Wyoming GTM Underway

[jamesfr58]

Thanks to everyone for your comments, still learning this paint thing but hopefully I will get it figured out.

Ron,

I was using a Summit Racing high build primer:

This high-quality primer is a flexible acrylic coating for priming metal, aluminum, urethane, and plastic. It provides excellent filling and hiding properties, and is quick drying, plus, it offers superior adhesion. The primer's high solids formulation means faster build and easier sanding. If you want a better finish for your painting project--first, use Summit Racing® high build primer.

And Summit Racing Paint, Single Stage, UV Stable, Acrylic Urethane, Gloss, Black:

Summit Racing® single stage paints are top-of-the-line automotive and fleet color systems. These single-stage urethane topcoats are available in a variety of color packages. Urethane paints are catalyzed systems, offering a premium finish with exceptional durability that far surpasses enamel-based systems. Manufactured with top-quality raw materials and advanced technology, these paints will never yellow with age. They are designed to be used in a single-stage application or in combination with a urethane clear coat (except hot rod black) for additional durability and gloss. Summit Racing® single stage paints are also highly resistant to harmful UV exposure, dangerous chemicals, everyday weathering, and aggravating stone chips.

It might have bee contamination from the denatured alcohol, the primer was dry as I sanded it smooth then cleaned with alcohol but may have had more on micro fiber cloth on the drivers side. I cleaned the passengers side first the drivers side but started painting the drivers side first, then moved to the passengers side. The passengers side had more time to for alcohol to dry before putting the color on.

Never painted before so this is a first time for me and a learning curve to get it right. The good news it was only one head light bucket I need to fix instead of a much larger piece. Thanks for the input as I need all the advice I can get on this subject of painting.

[jamesfr58]

Beeman

Thanks for the information on the DRL wiring using the Infinity Box system. This will help as I was not sure and had not really investigated the issue yet but it was coming up soon...

Got to fix the paint first, but still moving toward getting it finished by end of summer if I don't get sidelined with work which might happen....

[beeman]

James,
Not sure about using alcohol for painting prep, I always use a wax/grease remover followed by a tack cloth. But I'm definitely an amateur. Your local Autozone should have something like this. Something like this, lots of brands:

[Presto51]

James,

I would agree with Beeman on the grease and wax remover and not use alcohol. It may take extra time to dry but better suited for this application.

Now guessing about the bad reaction that you experienced.

If you used this, Summit Racing® 2K High-Build Primer SUM-UP220G with activator and reducer, first guess would be that the re-coat window might have closed on you if you didn't let it harden all the way. Once the the chemical reaction begins, you should let it finish curing, (unless the instructions say you can do a wet on wet coat). So when you introduce the paint which carries it own activator, you usually get a fight between the two, and the reaction is crinkle finish.

If you want PM me your phone number and we can discuss in greater detail.

Thanks

Ron

[jamesfr58]

Beeman

Thanks for the tip on the pre paint wax and grease remover. That I did not know so I will get some to use next time.

[jamesfr58]

Ron,

I will get some pre paint cleaner and stop using the denatured alcohol, looks like that is much better option. But since you mentioned it I believe you are right on missing the recoat window. I was painting and had to go take care of something up at the house, went back down to the shop and I know it was over 1 hour before I went back down and decided to finish painting. After reading your post above I did some more reading on the paint and recoat time. It stated that I needed to have all the coats on in 1 hour or less with approximately 10 minutes or so between coats. After the recoat window closes it said I would need to wait until it cures (they state 7 days) to recoat if needed. So I assume I messed it up and as you mentioned missed the recoat window because it did just as you said above.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and address the issue I was having it is greatly appreciated. Having never painted before this is all new and I am learning and I will PM you with my contact information as I can use as many good tips as I can get. Really appreciate it.....

I did sand all the paint off today and recoated it this evening and it looks as if it will come out fine this time, but was a lot of hand sanding those multiple shapes in the headlight bucket, lots off little pieces of sand paper and no finger tips left....

Here are a couple of pictures all the work of sanding it back down to bare fiberglass then prime and repaint, looks better now...

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[HardRocker]

Ron,

I will get some pre paint cleaner and stop using the denatured alcohol

Prep-Sol used to be the thing to use but then we found mineral spirits worked just as well for a lot less $$.

[jamesfr58]

Finally got some of this painting figured out, finished the headlight buckets today they are painted and clear coated. After trying and redoing these small areas I think I might change my mind and have someone else do the finish painting of the GTM. It took me for ever to get these done after trying once and having to sand them back down and start over again. I want to give a shout out to Ron for his advice and tips on painting, he was I believe spot on about missing the painting window. This time I kept close track of the time from start to finish and the amount of time between each coat and they finally cam out like I wanted them. Ready to get the fender vents from Shane ready and install both the hood and fender vents. Once that done the hood section will be ready to go onto the car and will finish after I see what modification I have or want to make. Here are the headlights buckets completed:

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[jamesfr58]

Received the new fender vents from Shane (VRaptor Speedworks) and starting to install them in the hood. Thought I would post the progress as it goes along as they are new and let all see what they look like and how they (or at least I am) installing them.

As I am sure everyone already knows there is nothing the same from the passengers side to the drivers side when it comes to measuring pieces to fit on one side or the other. After laying them out with a templet and taking multiple measurements I finally had both places in approximately the same spot on the top of each front fender. There were some real difference in some of the measurements both others matched so they looked good. I have them outlined in blue tape that I use to ensure a strait cut, and have cut both fenders, they are ready to final fit the fender vents.

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Here is what it looks like with cutouts complete

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Waiting on some more CF vinyl to arrive, will apply to vent pieces flat them bend louvers to right angle before installation.

[jamesfr58]

Finally got back down to the shop this afternoon and managed to get my fender vents ready to install. Had the grand kids all weekend so entertained them this weekend. Anyway, this is the new fender vent made by Shane at VRaptor Speedworks as it looks when shipped flat.

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Here is one of the vents fully assembled and ready for final fit.

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This Is the vents sitting on top of the fender, as you can see when the braces are added to shape the vent it conforms to the shape of the fender well. Below is picture of passengers and drivers side fender vents to show how they fit.

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And of course, I took picture of the hood vents and the fender vents siting on top of the hood to show what they look like. Have some work to do when I flip the hood over again then can install and will show more when they are installed in the hood.

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Another great product from Shane who delivered for the idea to product in around 24 hours. They will match my main hood vents and complement each other when installed.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I assume you've test-fit them from below the hood where they will be installed? Do the louvers end up above the surface of the hood? Does the perimeter of the louvers clear all of the underhood bracing on your hood?

[jamesfr58]

Shane,

I have fit them up to the underside of the hood and they clear all bracing and fit the templet quite well. When they are in place the louvers are level with the top of the fender and don't really stick up above the fender, they look as if they will mount and the louvers will be level or a very small amount above the top of the fender. I believe they will work and fit as designed to be even with the surface of the fender for a clean look when installed and functional do the same thing if not better than the ones supplied by FFR. Thanks for the quick turnaround, they look great. I will post some new pictures when all vents are mounted in place.

I did cover these vents flat, before they were bent into position and cut the vinyl out between the louvers. Covered in one piece was a lot faster than the way I did the hood vents one at a time.

[jamesfr58]

Dang weather turned again and one would think winter is coming was 40 this morning but did get down to shop and fitted all the vents, the hood vents and the new fender vents from Shane at VRaptor Speedworks. The are not attached permanently yet as I need to make sure all edges are rounded and match from side to side, but they are in place against the bottom of the hood. Here are a few picture of the vents in place.

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[HardRocker]

Prep-Sol used to be the thing to use but then we found mineral spirits worked just as well for a lot less $$.

btw reading the data sheets both Prep-Sol and Mineral Spirits are 99% Naptha.

[jamesfr58]

Been practicing my social distancing form the wife today…. LOL, was in the shop prepping and paint the underside of the hood with Ratptor bedliner. I am using the tint able version and orange pigment; it will help protect the fiberglass and should provide some sound deadening as well. My plan is to paint the car a Tangerine Kandy or Tangerine Pearl orange is not to far off or I can even paint the final car color over the bedliner. So here it is mask off and prepped for the bedliner, and painted orange. About done with hood section until I put it back on the car, will finish the body section and remount both then on to the doors.

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[jamesfr58]

Thought I would post some pictures of the fender vents being covered with CF 3D vinyl while still flat. I cover the whole piece then trim away the bits and pieces to the shape of the blades on the front and back side. Also cover the inside of the braces that one will see walking up to the car and prep the backside of the braces so they can be held in place with 8115 fillet and will then paint the back side or the brace black. The exposed aluminum edge on the blade get hand painted gloss black and they look almost like the real thing. The 3D vinyl flex so you can cover the pieces flat then bend the blade into the proper shape unlike CF skinning that will not given give after it is applied.

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I am thinking I might try to CF skin the aluminum glass replacement on the hatch as it is now fixed and it will not need to move again.
On another note this is one of my shop helper sometimes, the one in the picture is a 5 yr old Golden Retriever and I also have a 43 week old Brittany, still 100% puppy and never sits still for very long. Old Annie in the picture she help by taking the nap you want to take, she get up every now and again and move a few feet then time to plop down again !!

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[beeman]

Vents look great!
We have boxers, would be counterproductive to bring them into the shop!

[HardRocker]

Annie is a beauty and classic textbook golden! We are golden rescue people, have had 3 so far. The car is looking good too.

[jamesfr58]

Good thing to do HardRocker, they (all breeds) need a little help now and again. We have a little cross breed that was a rescue, a Chiweenies that as taken from California during fires 8 years ago. He has been hanging out here with my wife ever since....

Here is another piece made by Shane (VRaptor Speedworks), the replacement front grill for my GenII. Got it prepped and ready for covering and paint, will finish building and get it ready to install.

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[jamesfr58]

Got a few more pieces done today, the grill for the diffuser and got the blades on the front grill cover done but still need to do some hand painting. Making progress and might even get it done by years end if I can keep working at it with out interruptions.

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[Shoeless]

That really looks awesome James!!!

[jamesfr58]

Thought I give an update on the fender vents, got them finished painted and today worked on forming the rock screens and getting them to fit. Below pictures show the vents with the rock screens formed and sitting on the fender vents. Was going to paint them black but as luck would have it, I ran out of black paint so I get some tomorrow finish painting them and permanently attach them to the fender vents.

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This is a shot of the underside of the hood with all vents setting in the proper location.

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Also got the edge painting finished on the front grill that was supplied by Shane at VRaptor. It is covered with the same 3D vinyl as the hood and fender vents, so everything matches.

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[beeman]

You are really moving along, keep it up! Vents look great. How is the rock mesh attached?

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I figured on bonding the mesh to the braces on each side of the louvers. Plenty of surface area there to bond to and won't be seen from above.

[crash]

Since we are talking about the mesh, just an FYI... we only use stainless steel mesh now as the other options(this perforated aluminum and the galvanized mesh from the Home Depot typically used for attic vents) do not hold up well if you run sticky tires that throw up a lot of rocks. We get a couple of years worth of use out of the stainless steel mesh, but only a few races out of other options. I buy the mesh we use from McMaster-Carr. Probably not an issue on a street car, but if you plan on doing quite a few track days you may want to go ahead and upgrade from the beginning.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Excellent point, Crash.

[jamesfr58]

Well, finally got back down to the shop today, have been tied up with work all week but got done Friday night so got a chance to pick up where I left off….

Got the rock screens painted and installed on the fender vents with 3M 8115 and ready to install. Also finished the front grill and have it sitting basically in place. It fits well with the top and bottom tabs holding it in place. I will not install this until the hood and the grill area are painted. It is upside down in the pictures but give you and idea of how it installs in the car.

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Here is a look at the hood with the hood vents being installed, the front grill in place the fender vents with rock guards setting in the proper location. I do not have enough cleco’s to install them now so have to wait until tomorrow to install fender vents. I will post a picture on the hood upright once the fender vents are installed.

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Mike you make a good point, I don't plan to run mine on track but if the material they are made of becomes an issue I can remove and switch to SS screen or mesh.

[dlud]

Will you install the hood and fender vents before paint?

[jamesfr58]

Dave yes I will install the vents prior to paint, I can and have made sure I can seal them off for painting the color, the will remove covering and clear coat everything including the vents. This will ensure a seal at the edges of the louvers and seal the CF 3D vinyl.

[jamesfr58]

Good day in the shop today got most of the items done on the hood until it is installed on the car. Everything is in place with exception of the headlights and turn signals, the front grill is just setting in place and will be installed after the hood is painted. Know there will be some work where the hood meets the body but will get to that when both body sections are back on the car. Here is a view of the hood from the front and from the drivers view along with the front grill, as it will look when installed.

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Close up of the driver's side looking down the hood, gives a good view of the hood vents and the fender vents.

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This one is a shot across the hood showing the vents and then a shot level with the surface of the hood of the fender vent. Close up of the fender vent from the drivers view and an elevated view showing the rock screen looking through the louvers.

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[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Things are coming together very nicely there!! Nice work!!

[dlud]

Very nice!

[jamesfr58]

Well decided to go ahead and build the wire harness for the front lights since it was easy to reach on the stand. Here is what I came up with...

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I think I mentioned earlier that I was changing the turn signals to 2" round amber LED lights as the ones they shipped in the kit were to big for the hole and I seemed like a better idea to close off the original holes and go down to 2" LED's. They are just little 2" round light that use rubber grommet to mount. I had to close the back hole off, added a piece of aluminum recut the hole at 2" then come up with a wat to mount them. Used a piece of aluminum strap and stuck them to the light with 8115 then can mount with screw from back side. Still have some orange to paint to cover up the aluminum around the light but other than that they are installed.

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[dlud]

Looks great. What are you using to attach the wire loom to the underside of the hood?

[jamesfr58]

I am using a loom clamp like the one shown below but I remove the adhesive part that is supposed to stick the clamp down. I then drill a few 1/8” holes around the base and rough it up with 40 grit sandpaper, then stick it to the body using the 3M 8115 panel bond. It works great but you to have to remove the foam sticky pad and rough the plastic up at a minimum but the holes insure the panel bond come through to the top the I kind of smooth that out and it is sealed top and bottom. Hope this help or give everyone another way of attaching wire loom to the body.

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[jamesfr58]

Well just thought I was done with the hood wire harness, forgot about the fog lights and in fact had never even stated to fit them so when back today and got the fog lights assembled, installed and added them to the wire harness. So, once I figured out, I just left them out I went to find the fog lights and mount brackets that came from FFR and after about an hour of looking I decided I must have at them. Then I had a premonition, I got a set of fog light brackets form Shane at VRaptor Speedworks, and after looking for them for a short time I did find the brackets but still no lights. But I did find a set of fog light with angle eyes that I had purchased some time ago and got them out to make these fit. I had to modify the mount brackets as the fog lights are smaller and mounted different. After some head scratching, I came up with a plan so here they are mounted in the hood.

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Wire harness modified and installed, only had two black loom clips so hold temporary with white ones until I can get some more black loom clips.

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Had to check out the wiring so here it the angle eyes on, think I will wire these as driving lights. Then here are the fog lights on, with angel eyes off.

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Then checked out the turn signals, this is a view of the amber turn signal LED that I made to flush mount, then the passenger’s side turn signal, then the driver’s side turn signal.

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So now finished with the pre-install items before putting it back on frame and finish fitting. Have some work to do on the body before I put it back on so guess I will work on that tomorrow.

[beeman]

Nice and clean. I like the angel eyes.

[jamesfr58]

In the shop this afternoon, set the hood assembly aside to finish the work on the main body I need to get done prior to putting it back on the frame. I had a crack in the door seal on the passengers side so started chasing out the crack, it was located where they put a screw to ship from the factory. Come to find out the body or at least the lip that sits on the frame is about half the thickness in the area where the gelcoat is removed. The cracked and broken area was larger than I though once the gelcoat was removed so will need to make repair here.

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Crash, thanks again for the advice on how you hook up the two small outlets on the radiator verses how I had it looped back into itself. Broke into the cooling system yesterday afternoon and completed my bypass for to keep coolant on both sides of the thermostat and as recommended installed a valve to bleed air. Refilled system and the valve works good, allowed the air to bleed out until coolant came out the top. This is what my cooling system looks like now and again thanks Mike.

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[beeman]

That is quite the bleeder valve! It may be difficult to control the outflow, you may get a hot coolant geyser. If it doesn't work well, try a screw type valve, will only let a trickle of air/water out, this one might be a good replacement:

https://www.yourcustomcar.com/coolan...der-valve.html

[jamesfr58]

Beeman, you are quite right and I had the ball valve already so used it to refill the system and plan on changing it out for a mini 3/8" needle valve. It will reduce the size and allow for better flow control, have it ordered just had not arrived yet so the ball valve worked to get the system back up. I will just clamp off the line to the valve and change it when it gets here. I can tell you for sure that using a ball valve in not really a good idea. I bled the air and as soon as you begin to crack it open the coolant is a coming out and all over the place if not really careful including on you while operating the valve.

Thanks for the link it looks like it would also really work well and less pieces to get a hose that exits the bottom of the car from the valve to keep the overflow when you bleed out of the nose. If i had not already ordered my stainless mini needle valve I would order the one you just sent the link to. Again thanks