1983 Mazda RX7... Bodywork and paint.

[Festiva_Fred]

First of all, this isn't my car, it's owned by a friend of mine at school. At the end of the year after all late model cars that were totaled are fixed we can work on other projects. I decided to help him out on doing the bodywork and paint on his RX7. It's just been the two of us working on the car itself. Some other students prepped and straighted smaller parts of the car, bumper covers, sunroof, headlight doors, etc..

Anyways onto the pics! Thought you guys might like to see these.















Freshly sprayed with Evercoat Slicksand, which is a sprayable body filler. I really like using that product, after that we blocked the entire car with 80 grit than 180 grit, car is super straight now! It was originally a white car, then repainted metallic blue bc/cc sometime in it's life, and now it will be painted metallic blue bc/cc again but better this time That's why it looks camo in the first pics, had to strip off all the blue on the important areas, it was flying off in some areas so whoever painted it before didn't prep it proper.

[kartracer46]

i hope they let you use the booth to paint it, it looks like it would be kinda rough getting around to spray it on the frame machine.

[Festiva_Fred]

i hope they let you use the booth to paint it, it looks like it would be kinda rough getting around to spray it on the frame machine.

Yes we will be using the booth to paint it, only things that will be sprayed while it's on the frame machine is the Slicksand (done already) and maybe the primer. Well we'll probably end up moving it to the prep station or booth for primer. Only reason for spraying the slicksand while it was up on the frame machine was because we had other cars in the middle of being worked on in the way of moving it to the booth, and there were other things being sprayed in the booth also. For sure the sealer, base, and clear will be shot in the booth.

[mikeycar500]

I like that year of rx7 body style

[thered56]

Sweet ride. What are the plans for it besides the paint?

[kartracer46]

Yes we will be using the booth to paint it, only things that will be sprayed while it's on the frame machine is the Slicksand (done already) and maybe the primer. Well we'll probably end up moving it to the prep station or booth for primer. Only reason for spraying the slicksand while it was up on the frame machine was because we had other cars in the middle of being worked on in the way of moving it to the booth, and there were other things being sprayed in the booth also. For sure the sealer, base, and clear will be shot in the booth.

Yes that will be cool, just remember fill, prime, block, prime, block again, prime, wetsand, prime, wetsand, prime, maybe prime again, wetsand, seal, paint, and throw a GALLON of clear on, wet sand and buff. Sound good or did I miss a step?

Of course you may skip a few if you have a good fill and build primer there, and do they still recomend a good epoxy basecoat primer in class?

[Festiva_Fred]

Sweet ride. What are the plans for it besides the paint?

Thanks, he's already rebuilt the engine and streetported/bridgeported it, next is a holley or weber carb, header, then better suspension and 15" wheels. It's a fun car, rode in it a few times.

Yes that will be cool, just remember fill, prime, block, prime, block again, prime, wetsand, prime, wetsand, prime, maybe prime again, wetsand, seal, paint, and throw a GALLON of clear on, wet sand and buff. Sound good or did I miss a step?

Of course you may skip a few if you have a good fill and build primer there, and do they still recomend a good epoxy basecoat primer in class?

Plans are to: 2-3 good coats of primer after the slicksand is blocked out (slicksand has alot of build to it, so the car is really straight after blocking that out) Blocking the primer will take care of any little distortion that may be left, then we're going to do 1-2 coats of sealer, base, I'd say at least 3 coats of clear, we're going to slick it out and get rid of all orangepeel.

Haven't really talked about epoxy basecoat primers too much in class, we have but we're not using any on this car.

[Safety Guy]

Nice job!

If it were up to me, I would've just clearcoated it after you did the bodywork. The "camo" finish looked pretty neat!

Karl

[thered56]

Yes that will be cool, just remember fill, prime, block, prime, block again, prime, wetsand, prime, wetsand, prime, maybe prime again, wetsand, seal, paint, and throw a GALLON of clear on, wet sand and buff.

Yikes, that's it. I'm getting someone else to paint my car!

[Festiva_Fred]

She's painted!!

Primer!



Sealer





Base





Clear






My friend and I right after getting done spraying the clear, I'm on the left.



After colorsanding with 2000, 2500, 3000 then polishing.

[Hot_Wheels]

wow!! did you have to pay for the material??

[sc72]

Excellent Job Fred, really looks great.

[sasquatch]

looks great good job!!! wanna do my car

[Grey Vw]

Holy chet! Looks amazing.

[kartracer46]

Awesome job Fred! It looks great! Once you get it all back together and detailed show us the final product.