John Hall's 2007 specB - Daily turned Restoration (Respray, Engine Build, Air Ride, More!)

That's amazing, excellent attention to detail and it shows.

 

Let me know when I can bring my wagon over and we can do a Steel Blue Mica

That's amazing, excellent attention to detail and it shows.

 

Let me know when I can bring my wagon over and we can do a Steel Blue Mica

 

Thanks, I appreciate it!

 

The only wagon I'm spraying is mine :lol:

 

Don't get me wrong I do enjoy doing this but its a TON of work all on nights and weekends! The front end of my wagon is lookin pretty rough so I'm excited to freshen that up over the winter, and hopefully some other mods too, wanting to shave the engine bay a bit more

I see your compressor is pretty beefy. I just packed up a husky unit that I'm hoping might be up for the task. 33 gal, 165 psi, 5.1 and 6.8 scfm at 90 and 40 psi. I'm hoping it's at least right on the limit of barely enough.

I see your compressor is pretty beefy. I just packed up a husky unit that I'm hoping might be up for the task. 33 gal, 165 psi, 5.1 and 6.8 scfm at 90 and 40 psi. I'm hoping it's at least right on the limit of barely enough.

 

Yeah, it is pretty beefy. It's as 2-stage 5 horse pump on an 80 gal tank. It fills to 175 psi and pumps out 12 CFM @ 90 PSI and holds that up to 175 PSI so it fills pretty quick. I keep the wall reg at about 120PSI and regulate down at the spray gun when spraying. It keeps up with spraying no problem at all. I have a relatively cheap 6" DA that is probably my biggest "air hog" tool and I can sand non-stop and have the pump cycle on/off, so it is producing more CFM than the tool is consuming.

 

I think your pump is on the small side for painting an all-over but you could paint in pieces for sure. You could add a tank to help boost the volume if you need to cover a large area at once, and also use a slower reducer to buy a bit more time. Having a large tank and more powerful motor means it runs less frequently, which means less moisture and less reliance on your filters to keep your air dry. I run two filters, one filter/regulator pretty close to the pump and then another further away on the branch I use for spraying-- that one is a 3 stage filter/dryer/regulator. The one closest to the pump doesn't extract much water from the pump while its running since the air is still hot at that point and it needs to cool down and condensate for the filter to do its job.

looking amazing , great job !

looking amazing , great job !

 

thank you sir! big fan of your work

been there and will be there again in the spring. should have gone for the prize and pulled the engine to paint bay. well done.

Can we have so more pictures now?

been there and will be there again in the spring. should have gone for the prize and pulled the engine to paint bay. well done.

 

Oh I'll get around to doing that soon enough I was hoping to get the car back on the road for some fall driving but that isn't going to happen so I'll likely end up pulling and rebuilding the engine over the winter and I'll knock out the engine bay then. Thanks!

 

Can we have so more pictures now?

 

I've got this project on pause while I work on prepping my winter car and various other household projects that need to happen before the snow comes! Trust me I'm eager to get back at it and I'll update ASAP

I'm deep into my winter car project but hope to have it wrapped up in "not too long"

 

I'm gonna start a thread for this short & quick rebuild/restore project!

 

Here's where it's at now

 

My shop is currently very full of dismantled BL/BP chassis and parts lmao

Kinda kickin' the can along on this one, but over the weekend I pulled the motor out of the aforementioned Outback so I can rebuild it before we get some serious snow here in VT. I needed to make some space in my shop that was taken up by body panels and such and I thought hey, what better place to store these parts than on the actual car? So I loose fit the JDM frontend and let me tell you, its got me real motivated to get crankin on this thing just as soon as I get my Outback up to snuff!

 

 

Also exciting, bought a 2018 Outback 3.6 Touring. By far the newest car for my wife and I. It is down in Florida, hope to have it on a carrier this week and up to us in Vermont sometime next week! Woohoo!

Not my specB but following up on my last post, our Outback 3.6R Touring arrived today. Absolutely love it!

Seriously amazing paint on the spec b and congrats on the new ride!

never thought of doing that with the tail lights

Seriously amazing paint on the spec b and congrats on the new ride!

 

Thank you very much on both points! I'm real excited to get back to work on my specB just have to finish an engine rebuild for my winter rig and then its full steam ahead!!

 

never thought of doing that with the tail lights

 

Thanks! I think they clean up nice. I was inspired to do this by Abbitt Wilkerson's white specB that we put air ride on a number of years ago.

never thought of doing that with the tail lights

 

 

Yea, I grabbed a second pair from a forum member so I can try this, I really like the cleaner look. I also got to learn how to bake headlights but prolly going to look for a second pair that way if I screw up Im not screwed

Good news fam, I finished up the work I wanted to get done on my old Outback rebuild and spent the last weekend cleaning the HECK out of my shop. In doing so I hung a couple more body panels on the ol' specB and couldn't help but to slap a couple bolts in my Rotiform wheels so I could get a little preview of what is to come! I also made a loooong list of "to-dos" on my whiteboard and with that I dont think there much more procrastinating I can do

 

For real though, I am ready and eager to dive back into this car and get it on the road for summer!!

Nice paint work! I recently did this with a friend, to my '84 944, and it's a process. Kudos to you for attempting it on your own. It's all in the prep, of course...

 

Did you leave some orange peel on the car or take the clear down to smooth? Any bugs or nibs find their way into the paint?

Nice paint work! I recently did this with a friend, to my '84 944, and it's a process. Kudos to you for attempting it on your own. It's all in the prep, of course...

 

Did you leave some orange peel on the car or take the clear down to smooth? Any bugs or nibs find their way into the paint?

 

Thank you! This was my first full respray and honestly my first go at many things in bodywork land so I had some steep learning curves and redid plenty of stuff along the way, but I sure do love learning so its all fun

 

That is awesome, I love 944s!! I spent some serious time looking for an inexpensive / "needs some TLC" Turbo model (not specifically for the engine, more-so for the rest of the stuff on that model) for another build/project car but my energy on that dwindled. I'm still debating between that or perhaps a C3 Corvette which my wife is a big fan of so that earns it some serious points haha In either case I'd put it on air ride (duh!) and drop in some other motor. I'm leaning towards a JZ of some sorts which would be a bit sacrilegious for the Corvette, but fun either way. I know both have been done but I'm a "do it for me" type of person anyhow, so that doesn't matter much to me

 

Regarding the outcome of the paint -- it looks good enough in photos but there are a lot of problem areas, so I intend on knocking the body panels down with 800 and re-shooting most of it in the spring time. That's the cost of learning I guess Fortunately the jambs and body kit and some other stuff came out totally fine, so that will allow me to hang the doors back on the car and spray it all assembled. The biggest problem for me was that, presumably in a hurry to get it done before the end of the day, I didn't adjust pressure at the regulator after spraying the sealer so ended up with some nasty dry clear in a couple areas and some tiger striping in in the base coat I took advantage of this "learning opportunity" to practice wet standing and buffing and learned that I need to put down more clear next time in order to get a perfectly "glass" finish like I want, since I didn't have quite enough clear laid down to cut as much as I need to.

 

I did end up with some dirt/dust knibs and given my intention on respraying I used them to practice knib removal and they came out with ease. I also had giant mosquito land in the first coat of clear on the hood and it like, collapsed down into the clear and messed up the coat really bad.

 

So yeah, the plan is to get the car all back together so its driving and basically road ready (except glass), then knock it down with 800 and respray the car as a whole, "just" base and clear since the bodywork is all straight and the sealer went on really great. This time around I'm going to try another clear from SPI that they explained stays "soft" for longer (i.e., you can cut/buff it with relative ease even after a month) and is tailored towards laying down 4-5 coats in order to grant plenty of depth for the cutting/buffing process. I used their "Production" clear which is intended for body-shop use as it goes down thick and hardens up quickly, making it perfect for (as the name implies) production body shop work. The time between coats on that was pretty short if memory serves, and because I was going around my shop spraying each panel individually I wasn't able to chase the "wet edge" which I think also caused me some issues.

 

Anyhow, overall a great learning experience and I'm not in any way bummed or upset about the fact that I want to go over it again. In fact, I am excited for the opportunity and have confidence in myself to do a great job

It's all about the learning process. And at the end of the day, it's just paint, and can be sprayed again.

 

Maintaining that wet edge is very important to avoid the tiger stripes you referenced, as I've learned (also the hard way!). Nibs and bugs will happen unless you're in a perfect booth, and even then, it's not foolproof. We painted my 944 outside in my driveway, for what it's worth. Nothing will be perfect, and chasing that is more trouble than it's worth!

It's all about the learning process. And at the end of the day, it's just paint, and can be sprayed again.

 

Maintaining that wet edge is very important to avoid the tiger stripes you referenced, as I've learned (also the hard way!). Nibs and bugs will happen unless you're in a perfect booth, and even then, it's not foolproof. We painted my 944 outside in my driveway, for what it's worth. Nothing will be perfect, and chasing that is more trouble than it's worth!

 

Exactly! I'm just glad that I can put the car back together and shoot it as a whole. No doubt it is still some decent time to sand it all down and re-shoot it, but not nearly as much work as I went through.

 

I know I'll end up with nibs and bugs, and hopefully I can lay down enough clear so that I can remove them with confidence. A friend and coworker sprayed his LS400 at his shop around the same time I did mine. He laid down 5 or 6 coats of the SPI Universal clear which is promoted as staying soft / very friendly to cut and buff even a month or longer after spraying. He put a lot of effort into wet sanding out all the orange peel and man, it came out fantastic. Its a black car and the paint just looks like glass. Its great motivation for me

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement

Exactly! I'm just glad that I can put the car back together and shoot it as a whole. No doubt it is still some decent time to sand it all down and re-shoot it, but not nearly as much work as I went through.

 

I know I'll end up with nibs and bugs, and hopefully I can lay down enough clear so that I can remove them with confidence. A friend and coworker sprayed his LS400 at his shop around the same time I did mine. He laid down 5 or 6 coats of the SPI Universal clear which is promoted as staying soft / very friendly to cut and buff even a month or longer after spraying. He put a lot of effort into wet sanding out all the orange peel and man, it came out fantastic. Its a black car and the paint just looks like glass. Its great motivation for me

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement

Each time you paint, you get better. That's the best part about making mistakes

 

We ended up using a relatively hard clear from Automotive Art, with a different approach since I was trying to keep some peel. 3 good wet coats, and then light buffing. I love the look of glass-smooth paint, but was going for an OEM appearance.

 

Keep up the good work, definitely tuned in over here.

Each time you paint, you get better. That's the best part about making mistakes

 

We ended up using a relatively hard clear from Automotive Art, with a different approach since I was trying to keep some peel. 3 good wet coats, and then light buffing. I love the look of glass-smooth paint, but was going for an OEM appearance.

 

Keep up the good work, definitely tuned in over here.

 

I hear that! Thanks again for the kind words

 

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I had some shop time over the long weekend and made some headway, finally!

 

I applied butyl sheets to the LH floor pan. The factory sound deadening had delaminated. I also hit the floor pan with some epoxy sealer before laying this stuff down. Sorry for the bad picture but you get the idea!

 

One of my many "while I'm there" things was replacing my worn out trunk, fuel door and parking brake cables, all of which were stretched out beyond the tolerance of their respective adjustment mechanisms. Trunk and fuel door were first, sorry no pictures of that but use your imagination. With the interior all taken apart, replacement of these is a breeze. The parking brake cables required a bit more effort but ultimately came out with ease. I have all new everything for the rear of the car; I'm super excited to see it all come together!

 

Exciting picture of old vs new parking brake cable, oooo, ahhhh, ooooo!

 

Finally, and last on my list of "stuff to remove" was the crusty fuel filler neck. Miraculously the tank is in pretty good shape all things considered. This sucker didn't want to come apart from the flex hose that couples it to the tank but with some careful convincing I got it out without any damage.

 

Next up is some grinding of some surface rust on the underside of the car around the rear suspension mounting points, then a fresh coat of epoxy sealer and undercoating. Not looking forward to this step but once that's done I can start putting everything back together which I am VERY VERY excited for So that is going to be my motivation to power through the "not so fun" part

 

Thanks for reading!

Did you pull your tank to replace the filler neck?

Did you pull your tank to replace the filler neck?

 

No, you can remove the filler neck without removing the tank!

 

I did however, end up removing the tank anyhow

 

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Since I want to grind away some rust on the undercarriage, and seeing as I've got the whole rear end apart anyhow, I decided I might as well drop the fuel tank since I don't intend on ever having another more convenient time than I'd have now. The tank came out with ease; I had my wife help me balance on the way down but basically just put a 4x4 on the floor jack to sit in the center of the fuel tank that straddles the driveshaft and we kept it steady as I lowered the floor jack.

 

The tank itself is in OK condition, it does not appear to be leaking from the seams but some of the brackets on it (e.g., for EVAP hoses and such) are pretty toast.

 

I scooped up a low mileage fuel tank out of California that is in excellent condition that will be replacing this one.

 

Nothing to hide here, the underside of the car isn't clean by any stretch of the imagination but its also not terrible. All the rust in this photo can be removed, which is what I'll be doing next. You can see a little bit into the dogleg area that I've done some epoxying before as these are a known weak area on these cars. Sometime ago I ground away any rust in that area and epoxy'd it, and as you can see its holding up great.

 

So, next on the agenda for me is a whole lot of time on my back with the grinder, yayyyyy Once I've removed everything I can get to, I'll be applying a couple fresh coats of epoxy and some 3M undercoating to breathe more life back into this rig. I'll do the mid/front of the car at another time once I put a lift in my shop since those areas dont require nearly as much effort to access compared to the rear of the car.

 

And finally, another glamour shot of the front fitment I'm super excited to get the rear suspension back together and test fit the rear wheels which have bigger lips than the fronts