89 Hatch Lxi partial respray project.

[89HatchbackLxi]

I finally got tired of looking at the spot respray which was deteriorating and chipping away on my driverside rear quarterpanel. I'm assuming it had been spot resprayed at some point that was quite a long time ago, judging by how it was lacquer paint that was used for the respray. Anyways, I decided to fix it up finally.

This is my second semester being in an Auto Refinishing class so decided I would use this as one of my projects this semester. I'm planning to do a respray on both rear quarter panels (as well as do a decent amount of rust repair on them), both bumpers, the entire tail end, and possibly the roof as well. I used a spray can for my last repair project which turned out pretty good for what I was working with. (http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76812) Anyways, I'm planning to do this repair with far higher quality materials than I used in my last one.

Supplies so far:

1 Quart of TranStar 2K Acrylic Urethane Primer + Activator
(Primer total: $45)



1 Quart (2 Quarts Sprayable) DuPont ChromaBase R-70M Paint + 7175S Med Temp. Basemaker
1 Quart (2 Quarts Sprayable) DuPont ChromaClear 2400S Clear Coat + 2475S Activator
(Paint+Clear total: $280)


Progress so far:
I've sanded down the driverside rear quarterpanel. I removed the chipping lacquer area down to the primer, and sanded the clear and minor imperfections out of the remaining areas. Im going to be priming this area on Tuesday, after which I'll be moving on to the rear of the car.

Pics:

Before:

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC03936.jpg
Driver Side Quarter Panel

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC03939.jpg
Close Up of Driver Side Quarter Panel Deteriorating Paint

Progress Pics:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05086.jpg
Sanding Day 1

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05092.jpg
Sanding Day 2

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05096.jpg
Another from Sanding Day 2

I'll be keeping this thread updated with pics and stuff following my progress on the repair. :)

[obdriver6]

Looking good! Are you planning to paint the car by sections?

[89HatchbackLxi]

Looking good! Are you planning to paint the car by sections?

Thanks!

I'm going to sand/prep it section by section, but prime each section before I move to the next, then paint the areas all at once when I get everything ready.

[Dr_Snooz]

Sweet! How do you match the paint?

[89HatchbackLxi]

Sweet! How do you match the paint?
Fortunately, the majority of the paint on my car isn't faded much at all. So I'm hoping I can do some successful blending on this. But it's gonna be a huge pain to do the masking on this since I can't remove any of the trim pieces without risking breaking them. I already lost a clip when it fell into the quarterpanel hole where it sits, I also broke a clip holder on the molding as I was taking it off the rear quarterpanel, so I'm going to be leaving everything else on the car so nothing else gets broken...

[Hazwan]

Blend the paint to the door as well else you would risk them being off. Its gonna be off no matter what anyway. Look up paint blending, I suck at explaining things.

[89HatchbackLxi]

Blend the paint to the door as well else you would risk them being off. Its gonna be off no matter what anyway. Look up paint blending, I suck at explaining things.

Yeah, we went over different methods of blending last semester. My class instructor (who works at a body shop) said he'd help me out with it a bit. Hopefully he meant that he'd help me with getting the blending right too. I may not get it perfect, but I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to get it pretty close at least. :)

[89HatchbackLxi]

Update:

I put the first few coats of primer on the driver-side rear quarter panel today. I think it turned out pretty good. :)

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/web2.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/web3.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/web1.jpg

[A18A]

looking good so far (Y)

[mushroom_toy]

White epoxy primer? :)

[89HatchbackLxi]

Update:

Before:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/rearchip-1.jpg

Started working on getting the lightly rusting scratches out as well as filling a couple of little dings.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/web4.jpg

[Honda Man]

Sweet jesus that looks dam nice!! Do you want to paint my car to?? :) my left rear quarter paner clear coat is peeling

[DBMaster]

Just a thought. If I were any good at that kind of stuff and I was doing what you're doing I would remove the "Honda" and "Accord" badges in back. I've always thought they were obnoxiously large on our cars.

[gp02a0083]

not bad at all, the primer looks like it's sprayed down well. in addition the bodywork looks good, i think your on the right path. Ask your instructor if you can practice on metallic colors to blend, if you can manage blending those most other colors/tints will be easy.

[The_Biker11]

Looking good so far!

[89HatchbackLxi]

Update:

Well, I ran into a slight delay in the respray process the other day when sanding down the passenger rear wheel well... and I guess it's pretty obvious what would be waiting underneath the bubbling paint, I think I was just hoping it wouldn't be quite as bad as it turned out to be. But it had indeed rusted through the outer panel a bit, so I'm going to have to replace that area with a repair panel. I knew when I started that this was the only area of the car that was in pretty bad condition, so I'm actually looking forward a little bit to fixing this area, since the rest of the car is in good shape.

Anyways, here are some pics of the rust damage I found after I took the wheel well trim piece off and removed the bubbling paint that was over the area.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05159.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05157.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05158.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05160.jpg

Lovely ain't it?

On the bright side, I was able to remove all the rear emblems without damaging any of them.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05177.jpg

All are still in pretty decent shape, other than the "HONDA" text. I'm thinking of trying to repaint this and restore it, but I'm not quite sure if I want to attempt this yet since I can't find much online about how to do this on that type of material. Doesn't seem like something that can just be sanded easily and then repainted.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05179.jpg

As for the rest of the car, the progress has been going quite nicely. I sanded down the roof (clear coat had been just barely starting to fail in tiny white patches, so I figured, why not just repaint the roof too, since I'm going to be respraying other areas) in addition to the rear bumper, the passenger quarter panel, and the tailside of the car.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05187.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05200.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05201.jpg

So, I'm going to be doing some more priming on the roof and rear areas of the car. The patch panel I ordered should be arriving on monday, so I'll be able to get started on that soon. :)

[Dr_Snooz]

I feel a full respray coming on...

You're going to be astounded by how nice the car looks with a good paint job. Your work looks great.

[DBMaster]

If you want to restore your emblems rather than eliminating them or getting new ones there are a number of places you can find online that do chrome plating of plastic parts. While there are silver paints out there nothing is quite the same as chrome plating.

Seems like more of a salvage yard item, though.

[Tdurr]

Jy for sure.

But I'm loving this thread. I'd like to do this in my spare time.

[obdriver6]

Looks like some good progress! I'm pretty sure you can just sand the emblems and repaint them. I plan on repainting mine with trim paint (once I find them)!

[89HatchbackLxi]

Update: I fixed the dent on the rear passenger corner & removed the rust layer of metal under between the rear license plate and passenger taillight, then primed & guide coated the rear of the car!

The Dent - Before:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/louverz2.jpg

And After:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05235.jpg


More pics of current progress:

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05236.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05231.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05248.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05247.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05246.jpg

[Fedor B.]

Nice job!
My rear wheel wells are just like your right side one, need some work done on it.
I'll continue to follow this thread for the final result. :thumbup:

[Honda Man]

0_o wow...... dam nice effin progress man! so when i get money for a new paintjob i can come to you ya?? :)

[obdriver6]

Its coming along great!

[Cmunsterman]

Looks good! Im repainting my 88 coupe right now also.
My wheel wells are going to be the worst part though, because they're not only rusted but one is rusted like 4 inches up the body... :/

[89HatchbackLxi]

I feel a full respray coming on...

You're going to be astounded by how nice the car looks with a good paint job. Your work looks great.

Turns out you are correct. I've decided to just repaint the entire car. I'm gonna be replacing my front left fender as well, hopefully I can find one in good condition at a local or nearby city junkyard.

[Dr_Snooz]

Nice to see you aren't going to let the Accord languish now that you have the Datsun. ;)

[89HatchbackLxi]

Update: Passenger side rear wheel-well rust has finally been eliminated!

Before:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05157.jpg

After:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05263.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05264.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05265.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05269.jpg

Also primed the Roof, but I forgot to upload those pics, so I'll do that later today. I also, swapped out my existing fender, with one that is not crumpled up on the edge.

Old Fender:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05267.jpg

New Fender:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05270.jpg

New Fender Installed:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05302.jpg

[89HatchbackLxi]

Also, I cleaned up my engine bay a little after oil got all over everything from putting a new valve cover on incorrectly. Looks great now (after its cleaned up) with the new valve cover!

What it looked like when I got the car:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/engine1.jpg

What it looks like now:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05300.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05301.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05297.jpg

[obdriver6]

Nice! I need to do that to my valve cover!

[Ayeobe]

Yeah, ive been putting off doing that to mine, too. How difficult was it, man?

[89HatchbackLxi]

ARGH! 3G fenders are ridiculous.... I've had to adjust this new one 3 times already. Before it was previously too close to the door. So I adjusted it again, now today I started hearing a rattling noise, and i realized its now just barely touching against the pop up head light. I can't get it right!

[elarson88]

lookin good! If I buy the one im looking at i'll have rust repair to do just like that :(

[dark_accord]

nice car! i <3 hatchs, if u ever need any help with anything and dont mind the drive up to tehachapi let me know and if u ever wanna sell it definitly let me know haha...

[89HatchbackLxi]

nice car! i <3 hatchs, if u ever need any help with anything and dont mind the drive up to tehachapi let me know and if u ever wanna sell it definitly let me know haha...

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Also, I don't really plan on ever selling the car. When I got her I promised her I'd fix her up and keep her looking new until she dies. I figure in 10 or 15 years I might even repaint the car again. If I do, I'll go with black next time, along with all-chrome trim. :)

[89HatchbackLxi]

Update: Primed the hood and driver-side fender. I replaced the passenger fender the day after with a good one from the junkyard, but I don't have pics of that yet.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05350.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05353.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05354.jpg

[Dr_Snooz]

I'm really surprised that you found any good body panels at the junkyard. My luck has been different.

[89HatchbackLxi]

I'm really surprised that you found any good body panels at the junkyard. My luck has been different.

Really? There's been at least one good panel of what I'm looking for each time I go. Most cars there have been in pretty good shape, a few tiny dents here and there on some but usually no major damage, minus one or two vehicles.

[89HatchbackLxi]

I finally sanded down my front bumper, applied some plastic body filler to it, then sanded it again and feathered edged the filler repair areas, then masked it off and primed it. I'll put up some pics soon.

All I have left to do now are finish sanding and prime the doors as well as the passenger side fender, and then re-sand the entire primed car to get it ready for paint!

Oh, by the way, does anyone have any tips on getting the exterior molding off of the doors w/o taking the door panels off? I know theres a nut somewhere on one end of the door moldings but I don't really get how I am supposed to get to it in order to remove it? I'm thinking I might just leave it on and mask them off if I can't just remove them without disassembling the door panel.

[89HatchbackLxi]

New Fender:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05361.jpg


Best "Before Pic" I can find of the front bumper scrapes and scratches:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/bumperdamage.jpg


Sanded and Primed Front Bumper:
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05360.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05362.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05363.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05364.jpg

[obdriver6]

I think the molding slide forward one you remove the nut at the end on the door.

[89HatchbackLxi]

I think the molding slide forward one you remove the nut at the end on the door.

Well, I feel pretty stupid now, lol. I never saw the nut on the backside of the door until today. Should be pretty easy to get it off now that I know where the nut is.

[A18A]

ARGH! 3G fenders are ridiculous.... I've had to adjust this new one 3 times already. Before it was previously too close to the door. So I adjusted it again, now today I started hearing a rattling noise, and i realized its now just barely touching against the pop up head light. I can't get it right!

http://ragegenerator.com/images/ragebuilder-faces/Sad/i-know-that-feel-bro.png


Well, I feel pretty stupid now, lol. I never saw the nut on the backside of the door until today. Should be pretty easy to get it off now that I know where the nut is.

if you're lucky it will come off like it should. most of the time I try that, the mouldings are usually full of dirt and stuff that they pretty much seized themselves there :(

[89HatchbackLxi]

Tuesday night, I decided I would repaint my louvers as well. A few months ago was when I first tried repainting my louvers. I had sanded them down, applied spraycan primer, and then put on spray can basecoat, followed by spray on clear coat. The clear looked too dry, so I sanded them down again and tried it all again. This time they looked perfect, until a few minutes after the clear was put on, when a drylake bed effect began appearing over various areas of my louvers. I got fed up with them so I ended up just leaving them like that until a few days ago, when I decided to try again, this time, using aircraft stripper and then starting from the bare metal.

Needless to say, anyone who has worked with paint stripper knows its a pain in the #@$ to use on anything other than a thin layer of primer. It took me roughly 3 hours to remove all the layers of paint from my louvers, and I burned through 4 pairs of nitrile gloves throughout the process. It was a pain to clean up as well, considering how messy the stuff is...

Anyways, tonight I plan to DA the remainder of the paint left on the louvers, and then put a coat of primer on them so they match my primered car, lol.

When I finally get to the point where I can paint my car, I want to try painting my louvers the same color and see how that looks. If I don't like it, I'll paint them black again, but I just wanted to see if they look good when they match the car. Some cars can pull it off, I'll see if the 3G can too.

[89HatchbackLxi]

Update:

Chemically stripped & DA'd about 95% of the paint off then reprimed the louvers. Still got a bit of block sanding yet to to on them to smooth out a few things, but the majority of the work on them is done. I kinda like the all one color look.

Pics:

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05367.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05369.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05370.jpg

[Ayeobe]

Looks good enough from up close, in gray. I dont know how it'll look in red, when you can see the whole car, though..

[89HatchbackLxi]

Yeah, I'm not sure how it'll look either when it's red. I think it might work though. Here's a pic of them from the back of the car:

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05366.jpg

It looks better in lighting when the sun isn't shining down directly on it like it was in that picture. But either way, I don't think it looks bad.

[Dr_Snooz]

Needless to say, anyone who has worked with paint stripper knows its a pain in the #@$ to use on anything other than a thin layer of primer. It took me roughly 3 hours to remove all the layers of paint from my louvers, and I burned through 4 pairs of nitrile gloves throughout the process. It was a pain to clean up as well, considering how messy the stuff is...

Not to mention taking a few years off the life of your liver. Don't you have access to a media blaster?

[89HatchbackLxi]

Not to mention taking a few years off the life of your liver. Don't you have access to a media blaster?

I wish. But unfortunately, that's something that isn't available at my college. I used a respirator at least. Strangely, this brand of aircraft remover I picked up was nowhere near as smelly as the stuff we used in class last semester. I'm not sure what the difference was, but this stuff didn't give me a headache like the other stuff did either. The other stuff did work better though.

[obdriver6]

Did you ever decided on what you were gonna do with the emblems?

[89HatchbackLxi]

Did you ever decided on what you were gonna do with the emblems?

Yeah, I found ones at the junkyard and I decided to use instead since they were in better condition than the ones on my car were.

[obdriver6]

Are you gonna paint them or just leave them that way?

[Proboscis]

cool ride man. totally reminds me of what I went through. In the end it is worth it. The point I almost gave up on was after I primed my whole car and didn't want to block sand it. Took my a week straight.

[89HatchbackLxi]

Are you gonna paint them or just leave them that way? They're in good shape yet, so I figured I would just leave them.


cool ride man. totally reminds me of what I went through. In the end it is worth it. The point I almost gave up on was after I primed my whole car and didn't want to block sand it. Took my a week straight. Thanks. I should be able to prime the LAST unprimed section of my car in class on tuesday. I got it sanded down and filled in a few door ding dents during the previous two classes so it should be ready to prime.

Unfortunately, I found a bit more rust on the underside of my passenger door that I had previously been unaware of. It's not terrible, as it doesn't go entirely through the metal or anything, but it does appear to be present on both sides of that area on the door. I've sanded most of the rust off each side, but there are a few little specks of it there yet. I don't want to sand the metal to a point where it becomes too thin to remain sturdy (since it's part of a moving object, I figured that wouldn't be a good idea), so I just decided to put some rust converter over the remaining specks of rust and hope for the best.

After this, I just need to block the car, give it a once over for any additional dents or scratches, and then paint.

I'm not going to get to paint the car until next semester, as I'm running out of time, but I figure that will give me more time to practice with metallic paints beforehand anyways, better than rushing it and making errors that I could have easily prevented. I'm thinking I might also add a bit of a tint coating to the paint it if I feel comfortable enough with the metallic itself.

[89HatchbackLxi]

Update:

As of last night, the accord is now fully primed! Pics coming soon.

[Wickit]

Nice, can't wait to see the pics! Great progress already too.

[89HatchbackLxi]

Pics of the last part of my car now primed.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/3-1.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/2-2.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/1-2.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05409.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05407.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/DSC05410.jpg

[89HatchbackLxi]

After what seems like forever, I finally found SE-i cupholders! I know it's not really part of the respray process, but this is the closest thread I have to a build thread, so I figured I throw this in here.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/IMG_20120613_152435.jpg

[Legend_master]

The prep job looks great, but for the love of God please don't paint the rear visors anything but black.

[DBMaster]

I wish I had the patience needed for paint and body work. Kudos to you!

[obdriver6]

Congrats on finding the cup holders. Car is coming along well.