96z28_lt1

iTrader: (3)

should finish the bumper and finish the center console haha, i hate starting projects and then never finishing haha.

just need to keep yourself motivated.

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

So I made alittle progress. Plastic welding is time consuming and frustrating.

Its also hard to form the plastic to the contours of the bumper. I am getting there.

Few pictures of welding it in, then getting the welds to meld better. My slag cutter was good enough to defend the motherland so its good enough to cut extra plastic.

Last pic I sanded alittle to see where my high and low areas are(clearly need to shape alittle more lol)

Anyways hopefully have it shaped and the other half done tomorrow night.

96z28_lt1

iTrader: (3)

hey its something haha

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

Got alittle more work done

Then after the pictures, I noticed some of filler plastic coming apart.

So I pulled on it and ya. I have alot more work to do that I dont have pictures of. Anyways though hopefully getting the otherside done tomorrow.

its alittle wavy and im having a hard time with the heat gun. I may just have to sand alot then add in alittle filler in the low spots till its close enough for the primer.

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

So ya,

I havent posted in a while as I used a inferior plastic as my filler. So when I started sanding it kinda all fell apart.

So it took a while to get the motivation to get back and tear it all out clean and start over.

Anyways though I did and the otherside got almost finished. Got a very good feel for it this second opening and looks much better than the first.

Gonna pick up some bumper filler tomorrow and even this out. Obviously fill in the welds and voids on the passenger side prior.

might actually finish this before I deploy(well have it ready for paint)

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

So I sanded it down some more, dropped down to 80 grit, then moved up to 180.

Sprayed some Krylon enamel tough rust primer and boy is that stuff hard to sand. Ill be honest I dont really know what im doing but I never do so its fun to learn. I was able to greatly improve my technique when welding in the patch panels hopefully ill figure out this smoothing out bit.

Anyways from what I was reading, shoot adhesion promoter then two coats of enamel oil based primer ideally two seperate colors fix the high spots and use a flexable bumper filler on the lows. Then after it is dry and hard I cant take it to a body shop they will shoot their primer and paint and ill be good to go.

Im having a bit of trouble sanding this primer though.....anyways I was reading after trying to find a easy way to sand that enamel primer and getting a real paintjob dont really mix

anyways any help would be great.

96z28_lt1

iTrader: (3)

its alright i have no idea what i am doing when i'm doing body work as well haha. Only one way to learn, i now need to re do my fender because it looks like *** and i ran out of material to fix it, oh well for now it should stay that way until i have money for an actual paint job.

bad_408_vert

iTrader: (6)

Trust me, with your fab skills, my idea will be probably an afternoon worth of work at most.

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

Im really just trying to get the car ready to get a real paintjob. Then Im probably gonna vinyl wrap it. I would rather build a turbo kit than paint it and being a mere 300-400 dollars for a complete wrap that should last a couple years its hard to pass up.

Im actually pretty certain im just going to grow a pair and bake the brand new depo lights. Take the lenses off and fit in a motorcycle turn signal on each outer end.

***edit
so on the enamel primer part. it has to go. I was told I could keep it in the lows and cover it with flex filler but if I can remove it.....yay

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

So alot of learning,

I was told I cant wetsand the enamel primer by one of those guys thats been there done that....well I shouldnt have listened. I didnt find much of anything on removing enamel primer from plastic so i figured id suffer slowly as I tried to dry sand this crap off.

Then finally I was like well i wanna see what it will do if I wetsand this garbage. unlike I was told not only was it easier I had most of it off minus the lows in 20 minutes



so now, im still looking to see if I can just put the flexible bumper filler over the low or if I have to sand into the lows... then start again.

anyways pic

Empatho

iTrader: (16)

Nice! someday I'm gonna pick up an extra bumper to delete the fog lights.

LPE 403

iTrader: (6)

It's definatley a good look....

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

Well alittle progress and alot of knowledge gained.

So what I have read

Enamel primer doesnt always agree with other brand enamel primer(ie rustoleum ontop of krylon)

Primer filler doesnt appear to like wetsanding(rustoleum brand)
Krylon enamel primer loves the wet sand and not dry.

3M flexible bumper filler in a tube works great, and sands pretty good within 30minutes after application.

Here are some pics I have alot of work to do so i mapped off some of it thus why tape and primer is not on the whole area.

I am using a rustoleum primer filler as I am going to rustoleum paint the bumper and eventually my whole car.

Ill make a seperate thread on the paint process. anyways here are some pictures this is super slow going but I am learning alot and learning how to actually do plastic body work(metal is so much easier)

first pic is mapped off area for bumper filler and applied

second picture is showing a light sand to the filler, left is almost full and smooth middle is needing more and right has none

third picture is primer going on

forth is a defeated picture showing how after 30 minutes its no wanting to get wetsanded. I misread the can it takes 2-4 hours for sanding, I thought 20-40 minutes(dont know what happened there lol) Anyways sanding after half an hour dry time has gummed up real bad my paper. so I am gonna give it some more time hopefully trying to wetsand that early wont ruin the coat(not sure how it would ruin but we will see)

anyways Im thinking of compiling a info thread of step by step and dos and donts as there isnt alot especially regarding the rustoleum paintjob in the way of prep and body work prior to the actual paint going on.

Cole Train

iTrader: (30)

wow that is A LOT of work

96z28_lt1

iTrader: (3)

man this is why i never got into body work, to time consuming and a lot to learn. Unfortunatley i feel i will be learning some with my new t/a i bought. It was in an accident ( that i had no idea about) and now i'm finding it was put together crapilly and painted then probably sold while it still looked good. I knew it needed paint but with all the extra im going to have to do it myself now.

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

where is the damage at? after doing this little project I honestly feel very confident to tackle my 78 trans am. I have done some metal repair in the past but I usually just got the sheetmetal pretty good and had buddys that would paint. After this though I feel like I could do anything(well slowly anyways lol)

Jeff Smith

iTrader: (44)

A lot work..update?

cancam99ss

iTrader: (8)

Update....
.

silent_soul

iTrader: (2)

It got put on hold as im getting divorced. I have the driver side about done. Im gonna try and finish it over this long weekend. Ill have a solid update monday.

I also bought a 4.8, ideally ill build it and get it running and this bumper will give me a great way to move some air through the intercooler.