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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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#17,262 · (Edited)
Just barely got my body filler on the frame within my 7 day window. I primed it on Thursday.

It is time to knock this thing down with some 80 grit and 180 and get it primed again. It appears to me it is going to work out very nicely.

John



BTW, I had an almost full gallon of Rage Gold but had heard so many people bragging on the Rage Ultra, I ordered a gallon, 8/10’s anyway.

You can see in the above picture the differance in the Gold and Ultra. The interesting thing people were saying is that the Ultra does not skim and sands easier than the gold. After doing a side by side comparison on this chassis, I can attest to the fact that the Ultra works much easier in all respects than the Gold. It spreads, sands, and does not develop the skim on the suface like the Goold. It is an excellent product.

49 dollars from Amazon for the Ultra. You professionals can probably beat that but I don't belive it is much higher than the Gold.

John
 
#17,264 ·
I was under the impression that Ultra was developed to meet a warranty requirement of some OEM. Pain't store keeps sending us plain Rage and we keep sending it back.

This week I've been on the bodyshop equivalent of latrine duty, cleaning up messes. Put a couple hours on this firewall this afternoon, working left to right, and thats as close as I'm willing to get with a camera. Never seen such rush slop. Kills me.





 
#17,267 ·
John, are you sure polyester primer wouldn't be a better way to do that?

Brian
No, I'm not sure at all.:D

I did consider it but decided to go this route. My goal here is just to make this thing look like a good, origional, solid chassis. 3/4 of this thing is very good but parts of it have very deep pitting. To fill those area would take a major application of primer. Also, the X-member is a fabricated assembly done by a new hire who had never used a stick welder :mwink: and I am not going to get into reworking those welds by either grinding or re-welding them. Using filler lets me work the areas that need it.

One other thing the pictures will not show is SPI Epoxy does have some build properties and it will cover the areas that just have light pitting. I will try to take a picture of a small area where I sanded the SPI Epoxy and see if I can show what it will do.

John
 
#17,268 ·
Oh yeah. just doing like on the firewall. Its Dennis the Menace treehouse style, I just gotta make it look like Bob Vila (or Pugsy:D) did it.
If you gotta make it Pugsy worthy, you better get out the high build primer, Ultra and blocks...;)

I welded in the, maybe, last patch on the Chevelle floor. I thought I was done with that once a couple weeks ago and have since found 2 more rust holes after the sand blasting. I also built up a few thin spots inside while I had the mig fired up. Ground everything down nice, spun it on the side and cleaned up the patch and welds underneath. I still need to do more hand sanding and then wipe with W&G remover. Wish I could've sealed it today. It was PERFECT weather...75°, low humidity and only a whisper of wind. This is a driveway shoot, so conditions have to be right.
 
#17,269 ·
If you look closely at this picture, you will see several things. In the upper left hand area there are pits that need to be filled. On the rh is an area I have filled. The lower area is in amazing factory origional condition.

Also look at the weld that the new hiree did on his first day on the job learning to use a stick welder. There is no amount of polyester primer or mud that is going to fix that. This center X-member is conpletely hand fabricated and I am not willing to redo 25-30 feet of welds that look like that.




Here is a picture of 3 coats of the SPI epoxy which I sanded with 120. If you look at the surrounding area, you can get a feel for the moderate build that the SPI has. It filled these medium to light pits surprizingly well.

John




I know I have said this before but honestly, I am not building a show car. I have no desire to compete for trophies. What I do want is for the guy who buys this car to see a car the doesn't look like it was drug out of the woods and built in a week for some reality TV show.

John
 
#17,270 ·
I've just found that if it's hard to spread filler on, like a firewall or tail gate for instance, polyester primer is the bomb!

It FILLS, you can literally tape a quarter onto a fender and bury it with poly primer.

Brian
 
#17,271 ·
I've just found that if it's hard to spread filler on, like a firewall or tail gate for instance, polyester primer is the bomb!

It FILLS, you can literally tape a quarter onto a fender and bury it with poly primer.

Brian
Thanks.
Sounds like what I'll need when the time comes.
 
#17,272 ·
I've just found that if it's hard to spread filler on, like a firewall or tail gate for instance, polyester primer is the bomb!

It FILLS, you can literally tape a quarter onto a fender and bury it with poly primer.

Brian
I agree. I believe you could. It is like spraying body filler for sure.

I just thought that since this was all flat and I could get a 5 inch da to most of it the filler would be easier to control with less overspray to deal with.

You, of course, do realize the filler was cheaper. :D:D:D

John "Mr Frugal" Long
 
#17,273 ·
I agree. I believe you could. It is like spraying body filler for sure.

I just thought that since this was all flat and I could get a 5 inch da to most of it the filler would be easier to control with less overspray to deal with.

You, of course, do realize the filler was cheaper. :D:D:D

John "Mr Frugal" Long
I KNEW the truth would eventually come out... ...
 
#17,276 ·
I had five minutes with a grinder under it at the end of the day of welding, thats it. So it will be more like the firewall when done. Goin for smooth where it counts. I gotta remember that floor was put together and tacked in the car with it on the frame, and the firewall and entire floor are fabbed. I just tried to keep going with what he had in mind but did take a liberty or two here and there.
 
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