modracer

Second group. Keep in mind I am just a hobby guy and am not "restoring" this car but rather rebuilding it. I'm leaving the bottom side and inside the car just like it was however someone had painted under the hood with latex house paint so I wasnt left much choice in having to strip and repaint it.

modracer

double posted. deleted

modracer

Documenting the different layers of paint and stripes as I sand through layers. There were at least 3 different length of red and blue stripes used over the 2 years as cars were repaired and repainted as well as the up and down angle changing. Stripped the nos passenger fender that was on it when I got it as it was still in e-coat and had started rusting. It has no antenna hole stamped in it. I put it in white epoxy and just set it back on the car for now.

The white tape is where the factory white is and to the right is where the stripes ended on the car mid season 88.

White tape on top of quarter.



Stripping the passenger fender.


Jambing it in white SPI epoxy.


Set back on the car.

The yellow tape is where the stripes ended when the car was originally painted and decals put on.

Moving the strut.

Passenger strut mount loosely installed.

Driver side loosely in place.

modracer

Driver side door handle, lock and mirror removed.


Passenger side door handle, lock and mirror removed.


My compressor caught fire today so waiting on parts to fix it before I can go much further stripping paint.

skinny z

That looks like a lot of work! Reminds me of an archeological dig. A little at a time.

Speaking of which, and a kind of on topic question and that would be what's your sander and grit of choice for stripping the paint? I've got a couple of nice rust free doors that I'd like to take to bare metal and I've options to either chemically strip or sand. At the moment I can't say I'm equipped to do either except may be for a DA sander.

modracer

I've used a little bit of everything over the years and was using an air grinder with 36 grit discs and a smaller one with 36 grit rolocs but with having compressor issues I switched over to an electric angle grinder with these blue paint stripping discs and will never go back to anything else for the most part. They wont work well on deeper rust but they cut through paint and bondo quick without leaving deep grooves. I did this quarter and the other half of the door today in less than a couple hours.

Electric angle grinder. The disc on it is a flap disc for grinding welds but the blue disc below it is for paint.

modracer

At some point in this cars history the doors had been gutted and aluminum panels made. I've removed those, drilled out the leftover rivets and after buying 2 sets of parts doors managed to get enough parts to put the manual windows back in and functioning.

I have the door glasses too but no sense putting them in until after the car is painted.

Also reinstalled the radiator support cross rods and plastic air ducting. All this stuff was cleaned up but got dusty.

Drivers window regulator riveted back in place.

Tracks and all loosely back in.

More evidence of the blue stripes on the drivers door.

Passenger regulator riveted back in.

Passenger tracks loosely installed.

Passenger door, the door frame is original but it was reskinned in 88 or 89. They never bothered to repaint this area.

Laying out the cross rods and radiator ducting.


Its dusty but I'll blow it off when I get my compressor fixed.

modracer

The worse damage on this car was the passenger side quarter panel. It looks like they got into another car racing side by side and that cars tire shoved the wheel opening back in and up a couple inches. This area is double panel so its harder to work.

Stud gun for pulling panels.

Test studs to see if the panel will even move.

This whole area was up and in by a good bit plus no wheel opening body line.

This is how far the wheel flare body line had moved up from the damage. It should be about 3/4 inch from the bottom.

Starting to pull and hammer and move the line back down.

Starting to get some definition.

This area was real bad too.


Some progress.

Lower body line starting to take shape.

Looking down to check the flare.

Not finished but much better than it started as.

modracer

The original headlight/fog light harness that was in the car had been modified and had quite a few cut wires and missing plugs so after looking at the GM service manual I figured it was best just to mock it up in place and figure out what and why. The early pre-race pictures of this car show Hella fog lights in the place of the front park/turn lamps so since those werent used the plugs were cut off. The factory fog lights were removed but those wires are still there however looks like the relay wiring was bypassed.

modracer

Got my compressor back up and running so finished the stripping the sides and sprayed white SPI epoxy today. Lots of small areas of damage where I ground the old bondo out so will start on the body work now.

Stripping the jambs back just so I'm not stripping back into the new epoxy later but not putting them in epoxy just yet.

Aqua Blue RS/SS

I love following along in this thread, it’s one of my favorites on here. Nice work so far. I can’t wait to see how it ends up.

modracer

I started lightly blocking the first coats of epoxy today on the passenger side to start revealing my high and low spots. Will probably start the bondo work on it next week.

After looking back and forth between the drivers and passenger rear quarter I still wasnt happy with it so made some major changes and have it better but still needs some more.
There is a small inset at the very edge that follows the opening however it is rolled somewhat into the wheel opening and where I had worked it before it was not. I had to unroll the wheel lip and then bend the quarter out past where it had been in order to roll this groove back under. Not the easiest thing to do since it was mangled but a combination of different clamps, vise grips and hammers made some progress on it.
You can see the little 3/16 indentation that runs the wheel opening is out too far and should actually be rolled under some into the wheel well.

Starting to pull the wheel opening lip back apart as it had been rolled for tire clearance.

1/2 picture to the right is where I rolled the 3/16 indentation back under into the wheel opening and the left half of the picture shows where it started.

More progress. Going to get my fender roller out now and work it a little more.

You can see the high and low spots coming out while blocking it.

I just put 2 bolts in the top of the fender to hold it while sanding so the gap is way off however the first 2 Morrison Cook cars have what has been referred to as a "drooped nose" where the whole front dog house is pulled down so even once the fender is back is place the gap will still be a little wider at the top than the bottom. One of the guys who drove our Firehawk car back in the 80's asked me if I had figured out how it was done as they wondered how it got through tech.

Worked the small dent a little and straightened the area around the side marker light.

Mike.The.Squid

This is super cool. Thanks for sharing it.

modracer

Running in circles this week with the air compressors but have 2 working ones now and jumped over to do the body work on the drivers door. This door had been repaired several different times and had lots of bondo in it with it as thick as 1/4 inch in some spots. I took it all out and did some straightening on the door and have it roughed back in now with it needing just a little puddy in a couple of spots and then should block on out with high build primer.

Looks like a lot of bondo but its real thin and way less than it had.




Sprayed a couple coats of the SPI epoxy on it to seal it back up.


You can see the reflection of the air hose in the primer, lol.

modracer

Did a little hand blocking on the driver door and fender today and then roughed in the passenger side door.

modracer

After blowing a capacitor in my compressor Monday got it fixed and back together yesterday evening so roughed in the passenger quarter today and then sealed it in epoxy. Still a little needed to finish it but way better than it started.

Aqua Blue RS/SS

Bad *** progress!!!

skinny z

It is looking good. I like a "body in white" as it's said.

FWIW, adding a break between photos goes a long ways towards clarity. For me anyway.

modracer

If it didnt have the history that it does it would have def gone back all white with the stripe delete. Its going to be a chore to paint when it comes time with all those colors and then a buddy is going to replicate the decals for me.

modracer

With so much little stuff missing here and there and wanting to use as many original parts I bought a parts car out of NC and it was delivered this evening. We put ir right in front of the shop so I can just go back and forth as stuff is needed.

Delivered in style

Getting ready to move it up in front of the shop.

Gave it a quick bath to knock the tree grime off.

modracer

Starting to accumulate original patches to replicate a driver suit that is period correct.

These are identical to the decals on the struts and shocks except suspension is in blue.

These are also late 80's early 90's.

Correct original Escort series patch and SCCA patch before the logo changed in 91 or so.

modracer

Got out there today and got the hatch open [ no key] and removed all the Honda parts and as I had suspected they have cut the floor to put a pump in it. Took a whole bag of trash out as well. I was thinking 89 rear plastics were the same as 88 but guess 88 was the last year for no rear seat shoulder belts so still on the hunt for gray 88 plastics. Lots of other stuff though that I needed. Going to fix the battery cables and toss a battery in it to see how it runs before taking it apart as the trans will work in my GTA if its still good.

Luckily they had been messing with the hatc latch prior so it wasnt a big deal getting it open.

Looks better without all the Honda parts, lol.

Anyone have an idea what this is screwed to the trunk well floor?

Yea, thats not how you do that..

Regulator was missing and they had 2x6's holding the glass up.

Acura front seats. Guess that explains the Honda parts.

The guy said the "carburetor" needed work however its still tbi.

Flowmaster I guess but still has the stock cat on it .

Cleaned up a little better. At some point the wheels and lug nuts had been painted lime green...

modracer

Started pulling needed parts off the parts car. Got the passenger ground effect, the entire nose and a few others parts off so far. Its nice to just walk out front and pull what I need vs having to find and wait for it.

Pulling the inner fenders off the parts car as both were broken on the MC car.

Passenger ground effect was missing on the MC car as it had a fender swapped and never put back together.

Driver side effect off the Morrison Cook car on the left. You can see where they had cut it out because of the jacking rail under the car.

I'll modify the replacement passenger side effect to match the driver side one.

modracer

Pulling the nose off the parts car. I'll still end up taking it apart and using/refinishing the best parts from the 2 I have.

Taking the nose off the parts car.

I needed the center lower plastic too.

Of course there is always that 1 stud. Its an easy fix though.

Nose off in 1 piece.

Just set it on the MC car.

Bag and tag all the hardware so I have it going back together.

The Morrison Cook car just had an empty bumper cover zip tied on it when I got it so nice to have all this small stuff off the parts car.

modracer

The nos replacement fender on the MC car only had a couple of bolts holding it on when I got it so started bolting it in place and found the bottom was setting in from the fender too much so had to twist and bend the bottom back half a good bit to get it to fit. The gap is wider at the top than the bottom [ on both sides] as the original first 2 cars had a "nose droop" built into them. Quite a few back in the day always wondered how these got through tech like that but its not really something you would expect.

Fender bottom in too far once bolted in place so it had to be bent to pull it out.

You can see it better in this pic.

After twisting and bending the lower rear half of the fender to be flush with the door.

Better pic.

Couple of special tools.

Started hand blocking the first layer of bondo and epoxy on the door and found a high area.

This area in tan was high but it blocked down.

8-21 end of day.

modracer

Caught up the last few days of work and pics. It was 102 here today with the heat index but got out in the shop and installed the front lower fender brace [had to bend the lower front of the fender too] and then got the first coat of bondo and epoxy on it.

Just checking the nose to fender fit before starting bondo work. It is not bolted on but rather just setting on the studs. Looks to fit pretty good already.

Setting the air filter box in to ck fit.

Driver side just setting on the studs also.

First round of bondo on the fender. This was an nos fender with no antenna hole but it was never primes so it surface rusted and had been dented prior. For the time I have in it would have been easier to use a diff one but keeping orig parts with the car

Sanding out the first bondo coat.

Still a little more needed but close.

Sealed back in with epoxy.

Much better door to fender fit horizontally.

skinny z

It is handy having a parts car isn't it? At one time I tended to have at least one on hand and another disassembled with the parts stashed away on shelves in the shop.
Looking good and better with each update.

modracer

Thanks, yeah it makes things much simpler plus putting factory parts back on.

I have 1st and 2nd Gens too and lots of parts put back for them and even though I have several 3rd Gens I just didn't have much put back for them. There are still a few harder to find pieces I need but will find them over time.

modracer

Switched to a new spray gun and air regulator today plus running a secondary filter set up just when spraying but got the first coat of bondo on the driver quarter today, it roughed in and sealed back in with epoxy.

First coat of bondo on the rear of the driver quarter.

Roughed in with 40 and 80 on the board file.

Sealed back in with epoxy.

modracer

A little more work on the passenger quarter.

Just a little more shaping and bondo work.

Sealed back in.

This is the untouched quarter on my 89 for comparison.

modracer

Figured I would get the roof in epoxy before finishing the sides so I'm not dragging air hoses all over them. Had planned to just sand through the black paint and then epoxy over the factory white but that wasnt the case to be. Found most of then entire roof wiped in bondo from at least 2 prior repairs and it was anywhere from 1/16 to 3/16 thick. Ended up having to dig it all out and take the roof to bare metal.

Lightly sanding the black with 180 on an orbital revealed where the bondo and paint were bubbling underneath.

Bondo everywhere.

Putting my welding blanket over the back glass so it doesnt get hit by sparks and debris.

Very thick bondo.

Passenger side stripped.

The gold line is the factory roof to quarter seam.

Starting in the driver side.

Driver side stripped.

Driver side roof seam.

Going to see if I can work any of the damage out.

modracer

Taped up the glass and sprayed a couple coats of epoxy on the roof today to seal up the bare metal. Going to lightly run the block over it to locate the higher spots and see if I can work any of the damage out further before putting bondo back on it.

Masked up and wiped down, ready to spray epoxy.

A couple coats of epoxy to seal the bare metal in.

My led shop lights hide some of the damage in the picture but you can see its widespread.

The worse damage is front center.

modracer

I lightly hand blocked the roof to reveal the high spots and then spent a little more time with a hammer and dolly on them to try and cut down on how much bondo is in the roof compared to before.

I ran out of bondo today but got started on the front portion of the roof.

Passenger front half of roof. All the bare metal spots are high spots and the shiny unsanded ones are low spots.

Closer look at passenger front corner.

Deepest gouges are in the front center.

Driver side.

First coat of bondo passenger side. It looks like a lot but its fairly thin.

First coat on driver front. I still have to do the mid section but waiting on bondo.

View from the front.

Started sanding out the passenger front corner but left it high until I get the other side rouged in and the mid section of the roof in bondo.

modracer

My bondo was lost in shipping so while waiting I went back and worked the contour some more on the passenger quarter and wheel flare to where I'm finally happy with it.

Also had a much needed part come in from Bretts Firebird that I'll need once the engine is done and back in it.

After a lot of work its not perfect but I can live with it and as close as I can get it without putting part of a panel in. A little putty now in the couple of low spots and it will be fine.

Its came a long way.

N10 pipes from Bretts.

These already had the converters removed which is good because thats how the Morrison Cook car was done originally.

modracer

Waiting on bondo and epoxy so started sanding the bumper cover and ground effect parts. The original driver side lower ground effect that was still on the car looks to have came off a gold car at some point, was broken, then modified, repaired and then broken again [ from jacking the car during pit stops] and is nearly broken in half again so I pulled the other one off my parts car and will modify it.

Starting to sand the bumper cover. I'll eventually pull it back off and take it completely apart to refinish everything but figured its easier to do the bulk of the sanding in place.

Blocking out the bondo work on the fender from a couple weeks ago. Still needs more work.

Sanding through paint layers on the door ground effect you can see the factory white, then the silver that Morrison Cook painted it and then black from whoever was the last to race it.

Both door effects sanded and ready for epoxy.

Original driver ground effect that I pulled. You can see it was orig gold so it had to come off a different car.

Silver paint on the back side of the emblem glue tells me it was replaced while MC was racing it.

The Tuned Port decal below the emblem was painted over.

My sander had a pad failure.

Passenger side ground effect off the parts car sanded.

Ground effect on the left is the modified one that I pulled from the car and the one on the right is off my parts car.

skinny z

What's the weapon of choice for doing the bumper. DA sander? Grit?

modracer

I wish I wasn't on a budget as my preference would be to have both bumper covers and all the fiberglass parts soda blasted but the only place around here wants 150.00 an hour to do that.

I'm using a DA sander starting out with 180 grit and then will go to 320. Both my lower spoilers are ripped pretty good so I'm going to look for a better replacement for it. The lower side ground effects I'm going to have to do some fiberglass work on both replacements.

modracer

Put the first coat of bondo on the mid section of the roof and then used the board file with 40 grit mostly and then 80 before sealing it in with epoxy. I know I still have some high and low spots but then this was just the first coat of bondo.

The darker bondo is the new bondo on the center of the roof.

Roughed in with 40 grit. Passenger side.

Driver side roughed in.

Mixing the epoxy.

Passenger front view.

Passenger side looking back to front.

View from driver front.

Driver side looking back to front.

Front view. I'll lightly hand block it to reveal the existing high and low spots and then correct them as needed.

modracer

Hand blocked the roof today to reveal the high and low spots. Worked a little more bondo in the low spots and a little more hammer and dolly work before sealing it back in with the epoxy. It looks to be real close now. Somebody had asked about being able to see all the sanding scratches but at this stage I'm more concerned with adhesion so the finest grit I'm using it 80. As it progresses it will get into finer grits once everything is roughed in pretty close.



Passenger side after blocking. Dark spots are high metal spots, the gold spots are where my bondo was still high and the shiny spots are low spots.

Driver side after hand blocking.

Driver side after more hammer and dolly work on the front corner and a little more bondo.

Passenger side with a little more bondo.

Passenger side after sealing it back in with the led shop lights off.

Driver side with the shop lights off.

Passenger side with the shop lights on.

Driver side with the shop lights on.

Front view.

modracer

Have been messing with the roof the last couple days and after fixing a couple more areas, another coat of epoxy and hand blocking it today with 80 grit followed by 180 its ready for high build but wont need much as I have it pretty level now.

Also stopped off and picked up another T5 to have for parts. Somebody was getting ready to put it behind an LS and done the non WC 10 spline Muncie input shaft conversion. ....except it turns out the trans is an 88 WC so that shaft isnt compatible without further changes. No biggie as I bought it for parts and pieces to have spares.

Tuesdays blocking revealed a few more spots, passenger side.

Driver side.

Tuesdays epoxy coat passenger side.

Driver side.

Last blocking before high build. Started with 80 and then went to 180.

Driver side.

Slowly getting there.

T5 I picked up today.

My good T5 for the car and the one I picked up today after pulling the wrong bellhousing and input shaft. Pulled the shifter as well and taped up the openings to keep debris out of it.

modracer

Started prepping today to do the final body work here and there before going to the next step which is the high build primer. I only had 1 bolt front and rear of each fender holding them in place so pulled the nose and both fenders today so I could install all the mounting clips that go under them. Some had been missing prior to the original disassembly so I pulled one of the fenders loose on the parts car to rob them.

Also pulled the old plastic off that had been covering the freshly painted engine bay and replaced it with fresh plastic after blowing out any dust that was under it.

Plastic off and getting ready to put plastic back on from the top of the windshield to the bumper cover to keep overspray off the engine bay.

Pulling the fender off the parts car to get factory hardware.

Fenders and bumper cover taken loose.

Driver side fender mounting clips installed.

Passenger side fender mounting clips installed.

Passenger fender back on.

Driver fender back on.

Fresh plastic back in place.

I just tightened 1 bolt front and back on each side for now until I put the hood back on and can line it all up.

modracer

Stripped the hatch today and got it sealed back in with epoxy.

You can see the factory white under all the layers.

The black had been painted with the spoiler still on the car as you can see the factory paint where it had been.

Passenger side of hatch stripped to bare metal.

Driver side stripped.

Hatch sealed back in epoxy.

modracer

Blocked the first epoxy coat on the rear hatch and then started prepping the fiberglass ground effect to start repairing them. Waiting on supplies but my compressor quit again this evening so pulled the motor back off and dropped it at a friends for them to look at. Think it blew another capacitor but not sure.

Hand blocking the first epoxy coat on the hatch. One more spray and block and it will be done. It has a dent under the spoiler that wont be seen so I am leaving that as part of the cars history.

Ground effects ready to start making fiberglass repairs on them.

Rear spoiler sanded but I have to make repairs on one of the quarter pieces.

modracer

Started making fiberglass repairs to the lower ground effects. I've never worked with fiberglass before other than sanding it but it seems pretty straightforward. Started with smaller patches and kept going larger with each layer.

This is after about 7 layers of resin and strand. I taped the bottom so I had a surface to start building layers on.

This is what the strand looks like.

Clamping it to a 4x4 so it doesnt twist or warp as it cures.

Pulled the tape off and you can see the filled in area. I'll put a couple more layers on this side and then trim the edge.

Had to repair the compressor and wait on fiberglass materials so moved a bunch of stuff around and freed up some room in my tiny shop.

modracer

I started trimming the excess fiberglass off today and a little more sanding on the lower ground effects getting them ready for epoxy. I wasnt thinking and made one cut on the pocket I had to reconstruct so had to lay some more fiberglass in and correct that.

Have them staged up to spray epoxy on them tomorrow.

My friend got the N10 exhaust halves welded back together so picked that up and did a little grinding on them to knock the surface rust off. Got about half done on it and sprayed some high heat stainless steel paint back on just so they dont rust again once back under the car. We'll see how it holds up.

Setting them up where I can spray the epoxy on them.

Trimmed and sanded the repair area. I'll do a little more body work once the epoxy is on them as thats what SPI recommends for their product.

Driver side repair trimmed.

This is the mount pocket I had to duplicate. I'll trim it tomorrow once the second repair cures.

Trimmed the repair out on the spoiler corner.

Rear spoiler center and door ground effects ready for epoxy.

Front part of the exhaust welded back into 1 piece. It had been cut in half to ship it.

Treated it with acid and then some grinding.

Part of it cleaned and sprayed with high temp stainless. With multiple metals used I just wanted it to look the same and not rust again. I'll finish the other half the same way.

modracer

Spraying epoxy today with the new gun and larger 1.7 tip and its going to be a little learning curve for me. I've still haven't gotten a reply from SPI on this latest gallon of epoxy so went to the larger tip to see if it helped any.

First 2 coats of epoxy on the ground effects and rear spoiler.

Lower ground effects sealed in.

Center rear spoiler and door ground effects sealed in.

I'll sand these next and then do any of the bondo work over the epoxy.

I still need the cut the bottoms to match the one pulled off the car for the jacking bars under the car.

Passenger one on top that had the big area missing.

Picked up another 5 speed for parts today.

The 5 speeds are stacking up.

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

So how did the epoxy spray out with the larger tip?

modracer

It helped but still doesnt seem enough so guess I'm going to have to call SPI this week as I've never had so many issues trying to spray this stuff as I have with this last gallon. I can go back and spray the ones I had prior to this gallon and all is fine so I know its in this last gallon.

modracer

The pedals were missing when I bought the car but the hanger was still bolted in. I removed it when I pulled the brake booster, steering column, etc to paint the firewall so a friend brought me a set of pedals yesterday so I loosely installed them in the original hanger.

Went ahead and hand blocked the first 2 coats of epoxy on the ground effects and rear spoiler so ready to do a little body work on them next as needed.

Pedals loosely back in the hanger.

Hand blocked the fiberglass parts.

Driver side was a little wavier than the passenger side.

Rear spoiler pieces blocked. Need to finish the repair on the 1 corner piece.

I'll put 2 more coats of the white epoxy on after repairs and then put them back on the car.

Aqua Blue RS/SS

Very nice work!