Yes, the black "E-Coating." Holds up well, even at track temps.

Note that the standard Centric rotors are fine for our use (i.e., no need for improved alloys or cryo processes), so what Jeff did works well too.

 

So, given the prospects of me buying a home, I figured it was in my best interest to make the at least a 'roller'. I'm sure my father would appreciate use of his jack stands as well.

But, being who I am, I simply could not bolt in rusty control arms. So, I pissed away a beautiful New England fall day in my employers shop obsessively refinishing parts no one will see or care about.

Originally I was going to sand blast the parts; however, a coworker seems to have indefinitely 'borrowed' the blast cabinet. So instead, I got to spend a lovely 3 hours with a grinder wire wheeling the scaling off the arms. Fun. The results:



Once prepped and masked, it was time to move to the booth. I hope to never have to mask bushings again ... what a tedious task.



Given the fact that I couldn't completely rid the arms of oxidation and I had a ton of the paint left over from a prior chassis painting effort, I decided to use SEM Rustshield which is 1000 hour salt spray tested (not that the car will see winters).

The paint is on the thicker side (think POR-15) so I cut it with some Enamel Reducer (per SEMs suggestion).



...and the part all painted.




And a friendly reminder: Guns don't lay killer paint jobs, people do.



-Zach

 

Holy hell this. It was the second most tedious thing I did on my build besides removing the undercoating.

So many damn hours with a wire wheel and literally everything getting coated in metal/rust/paint dust.

Good work man, having been there, I know your feels.

 

Ha!

I did this on the suspension restoration of my wife's MB 380SL. That fully cured me of doing it on a Miata.

 

Really epic and enjoyable build thread! That engine bay is inspiring

 

It was definitely one of the projects which I severely underestimated. I showed up to the shop around 9am thinking I'd be cleaning up around 12:30-1pm ... more like 6:30pm.

Without a sandblast cabinet, removing the oxidation around all the gnarly mig welds, in the corners where the bushing barrels meet, and on the concave surfaces is truly tedious and required a combination of wire wheels, wire brushes, scotch pads, and various dremel bits.

After I was done, I questioned whether avoiding bushing removal really saved me any time. Had I removed them I could of 'dipped' the parts and sent them to the powdercoater. More money, but more valuable than my time? Perhaps not.

-Zach

 

Minor/boring update (as a visual person, anything auto related without pictures is lame)

Front suspension is mostly n - all new hardware, Tein Monoflex cleaned up and installed, LE/R package tie-rods, RB hollow core bar with support blocks, etc. etc.

Ordered but not shipped:

- 1.8 caliper brackets
- 1.8 Centric Premium e-coated rotors
- 90-93 CarboTech XP8 pads (I paid the premium to avoid Hawks caustic dust)
- Timken wheel hubs

Should be a roller within the next week or so.

-Zach

 

Hope so. Get some Fall foliage cruising in.

 

Thanks for the welder referral Zach. John does great work and I'll be using him again for future jobs.

 

Glad to hear he worked out - he's a great guy and very fair with his pricing.

-Zach

 

No significant updates as it is a balmy 16 degrees in the garage right now, but ... a few boxes of shiny goodness were waiting for me at my employers lobby this AM.


Glad I went with the "tungsten" finish as it, uh, ****! Huge thank you to Emilio (and team) for a delivering a killer product at an incredibly fair price. Obligatory money shots.




Hopefully come May these shiny hunks of aluminum will be clad in r compound and bolted up to a (semi)functioning car. A man can dream.

 

16 degrees? Where are you, Santa's workshop?

 

16*F is what it was this morning when I woke up. Even with the heat off all night in my garage it was still over 40.

 

**** you guys. its was -2 last night.

Nice wheels Thasac. I just picked up some 15x9s in black last week.

 

16F in MA is much colder than -2F in UT. Humidity is weird like that.

 

Well when it was in the 50s for the last week then yeah this 16F feels pretty darn cold.

 

Seriously, guys. That's some harsh *****. I lived in some cold places but it is a choice. You can live anywhere.

74 degrees today and 81 tomorrow. I'm going to the drag strip Saturday night an the track on January 25.

 

I'll take cold over humidity any day. Last time I was in Florida in 80* 100% humidity temps I felt like I was dying. 110* in Las Vegas seemed temperate in comparison.

It only gets this cold in January, otherwise it is usually 30*+

 

30 sounds lovely. I was having to tolerate girls in shorts and skirts today. It's such a burden.