Ozz
Forum Member
I've been going on and on for a while, and am finally buttoning up everything.
I have a bunch of progress pics from in the middle of some work, testing powder & paint colors, etc. but here's a good collection of what's going on. Pretty much everything that came off I polished, powder coated, painted, or replaced with chrome instances (bolts, washers, etc.) before going back on.
First thing's first, I pulled the dash to hide the main engine harness better than it was before.
I planned to powder coat my lower intake in a candy/chrome red because I was sick of not being able to keep its polished finish maintained. Nor did I want to chrome it since you can hardly see the thing and the costs to do so aren't exactly low. So I chose to do this. Here's my first spray test w/the powder color and the paint sample I ended up with for some other parts. They're both deeper in person and match my red better in natural l ighting:
The color was just what I was hoping for, so I turned my attention to the lower intake. Here's a "cooling off" picture as I took it out of the oven after the chrome powder cured:
here's a closeup of the red topcoat:
All put together:
And finally installed:
My GF's dad & brother run a paint & body shop so they did the paint work. They had the car a few weeks repainting the bumpers, hood (also fiberglassing a new rear edge for a better fit), fixing all the dings/chips on the body, painting the door jambs, trunk drain channels, underside of decklid, and my plastic top/windshield trim. And as you will see further down in the post, my engine bay as well.
Better hood lines:
All I wanted to do was put a chrome brake booster in the car. Paying to have someone dis-/reassemble my SN95 booster on top of the chroming costs was very expensive, so I decided to save a bit, get a universal and deal w/the headaches. WELL that was one headache after another and might've cost me more in the long run. The first problem was expected: it wouldn't bolt to the pedal assy even w/the adapter kit. I cut the stock adapter off the stock booster, welded it to the new plunger, and that was that. Saved $40 on the adapter kit, at least, but then I realized I'd have to spend $200 more to get a $#(@# master cylinder that would mount to this thing :lol: I figured my stocker would fit, I guess there's no standard mounting distance between MC studs. Anyway, that's fine because I love the new style I got BUT now I needed to get new chrome brakeline fittings and flare them onto my brakelines without cracking the chrome on them. That went OK but then the MC itself was far too wide to fit, requiring me to make some clearance on the inside of the strut tower. It ended up w/me ruining a bunch of paint, so now I had to get that all fixed. Thankfully I had plans to repaint the engine bay next winter, so I just moved that up to "right f'n now" and all is well. I even got to weld shut a couple holes I'd originally left open years ago and fix all the dings that needed attention. I got everything to fit, bolt up, function, and then pulled it off so it could go to paint. Thankfully I'm family so I was able to go over and put things back in place once the engine bay paint was done.
Since they were off, I polished up all my C/C plate hardware.
And here's some of the other hardware PC'd, polished, or in chrome.
Replaced my old, beat-up water pump with a nice smoothie style one:
Had them smooth/paint the center console, and I hid the mirror switch to where the e-brake sits
Here's one place the candy red paint came into play, along with some more new chrome. The PS & washer fluid reservoirs, EGR sensor, and brake booster vacuum fitting were painted this color as well. The EGR sensor & washer res. is because they were the only remaining white plastic pieces in the engine bay and they stuck out badly; the PS res. is because I have had a spray chromed piece on the car and it's seen better days. No more of that crap for me, so I had to give in and think of something else. Anyway, here's the motor assembly:
I have a bunch of progress pics from in the middle of some work, testing powder & paint colors, etc. but here's a good collection of what's going on. Pretty much everything that came off I polished, powder coated, painted, or replaced with chrome instances (bolts, washers, etc.) before going back on.
First thing's first, I pulled the dash to hide the main engine harness better than it was before.
I planned to powder coat my lower intake in a candy/chrome red because I was sick of not being able to keep its polished finish maintained. Nor did I want to chrome it since you can hardly see the thing and the costs to do so aren't exactly low. So I chose to do this. Here's my first spray test w/the powder color and the paint sample I ended up with for some other parts. They're both deeper in person and match my red better in natural l ighting:
The color was just what I was hoping for, so I turned my attention to the lower intake. Here's a "cooling off" picture as I took it out of the oven after the chrome powder cured:
here's a closeup of the red topcoat:
All put together:
And finally installed:
My GF's dad & brother run a paint & body shop so they did the paint work. They had the car a few weeks repainting the bumpers, hood (also fiberglassing a new rear edge for a better fit), fixing all the dings/chips on the body, painting the door jambs, trunk drain channels, underside of decklid, and my plastic top/windshield trim. And as you will see further down in the post, my engine bay as well.
Better hood lines:
All I wanted to do was put a chrome brake booster in the car. Paying to have someone dis-/reassemble my SN95 booster on top of the chroming costs was very expensive, so I decided to save a bit, get a universal and deal w/the headaches. WELL that was one headache after another and might've cost me more in the long run. The first problem was expected: it wouldn't bolt to the pedal assy even w/the adapter kit. I cut the stock adapter off the stock booster, welded it to the new plunger, and that was that. Saved $40 on the adapter kit, at least, but then I realized I'd have to spend $200 more to get a $#(@# master cylinder that would mount to this thing :lol: I figured my stocker would fit, I guess there's no standard mounting distance between MC studs. Anyway, that's fine because I love the new style I got BUT now I needed to get new chrome brakeline fittings and flare them onto my brakelines without cracking the chrome on them. That went OK but then the MC itself was far too wide to fit, requiring me to make some clearance on the inside of the strut tower. It ended up w/me ruining a bunch of paint, so now I had to get that all fixed. Thankfully I had plans to repaint the engine bay next winter, so I just moved that up to "right f'n now" and all is well. I even got to weld shut a couple holes I'd originally left open years ago and fix all the dings that needed attention. I got everything to fit, bolt up, function, and then pulled it off so it could go to paint. Thankfully I'm family so I was able to go over and put things back in place once the engine bay paint was done.
Since they were off, I polished up all my C/C plate hardware.
And here's some of the other hardware PC'd, polished, or in chrome.
Replaced my old, beat-up water pump with a nice smoothie style one:
Had them smooth/paint the center console, and I hid the mirror switch to where the e-brake sits
Here's one place the candy red paint came into play, along with some more new chrome. The PS & washer fluid reservoirs, EGR sensor, and brake booster vacuum fitting were painted this color as well. The EGR sensor & washer res. is because they were the only remaining white plastic pieces in the engine bay and they stuck out badly; the PS res. is because I have had a spray chromed piece on the car and it's seen better days. No more of that crap for me, so I had to give in and think of something else. Anyway, here's the motor assembly:
Last edited:
hnoes:
