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81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 6:27 pm
by SpiderJim
For those who have asked for updates as I put it all back together. Love my red calipers and black suspension behind my gun metal rotas. I will keep updating this topic with pics and updates or mods to the car. I just have to adjust that bloody hood (any tricks to it?) then will begin painting and fitting my trim bits then the interior customization.

The hood is covered with droplets of rain, not a bad paint job... Still cannot get the pearl to show on digital film

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Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:01 pm
by boogiedude
That's lookin pretty good! Those aren't stock calipers are they?

Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:35 pm
by manoa matt
Are you going to re-spray the wheel wells black, or leave the white overspray? Black will look a lot better, and hide dirt.

Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:10 pm
by SpiderJim
manoa matt wrote:Are you going to re-spray the wheel wells black, or leave the white overspray? Black will look a lot better, and hide dirt.
Laugh... Yes, I have the material and will do them a little later when the weather improves as I want to power wash all the grime off then do them. The calipers are stock. Just rebuilt the entire brake system with all new parts and or rebuild kits as they are in excellent condition. A bit of caliper paint after a good buffing then degreasing.

Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:49 am
by stefhahn
Jim,
this looks brillant!
As per the wheel wells I'd like to recommend to leave them white but overspray with black undercoat wax - this gives the nice color and you have the advantage to immediately see where the wax is going away later - as soon as there is a white spot: respray wax. I have done this with my Spider around 15 years ago and haven't had any problem with rust anymore
ciao,
Stefan

Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 7:22 am
by wachuko
That is looking great!! There was a photo in your other thread where the color did come through. That is a difficult color to photograph.

Any closer shots of the calipers?

FYI, I got these for when I paint mine: Caliper decals

I ordered a set of both the FIAT and ABARTH to later decide on which one to use.

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Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:35 am
by SpiderJim
stefhahn wrote:Jim,
this looks brillant!
As per the wheel wells I'd like to recommend to leave them white but overspray with black undercoat wax - this gives the nice color and you have the advantage to immediately see where the wax is going away later - as soon as there is a white spot: respray wax. I have done this with my Spider around 15 years ago and haven't had any problem with rust anymore
ciao,
Stefan
I'm actually treating all of the interior box frame members, under panels etc with that creeping wax using a special applicator to inject and swirl it around. Uses a long tube with a swirl spray nozzle under high pressure. Any rust already hiding gets captured and put to death.

Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:38 am
by SpiderJim
wachuko wrote:That is looking great!! There was a photo in your other thread where the color did come through. That is a difficult color to photograph.

Any closer shots of the calipers?

FYI, I got these for when I paint mine: Caliper decals

I ordered a set of both the FIAT and ABARTH to later decide on which one to use.

Image
They would look quite nice. What is this fascination with the Abarth car. I must be missing a gene or something as I think it is quite ugly and reminds me of a Simca 1000 I rallied for Lucus

Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:23 am
by azygoustoyou
Hi Jaime,
I think you should paint the underside of the caliber white first. Put on your stickers and then paint them red. Then you could remove the stickers and you would have the words on there painted. It would probably last longer then the stickers. You have a cool idea and it looks good.

Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:39 am
by wachuko
azygoustoyou wrote:Hi Jaime,
I think you should paint the underside of the caliber white first. Put on your stickers and then paint them red. Then you could remove the stickers and you would have the words on there painted. It would probably last longer then the stickers. You have a cool idea and it looks good.
Less work, less work, focus here, less work :lol: Doing that is too much work and you still run the risk of peeling some of the paint when removing the stickers.

I used the same stickers for the calipers on my 964 and it has worked well for the last 5 years.

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Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:31 pm
by SpiderJim
With the Spider just make sure you mask off the slider area or your calipers can get stuck.

Re: 81 Restoration nearing completion

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:41 am
by zzeeksfiat78
to all, :D
i think they look good each to eachs own...
zeek