad the body really is.....

Shige's Photoshops

2007-09-24T10:33:00.001-07:00

So I'm thinking of one of these two colors.... what to do what to do..

Front Fender!

2007-09-24T10:28:00.001-07:00

Ok, so the pictures are somewhat out of order, but I've cut rot out of the bottom of the passenger side fender, made a new patch and welded the sucker in. The area behind it was treated with rust converter, so I'm hoping it won't rust through. Hopefully, I'll get the rest of the panel straightend this weekend and have the fender sitting in primer.

Fall Semester

2007-08-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

So Fall semester has started, and I finally got the car down to class, rather than just parts. Here's how the tina stands today, still working on the same door I was working on during the Summer session. Hopefully I can pick up the pace and finish the rest of the body work in the next couple months, my goal is to have it in paint before the end of the semester....but we'll see how that goes....

JohninCM's Locort

2007-07-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

So I went down to Costa Mesa this past weekend and met up with John to snap a few pix of his Lotus Cortina. Got the pix I needed to make sure my body lines are correct and that my paint scheme will look right. Then he goes and brings out these Dunlop D1 wheels. Man, now I have to hunt for a set of these wheels...

Summer session is over..

2007-07-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

So the summer session is over, was only able to repair the boot lid of the cortina, weld in a patch panel on the passenger door, and lay on some filler. Although, I was able to get some paint time in with the A4 bumper. School starts again in a month, this time I think I'm gonna take a pin stripe class, that might be a bit of fun.

Some pics of the door with the welded in patch and mud work.

My Old Man's 4th of July

2007-07-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

So I helped out my dad set up his soon to be gallery, just to check out how it'd turn out. Here's some pix:

Passenger Door..

2007-07-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on my passenger door for the last week. When I took it off, it seemed like a fairly straight door, with little to no damage....oh how I was wrong...one more week of school, I hope I'm done with the door before the semester ends...

Ichiriki Instant Ramen

2007-06-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

This is how Instant Ramen should be. From Tsuruga, Japan, it's my favorite ramen joint made instant! OMFG! It's still not AS good as being there, but it sure brings back some great memories...

A4 is done.

2007-06-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

The bumper is wet sanded with 400 grit paper to even everything outNext, everything is cleaned and scuffed with a grey scotchbrite pad.
and finally, in paint with a few coats of clear:

now as soon as I'm done getting over this damn cold, it's back to work on the Cortina

A4 continued...

2007-06-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

It's in Primer and ready to paint, just final sanding to do!

Summer School

2007-06-14T10:01:00.001-07:00

So after runing my trunk lid, I've got a repaired again, and now the Cortina will be on hold until next week or so. Starting yesterday I've been working on the rear bumper of a A4. This should be in primer tonight, and paint on Monday:

The Big Easy

2007-06-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

So I spent Friday-Tuesday in New Orleans for work. The downtown area hasn't changed a bit, you really couldn't tell that a Huricane came thru that city. Outside of the downtown area is another story, and it really is sad to see the city not being rebuilt.

But, Louisana does have my favorite beer, so what did I get to enjoy nightly? Draft and Bottled ABITA AMBER BEER. Holy. Shit. MMMMMM

The foods great, the people are great, the beer is freaking awesome. I'll have to go back again one of these days, just not in the summer, as I don't think I can stand 90 degrees with 91% humidity.

Shige done me right

2007-06-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

KROQ Weenie Roast

2007-05-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

So a few of us went to the KROQ Weenie Roast this past weekend, and you know what, SOCIAL FUCKING DISTORTION!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMt1BNeRH-8

That band was seriously the highlight of my day. Lars coming out on the Rancid set was good..but it was seriously all about Social D.

Hopefully they'll play another small show sometime soon!

Spring Semester is now over...

2007-05-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

So class is done until summer school starts. Glad i took the class, and taking it again, but seriously need to step it up a bit. I only got my bonnet and boot lid in primer, and that was school since January.

Either way, here's a pic of the bootlid in primer. I tried some of that Valspar 91N stuff, which is some crazy ass super build primer, which should do well with the blocking I gotta do later on down the road.

2 weeks off, then it's summer school time!

24th Annual SFO Beer Festival!

2007-04-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

So, a few of us went up north for our 2nd Annual SFO Beer Fest. Friday was our day to train, as we started out fairly strong. We stopped off at Fisherman's Wharf in honor of Dave and Jill, and ate at their usual spot. Had a few beers there, then moved on back to the bar at the hotel for some more beers. Off to the Downtown Hilton to meet up with a co-worker to give her tickets to the beer fest. Off to have more beers at the hotel lobby, while waiting on Jun to take us to eat sushi. Get to Sushi Kazu , more beers. What's sad about Friday was us eating too damn much, drinking quite a bit, and alseep by 11.

Saturday, back to the wharf for some more seafood, and slept till beerfest. What can I say about beerfest? you gotta go. 300 different beers to sample, decent food, crazy ass crowd, good friends. All I can say about beerfest, it isn't beerfest until something happens, like a friend swinging at some guy cuz he's chanting a rival college name. U can ask daryl how he felt about that one.

Anyways, Sunday, finally got me a breadbowl with Chili. All in all a good weekend, we'll be up there again next year, hopefully, we'll beat those two doods that seem to beat us every year in line.

I needs to bring a real Camera to class

2007-04-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

So, the boot lid is a mess, with previous patches, rust etc. Stripped it to bare metal, pulled up the lows and tapped down the highs. Had to use some filler as some areas were pretty far gone.

Hopefully this won't take as long as the bonnet did!

shiges photoshop

2007-04-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Shige did a quick photoshop for me. I think the roof needs to be the same color of the body, and the Volks don't look right, but I think the bronze wheels are the way to go.

Don't tell the authorities....

2007-04-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

But the tina runs, drives and stops! after waiting damn near 3 weeks to get the rear brakes shoes relined, finally had the chance to install them today after work. With the brakes sorted, I was able to borrow my brothers Snap-On cordless impact gun (every tool chest should have one!) and installed the rear Koni shocks!

Got it all started, warmed up, put the car in gear and she moves under her own power! With a quick check to see if there were any police around, slowly backed the car up, put her in drive, and putted down the block.

I think I need to tune the carb a touch, since it seems like the motor gets enough air, but not enough fuel. Then when I have the chance, it's off to the DMV to get her registered and insured, and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, I'll be crusin' in my tina come this summer!

Wahoo?

OMG

2007-04-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

She's in Primer!

Nothing sez...

2007-03-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

oh hellsfuckyea like rear ending a 06 S class benz going to work. luckily, my honda is slightly lower at the front than the rear of the benz, so I kinda just tucked under him. 5mph bump left the benz slightly scratched while the hood is tweaked on the honda. Looks like i'll have to repair the damage in class, and put the tina on hold. Or, should I just drive the honda the way it is and concentrate on the tina. decisions decsions.

Ah well, great way to start off in the morning is all i can say. Good thing I'm taking an autobody class though!

So I'm reading....

2007-03-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm reading Jeremy Clarkson's car review on the Sunday Post online and here's what he has to say:

"My worry is that if car makers don’t start putting a bit of soul and flair and engineering panache back into their cars — and I’m excluding Alfa Romeo and Citroën from this, because they do — pretty soon, motoring will cease to be something that’s fun. "

That's why cars from pre-1973ish are so damn great. Everything after seems to have lost something.

The man should be king.

Cortina Cortina Cortina

2007-03-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

So after working on the tina for the past few weekends, I got the motor fired up with the help of my grandpa. She sounds healthy, but with tons of blow-by, the rings may be on it's last legs. Now I can't decide on what motor to go on next. It's either the 302 sitting at Johns place, a Ford Zetec, or a 4AG. But just as the motor started, went to the rear to readjust the brake shoes, only to have one of the liners fall off. So my test drve of the tina will have to wait another week or so.

Body wise, i've found more and more rust, nothing that's too major, but a pain in the ass to repair. The two pics are from class, got the bonnet straightened out, had to use some filler as the whole middle section was too much of a mess. As long as I keep it as a skim coat, I think all should be fine. Second pic is of the boot lid, was picking at a corner and that's what I exposed! I guess next class I'm gonna cut the rot out and make a new patch panel for that corner.

Gotta remember to buy me some weld thru primer.

Nice.

2007-02-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

It's great to see people driving old school cars still. Not much of it going on anymore, and so every now and then seeing something like the above makes my day.

A very nice Mazda RX2...John you NEED one of these again.

why

2007-01-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

Why is it I have to like old cars, and cars that parts are hard to come by on. Why can't I just have some american or japanese car that they make tons of parts for, yet i go for the weird old english cars. seriously, why?

Radiators out at the shop, hopefully they can save it, shocks/struts are at the shop, it's been a couple of days, i seriously hope the old man at the shop can swap out the shocks for me. it really sucks when you know how to do the repair, but don't have the tools to do it. i need more tools.

Started autobody classes a couple weeks ago, and i seriously don't know why it's taken me this long to have taken this course. i've learned a lot in the first couple weeks already, this week, since tina isn't running yet, i'll have to take the bonnet off and work on it bit by bit.

oh, and when people bug you to go to the dentist, you should listen, and not wait a few years.

good times to come in the next few weeks at the dentist!

Holy F$*K

2007-01-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

men or ladies, please email my friend peter at: pchan at insomniacgames dot com

i got nothing..

2007-01-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

shigaboo: thought i been smelling something funny. then remembered you work in downtown
ae86ams12: what, you're in downtown today?
shigaboo: no. silverlake. but it travels
ae86ams12: ahh the wind must be blowing east
shigaboo: perhaps...
ae86ams12: err make that west
ae86ams12: lol
shigaboo: either way it reaches
ae86ams12: cuz if it were blowing east, i'd smell butthole
shigaboo: nah. natural cologne
shigaboo: i don't even need to buy it
ae86ams12: lol
shigaboo: actually they asked me if they can take some samples
ae86ams12: has anyone ever bitchslapped u just cuz you're ugly?
ae86ams12: cuz i'd imagine they would
shigaboo: not cuz i was ugly. cuz i was so damn cute
shigaboo: couldn't help themselves
ae86ams12: u make me sick
ae86ams12: and mens buttholes enlarge as u pass them
ae86ams12: must be the gay in u

tina.

2007-01-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

Tina in the lovely Lotus Colors

Tina in red and gold, nice, but i hate red cars.

well, the pickup is now officially sold and the tina is in the driveway. I was checking out prices on the alternator conversions for the tina, and one place has em for $389. I suppose that ain't a bad price considering you get all the brackets, wires and new alternator, but somehow that seems a touch expensive to me. I'll have to pop the bonnet on the tina this weekend and see if there's a way i can fab up my own alternator mounts.

Oh, and wheels. motherf'ing english cars! seriously you can't come up with a bolt pattern that a bunch of other cars have do you? i mean 4x108? WTF gives me like 3 choices on wheels. how f'ed up is that?!?!?! I guess i've settled on Panasports, either in the bronze or gold, to go with the White/Green Lotus colors i have planned for the tina. although, knowing me, i may change my mind on paint before the month is over. speaking of paint, class starts next weekend, so hopefully they'll show me the ways of working out dents in metal.

Interior: gonna have to go black seats/black door cards/maybe flat black dash, and deep red carpet.

Sorted out what i want to run suspension wise, which is pretty simple for the time being, konis all around, if i can find GT springs, then those, if not, i'm gonna chop a coil off the standard ones, and get lowering blocks for the rear leafs. hopefully i get about a 2" drop all around and have the panasports tuck nicely.

O wells, i told dave i'll have this shit running by superbowl, so i'll have my weekends cut out for me.

great way to start the new year.

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

Happy 2007.

Day late...

2006-12-26T10:29:00.000-08:00

Merry Xmas!

oh, and the pickup is now on hold and for sale. Picked up a 1965 MK1 Ford Cortina on Saturday, so all my engery will be devoted to that. Was tinkering with the ignition and carb yesterday, while my grandfather was hovering and mumbling. great thing to have that old man around, cuz he knows old cars, and between him and i, we were able to get the car cranking. found out the radiator had a leak, so i'll be taking the radiator and fuel tank to get cleaned and fixed, hopefully this week.

gotta remember to buy a electric fuel pump so i can rid the car of the mechanical one that's currently on there.

either way, day late, buck short, merry christmas.

Punk rock karaoke

2006-12-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

Because this guy is one cool mofo. Went to the punkrock karaoke show last night with dave, daryl jills and brian. I'm really glad i went, twas a great show to end the year. although mike ness only sang on one song (sheena is a punk rocker by the ramones) it was great to see him again. The singer from pennywise was pretty bad ass and having seen floggin molly for the 1st time, we gotta see them come st. patty's day!

Oh and daryl got a number hahaha good on u foo.

update of what i need

2006-12-13T20:23:00.000-08:00

buy white wall tire paint
get some baby moon hubcaps
get grill, and whiskers chromed
Buy wing mirrors
measure how much fuel line i need, and order some fuel line
get fuel pump
decide/dream up/design/source parts for interior (red is the color to go, can't decide on the carpet color though)
rebuild front brakes
order adjustable tierods/possibly lower arm
decide on shocks (decided probably go with Standard KYBs)
get knuckle joints for the front
ohh get front bumper with corner bars and guards
ohhhhhh get myself either a nardi or momo wheel (Nardi i think is the way to go)
Figure out what kinda sound system to run. (run some speakers on the B pillar(sp?) maybe a bass tube behind the passenger seat)
F'ing sort through my pile of parts to see what else I need.
Universal wiring kit
sound deadner, fatmat/dynamat

Overall- Keep the Socal hot/rat rod theme on the pickup.

wow not much has changed lol