Project Elephant: DeeCee's GT4A

deecee

New member
In 10 minutes, the panel shop answered all my questions and I confirmed that I will be dealing with them direct going forward. That was easy wasn't it?
 

deecee

New member
I had figured out what needed to be done last night. After some meetings this morning I called the panel shop, made it clear that by the end of the conversation I would be dealing with them and asked them to answer some questions. Satisfied with the answers, I confirmed that they are dealing with me direct and not the panel beater.

1) My panel beater sub-contracted the painting out to another panel shop
2) Bonnet and bumpers still haven’t been painted as they are apparently waiting on me for the guards
3) Rear guards still haven’t been rolled
4) $1600 was the deal between panel beater and shop. Nothing has been paid thus far, so I will take over that contract. May cost another $400 for the guard rolling as it may break the paint – should have been done in prep (sigh)

Next steps
1) work with panel shop only going forward
2) have words with the ‘panel beater’
3) get the car finished.

Will be a waste of time trying to deal with the panel beater any further. I’d rather deal direct and pay money (it’s on the panel shops books btw, not a cash job) and get stuff done rather than waste any further time.
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
DeeCee":1a21qm7s said:
And I don't sulk. I sort shit and keep moving forward. Whats the use of spiraling into a state of unknown? I don't operate like that.

Well that is the best way to handle it.
 

deecee

New member
Yep - have to work through these types of scenarios instead of getting upset. As I normally do, took a couple of steps back, evaluated the scenario, postulated steps to resolution, refined the preferred solution and as of 10.00am, started the steps of that solution.
 

deecee

New member
Inspected car and parts last night at panel shop and made agreements that the job goes through me going forward.
Various items have been prepped for paint, but some items still need prep work.
Talked with the manager about rolling the guards as they hadn't been before paint, meaning that if the guards are rolled, there is a high likelihood of the paint racking at the edge of the arch. Should have been done in prep, like I had previously asked of the panel beater, but a screw up that has to be most likely be fixed by feathering it in... #$%^

Anyway actions to be taken going forward. I need to get the guards done so they can do they painting all in one hit. Manager to get back to me regarding options on the guard rolling.

Talked with the panel beater. Found him lying on his couch watching tv and drinking a beer. Didn't even bother to get up to talk.
I told him that I didn't get my car because of the cash demand and that as a result I was going to use the panel shop going forward. Initially he said 'less work for me then' and then he made motions to control his 'deal', that he'll 'sort it out', 'they should have done the work' and 'I was just giving them some work to help them out'. When I told him it had been 8 months, he was 'man, has it been that long, time flies fast when you're busy aye'.. obviously not doing my work.

No mention of any additional money except for what he agreed with the panel shop. Before I left, I told him to drop anything he has of mine at my friend's place. Rather an amicable break of the working relationship, even if his comments just left me thinking 'why did I even bother'.

Did more fibreglassing last night.. tired as a result as I didn't get home till midnight. That's my life, how's everyone else going?
 

underscore

Well-known member
With the fresh paint and a heatgun they should be able to roll the rear lips without cracking the paint if they take it slowly, hopefully they can pull it off without having to respray anything.
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
I am curious if they can trim the fender lip instead of rolling it for you? I wish I cut mine off instead. It would still need to be touched up but only on the inside. Something to consider.
 

deecee

New member
I did discuss trimming the inner lip to allow for easier rolling. Problem is that you can't trim the lip beyond the spot welds, unless you are bonding the wheel well skin and outer panel skin together in some other way, be it additional spot welds or rivets. Also, if you cut out any of the sealant, it would need to be replaced to keep the area watertight as well
 

deecee

New member
Because I haven't updated much good stuff lately, I'd thought I'd quickly post some photos taken off my phone. Lots of photos on the main camera so full explanations later.

Guard moulding - 90% prep, 10% actually doing. I'm making multi-piece moulds. Guard is mounted on the RC for fibreglassing to ensure minimal warping of the mould. If I did it on a workbench, then the fear is the guard would flex and not be in a natural mounting position. Alternatively was to copy the mounting points and make a jig so I could make the mould in the horizontal position, but I just sucked it up and got on with the job with the guard on the car.

Note the flanges. Multiple pieces, multiple curvatures. Took a long long time to measure and cut to fit/curve. Plastic is hot glued to the rear of the edge on to tape. While it is easy to force a curve with the corflute plastic signboard, the aim was to reduce the tension in the curve as it may release during gelcoat/fibreglass. Put pressure on it and the hot glue/board might have popped off mid glassing.

Also needed to think about how the multi-piece mould would assemble together. Issues with mechanical lock and not being able to release once the mould and copy is made.

And finally, I needed to push this job through as a) panel beater is waiting so they can paint a bunch of parts all at once, b) cracks were appearing in the body filler (grr). Where the car is placed is facing the garage door. The door becomes very hot as it is West facing and captures the afternoon sun and the subsequent handling of the guards while building the flanges and heat made the guards very fragile. With the cracks appearing, I determined that this was a one shot job, therefore I had to make the moulds on the first hit. There will be no going back to try again later. All prep work was done with this in mind.
deecee_celica_temp044.jpg


Once the flanges are glued to the guard, the next step is sealing the flange to the guard. I used modelling clay to create a seal. Note, every edge needs to be done and the tidier you do it, the better the end result. Probably removed fingerprint on index finger as I smoothed out the clay transition between the guard edge and the flange. I also used a wooden coffee stirrer stick to make initial transition and pack the clay into tight spots.
deecee_celica_temp045.jpg


5-6 layers of release wax applied, then 3-4 light coats of PVA release agent. Location domes added to the flanges on the multi piece flanges.
deecee_celica_temp046.jpg


A thick layer of tooling gelcoat applied. Main issue I had here was that I didn't mix the gelcoat thoroughly enough. When I applied the polyester resin later, there were some slight wrinkles in the gelcoat as the resin catalysed the non-cured gelcoat. Majority of the shape was good, so I will fix up the bad spots later.
deecee_celica_temp047.jpg


Messy fun time. I use 450gm chopped strand matt and I sometimes pull a piece into two halves to create 225gm matt layers for hard curves and initial lay up.
deecee_celica_temp048.jpg


Each guard would get it's own resin session which takes just over an hour. That means applying the resin and glass, and continually pushing the fibreglass down for minimal air bubbles errant glass strands. Took about 3 hours total for both guards e.g pour/mix resin, lay glass, continue surface prep until brush turns cloggy. Takes about 1.5L of resin to do a couple of layers of fibreglass. Pre cutting helped a lot with a large 450gm piece laid on the cured gelcoat and cut in specific areas to reduce clumping on curves or edges (hence why there are random strands on the gelcoat). Cured gelcoat was lightly scuffed with 80grit to ensure adhesion layer.

No shots of layup in between glass sessions on the phone so will have to wait till I get of the main camera. Did two sessions per side with about 5-6 layers of matt, then I cut up some wood, added relief slots to curve the wood and hot glued to the cured resin for reinforcement.
deecee_celica_temp049.jpg


Got to the point where I was finished enough to remove the protective covering over engine and door openings. Drove the RC out of the garage and cleaned up after myself and with some help, put the doors back on. Drop clothes under the guards worked a treat, though there were a lot of loose strands to clean up.
deecee_celica_temp050.jpg


As you can see, the guards have reinforcement in them to minimise warping once released from the guard itself. The hot glue lifted in places, so I'll need to reinforce the wood with more resin and glass. So far, this has taken around 10L of resin. Started removing the temp flanges and moulds are starting to look good. Minor wrinkling of the gelcoat in certain places, but not a bigger and can be repaired.
deecee_celica_temp051.jpg
 

deecee

New member
It's been a while since I have done some updates, so quick update.

So slowly been working on the guard moulds and reproductions, and unfortunately this has taken a lot longer than expected due to work commitments consuming a lot of out of hours time, trying to get Pearl back on the road and generally, the moulds and reproductions taking a lot of time to fix up and get as best as possible.

So I have built the moulds and started on the fibreglass versions, when I get a text on 9-July from my mum, saying to contact someone at the panel shop.
Apparently they have been trying to contact me for a while about the car (though I left a message on the shop managers phone a month back..) as the business is closing up. Called up the owner and she said the shop was closing on the 10th July and I had to get my car and parts out by 4pm. To hear the news was rather unexpected, but I kicked into overdrive and started sorting out storage space with friends so I could store the car in a safe and dry place.

I kept up the calls with the shop owner and manager and we finally settled on the cost of the paint job as the work wasn't finished and arranged the use of their trailer so I could get the car back to Nick's place where the RC was stored. Luckily Nick and I had cleaned his garage the previous weekend so it was just a matter of driving the car out and storing it under a cover before moving the Elephant into the vacant space. In the morning I popped around to Nicks and finished up making room and prepping the garage for the influx of parts to come.

Next day I worked from home/took day off, and went over to the panel shop. They were in full swing removing offices and clearing out the cars and parts stored in the shop. The paint booths had already gone and my car was still sitting where it had been since I last saw it in January. Over the course of the day, I moved various parts back to Nick's and finally we got my car on to the trailer and back to Nick's safely. There was a can of nuts/bolts/badges/grommets and I was lucky to find the boot lid bolts as the lid wouldn't fit in my station wagon so we fitted the boot lid to the car. Found a spare boot opening surround as well, so there was no metal on metal contact. It was raining heavily, so the car did get a fair amount of water in the cabin, but at least I got back safely.

The panel shop decided to paint the bonnet and bumpers as part of the deal. Was a bit hard for them as they could only use some heat lamps to flash off the paint and I picked them up at the end of the day with the paint still soft. But I was expecting to only take back the primered parts, so to have them painted was a nice little bonus. They even bought a little more paint to finish up the job.

Car was covered in a layer of primer dust for sitting so long. This combined with the rain left the shell with a decent mess to clean up. Water also pooled in the cabin during the ride over, so I spent the afternoon/evening cleaning up the mess inside and out with paper towels. This also allowed me to inspect the shell up close and identify any issues.

Long story short, I have my car back after a year of waiting. The paint job is pretty reasonable with some junk in the paint but nothing that can't be cut back with a wet sand. They didn't clear coat it as I had expected, so I'll figure out if I want to do that or just buff the 2k. The didn't roll the guards as it would breach the paint job. As there are a number of parts not painted, I'll make a decision on the guard rolling as soon as possible before arranging another panel beater to do the fibreglass guards and other non finished parts. There are also parts missing so I'm going to have to chase the original panel beater to get some stuff back which is going to be a big hassle.

Here are some pics of the car as I got it back

deecee_celica_temp052.jpg


deecee_celica_temp053.jpg


deecee_celica_temp054.jpg


deecee_celica_temp055.jpg


deecee_celica_temp056.jpg
 

MacGyver

Member
I kind of giggle to myself wondering how many of us have the exact same pile of parts and stuff sitting in the back like that. Mine looks almost exactly the same. If only my body looked as nice as yours. Good luck!
 

deecee

New member
That stuff is mostly Nicks. I have a garage and house full of parts that were removed from the car and I had to store somewhere. Parts under the bed, in the wardrobe, in various drawers/cabinets, in the office, in the spare room, etc.
 

deecee

New member
FYI, this project still isn't finished. Many things on the go including finishing Pearl (which also hasn't been finished) and a car stereo installation in my daily.
Am looking to get the rolling body back to my place at the end of March after nearly 2 years away.

Still committed to completing the car, but as we all know, time is a valuable resource and it's hard to prioritise work when there are so many things on the go.
 

bmt

New member
Oh I think we all know the project car progress that feels like your pulling your car through a lake of tar!!! Keep going and Kia kaha brother.
 

deecee

New member
Hey Corey,

No real updates. I've been working on the Pearl project, which was almost road worthy in 2016, but failed on a power steering rack leak.

After we removed the rack, we found some serious issues with the power steering rack mount on the firewall. It had been broken and repaired badly so there has been significant effort in removing, repairing and reinforcing the rack mount. At the same time, there were also issues with the engine block, with one of the previous owners cutting off the mounting point in the transfer case location. This required cleanup and a new bracket to be fabricated and installed to repair the issue.

Overall, once the front end was taken apart, there have been numerous issues to resolve and remediate, and majority of time has been spent on fixing these issues.
I'll try and update the Pearl thread when I get a chance as I have generally moved away from forums in terms of documenting my projects. The photobucket hosting issue has also been an influence in this and I would need to do a full scale re-link to new URLs - and you know how many photos I have across the projects...

A couple of things with Elephant looking back at my last update:
1) Widebody guards were fabricated a couple of years back, but still require trimming and finishing.
2) Turbo has moved to a Kinugawa TD05-16G 8cm instead of the Holset HX35. I decided that I was better off having a responsive turbo instead of a laggy snail, with respect to the lack of headwork which would be required to increase CFM.
3) have identified a fabricator who can build me a manifold to my specs instead of buying something off the shelf which may or may not fit.
4) Walbro fuel pump was salvaged for use in Pearl, so I recently bought a Deatschwerks DW300 so I can put the fuel tank in.
5) Moved from a Link G3 to a Link G4 Extreme (red edition) which I picked up for a deal

Yeah, that's pretty much about it for Elephant. Most of my money and time has been spent on Pearl and I am pushing to get Pearl back on the road and sold before I get back to Elephant.

I have also considered a vlog to document the reassembly of Elephant, and am working through some of the logisitics of that. I have just purchased a house, so will be moving the Elephant project there and will restart the project later in the year (fingers crossed).

Anything else, feel free to ask

Cheers, Dave
 

Corey

Active member
Hey Dave,

Congrats on the new house. ya the photobucket issue was a bummer. I've been meaning to re-link the photos on my threads also.

Was going back through some of the pictures of your project and its amazing. Glad to hear its still moving along. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Cheers
 

deecee

New member
I am surprised you can actually see photos. I thought that they didn't work anymore as I do not pay PB's exorbitant monthly hosting prices.
And the project moves at a snails pace lol. Priority is finishing Pearl and getting it out of my life - funny to thing to say about a RC and the amount of $ and time spent on it, but I am committed to finishing Elephant as it will be the better car at the end of the day :)
 
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