Fazda's Daily Beater...rags to sweetness.. (new pics page two, raised up, new lip!)

[FazdaGt]

It is painful driving the vette to work everyday, it's all backroads so the paint is getting chipped, and the gas mileage is about 15mpg.

So, I went on a search for a "beater" probe to get me around on the weekdays since i have mountains of spare parts.

I found one at an amazing price locally so I had to pick it up.

So saturday afternoon I picked up my first 4cyl probe, and this is my fifth... all of the others were/are gt's and v6's....the red car in the backround is a major project, there's a journal on that somewhere as well.

in three days i took this car from embarassing to drive, to a decent daily whore...i doubt much else will change, i just wanted it to meet my standards befroe i drove it around


Saturday afternoon: wrecked, beat, and disgusting:


saturday evening... some progress:


sunday: getting better




some first gen love: (my brother's litttle project)


and Monday night, my sweet new fuel efficient daily driver:

slammed on Ksports, with some fd's, and a nice comfy full interior.

I borrowed some parts from my collection, figured i'll use this as a test dummy until i put the gts together completely.

the paint needs some work, it was a very, very rushed job but it works for now











....man this car is super slow, i'm pondering a simple turbo setup to satisfy me.

enjoy!
-Jason

[IdriveBad]

That actually looks pretty nice. I'm not a fan of probes at all but that paint combo and wheels + lowered looks pretty good.

[arkadyzv]

Damn, from beat to **** to sexay in 3 days. I personally love the way it looks, even the booger green to black combo looks pretty sweet.

[teh DIRT]

looks great man.

[FazdaGt]

thanks guys, i definitely love the green... it's a color i'vewanted to try but i never had a car that i wanted to risk ruining.

it turned out well, just don't get too close to it, you'll see some (okay, maybe a lot) flaws, real paint guys would hate me

but hey, it's a daily beater and it's shiny so i'm good with it.

[FazdaGt]

So I fixed the gaping hole in the passenger side this weekend, and got her out of the garage and on the road.

I think i'm a bit too low, but oh well..the tires are only rubbing the top of the wheel wells haha.

The paint still needs a lot of wetsanding and buffing, I rushed things and got a lot of fisheye and orangepeel. oh well it looks great for a full repsray under $100

I need to find a problem in the headlight circuit, they don't go up and down on their own.

and yes, I know i'm missing a door cap.... I'm working on that.

Also, I painted the stock hood to match and put it on, the cf hood is for the GTS and it'll be painted on there, I hate the mismatched hood look.

I ran out of daylight, and my camera hates night time, so if the car manages to stay clean ill try to get some better quality pics tomorrow.









enjoy!

[SvicksTc]

Props on that work man, thats awesome not a fan of probes either but hell i would drive that as a daily any day....Good Work ferrr reaalllzzzz

[twastheglow]

That looks really good. I like the color a lot, I like the wheels and love the stance. FTMFW when it comes to DD. I'm actually quite jealous. I need a good winter car.

[james_ls]

Awesome DD.

I liked it when it was flat green though...

[FazdaGt]

thanks guys, the wheels are actually fd rx-7 wheels, super light...

unfortunately i need to raise the back up just a hair to stop some serious tire rub, but hopefully not tooo much

i did like the flat green, but i'm ocd with keeping a clean, nice car... so the clear coat was a must.

[doug]

Man you take on a lotta projects.. looks good.

[lownslow95]

man, that thing looks damn good for a dd. i like the color and the rx7 wheels that you put on there. ditch the trailer hitch though.

[FazdaGt]

yes i do doug....i have very little free time.

and the trailer hitch stays, i'm gonna get some serious use out of this car

[Gorilla Unit 33]

Man i swear your the only person in the world that can make a probe decent. Every other probe i ever see is riced the hell out or ... no just riced the hell out plain and simple. Props to you man.

[FazdaGt]

i feel you on that.

i try to keep my cars looking clean and nice, i jsut happen to have an odd personal taste for the probe.

so.... i save a few haha

[TROLL]

lots of improvements on the car... it wont upset me to see it a little higher though. low is good, but too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

[FazdaGt]

i know... it's coming up some

the coils are really for my other car, and i'm kinda testing out what does and doesn't work on this car so by the time the other car is ready i know exactly how i want things set up.

i super slammed it mainly because no one else with coils on a probe will do it, and drive it...so i did.

i'd like to keep it [retty lowfor daily use, but it's gotta come up in the back for sure...especially if i use that hitch for a small trailer haha

[TROLL]

cool... and can you outline what you did to paint the car? i know you said its not perfect but for the price it seems like you got a lot out of it... just interested in the process and what was involved.

[FazdaGt]

i saw a friends 240 painted entirely in flat green rust proof primer and i loved it, so i decided to do it to my next beater car...

this car qualified so i went to wal-mart as they have it at the cheapest price.

I bought a total of:

11 cans of Green Dupli-Color Self-Etching Primer
2 cans of Rustoleum Satin Black

I did basic prep work so the paint would adhere well, and light body work, but I'm not looking for perfection so I spent little time on that.

then, myself and several friends taped off the important stuff, painted the bottom of the car with the green primer. and the roof with the satin black.

after that "base coat" was applied, I dug into my personal collection.

I always have clear coat around for misc. paint projects

I use a U-tech brand clear, with a slow activator.

It took a total of about 2 quarts to clear coat the car.

this is a professional grade automotive clear coat sprayed with a quality paint gun

However, U-tech clear costs just over $100 for a full gallon with activator.

I used half of that, putting the clear cost at about $50, and the paint cost also around $50

Clear is only sold by the gallon where i buy it, so this job would cost that average person about a weekend's worth of grunt work, and $150

the only step different from your average rattlecan job is the clear coat process.

I'm assuming that the fisheye and orange peel is from three things:

1: The primer is not really made to be clear coated
2: I didn't think to wipe the "base coat" down well before applying the clear
3: I sprayed the clear too fast, as I wanted to get done quickly.

I did some wetsanding work onthe car, and it buffs out fairly well. However, the job is not showroom quality.

I was in a rush in general, but if you would take your time, and prep all surfaces correctly, as well as spray the clear in a more professional manner (don't rush, do good prep work) your car could turn out much better... also the average guy would have half a galon of clear left over, it wouldn't hrut to wetsand the whole car and shoot it with a second coat of clear.,, or you can halfass it like i did and get two cars done if you're on a really steep budget and a friend wants in too.

All you really need is access to a spray gun. and air compressor.

this isn't a professional job, so just make sure you're using a well ventilated garage and that you don't have neighbors that will complain about the fumes... they do get strong while spraying and you should wear a mask.

i'd suggest covering the walls with some cheap painters plastic so you don't get overspray everywhere... that'll als help with keeping dirt out, and dust down since you'll have a makeshift booth.


Mine looks great for the money i have invested, and i'm satisified. But i'm sure with more effort and patience someone else's may turn out even better. I'd say if you're on a budget and your car has awful paint, this is a cheap way to step your car's look up a ton.


I think that uisng the satin colors really helps to get a nice even coating with the rattle cans, it sort of evens itself out, and as long a you get good coverage it dries very evenly. This was the same for the black and the green.

I may have missed some details. If you'd like me to do a more "clear" write up with better explanations of supplies and what not to post in the general auto section i'll be happy to. This was a "maybe this will work" idea, and it did so it'd be great to see others benefit from it as well.

i wonder what the red primer would like like clear coated?

or even grey?

[FazdaGt]

if anyone has any questions, pm me or im me...

i'm open to sharing and helping people out.