phenryiv1's Rally Cross 87 325- Caged, B25 Swapped, Rear suspension refresh Last Page

[phenryiv1]

FINALLY...updates.

This weekend I got to work on painting the cage. I must be the WORST spray-bomb painter in the world. I can't paint for shit.

Before I started on the cage, I did apply some POR-15 to the rusted spots in the floor, around the base of the cage feet, and to some other problem areas. The POR-15 that I had was grey, a leftover pint that I bought when I was doing the floor in my Jeep. I had it and used it for initial spot-treatment.

I also ordered a full quarts of black POR-15 to use to roll the whole floor. After that is dry, I will be applying roll-on truck bedliner over the POR-15. For now, though, I used what I had and went ahead and painted the cage, which will not get full POR-15 treatment.

First off, I bought some Rustoleum Professional paint in gloss black. I was going to paint the cage yellow to match the car but I went with black out of convenience and because if I change the exterior some day, the cage can stay the same.

So right off the bat, I forgot to prep the cage by wiping it down before the test shot with the Rustoleum. It looks like you'd expect from painting a never-wiped cage. After some time I let it dry, wiped it down, and got in there with additional coats that look less bad, but my painting is bad...runny, drippy, uneven. Basically, I suck. But it is a race car so I am not terribly concerned.

I had to use all kings of stuff to keep the masking plastic off of the cage, but I think that it worked. Painting a cage after install it a real PITA, particularly if you are trying NOT to paint the glass.







More cage pics:











Floor w/ POR-15:



Trunk:



I also filled the rubber piece where the A/C lines go with silicone to prevent leakage. I get tired of water on the floor after every rain.

[95maxrider]

Looking good. We were chasing down leaks yesterday too. Looks like our C pillar vents leak, the trunk seal leaks, and the tail lights leak. Hooray.

[phenryiv1]

More chassis/interior paint progress yesterday. I was waiting on an A/C repairman (who had shown up 30 minutes early and did not wait until the actual appointment time) and got the first full coat of POR-15 laid down. I vacuumed the interior, zip-tied the wiring out of the way, and then scrubbed the interior with alcohol to prep it. I got up most of the sound deadening and a good percentage of the residue, then I removed the drain plugs, taped up the seat mount points and went to town with a roller and a $33 quart of POR-15.

Floor all cleaned up:





First coat rolled on:





After that, I hit a few spots where there was rust on the floor. I have used fiberglass mesh and POR-15 successfully in the past to seal up small holes and to reinforce weak spots in the floor, much like what you would do with fiberglass and resin. The POR-15 permeates the mesh and bonds it to the floor much better than resin (IMO). I go tthe idea from Jeep builds, where 1980-90's Jeeps had to deal with poor metal quality and harsh conditions.

I laid the fiberglass in place over the still-tacky POR-15 and pressed it down with a foam brush that was soaked in POR-15.



After it set up a bit I rolled another coat over it and added a second layer of mesh in the area around the driver's heel resting point:



Final result after about 1.5 coats:



Next up will be another touch-up coat, followed by laying down a full layer of truck bed coating to add durability.

[95maxrider]

Man, I really need to get on this with my car, but first I need to get all the water leaks fixed. There are all sorts of little holes in the DS floorboard :(

[phenryiv1]

The mesh and POR-15 together really seal up the holes and reinforce the weak areas in the floor.

[dirty30]

Make sure you paint that POR, it does not like direct prolonged contact with sunlight.

[irish44j]

^^this is true

[phenryiv1]

Make sure you paint that POR, it does not like direct prolonged contact with sunlight.

Do you mean the bedliner? POR-15 is pretty colorfast. Or at least the grey that I used on my Comanche was. Bedliner has a reputation for fading without the use of a UV coating.

At any rate, it is the interior of the car, so I am not terribly concerned with the color so lond as the protective properties are retained.

[dirty30]

Do you mean the bedliner? POR-15 is pretty colorfast. Or at least the grey that I used on my Comanche was. Bedliner has a reputation for fading without the use of a UV coating.

At any rate, it is the interior of the car, so I am not terribly concerned with the color so lond as the protective properties are retained.

POR 15 breaks down with prolonged exposure to sunlight, some sort of UV light sensitivity.

[phenryiv1]

I gotcha. My Jeep had it on the underside and under the carpet so it never mattered.

[irish44j]

POR 15 breaks down with prolonged exposure to sunlight, some sort of UV light sensitivity.

Ryan is correct....I had POR-15 on my old XJ's rack and it started chipping/peeling right off in the places where I forgot to put topcoat, after about a year.

It actually says right on the can that it's not to be used where it can get direct exposure to sunlight, unless it has a UV topcoat.

But inside the car probably woudln't get much UV, and with the bedliner on it, definitely not.

[irish44j]

btw, after a year the bedliner interior on mine hasn't faded that I noticed. And since you're using the same stuff, you should be fine.

btw, bring the leftover in the gallon can to the next event. I need it for a few other projects if there's anything left over.

[phenryiv1]

btw, after a year the bedliner interior on mine hasn't faded that I noticed. And since you're using the same stuff, you should be fine.

btw, bring the leftover in the gallon can to the next event. I need it for a few other projects if there's anything left over.

Will do. For the POR-15 base coat, you etch it, apply adhesion promotor, or scuff it up before you used the bedliner?

[irish44j]

pat, it's me. I sure as hell didn't etch it or use adhesion promotor, lol. I think I maybe cleaned the floor with some 409 or something, but that's about it :)

[phenryiv1]

Now we are getting somewhere!

I got some time this weekend and really made some progress toward getting the car back on the course- which is a good thing since the next race is this coming Sunday.

First off we painted the floor with another coat of POR-15 and finished painting the cage by brushing black Rustoleum on the places that we could not get with the spray bomb. As we let that dry we got to work on the dash.

I needed to get the dash back in the car so that we had some semblance of a car while on the track. Not all of the gauges are fully functional, but at least we wanted to have the wires tucked away and to have all of the wiring and components and boxes out of the way so that they did not hit us in the feet while driving.

With the front points of the cage coming down by the "A" pillars, some dash trimming was in the works. We initially tried to save the outer defrost vents, but it became obvious that it was never going to work. I really did not care as much about the passenger side but I wanted to keep the driver's side mounting point, so we had to carve out the location for the bar to pass through the dash. I notched it out, hoping to keep the headlight controls intact and in their normal location, at least until I get a dedicated lighting control panel.



The first pass has resulted in keeping some small part of the passenger side in place but when we realized that there was no room for the vents, we cut it off just to the right of the HVAC panel and the center vents. We also sealed off the unnecessary vents so that when we do use the blower the air is directed to the remaining vents and not just dumped behind the dash.



We preserved the defrost vents for the windshield but not for the side windows. The passenger side location will be held in place with a self-tapping sheet metal screw.

Dash back in (note the zip ties holding the center/passenger side in place for the time being):









Next up was the truck bedliner for a topcoat on the floor. Irish44J gave me the leftovers from a gallon of Rustoleum bedliner to use to cover the POR-15 layer. This stuff rolled on pretty well and the coverage was good. The floor went form glossy and slick to matte and textured, making me feel a little better about grip on a wet floor when driving in crappy conditions. Even better, it makes the car more appropriate of a wash-and-wipe-out cleanup after muddy events.





We also did the trunk (note the areas where we did not hit the screws that suspend the muffler):







I also repaired a hole in the trunk where the sunroof drain had come disconnected from the vent behind the bumper trim. This was a POR-15 and fiberglass mesh repair that seems to have adequately sealed up the hole.



Lastly, I got some re-assembly done. If you look back at my pictures, you see a lot of yellow zipties. I tend to use them as a flag that I need to go back and fix something or make the solution/repair more permanent. The yellow stands out enough to remind me that I have more to do.

As of yesterday, I finally got to use some black zipties (which is my way of saying that I hope that people don't notice the shoddy workmanship, as permanent as it may be!).

I was able to get the stock seatbelt on the driver's side back in place. This will allow for an easier transition between drivers in events where we don't have time to do seatbelt adjustments. I am running short on time and getting the harness(es) in place properly is probably a project for after the next event.

The Wedge Engineering seat base has provisions for the stock belts, so I went ahead and used them. Until I get a better seat base for the other side I will be using a stock sport seat, though I have another OMP seat for that side as well.

I also got in some SFI padding and noodle padding from OG Racing. I used the SFI on the critical areas and used the noodle padding on the door bar, just as knee protection when going over bumps. Nothing critical there.

So the pictures:





That is all for now. I still need to get the passenger seat mounted, the seatbelt installed (and I lost one of the mounting bolts), I need to get the electric fan installed, and I need to figure out why my PS line is leaking after tightening the hell out of the bolts. Mudflaps and other underbody mud/dirt protection are also a good idea before Sunday.

I also need to do some work on my truck so that I feel safe towing with it. Maybe I'll get that documented here as well.