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The "What Did You Work On Today" thread

3M views 36K replies 388 participants last post by  cerial 
#1 ·
4 hour work day for me at the shop. Used the time to do a valve body swap on a '01 Jetta 1.8t auto .... I successfully installed a transbrake on the car .... that however wasn't my intention.

Its in 2 gears at once in park, all other gears (R/N/D/2/1) are forward gears.... they all seam to be first gear.

I have it torn back down most of the way. Tuesday I'll actually get the VB back out and see whats up.... but part of me wants to take it out for a test drive the way it is just for the fun of it.
 
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#7,261 ·
PROTECT YOURSELF. That money ain't crap!

I didn't do anything the last few days, have still felt like crap and had to go to Hollywood to that symposium Sunday until today. I really wish I could stay home tomorrow. Anyway, had a great time with a bunch of great people in the autobody industry. Spent a little time with my old boss when I was a rep, it was darn interesting. And also spent some time with my nephew who is in acting school right there, he showed me some sights, it was really a great time other than feeling like crap a lot of it. This little truck was on my way back to the airport, it put be back into reality. :D

Brian

 
#7,262 ·
Things are looking up with my Austin's engine woes! A friend told me yesterday he had a 4 bolt main 350 SBC that he had been saving for his '55 wagon, but decided to go an LQ9 in it instead. I went over and bought it this morning for $100, and sold the smog heads off it for $25. I just dropped the 350 at the local engine shop, and they are going completely through it. New .030" bores, pistons, turn the crank 10/10, polish and balance it, clean up all the oil return passages, throw in a Crower 280 cam and degree it in, new Cloyes timing set, new oil pump, HD gasket set, ARP bolt set, and the cost is less than $1500 with a nice warranty. I'll just have to get lifters, and drop my heads back on the engine, along with all the external pieces. This just gives me more peace of mind than messing with the 327, and the crank on the 327 wasn't salvageable anyway. Maybe I can sell the block to someone who needs a '68-'69 Chevelle 327 to do a resto. I hate to scrap it if someone can use it.
 
#7,263 ·
My 59 Chevy truck instrument cluster I ordered from Ebay came today. It appears I can take the 12 volt gauges and work them in to my stock 53 cluster to convert to 12 volt and keep the stock look. We will see.



Earlier today I cut out the cross brace at the B pillar. Glad to get that rusty piece of junk out of there.

 
#7,264 ·
My 59 Chevy truck instrument cluster I ordered from Ebay came today. It appears I can take the 12 volt gauges and work them in to my stock 53 cluster to convert to 12 volt and keep the stock look. We will see.

Would those work on my 53 truck cluster? Do the lights fit too?
I ordered a load of Atlanta Blue, spi high build poly primer and a couple gallons of ospho today. I am going to be in over my head with the atlanta blue, it is loaded with pearls and some metal. Its also a single stage B/C. Call me nuts but for me a deep colour has to be single stage. It is so easy to keep maintained.
 
#7,265 ·
My 59 Chevy truck instrument cluster I ordered from Ebay came today. It appears I can take the 12 volt gauges and work them in to my stock 53 cluster to convert to 12 volt and keep the stock look. We will see.

Would those work on my 53 truck cluster? Do the lights fit too?
I ordered a load of Atlanta Blue, spi high build poly primer and a couple gallons of ospho today. I am going to be in over my head with the atlanta blue, it is loaded with pearls and some metal. Its also a single stage B/C. Call me nuts but for me a deep colour has to be single stage. It is so easy to keep maintained.
I really don't know about the truck Craig.

If you are referring to using a single stage urathane that has metalic and pearl in it I would highly recomend you rethink this. There are all kinds of reasons.

1 It will be much harder to spray without tiger stripes.

2 It will be next to impossible to repair or spot in.

3 It will fade quicker due to less UV protection provided by a clear coat.

4 It can not be color sanded and buffed because you will get into the metalic if you try.

5 Only a solid non metallic single stage could possibly be considered easier to maintain and that would even be debatable.

An added plus of bc/cc is the base can be sprayed relatively dry and does not need to have a shine. The gloss is provided by the clear which can be color sanded and buffed though it does not have to be.

Please take the advice of the experienced painters who are on here. You will be very thankful you did.

I hope I do not sound to cocky. My intentions are only to help.

John
 
#7,266 ·
oh my
oh my goodness

Here comes that learning curve, I knew was in over my head. It is already mixed. Cannot stop it now.

On the flip side, I am so colour blind I will never see the tiger stripes. I will try a door and see how it goes. I ordered an extra gallon. Worst comes to worse I will load it up and take all the pieces and paint to macoa.
 
#7,267 ·
oh my
oh my goodness

Here comes that learning curve, I knew was in over my head. It is already mixed. Cannot stop it now.

On the flip side, I am so colour blind I will never see the tiger stripes. I will try a door and see how it goes. I ordered an extra gallon. Worst comes to worse I will load it up and take all the pieces and paint to macoa.
I am not the resident paint specialist here for sure. It may be worth considering shooting the single stage and then going ahead and clear coating it. It certainly is OK to do it chemicaly. Maybe some of the pros on here will give us their professional opinions on how best for you to proceed.

John
 
#7,268 ·
pretty weird day. Prepped a PT cruiser bumper and got it in the booth and sprayed grease and wax remover/tar and bug remover and the primer just wiped right off. It was a good ol Keystone POS. I learned my lesson...don't put any kind of grease and wax remover on anything aftermarket.:rolleyes: I used to think "capa" certified meant something but I guess not. Looks like if it's anything other than the car manufacture I'll just use the waterborne degreaser and save the wax and grease remover for stuff with clearcoat on it or ecoat. One of those things where you feel bad but not really sorry cause I don't feel like I did anything wrong, still was a lesson I never learned. So I just used the grease and wax remover as a stripper and put the bumper under an infrared lamp to get out any solvents it may have absorbed. Then I went to lunch and my alternator took a crap as I watched all the electrical go haywire on the way to work, but got a deal for one thru my work for $150 and it didn't kill the battery. All better now. Oh, and we're getting paid by keystone to strip it and re-prime it. :D
 
#7,269 ·
Finished up all the brake line plumbing on the '69 Nova gasser I'm building for a friend. In a short time it looks like we'll have this car road worthy!
Also sold the damaged 327 that came from my Austin gasser. It's good to be rid of it, and anxiously waiting the rebuild on the 355 4 bolt main engine in a few weeks!
 
#7,270 ·
I am not the resident paint specialist here for sure. It may be worth considering shooting the single stage and then going ahead and clear coating it. It certainly is OK to do it chemicaly. Maybe some of the pros on here will give us their professional opinions on how best for you to proceed.

John
Now I am worried. My tummy hurts. You know, worst comes to worst I just redo a test / failed door back into primer and take it all to macoa. I am shocked I got as far as I did with the body work. Or I could always sell the paint for a loss and reorder a solid colour. Somehow it will work out.
 
#7,271 ·
I am not the resident paint specialist here for sure. It may be worth considering shooting the single stage and then going ahead and clear coating it. It certainly is OK to do it chemicaly. Maybe some of the pros on here will give us their professional opinions on how best for you to proceed.

John
not a pro painter but it certainly brings more pop to the color. I do believe the single stage should be cured and re sanded before cleared, but if I'm wrong I'm imagining a loooooooong flash before clearing it. We are going to do it with the Gran Sport we are gonna paint.
 
#7,272 ·
Here comes that learning curve, I knew was in over my head. It is already mixed. Cannot stop it now.
Don't panic just yet, nobody said it was impossible without having twenty years' under your belt. You just have to pay a little more attention to the details that the experienced guys do automatically
And really, painting is as such an art as it is a science -- Otherwise, we could all take a three-month class and be Gene Winfield.
First off, I'm going to assume you already know which end of a paint gun to hang onto, so I'll skip over the basics.

Metallics are heavy and tend to settle out, so you'll save yourself some headaches by dropping a couple marbles into the paint cup to keep things stirred up consistently.
Take your time and spray light coats for the same reason: Metallics are heavy and tend to sag if you shoot too heavy.
Good lighting will help you to see how things are laying out so you can adjust your technique accordingly
 
#7,273 ·
My 59 Chevy truck instrument cluster I ordered from Ebay came today. It appears I can take the 12 volt gauges and work them in to my stock 53 cluster to convert to 12 volt and keep the stock look. We will see.



Earlier today I cut out the cross brace at the B pillar. Glad to get that rusty piece of junk out of there.



Great minds think alike.:D:D Small change but big difference.
 

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#7,274 · (Edited)
John do you need front seats for your car,if you are going to use buckets I have these I will Donate to the cause either set you want,, the ones in the truck I have taken out Infinity Q 35 the 2 sets in the floor are Lexus and Q45
all are full 8 way power with heated seats and two sets have side air bags and memory ..:confused:

they will need to be recovered but I know that is not a problem for you.
 

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#7,275 ·
pretty weird day. Prepped a PT cruiser bumper and got it in the booth and sprayed grease and wax remover/tar and bug remover and the primer just wiped right off. It was a good ol Keystone POS. I learned my lesson...don't put any kind of grease and wax remover on anything aftermarket.:rolleyes: I used to think "capa" certified meant something but I guess not. Looks like if it's anything other than the car manufacture I'll just use the waterborne degreaser and save the wax and grease remover for stuff with clearcoat on it or ecoat. One of those things where you feel bad but not really sorry cause I don't feel like I did anything wrong, still was a lesson I never learned. So I just used the grease and wax remover as a stripper and put the bumper under an infrared lamp to get out any solvents it may have absorbed. Then I went to lunch and my alternator took a crap as I watched all the electrical go haywire on the way to work, but got a deal for one thru my work for $150 and it didn't kill the battery. All better now. Oh, and we're getting paid by keystone to strip it and re-prime it. :D

You want to use the waterborne on the plastic parts be it OEM or AM being it cuts down on the static electricity.

Yeah "CAPA" LOLOLOL, it's a sock of poop the insurance companies have bought. They are like all repro parts for vintage cars, "Similar, can be used if nothing else is available".

And if you guys are trial fitting these parts before painting them you will find you are going to be painting them for nothing. We return a LOT of aftermarket parts for poor fit.

Brian
 
#7,276 ·
You want to use the waterborne on the plastic parts be it OEM or AM being it cuts down on the static electricity.

Yeah "CAPA" LOLOLOL, it's a sock of poop the insurance companies have bought. They are like all repro parts for vintage cars, "Similar, can be used if nothing else is available".

And if you guys are trial fitting these parts before painting them you will find you are going to be painting them for nothing. We return a LOT of aftermarket parts for poor fit.

Brian
Insurance companies are surely in it for quality purposes.

yeah, I knew about the static electricity part. Just couldn't conceive that they'd put something on it so cheap that it would just wither away from bug and tar remover.
I'll save "the strong stuff" for oem clears that need cleaning before I sand them. No need on new parts.
 
#7,277 ·
Just remember Henry, because the insurance company has an aftermarket part on THIER estimate, it doesn't mean you have to use it! First off, many OE will match the price. You need to talk to them about this and often you need to fax a copy of the est to them showing the aftermarket with price on it, they will match it!

Also, if it doesn't fit PERFECT, call the insurance company and have them come out for re-inspect they WILL take photos and ok OEM every time!

Not only that but do you know there is a law in California that they have to pay for the trail fitting?

Brian
 
#7,278 ·
Just remember Henry, because the insurance company has an aftermarket part on THIER estimate, it doesn't mean you have to use it! First off, many OE will match the price. You need to talk to them about this and often you need to fax a copy of the est to them showing the aftermarket with price on it, they will match it!

Also, if it doesn't fit PERFECT, call the insurance company and have them come out for re-inspect they WILL take photos and ok OEM every time!

Not only that but do you know there is a law in California that they have to pay for the trail fitting?

Brian
I don't make any more suggestions to the front office. They do what they do and I do what I do.
 
#7,280 ·
John do you need front seats for your car,if you are going to use buckets I have these I will Donate to the cause either set you want,, the ones in the truck I have taken out Infinity Q 35 the 2 sets in the floor are Lexus and Q45
all are full 8 way power with heated seats and two sets have side air bags and memory ..:confused:

they will need to be recovered but I know that is not a problem for you.
Wow, What an offer. I had not gotten that far down the road mentally yet. My choice would probably be the set on the left with the lower seat backs. If it is not too inconvenient could you measure their width and maybe send me a PM?

I really appreciate you thinking of me.

John
 
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