Havnt posted anything in a while. Camera doesn’t come out much when your priority is to get work out the doors!
The big turbo GTI was back for a wastegate recirculation, resonator delete and some custom turndown tips. The bottom mount manifold and 50MM turbo doesn’t leave a lot of room to fit a flex section after the wastegate and a good spot to recirc the dump. We had to run it alongside, avoid the 02’s and put it in where it is pictured. Everything is SS and tigged. Then it was wrapped with titanium header wrap. The turndowns are KK signature series pie cut tight radius 2.5” twins.
A few shots of the 67 Camaro we painted. Perfect example of get what you pay for. The customer had another shop do the body work and paint it first. Then the trunk came to us first to be re-sprayed because the paint was lifting all over the place and they figured it would be a good feeler for our paint skills. Eric fixed it perfectly and now the trunk looked way better than the rest of the car, so the customer said lets to it all over again. First thing we did was take some 320 on the 30” durablock and make a few passes down the doors, quarters and hood… it looked like zebra stripes from all the highs and lows. We blocked out the entire car again, and put about 40 hours body time into the car to fit what’s left of the owner’s budget for the car’s paint and the results ended up exceeding his expectations. Do it once, do it right is the moral of the story. More pics in the shop will come when I get them off the SD card. There were taken from the owner.
And I took an old MK4 trunk and shaved the VW off it, then shot it PG for my jetta. Logo is removed, all the paint is stripped out of the recess. Then the compass scribe and plasma cutter come out to make the 16ga filler plate. Sanding it on the bench sander perfectly up to the scribe line for a few mins and you have a perfect filler panel. Fitment is perfect, and is key to keep the body work and thickness down. No need to fully weld this one, since it’s a recessed filler not a butt fitment. Panel bond is awesome. $65 a tube its expensive as hell, but it’s the best stuff out there. Scuff the parts to 36grit, clean with acetone and apply the part. An hour later its fully cured and can be body worked. If you think its not as strong as a weld, we shaved a junk door like this, let it fully cure, and hit it with a mallet from the inside out… it dented the entire door and would not knock the panel off or even loosen it up. Its also designed to expand and contract as close to metal as metal itself, so cracking filler (when kept thin and layered correctly) will not happen. Plus by not welding, you don’t risk warping a panel and wasting hours in hammer and dolly work and many more coats of filler to block out the mistake. Trunk was started and in primer in only 3 or 4 man hours. Painted the next day, and installed.
Soon, very soon. There is a mad dash on the 356 to get the body in primer and paint to get it paid on and out of the bay. then we can pull it in and have room to breath inside again.
Still planning on bringing you my R6 gas tank over winter. I don’t know when though, maybe January or February.
*Actually, I may be ready very soon. I’ll be in touch - but I could possibly be ready to drop the tank off in a week or two, and since I’m not riding, I wouldn’t be in a hurry.
Welded in some subframe connections under a 3rd Gen Firebird. One thing to note, the pass side the instructions say to cobbjob that diagonal tube on laying over the long tube. Not in my shop. I notched it accordingly and welded it in as it should be.
The quick $1500 respray. This is what you get for a “quick” full car respray. Scuff and shoot. Light buff afterwards and send it on its way. Results would surprise a lot of people actually. It looks pretty good for a cheap respray.
When a car comes in with a fresh paintjob that the customer isnt thrilled with, this is what it takes to do it all over again, right. Best example of do it right the first time and you wont waste thousands of $$$$. From 30 feet away, or driving by at speed people would think “man that’s a nice Camaro”… the moment you look down the body, not so much. 60+ body hours later:
forgot one. EvoX FMIC, chargepipes, Synapse BOV recirc’d, HKS E-boost controller, AEM UEGO wideband and AEM electric boost/vac. FMIC and BOV needed minor tweaks but it all fits perfectly now.
Honda civic rear trailing arms, front knuckles and spindles. We tore them down, sandblasted them all, powercoated them in satin black. The rebuilt them. New upgraded bushings, replacement ball joints, bearings, ARP studs.
Mike,
Thanks again for welding the sub-frame connectors… Awesome job! The car is not a rattle trap anymore and maybe, just maybe I can get some more of the HP to the ground
Long list of work on this C4. Started off by powercoating and painting accessories under the hood. Then made some -6 stainless braided lines for feed and return into the stock rail. Fixed a leaky water pump, made some brackets since the original manifolds were replaced with long tubes, replaced the heater core, and a bunch of odds and ends.
Then I made a header back exhaust. 3" Y pipe out of the headers, then 3" to the back axle, V-banded there, then I made another Y pipe that goes 3" in to dual 2.5" outs, bent over and up to the mufflers. Motors rebuilt, and has a mild cam in it. Sounds pretty good I would say.
We have been working on a C4 for a customer. It started off as powercoating work. Everything in purple we coated, and all the accessories in gloss black were painted. (cant take them apart, and they wont take the heat) Then we ended up doing alot of odds and ends, leaky water pump, making brackets for the accessories that used to mount off the stock manifolds, long tubes were put in their place. We made some -6 stainless braided feed and return lines for the fuel system, plumbed in a new coolant temp sensor, and a bunch of little things here and there.
Then I got to making a header back stainless exhaust. 3" Y pipe out of the headers, into a single 3" down the center to the rear axle. Then I V-banded it there and made another Y pipe that went 3" into dual 2.5" outlets, a few pie cuts around the center diff up to the mufflers.
Looking good guys! Thought that body panels/parts were supposed to be painted exactly how they were to lie on the vehicle. Bumpers look fine but things like the doors and such shouldn’t be laid flat. Maybe I heard wrong, jw.
