Gladiators '90 MX5 NA6

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:58 pm

While I'm waiting for my welding mate to come back from a stint in the mine, I started rubbing back.

I've hit a bit of a snag. Whoever painted the car last time, sprayed the lower half of both sides with, I don't know what, but it is as hard as nails & rough to touch.

So I attacked with the random orbi & removed the orange peel to reveal undercoat covering more this crap.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? I sure haven't.

All these bits are going to be taken back very close to bare metal, if not all the way.

I also cleaned up the area below the brake booster & then started washing off the bay with GP thinners. That gets it very clean easily. It doesn't matter that it removes some paint as well.

That's it for now though. It's time to get cleaned up & start cooking Valentines Dinner for SWMBO.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Fri Feb 24, 2017 5:53 pm

I did some more sanding today. Part of which was the underside of the bonnet. What a bastard of a job. It took 4 hours & I no longer have fingerprints. But it's done now & getting closer to paint time.

Before

After

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:01 am

Gladiator wrote::What a bastard of a job. It took 4 hours & I no longer have fingerprints. :

Perfect time to do a heist!

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 9:41 am

There's an idea. Maybe not a good one though.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:44 pm

Finally after 5 coats of paint stripper & a fair amount of elbow grease, those troublesome parts of one door is bare metal. There was so much paint on there!!! I may have reduced some weight as well.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:06 pm

I've discovered that if you score the crap out of the surface, the stripper gets better penetration.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

billybunter · Postby **billybunter** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 4:24 pm

that really is a nice clean job under the bonnet. until you start these jobs most have no idea who long or how many hours you have to put into it. plus you know exactly why the pro paint shops charge so much to do a re-spray :lol:

you can also use 60 or 40 grit dry rub paper to score it up before applying the paint stripper too. that's what I usually do or have done.

I think the crap you had on the lower door sills is more a paint chip protector and something like what's on the lower sills on the nb's but in your case a lot more area to work over.

once you use a metal cleaner and prime the underside of the bonnet -the pressure is off you for a while. plus it appears you are having a bit of fun too~ :lol:

well that's what they say to me but I don't like doing it much at all.

but the saving in $$$ is worth it :wink:

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 5:38 pm

Yeah Billy, I am actually enjoying it, most of the time. Looking forward to driving it again too though.
The $$$ saving is huge & very much worth it. So far I've spent about $20, & I got a quote for all my paint & more than I actually need is just over $600.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

speed · Postby **speed** » Fri Mar 03, 2017 7:15 pm

[quote="Gladiator"]
When you remove the aircon, you'll need to replace the bolt that holds the A/C pump bracket with a shorter one (it goes through the oil pump housing i think). this was the case when I removed the aircon from my NA6. At first I just left it out and had a small oil leak.

That's it centre of pic. From memory, the bracket bolts onto the side of the block plus one bolt in the front. It's that bolt.

Thanks for this info.
Turns out that I did have a small oil leak. I ended up cutting down my factory bolt.
The top left of the 4 side bracket bolts had oil around it, so I put all 4 side bracket bolts in just to be sure. Didn't cut them down but just wanted to make sure that the oil wasn't leaking from anywhere else.

Anyways, very helpful info.

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sat Mar 04, 2017 8:24 pm

No probs Speed. It actually feels good to be the giver of decent info rather than the recipient for once.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sat Mar 04, 2017 8:33 pm

Well I got home from a nightshift at 6am today, & seeing as I wasn't tired, & my new windscreen removal tool has arrived I thought, "let's rip this bastard out". So what do you think? A career with windscreens O'Brien is calling?

It's out in one piece!! One piece over here, one piece over there, & oh look there's another piece!!

Tomorrow will be more exciting. I'm planning on depowering my steering rack. I'm hoping to do a full pictorial/text 'how to', since there isn't one on here that I can find.

Stay tuned...........

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Mon Mar 06, 2017 2:20 pm

- I'd probably end up with the same result too

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Mon Mar 06, 2017 3:14 pm

Hi,
The bottom half of the doors have factory stoneguard (the mottled finish).
When I partly stripped my bonnet, the top surface had an extra layer of plastic primer which did not want to strip (had to do it 5 times?). The underside was easy, just paint and primer which stripped first time.
How many litres of primer have you used? Should be lots.
I had a pro take out my windshield - he cracked it too. Good thing it was getting replaced for RWC.
Bruce