So I recently acquired an S13 by trading my 1981 W123 Mercedes for it with a guy on retro rides straight up. (Best decision I ever made!) It is a nice shell with minimal rust, unlike the majority of S13's out there -but it was tatty and sporting paint that was rubbed down in places and red front and rear bumpers with cable tie holes... But overall it's a pretty good base to begin with, a rock solid CA18DET with ACL bearings in it, HD stage 1 chip, front mount intercooler, uprated walbro fuel pump, gizzmo electronic boost controller, a nice stainless exhaust, HSD dual tech coilovers & a welded diff. There was quite a nice amount of MOT and Tax on it so the first thing I did was insured it and went out to enjoy my first boosted car! This thing is epically fast and planted compared to the NA cars I've been used to, so I'm in love. Time to sort out how it looks. I'm on a tight budget so after a bit of searching around on driftworks I came across the awesomeness of Montana graffiti paint! Ordered up my 12 cans of Tropicana and 6 cans of UPOL primer and got to work.
Rubbed down: Started stripping the front end to find the front wings were pretty rotten... And the front bumper was full of holes behind the numberplate plinth - So I ended up driving up north to pick up some very clean front wings and a new facelift front bumper. - - - Updated - - - However the inner wings were surprisingly very clean and solid! I'm doing the majority of the spraying inside my council lockup - Sucks a bit but I have nowhere else to do it.
New front wings needed some side marker holes filling... But damn they're clean! Such a mission working in a small space... - - - Updated - - - Time to protect the inner wings after a good wire brushing with some chassis coat black. I wasn't prepared to remove the entire engine so I improvised. Turned out quite well I reckon...
Unfortunately only managed to get as far as that before it went dark again. Start to finish it was done over 2 days, all that is pending is aligning the panel gaps between the front fenders and the bonnet and bolting the front bumper up. Back on it Tuesday evening but for now that's all folks!
Cars complete and back together unfortunately I didn't take any pictures though. Will update tomorrow - But for now here's a shot of my team sticker.
It's Montana White Graffiti Paint over UPOL primer. x12 cans did the car and x6 cans of primer. Haha, you know it Thanks dude, looks great now it's all back together. Hey Cribb, thanks for the jump start today - Felt so good to be back out in it sideways.
Thats awsome my brother painted his in plasti kote midnight blue then gave me the car lol so jus looking for ideas good work dude
Decided to delete the power antenna last minute after breaking it off. This is the first pictures from taking it out (was still missing a headlight lid as I had to go to my team mates house to get the sheared bolts drilled out) Could do with a bit of a rub over with some compound and polish and wax but I was too eager to drive it again!
Come up so much better after a once over with Meguiars ultimate compound and then a coat of wax to help seal the paint from dirt. What do you guys reckon?
