The Evolution Of "night Fury"

[jez NF]

Thanks Mike.......the middle clip was sticking (probably because I had the left and right out together and it was an awkward angle...but yeah got there in the end with a bit of coaxing. Had to get the grille off to tighten up one of the front bar bolts....

Right............

So first up..........its been a fairly productive day and I am quite happy with what was covered.

Started off with painting the boot badge. Sanded it down a little bit....and then sprayed a couple of coats of black and topped it up with clear.

Came up quite nicely...its currently drying so I will put up pictures of that later.

This was during the process.....

Then off to bunnings to get a nice pointy paintbrush and some more masking tape.

Then I pulled out my homemade ramps...got the car up to a nice comfortable height and then I settled down to fill in all the stone chip marks. This took ages as I had to fill in each tiny mark and be careful not to smudge them or mess it up etc.

Car was pretty dirty from last nights rain so quite a bit of it was just road grime...which washed off.

Will post up finished pics in the morning...its too dark now.

[jez NF]

Pictures of the boot badge...........

From this....................

To this........................

and from this.................

To this...................

[jez NF]

The intercooler piping always stands out when you look at the car from the front (not necessarily in a good way).......read up a little bit about piping etc and decided that the supposed disadvantages of a thin layer of paint on a small section of visible piping was'nt going to result in me being the slowest skyline out there and besides I wanted something different so decided to do this...

and................................taaadaaaa.........

Looks so much better in the flesh and not from a crappy smartphone camera

[Borci88]

I'm a bit confused as to why you don't remove any of these parts before spraying? i.e Boot lock, wipers and now the intercooler piping...

[jez NF]

Hahahaaa.......good question actually....

Wipers were a spur of the moment decision while I was working on the trims.....so being unplanned I just did them when I thought they needed a touch up.

Attempted to take out the boot lock....but the left bolt was done up so tight that it snapped.....so I now have half a shaved bolt still stuck in there...and its held together by the right one

Intercooler piping.....ummmmm.....dont know actually.....

Guilty as charged !!

[jez NF]

Quite happy with the end result.......

Before.....

After...........

You cant really see it in detail from this picture..but it gives a basic idea of what it looks like now...Its drizzling and cloudy at the moment so will post some pics when I take her out for a spin later when the paint has dried completely....

[jez NF]

Better picture..............

[jez NF]

Its think its time for new brake pads (can feel the car not biting anymore under braking) so thats what I did this morning.....

While taking off the front wheel I realized the wheel arch area looks something like this.........this was before I did the calipers and drum so yes it is an old photograph but it will suffice as I didnt take one of the condition of the arch before tidying it up.........

So decided to give it a spruce up...........

Touched up the drum and calipers again too....noone ever said no to an extra coat !! ...and touched up a little spot on the intercooler piping that had a stone chip mark.

Most of the gack just came off after a good clean but I sprayed the trims and arch just for good measure.

[Willis]

I'd be rather cautious spraying the underside (inside the guards etc..) as you will make a prospective buyer (one day if you sell) very wary that it's been in an accident...

Just my 2 cents.

[jez NF]

SELL !! (the horror).....hahaa

Yeah no that makes sense (very valuable 2 cents indeed).......but then again...I dont plan to sell (ever) and if push comes to shove and I am reeeally forced to etc then they can look at this forum or the zillion other pics I have and judge the condition of the car themselves

Personally I think it looks really nice all cleaned up and I must say degreaser works a treat. The paint is just bonus and its the anti rust stuff so hopefully that helps too.

Did the back arch all of this morning............

[jez NF]

also.....totally unrelated......but sharing anyway...........found this while I was ing......................

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jdmlegion.com%2FAssets%2Fskyline_book.pdf&ei=mSuKUMf6LvDymAWu3oCADw&usg=AFQjCNEiZF1R1RVTR9R3FlI0EYAFmjkroA

[kosmo90]

Hey Jez, where are you getting the paint from?

I'm assuming its kh3 yeah?

subscribed btw

[jez NF]

Hey Joe (see what I did there)....................hahahaaaaaaaaaaaa

Anyways.....

In this particular case (for the arches etc) I used high temp brake and caliper paint.....because I had / have heaps of it lying around that I bought on special a while ago...its mainly trims and underside bodywork...so I wasnt too fussed about undercoats / sanding blah blah blah....just a good chemical clean up and boom...spray..although I did use plastic primer for the guards... It is probably not the "correct way" and I bet there are many "gurus" who would shudder at the thought and jump down my throat...but who cares...it looks awesome....and even if it doesnt work...its not exactly very visible anyway....Its for me to know that it looks nice oh and I just went with "gloss black".

Did the intercooler piping with the same stuff and mighty impressed with the finish and how it lasts etc...did it a few weeks ago and it hasnt peeled etc...even after some heavy spraying during cleaning etc....time will tell (worst case I will do it again)

I will keep updating pics so hopefully you can tell how its lasting etc.....I am not a paint know it all by any means..but I like this trial and error approach and as long as I stay away from the bodywork and critical working components I think I am fine.

Also I DO follow these basic guidelines...plastic and vinyl primer before any paint on trims etc...which really gives the paint something to cling on to...have tried both ways on kick panels so I can comment.

Metals and engine / brake components.....high temp paint for sure....good clean / degreaser...light sand...metal primer and simple spray on.

Also just for the record.....ALL the paint related stuff I have done thus far has worked beyond expectations....bootlid....bonnet...interior trim bits...dash....badge...seat rails....calipers...drum....front lip...arches..etc

So yeeeaahhhh.....................

Anywho.....waiting for my days off to do the left side.......and then hopefully the week after I can move onto some engine bay detailing.

[kosmo90]

It's great seeing someone take a different approach to things, and it does look good

[jez NF]

man....

In other news...........

Had my tooth out today....hurts like a bitch....so cant really do anything today.

Have however borrowed a "high tech" camera from a mate...so plan to give her a good spruce up tmrw morning and get some half decent pictures happening.....

[jez NF]

Photoshoot postponed................

Another picture of the front arch.....inner guards came up a treat...very happy.

Did the left rear arch this morning.............So now only the front left remains...which I will finish off tmrw

Edited November 1, 2012 by jez NF

[jez NF]

Fooled around with my mates camera and microsoft office picture manager today........................

and

and

and

Next project.....

Spruce up the exhaust cannon....stay tuned

[jez NF]

Good ol brasso hey......

These are the only pics I have sadly.....I have to use my phone when I work....or I will "dirty the house" (and I keep forgetting to get the camera beforehand) !!

The homemade ramps were put to good use again....

Its pretty dim in the garage.......looks so much better in natural light.....

Next up I plan to attempt an oil and filter change.....and plan to paint the exhaust connecting pipes....provided I can successfully figure out how to get the whole exhaust system off first.

[jez NF]

Made myself a little "workstation".......................with some leftovers lying around.

Cannot wait for this year to be over so that I can start spending some big ones on the car again...all these small scale projects just don't quite make the cut

[jez NF]

The useless git who did my last service can go to hell......to say the bolt was a pain to get off is an understatement.....sprayed the crap out of it with WD40 and used a 1/2 " drive breaker bar to get it off !!!

But so far so good.....oil changed...new shiny black filter in....and presto....my first oil and filter change all by myself..and no mess (not much) haha (pats himself on the back)