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My 73' Coupe Restoration


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Yeah, I have parts from 2 cars stored in this room! I don't dare clean parts inside the house though. Wife draws the line there. For the front grille, I sanded it down with some 400 grit then used a rustoleum primer that is specially made to bond to plastic. It was then topcoated with regular rattle can (krylon) that most closely matched the original metallic grey color. All plastic parts were done this way. If you have not tried, regular spray paint does not stick well to plastic. SEM makes some colored paints especially for plastic, but did not have a color close enough to use. I do have the stainlees trim for it, but it is set aside to go to the guy I use for my chroming to get polished at some point.

 

Mark

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Yeah, I have parts from 2 cars stored in this room! I don't dare clean parts inside the house though. Wife draws the line there. For the front grille, I sanded it down with some 400 grit then used a rustoleum primer that is specially made to bond to plastic. It was then topcoated with regular rattle can (krylon) that most closely matched the original metallic grey color. All plastic parts were done this way. If you have not tried, regular spray paint does not stick well to plastic. SEM makes some colored paints especially for plastic, but did not have a color close enough to use. I do have the stainlees trim for it, but it is set aside to go to the guy I use for my chroming to get polished at some point.

 

Mark

 

Well living alone i dont even use my bedroom, it's to cold in there and i dont want to run the electric heat.

 

I was looking at that rustoleum primer last night, does that come out white? It seems weird to prime the parts white just to paint them black again. I think the fancy napa brand paint has a clear plastic primer, i had used it several years ago and it worked pretty well. I was also looking for that krylon outdoor paint, but most of what they had was the weird textured stuff. Will have to keep looking.

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Yes, the rustoleum primer is white. I am not aware of any clear primers for plastic, but that does not mean there isn't something out there. The main thing, regardless of color, is the product adheres to the plastic. The Krylon was difficult to find. I had the same issue as you are, there are a few different paints that have a good color match, but have some sort of texture or had a lot of metallic content. I think once you find the Krylon paint, you will see it's a very close match, both in color and level of metallic.

 

Mark

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I'm usually leery of clear coats in a can. The couple times I used a clear in the past, it did not take long for it to start to yellow. This paint has UV protection specifically for outdoor exposure, but time will tell. I have a couple extra cans so if it starts to fade after a time, I can always recoat.

 

Mark

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Ahh good colour :)

 

I dont really know what colour I will eventually paint mine. I dont really want to do a colour that some one else has used on their 1400. Like to be a tad different.

Maybe I mite go a brighter yellow or a different red compaired to stock GSR Red.

 

See post #31

 

 

And finally, the color of choice. Think I'll stand out in a crowd? :lol: I believe it's a 74' or 75' stock Subaru color.

 

2393763050070852740S500x500Q85.jpg

 

Time to hydrate and get back to blasting. Oh joy. :rolleyes:

 

Mark

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  • 3 months later...

Well, was planning to finally do some updates to this thread, and then the board goes down! Anyway, glad it's back up now. No groundbreaking news, more parts cleaned up and some progress on the body. Here we go with the pics.

Air cleaner blasted and painted and installed on the engine along with the NEW A/C compressor (not easy finding one of these) and brackets.

jUu3c1.jpg

 


Blasted/painted/rebushed and repaired (clutch cable mount and gas pedal stop needed rewelding) pedal box.

i11Vxj.jpg

Gas tank blasted and repainted on the outside and cleaned and coated on the inside. Had to repair a couple of pinholes. The coating was for extra insurance.

Mmu7JT.jpg

 


Grill reassembled with freshly polished stainless trim.

sdHZe7.jpg

Fresh rechromed front bumper. SHINY!

4Fw9j1.jpg

Floorpans completely sandblasted and etch primed. There are small spots that need to be repaired, but as you can see, not bad at all. The rust has been neutralized so I will probably just patch with fiberglass. the one area on the right wheelwell is the worst and wil be cut out and new steel welded in.

19Wjvj.jpg

I have more stuff done, but that will have to wait a little for the next update. I did manage to finish stripping the parts car and it is now cut into pieces. I knew the rust was bad from what I could see, but was surprised by how bad it was in the front frame sections. I bet a couple big potholes would have caused it to buckle! It was almost rusted completely out on 3 of the 4 sides! Not that I would expect a response here, but did these come with EA62's? The parts car has one in it and I thought they came with EA63's? Anything special about the 62's?

Mark

Edited by Datsunrides
update
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  • 3 weeks later...

Man that's looking good. Coming along nicely. I especially like the floor pan pic as it gives me a basis as to what mine should look like once I get started on it.

 

I've yet to do anything to the '74 other than get a vintage tag for it. I recently purchased an '05 Saab 9-2x for a DD. Once that is back on the road I'll put the '74 in the garage and start the removal process and tagging items for the rebuild.

 

Anyone know where I can find an exhaust manifold? Mine has a hole in it.

 

Jose

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  • 2 months later...
How's the dash repair holding up? I'm itching for the method...

 

Did not hold up. Actually the repaired area held up, but the dash cracked in a different area after leaving outside for a couple cooling/heating cycles. Did the fix 3 times and always the same result, a new crack. It's at the upholstery shop being recovered in vinyl.

 

Making progress on body work. Have the fenders, valence, and doors metal worked, filled, and primed. Ready to block and glaze. Still need to finish the cowl repair, but did get the patches cut out of the parts car. Been concentrating on a couple other cars for the last month so I hope to be back on this in a week or so.

 

Mark

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The only prep I did was fill in the cracks and sand everything as smooth as I could. Here are the pics of the vinyl covered dash pad. Actually came out pretty good. Does not look all that much different from a hard vinyl.

jqL1C3.jpg

 


V8XJlL.jpg

 


Mark

Edited by Datsunrides
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It cost me $150 to have that done. I'm sure he would give me a "group rate", as he has upholstered all my completed cars. Shipping would suck. Check with a local upholstery shop, I'm sure someone back there can do the same quality work. If you did want my guy to do it, He would need the metal structure as he has to pull on the material tightly, and with no support, the pad would probably deform and not fit back correctly.

 

Mark

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