72 TA : New Project

[mockingbird812]

Ah yes, the crew cut is back. But wait a minute....didn't MacGyver have a mullet?! Not sure he would approve. Surprised "he" got so close to the shears with all of those posteriorly positioned locks of hair.

[njsteve]

I made sure I had all of my protective gear on at the time: gold chains and a lot of duct tape!

[njsteve]

OK, being the perfectionist I am I wasn't satisfied with the way the reproduction wheel came out. Since it is a harder urethane material, the Plasti-Dip spray nicked rather easily and didn't adhere as well as I would have hoped. When I picked at it a little, the entire coating peeled off in one piece. That, of course, meant that I did not prep the repro wheel well enough.

I also wasn't satisfied with the fact that it still had a bunch of grain along with a fake outer seam that marred the surface. So I ended up hand-sanding it with 80 grit, then 200, then 400 then 600 until it became as smooth as the factory wheel. I was very careful to keep away from the fake threads along the inner seams. I then sprayed it with a flexible plastic primer and sanded that with 600, reprimed and resanded by hand until it was shiny and smooth. I also reshaped the edges where the urethane meets the spokes as the repro was a bit too angular in that area. Once I was satisfied, (I know, I've said that before) I sprayed the wheel in numerous heavy coats of the SEM Landau Black and the result was beautiful. SEM is the coating to use and it is great stuff, much better than Duplicolor or VHT or any of the other brands. Other than the black anodizing looking way too new, the wheel looks like an NOS wheel now. And it feels a lot better as well. I will be installing this one in the car and saving the original wheel for posterity.

[mockingbird812]

Freakin' unbelievable Mac!

[njsteve]

In my spare time I'm working on creating an NOS ZL1 engine out of Wrigley's chewing gum wrappers, maple syrup and Dr. Pepper cans. (You have to use Dr.Ppper because it has more caffeine than other sodas and we all know the ZL1 was a more highly caffeinated engine than it's iron counterparts.)

[Judgeinator]

any progress since the last update?

[njsteve]

No, still waiting for the body man to finish prepping the front sheetmetal before I bring him the rest of the body. I will be making a decision either way in the next few weeks as to where the car will be finished because I am getting old and don't have the patience for these delays after 21 months of him having the panels.