Installing the recoated tank

Its been a while since my last post and that can mean two things, good or bad news… fortunately it was the first one!!! I’ve been driving alot the last few weeks.

Painting sliding window frames

Just something that was on the list for along time, didn’t do it because I had not found the right weatherstripping yet, well if you’ve read my previous post, you know that problem is solved, so onto the painting then.

Sand & paint the rims

This post actually covers a few weeks of work, but always done on the side, and to my opinion never interesting enough to make it a separate post. I started sanding the almost new Toyota rims I bought somewhere in January if i remember correctly.

Painting the Roof Top

The Roof top is now fully sealed and protected against rust, Time to sand the epoxy primer with a 500 grit sandpaper to a fully smooth surface and getting ready to paint its final layer of glossy white.

Roof top sealing

Because I was busy this week, the owner of my workplace helped me out by painting the rooftop with epoxy primer. This way I saved a day and could start right away with preparing the rooftop for its final layer of white.

Refreshing the Hub Locks

As an intermezzo, doing a small job brings back hope, and can give you as much satisfaction as a larger job. Therefore i decided to refresh the original Aisin locking hubs.

Hardtop: the final paintjob!

In the meantime the epoxy primer was good for sanding with grit 500 paper. This is the moment when the last preparations to the surface can be made,

Primer Hardtop & Doors

After sanding, repairing and preparing the hardtop panels and doors, its finally time for its first layer of paint, again epoxy primer, the best base coat used on bare metal.

Glove Box part 01

I will give some extra attention to the glove box in this post. The main reason is actually not the glove box cover itself, but the shift pattern instructions plate on it. With nice instruction in Japanese Kanji, I like that a lot!!!

Instrument cluster refresh

After a few paint fails, the old paint didn’t like the new paint on top, I finally sanded the instrument cluster frame to bare metal and started from scratch.

Retouch rear emblems

I completely forgot to post these pictures I made when repainting my rear emblems. I will place this with the right date stamp, so it will end up halfway my journal, sorry for that.

Painting tub: part 02

Yesterday was the last day in a series of 4 days of hard work! I began with sanding the tub, then lots of small items, painted those items first and finally yesterday I painted the tub to its final color. I must say; an energy consuming task… But thankfully, a rewarding task as well!

Painting small items and more…

Today I got through the box with all the small items still in need for its last paint job… and there are a lot!!! Like hinges, front fenders, spare tire rack and lots of small covers. Partly they were already sandblasted and prepared with zinc paint, so those parts only needed some light sanding.

Painting the Tub: part 01

I feel sorry that I haven’t posted for over 3 weeks… This was because I was abroad for a short while (Wales, UK) and had a very busy week at my work the week after. This week I booked 4 days in a row at my workshop, so this will speed-en up a bit from now on.

Sanding rear body/tub

I consider today as the steepest run of my project and therefore a milestone. Sanding is one of the most boring and time consuming part of the whole restoration process and therefore also the toughest part, If you conquer this, you’ve had the worst and better days will come.

Sand Blasting

If sanding dozens of small items sounds like a dream job to you, or if you have enough time left you almost consider restoring three other cars in the same time, than this might not be a post for you.

Retouch dash knobs

This weekend the workshop was closed unfortunately… but its not like there’s nothing I can do in the meantime. I still have a box full of small items that need some attention, for instance the dash knobs.

First final paint job

Today was my first day to finally spray paint the first parts to its final color. As I mentioned before, I started with the front parts, like hood, aprons, grill etc.
The last days, I’ve prepared these parts with several layers of primer, filler after that

Preparing Paint job

Getting closer and closer towards the paint job, there’s still a lot of work to be done. To get some overview in my work, I decided to work from front to rear. So I started to finish all the work