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50 SHADES OF BROWN

21K views 118 replies 35 participants last post by  GreaseMonkey2000 
#1 · (Edited)
Figured it was time to start documenting the progress of my rust bucket.
I detail cars part time, and I'm in college, so excuse the slow progress :roll:

Things started with my second car, a 1997 civic sedan. Got it when I was a Junior in high school.


After a couple years, I had most of done it all done like I wanted it (boltons, cam, sticky tires, aero stuff, etc.) I began to feel the need for a bigger project.


Even before I had the civic, I had been wanting something sporty and rwd. I had wanted an e30 since I was little, but they're hard to find in decent shape for cheap, same goes for 240s. I even considered an e36, but decided I couldn't deal with a BMW. After driving a '90 mariner blue yata my brother had for a bit, I decided a needed one.


I began looking for a miata while I was still working on the civic. Seemed like everyone around me wanted crazy money, or the car was beat, or both. Then I remembered seeing some daisies poking out from underneath a car cover at my dad's condo in Rockport. The car had been sitting for as long as I could remember, so I figured it would be worth contacting the owner and checking it out.

BOOM




Couldn't see much of it from inside the car port, but it looked fairly solid, and was a black 1.8 just like I wanted. We contacted the owner and he said he may let it go for around 1600 or so. I was pumped. We made a trip back down the next weekend and I got the key from the owner so i could pull it out into the light and check it out.

Looked good! Ran even better.


Then I noticed :(




The car had come from Wisconsin, and then sat on a pile of wet leaves near the coast in Texas for a few years, so it was pretty rough. The owner wouldn't budge on the price, so I gave up on buying it.

A few months later I came across a beautiful 1990 white NA with a hardtop in Dallas for $2000. My dad and I started heading that way the next day, about 3 hours into the 4 hour drive to Dallas, the owner called and said he had sold the car.

A few months after that, I head about a white NA the the owner wanted to trade for some work on his car, but it had been hit, interior was trashed, and needed a motor. Things were not going my way :(


Oh, and as promised...
 
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#2 ·
BUT WAIT

Almost a year later, when I had all but forgotten about that rusty black NA, I got a call from the owner. He was moving, and needed to get rid of the car.

I once again made the trip back to rockport to go over the car and see what I could be getting myself into. Looked everything over and made list of what it needed to at least be safe/presentable and discussed it with the owner. After some haggling, I got it for 800 bucks :D

AND IT BEGINS


Made a temporary rear window to keep the rain out on the trip home. Made a sweet duct tape roll bar while I was it it.


The brakes were kinda sketchy, the rear tires were dry rotted, and we didn't know what other problems it had, so I put some of my spare steelies on the back, rented a tow dolly, and we started the 3 hour trip home.
 
#3 · (Edited)
First night back at my dad's shop/my work. Started with an oil change and interior cleaning.


Hard to tell from the picture, but it was pretty gross.


Good enough for now.


My friends found a "crackhead starter kit" in the the glove box after we got the broken handle fixed.


After a few minutes of the obligatory drifting that comes with buying your first rwd car, that rusty exhaust fell off and left the car open header. Finally replaced the rusty, broken bolts, but it was awful for a couple weeks lol.
 
#4 ·
Sorry I had a "premature post" :oops: $800 is pretty cheap and not a bad price but you have your work cut out for you. I really like reggaeton and Don Omar is one of the greats! Welcome and look forward to your progress! :icon_cheers:
 
#5 ·
Week 2
Got a little bored and decided to wash/clay/polish the car just to see what would happen. Came out a little less terrible than it was before.


I'm all about having nice paint, and most panels have issues that are beyond the repair of a buffer, sandpaper, or paintless dent repair, so its gonna get repainted. I began to tackle some of the bigger body work issues.

Started off by patching up the cracked finish panel.


I started cutting out the rusted parts of the rockers, and this is what I found :/



Cut out the worst of it, hit it with a media blaster, and ended up with this. (forgot to get a pic of the other side)
Gonna go over it with some kind of paint to contain what little rust is left, and have the patch panels fabricated/welded by a professional.


Pulled the rusty/dented fender, and ended up with this. Next to my brother's car.


Changing the diff juice


Chillin with a ratty celica


Test fitted the Koseis from the civic, much better.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Week 4 (I think):
Went up to Austin and picked up a straighter fender and bumper, cluster hood, climate control, headlight covers, and some belt line trim pieces to replace the "custom" ones the previous owner made from WOOD.


Racecar party. Helping my friend cut up his e36 m3 for some flares.


Picked up some apr mirrors for 20 bucks. Needed something to replace the stock ones that snapped off when I tried to adjust them.


Took a break from the project to work on finals for school, and made a trip to Georgia for SOWO as soon as school was out. Saw this beast while I was out there.


Week 6 (or something):

Made some adapter plates for the mirrors from some abs plastic and mounted them up.


The angle of the posts for the mirrors wont let them sit level with the ground, so I still have to figure that out.

Some paint stuff showed up from smartshoppersinc :)


Massive update is done. After this I'll start posting progress as it happens.
 
#11 ·
Used a heat gun to soften the glue, and just pulled up on the edges that were already lifting. It came off pretty easy, just gotta go slow. Then I used this cleaner stuff called "awesome" to clean off whatever glue was left on the window.
 
#16 ·
Sorry for the lack of updates, been pretty busy.

Jambs primed


Jambs Painted


Bionic miata hooked up to the a/c machine


I now have a/c :D


Painted a spare fender to see what the color would look like...


Got my patch panels welded up as well, Ill try to get some pictures of those tomorrow.

For your troubles:
 
#22 ·
Ordered an eastwood roller and did all my fenders before paint so I dont have to worry about cracking.


Not bad for my first time




The paint on my back bumper was too bad to paint over, so I decided to strip it. Ended up uncovering three layers of paint and primer, and three kinds of body filler. Whoever refinished the bumper thought it would be cool to do a skim coat of filler across the whole thing :fp:
stripping


more stripping


more fcking stripping, took way longer than it should have


gotta keep things entertaining
 
#24 ·
Body work stuff




Removing that rock guard on the lower half of the car took hours








I was getting ready to spray epoxy primer over the bare metal, when I notice 3 little dots of rust near the corner of the door. I thought they were just some surface rust from rock chips, so I hit them with a grinder to smooth them out. ...the grinder went through the door skin. Turns out the rust was coming from behind the door skin. I ground out as much rust as I could find, hit it with a media blaster, and ended up with this.
 
#25 ·
UPDATE

Prep stuff, had to grind out all the spots where there were rock chips, as they all had rust under them.


Taped up.


Epoxy primer sprayed over all the bare metal and body filler.






The body work is gonna need a couple little touch ups, but overall, the car is pretty straight now.
 
#26 ·
I lucked out, and the epoxy primer ended up sanding almost as well as 2k primer surfacer. Blocked that all down today, and I should be spraying the primer surfacer tomorrow. Also sanded all the rock chips on the hood down to bare metal, since the chips let air get to the bare metal, corroding the metal and bubbling the paint.





 
#29 ·
I feel like I haven't posted here in forever. School is kicking my ass, so progress is slow, but its getting there.

I sanded all the way through the primer in a few spots while block sanding the last coat, so I needed another coat of primer.



Guide coat sprayed.


Block sanding with 220 wet.


All done with the 220 block sanding. I sanded through in a couple areas, so I'll need to touch those up. Then on to wet sanding with 600.


18" CCWs on the yata?


 
#30 ·
Got some more work done on the car yesterday. My windshield frame and quarter window frames had alot of rock chips that had led to some nasty rust spots hidden under the paint, so I sanded all that down, primed the window stuff, and the front bumper.

Started out like this.


Looked like this under the paint. I sanded all the rust off, but forgot to get a picture.


Took the opportunity to clean all the hard to reach spots on the quarter windows, they were filthy.


Primer.


More primer.


Black primer (check the registration and inspection stickers... it was sitting for a while.)


Boring post is boring.
 
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