Doogs

Cheers mate. I started with 400 and then did 800 and 1200. If they are badly scored I would even consider starting coarser than 400. I used 120 grit a while back to remove some bad markings from the wheels. As long as you work your way down the grades you will be fine.

Thanks fellas! I did all the exterior panels in one go, just not the door jams and boot jams etc. Using a solid colour meant that there were not any dramas with the colour differing panel to panel, just need to make sure the paint is well mixed like any other paint job. Wet rubbing the wheels is slow tedious work, my fingertips cop a polish at the same time to! lol. I've noticed my fingers have a greater hot/cold sensitivity for the day or two after as well.

Unless the crazy Puerto Ricans have built 4ks you may be right! You should see the power they are getting out of T series motors!

Just read your whole thread man, great project! Good on you for getting stuck in at such a young age and doing it all yourself. :y: You seem to have copped a fair bit of flak for the car being rough round the edges though hey!? I see function>form with this car mate, keep at it!

So very jealous! It is my long term dream to get one of these wagons one day, and build it into a sleeper tow car/cruiser.I'd want to start with something a little less original though for my plans! Keen to see this out an about, congrats on saving it. :)

Hey guys, Yesterday I cleared all the plastics but stupidly did not do a good enough job of cleaning the white out of the gun! The clear went on milky and I may need to start over :/ I also painted a few last things that I have missed and worked on the slow job of wet rubbing the wheels. I am now down to 1200 grit and will work up to 2000 before cranking out the Autosol. The wheels are looking ok but the damage from previous owners is still evident on the surface. I am not too fussed about this as I will be upgrading at some stage in the future. I also painted a few of my badges. Next I will start wet rubbing the car and cutting the paint.

Cheers mate, I'd love for you to come down for a visit and talk shit etc. Welcome any time! :) If you mean the wheels then that's the plan. I gave the stainless sill trims another polish recently too. I'm hoping that the gutter trims, still trims and polished bars will go nicely with the rest of the plastics.

Cheers Stu, hopefully not too long now! Thanks mate, painting is not too hard it just takes patience. I'd say it's the easiest part of the process! lol Seriously though, I found that once I'd done all the primer work it had helped me get a bit of a feel for it spraying before I painted the colour. There is no reason why you can't do it yourself. :)

Hey guys, I took the day off work today and clear coated the steel trims, cowl vents and grilles. I also masked and painted highlights on my plastics and painted the wheels. I tried a trick I read somewhere about using Vaseline on the polished surfaces of the wheel that you don't want paint on. This trick worked reasonably well so I will keep it in mind for future wheels. Just need to give the wheels another polish and finish off a few odds and ends, before polishing the car and then putting it back together. From there I will borrow a mates hoist and do a few mechanical bits as well as tidy up the underbody. Then I can go for RWC :)

Hey Guys, The other day I took all the steel trims to a mates place and sandblasted them, and then today I finished cleaning them up and prepping them before etch priming. I also cleaned up all the plastics and plastic primed them before putting silver on. This morning I got clear coat on the b-pillars and window frames and they came up a treat. Now I need to finish prepping the wheels and paint them, as well as clear coat all the trims I painted today. From there I can start reassembling and collecting more new parts. :) Silver highlights are yet to come for these inserts^

Race against the clock! If I get a few more days of fine weather then I'll be there :D

My vote is for Orange.

Hey guys, I got the window trims and b pillars done today, just need to clear them now in a week or so. I still need to paint all my trims too, and there will be bit of prep work in that (particularly the steel ones).

Looking good Angelo, I reckon they suit your car to a tee.

Thanks JimL, I will be doing the b pillars and window frames. Hopefully will do that and some of the other trims this Sunday.

Well guys the rest of the white is now done! I had a few dramas with the gun playing up early today but once I sorted that, things went pretty smoothly. I also managed pretty good gloss off the gun so I'm stoked about that. I have used a heap of paint though, 6L of white so far! I opted to paint the panels off the car so I can let the hinges and jams harden up as much as possible before re-assembly. Turns out I can't do a pearl either. The bloke at the paint shop informed me that with acrylic it is usually done in the basecoat and nobody makes it anymore! All the manufacturers are phasing out acrylic so blokes like me will need to switch to 2pak in future. Now I need to paint the gunmetal "black outs" and a few other things and then I can start reassembly. Excuse the french but I'm ʞ©$ɟing stoked! It has been a long time coming and a few obstacles to get to this stage. The car is by no means perfect but I have learnt a lot, and can proudly say that I did it myself. GOOD AS!!! :D

Love the new pipes Chris, nice job!

Cheers fellas, just need to paint the hinges and re-hang the doors etc and then I can put the coats on the rest of the car. I also need to choose the shade of gunmetal metallic to do my blackouts in. I'm looking at painting my window frames and b pillars a gunmetal colour and also doing my wheels and some of the plastics to suit. I'm so glad I chose the original white, it's far less bland than I remember and has a nice light creamy/yellow tint to it. Still thinking about doing the pearl over the top but I will most likely use a booth for that. Hopefully the silver will really "pop" next to the pearl.

Well guys, the time has come! Bloody stoked with today's progress, I have got colour on the door jams, boot jam, back of the doors, front valence, tops of guards, bonnet and bootlid. Now I need to paint the hinges and sort some zinc coating of bolts etc, and then re-hang all the panels and finish putting the colour on! :D

Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing mate! I'm also looking at upgrading brakes on the 20 and wanted the unlikely combo of 13'' wheels and vented rotors. This setup really helps me think of what options I have. I had previously wondered about using Magna rotors due to the size and low cost, this just confirms it is possible. Thanks again for sharing, Dougal Edit: Just to clarify, you are still using KE20 hubs aren't you?

A few answers Here If that fails, out comes the tape measure!

Hey guys, how did the day go? Times? I was busy slaving away on the 20..

Hey guys, I had a really productive weekend and am looking pretty close now. I rubbed back the roof, bootlid and a few other panels and hit the whole lot in highfill. I then removed the bonnet, doors and bootlid and sanded the back of all these and highfilled them along with the door jams. I also lipped all the gaurds with reasonable success and spot filled some scratch marks. I would like to give the car another look over for any little scratches etc and also re-do the panel around the radiator where rust has come through the primer. I hope that with one more day spent on it this weekend and then I will be ready for topcoat ! :D I will try and let the thinners rise out of the highfill as much as possible before putting colour on, but I also want to get it done before the weather gets crap again. It will be a fine balance.

Agree with 19914afc, previous paint looked better. :y:

Yeah cheers, I'm gonna take next Friday off and smash out the rest of the final prep over the weekend (weather depending). These wheels are ok for clearance but I spose that would be a good idea in the long run, otherwise I was considering cutting the inner lip instead later on. I was also worried about cracking filler etc.