ffffff now that I finally see a wdp with mods and a cf hood its actually pretty nice still unsure though gotta wait to see when you take lots of pics of her

 

Yah I had a lot of problems with fitment though and still have a few things to fix.

The carbon hood also has some issues I still need to fix, water is getting under the front trim piece and I need to seal it up.

lol .. the piece of plastic I did the carbon fiber over lay on won't fit either, the hood is too low and there's no room for it, if I raise the latch up the lines on the hood to the fender will be off.

 

Got my new N7 setup working

Breakout boards came in quick.

 

Looks like some nice work there.

 

So I went about removing the baffles from my valve covers today to clean out the insides of them after having them powder coated.

Intention was to bolt the baffles back on after tapping where the rivets were and safety wiring the whole thing.

This is the unpleasantry I found in the front valve cover after removing the baffle, the rear one wasn't as bad and I cleaned it out no problem.

Also some of the rivets on the front one were so short that I accidentally drilled through the valve covers in two spots. I'm sure I could salvage it, but I'll have some threads sticking out the valve covers and some of the rivets are so short there won't be many threads in there to hold the bolt into place.

So lesson learned, don't powder coat valve covers lol, paint them instead.

At least not on this car, maybe something else where the baffles are easier to remove and replace. The rear one wouldn't be a problem, but the on the front a lot of the rivets are extremely short, like maybe only 1/4" or so.







$200 mistake , could've been a lot worse. Glad I never installed them.

 

Spent all day working on my car today.. new oil pan, put a magnefine filter in the power steering return line, added just over 1oz of autorx to the power steering system, added fluid to a new reservoir and replaced the rubber hose for the return line near the front bumper.

Still need to see if I can tighten up the lines on my rack, looks like thats where its leaking from and check out the other rubber return line coming off the rack and change it since I have a new one.

Probably should've waited to put the fluid in the reservoir until I get the other return line haha, oh well.

Putting the oil pan back in took me a few hours, what a PITA doing it with the car on jack stands.





This is why I replaced the pan, stripped it a long time ago and put a time-sert in, looks like I put it in too deep and it was slowly leaking. Not enough for me need to top it off between oil changes though.







No oil back in it yet, going to wait until tomorrow so the hondabond will have had over 15 hours to cure.



Had to remove one of the fans on the radiator, I think the condenser fan, in order to get the magnefine filter in, all back together over there now though.

 

^That's a TL???
I love this thread because it's beyond my level haha

 

Good work, man! Thanks for the great pictures.

 

Thanks guys, that oil pan was a huge pain to get back in.

Took it for a drive today though, about 100 miles and no problems, power steering pump was squeeling at me for a little bit since I had taken so much fluid out of the system, I had to put about 1 1/2 of the bottles of fluid back into it with just over 1 oz of autorx, not making any noise anymore.

I couldn't get onto the rear return line hose to remove it, I looked at it today and decided against replacing it. I probably could've gotten it, but was so tired of crawling around on my back that I decided not to. It's just a pain since the bracket that holds it has a bolt that is hard to get to and it looks like it runs underneath the rear motor-mount and has a clip in one spot that has to be removed.

With the j-pipe out I had enough space to work, but barely, and it would've been painful so I decided not to, oh well. Here's hoping it doesn't leak anymore, my line fittings were all tight.

I also changed the filter in the auto trans, did a 1x3 and used one of the pipe fittings like on the rear of the transmission to route the hose coming off the filter forwards toward my trans cooler on the AC condenser instead of having the big loop in the rear like I did before.

Shortened up the hose a good bit.

 

Great work-I wish I had your skills.

 

Thanks, to be honest I learn as I go. I do a lot of reading and check in the service manual to see how things are put together before I try to tackle a job to try to ensure I do it right.

This is actually the first car I've ever done this much work to. I have a little previous experience on an '85 Full-size GMC Jimmy that I had about 10 years ago, but that's it really.

 

Picked this up on ebay for $100 shipped.

OEM base spoiler.










Sanded @ 100 grit

Nice of them to list what material it is, says ABS on the back. There's actually a better way to prep this part for epoxy than the way I did the last piece and thats with a flame treatment and isopropyl alcohol wipe. Data sheet shows a bond strength of 3288psi if prepped that way using gflex.

Done with it for today, might try to put the carbon on it later this week.

 

 

Well... here we go, started putting it on.

This part isn't going to be perfect, the back is already lumpy from the carbon coming off while I was putting it on. The angles on the rear of the spoiler how it has that sharp bend and then goes back towards the front causes the carbon to easily lift off the spoiler there.

It was really bad, but I spent some time with a heat gun pressing the carbon down onto the rear of it and heating the epoxy to make it cure quicker. It worked fairly well, I should've spent some more time doing it, its lifted in a few spots as you can see in the photos below.

Jig I made to hold onto the spoiler, cost about $15 in materials.



Can see how its supported here, the bottom of the board where it's drilled is opened up a bit and there is another nut down there. So three nuts in total on the carriage bolt to hold it in place.



Different process to prep this part for the gflex epoxy, it was sanded down to 80 grit and rinsed off with water. Then once it was dried I put it in the jig as you can see and hit it with the torch. Goal isn't to melt the ABS, it's to heat it just a bit to get some of the chemicals to come out of it, don't want to overheat it and melt it. Once that's done you give it a wipe with the IPA and then it's ready for the gflex.

This is going to make a much stronger bond than the way I did the last part.



Gflex on, yah I know thats a lot.



Carbon on, those stress cuts, as I call them, in front is how I wrap these parts I use a similar technique when putting on vinyl so I can wrap it around curvy pieces. I used it here to get it to lay down so I wouldn't have to wrap it all of the way around the part. This part will be trimmed to the edges, I don't want any carbon on the bottom otherwise it's going to stick up when it goes on the car.



You can see the back side is lifting off, no way I can fix it at this point, I tried with a heat gun. Should've spent longer with it heating it and pressing it down, I think it really just needed some more epoxy under there but that was going to be a pain.

I wrapped the rear under the bottom of the spoiler to help hold it down, I think maybe that was a mistake, but it was lifting a lot and I needed to hold it closer. I think maybe if I did like the front and just used the heat gun and pressed it down it would've held on better.



Here you can see with epoxy on, I may be able to fix this a bit later but don't know how its going to turn out yet.



The top and sides, however, on this part are going to look on spot.



Way better than my first time.



A part like this could really be vacuum bagged to do a better job, but therein also lies a bit of a wrinkle.

You need to use the gflex as the base epoxy under the carbon in order for it to adhere, yet you also need to use a clear epoxy or polyester resin on top to wet out the carbon and make it look good.

If you vacuum bag it with just the gflex under the carbon a lot of it is going to press through the carbon and wet it out with the black gflex.

If you try to do it with the gflex on the bottom and poly or 105/207 or similar epoxy on top I think it would be difficult to get it all bagged up in time, and don't know just how it'd come out.

I think I may be able to do a better job if I do another one, but this part is tricky due to the curve at the rear of the spoiler and the way the carbon has to lay down to overlay it.

 

looks good

 

Thanks.


Trimmed it today and put on more epoxy.

I wasn't able to use an exacto knife this time like I was last time since I put a lot more epoxy on in layers while I was wetting the carbon fiber out.

So I had to trim it using my dremel and then I sanded the edges down flush using my random orbit sander and a 220 grit disc. Then I hand sanded the whole thing down at 220 grit followed by light sanding at 80 grit.

Rinsed it off and let it dry off then gave it another IPA swab and allowed it to flash off, followed by more coats of epoxy.

First coat was 3 pumps 105 & 207 (was way too much) followed by another 4 coats that were each 1 pump 105 & 1 pump 207.

It's looking pretty good now. Photos..





Here you can see where I heated the epoxy and pressed the carbon down, it was even while I was doing it but I think because of the way it was taped off on the bottom it made it lift again. No way to fix it now, I blocked it down a bit and sanded into the carbon some, which not supposed to do oh well. A lot more epoxy on it now once it cures I can probably even it up a little bit more by blocking it again but it's not going to be perfect back there.

This is the worst spot.



The ends look great.



As does the rest of it, it's just the back part that is problematic.









Still needs to be sanded one more time, I'm going to block this one I have some small rubber blocks with various contours to get the angles on this part.

Then just wait 7 days to cure and clear coat

I'm planning on having this part professionally done by a shop with clear coat.

It could stay with just the epoxy, but the problem with that is it will yellow being out in the sun. The epoxy itself has a slight yellow or amber hue to it already though you can't really notice it on the carbon. If it's not UV protected by a good clear coat it'll turn yellow.

lol .. noticed the back end of the spoiler looks funny in the photos, it looks like the color is off - that's the reflection of the wooden jig in the epoxy.

 

that....looks awesome.
I LOVE how glossy it looks

 

Thanks, the epoxy is super glossy. It was still wet in those photos but it looks the same once it's cured.

Here it is sanded @ 600 grit, I blocked it quite a bit and got it pretty close to perfect on the front and sides. Still a few uneven spots.

The backside is the part that is bumpy.

Just about ready for clear coat, needs to wait a week though.

This took a lot less time than it did the first time I did this.





I used my random orbit sander @ 220 grit on the bottom again, to clean up the drips that were going over the edges.

Finished up the bottom @ 80 grit by hand and used a small round rubber block so I could get the edge along the backside on the bottom. I got the rest of the edges that will be visible once it's mounted using a block @ 400 grit so I could get even edges again.

 

Dude, outstanding work.

 

Thanks

Hardest part now is waiting to have clear coat put on and install it

 

It will be worth it....the pictures look outstanding.

 

mehh I found my power steering leak today.. my oil pan looks good now though I was replacing a wheel & tire (have 1x bent) and took a look at it

Looks like the major pain in the ass hose to get onto that I didn't replace while I was doing the oil pan due to access limitations is leaking right at the joint to the rack

I cleaned everything up on the rack when I did the oil pan so now its very evident where its coming from.

Either the hose or the fitting itself on the rack is leaking..

I've got both, brand new parts.. going to have to see if I can replace that hose and fitting when I drain the system of the autorx

 

I have a question about sanding CF. I'm in the process of reclearing my CF spoiler. The spoiler has some yellowing and I'm scared that I will sand it down to much and destroy the CF. Do you have any tips you can give me?

 

Putting clear coat back on it isn't that straight forward there is normally a gel coat on carbon parts originally. Also if it was made with polyester resin the clear coat probably isn't going to stick alternatively if they used epoxy resin then a urethane clear coat is probably going to be needed. Given you didn't make it there's no way to tell what they used and you could do all that work just to watch it peel off after its done.

Try to get with the manufacturer to see what they used and what should be used to put a new clear coat on it. Also urethane clear is probably going to be a 2 part paint and should be done professionally really 2k paints are typically very bad for your health and a standard over respirator with particulate & ov cartridge probably isn't going to give the needed respiratory protection, I know I used the spraymax and it contains dimethyl ether which 3m recommends using a supplied air respirator around since the ov cartridges last less than 30 minutes around that chemical which is why I always use brand new cartridges if I'm going to use it.

With regard to sanding go with a lighter grit like 600 or 400 and just spend more time doing it try to be careful not to sand into the carbon. If the slurry coming off is grayish black you're going into the carbon if its white you're removing the resin or old top coat.

As a last note the epoxy I'm using 105/207 is a special one its formulated to take well to varnish or paint and does not produce amine blush or turn cloudy in humid conditions.

Messing with these chemicals can become very technical in nature and hazardous to your health I normally wet sand the carbon and if its dry I use a respirator so I don't breathe in the dust.

 

New armrest and e-brake boot material from redline goods came in today.

Black alcantara with a single charcoal alcantara stripe on the seams, medium blue stitching and pleats on the arm rest w/ extra padding.

I used some foam from the last time I did this and got glue all over my arm rest on the sides as well, since the foam they include doesn't cover the sides only the top.

No glue on it this time, I used 3M super 77 this time though.

I think I should've done the arm rest without the pleats.

Similar steering wheel cover will have to follow eventually.

Pics

 

It looks great

 

Thanks

 

Clear coat went on the spoiler today, I decided to just do it myself so I picked up some new cartridges from home depot.

Here are the pics, I didn't have a problem with orange peel this time, looking good. Not so much with the backside and on one end I went into the carbon a little too much when I was getting it back to the edges.



You can get an idea of how the back is here, I got a lot of little bubbles right at the edges along the backside. Sucks I couldn't get that part perfect, I think if I did it again I could do better.







Just FYI I left the thing hanging outside for about 5 hours today after I put the clear coat on so it could off gas most of the way so it didn't stink when I brought it inside.

 

How much you charge to make me one :x

 

I think the seibon spoiler would be less expensive given my cost in materials and time.

Here's sort of a breakdown..

OEM base spoiler $100
Carbon fiber $10
Epoxy $30-$40 worth
Clear coat $20
Misc materials (sand paper, brushes, respirator cartridges) $30

Makes it around $200 then I have about 5 to 6 hours of active labor on the part sanding, trimming, painting, etc..

I don't think I'd be able to make a profit unless I did a whole bunch of them and got my costs down a little. Also I'm not a big fan of using this clear coat it looks great but is really hazardous to my health.

I'd have to charge like $300 and that'd be right on par with the seibon spoiler.

That's why I wouldn't do this for someone at that price I'd expect it to be perfect and that's probably not going to happen overlaying them like this.

 

Dude, LOVE the Alcantara and Carbon Fiber items.

 

Thanks, I'm really enjoying the new arm rest as well

Now just to wait about a week before I install the spoiler, haha .. more waiting.

Decided to give powder coating my valve covers another shot, this time I picked up some brand new Type-S valve covers and removed the studs from them, they were like epoxied in there with some type of glue.

I bought some 500 degree F, 5 mil glass/3 mil silicon adhesive tape that can take being sand-blasted to tape them off before I take these in for powder coating.

Here's some pics to get an idea of just how well I taped them off, I taped up the baffles on the insides and all the passages on the outside.





I would've thought brand new valve covers would come painted, but they come bare.

Where the PCV valve goes is uneven, so I had to stack a lot of tape on top of eachother to make it even with the other mating surface, then taped the whole thing off with a few pieces of tape once it was even so I could seal up the PCV.

There's a lot of tape on there lol..

 

This is amazing! Great work man! I love all the CF and wish I had the skills and time to do something like that

 

Anxious for more progress pics.

 

Yah I'm waiting to get everything together.

My C-MOD grille has about 1/2" gap on the bottom of it where it's not sitting in the RJ front bumper right at the bottom. No going back now, in the first photo with the RJ and C-MOD on it I had some double stick holding it down and it came up like a day after.

I have some undersink mounts that I need to epoxy onto the bottom of the C-MOD grille with thickened G-Flex (I have some silica stuff to thicken it) and re-enforce it with some of the last bits of carbon fiber I have that will be wet out with more gflex.

The undersink mount is basically a flat square with holes in it and studs coming up from the center. It also has a bracket to disperse the weight that slides over the stud.

You can actually see them all blurry in one of my photos with the spoiler .. sitting on my counter top.

Idea is to epoxy them to the C-MOD grille, make a hole in the RJ bumper (will be non-visible) so the stud can slip through it (underneath the C-MOD grille) and then use the bracket to disperse the weight along the underside and tighten the wing nut onto the stud.

That'll hold the bottom in, then I have to put the bumper back on and clip the top in and it flexes a bit doing that because the C-MOD really wasn't made for the ron-jon bumper.

I'm also still waiting to be able to wash it, around mid march I can put wax on the fresh paint.

I'm itching to mount the carbon fiber spoiler .. lol actually going to go pick up a clay bar kit tonight so I can clean up the trunk lid once I remove the WDP decklid spoiler. I may mount that in a few days here. I need better weather though it's raining out and I want the new double-stick I'm going to put on the bottom of the spoiler to adhere.

 

Mounted the spoiler today, has the factory bolts holding it on and I put some 3M VHB tape, stuff is designed to replace rivets lol .. it's not coming off.

Sort of washed the back of the car, car really needs to be washed off but still waiting on the paint to cure.

Factory fit

It actually covered up a few imperfections in the paint on the trunk, since the spoiler is a little wider now from the CF and the epoxy.










Eventually I'll get some good progress photos after I repair the front and am able to get some wax on the car in just over a month now.

 

Love it.....that looks great.

 

Thanks, I was actually looking at it today in the light and noticed it's a lot more wavy than I had thought right on the top of going down towards the front of the car. I never noticed it while I was working on it, oh well.

I also think I caught someone trying to steal my roof spoiler just in time today, looked like they had been working on it for a while.

The double stick was detached on it starting from both sides working towards the center, it was only held on in the center of it.

I was able to easily remove it, glad I found it like that, either someone was trying to steal it (seemed that way from the way it was detaching) or I didn't get a very good bond on it when I put it on.

I haven't re-attached it yet, I need to remove the old double stick tape from it now and I'll replace it with 3M VHB and I'll use some adhesion promoter and glue down the center of the spoiler inbetween the double-stick tape next time when I re-attach it.

If someone tries to steal it once I have it back on they're going to damage it before that tape and glue comes up.

If there's one thing I really hate it's thieves, there's actually 2 cameras on the car at my place 24/7 recording..

 

These just came in, picked them up from heeltoe BC Racing BR type coilovers with the swift spring upgrade.

I'll be raising the car up some tomorrow, since I lost ground clearance from the ronjon kit. I'll have a set of Tein SS's to sell after I put these on.



Rears..



Fronts..

 

Sweet!