Hell nah, I used some ultra mega crazy 3M shit! I DID hammer and pull the dent out as much as I possibly could though, so it's not as thick as you might imagine... What we did was to pull the part under the line out first, and then go back and pull out the part above the line. After that, caved and paved the 3M stuff on, and used a wide sanding disk on a big orbital grinder to shape the panel.
Went over this with 3M again, and after that, used a long bladed air sander to shape it into what you see there. Now, after this, the panel still needs just a real thin layer of bondo and glazing putty to make it perfect, but the fiberglass shit took care of mostly everything really. Honestly, the hardest part was to shape the dip for the rear trim piece, that area got distorted really bad.

Also, having instructors with 20+ years experience helps too.

Anyway, after letting the car sit for a while, I finally got around to ordering more stuff and started installing the polyurethane bushings... so far I got the front control arms done.

I think I found mecca btw, and it's called Himni Racing!

They are the ONLY place I found a full ss harware kit for my engine, as well as a samco interooler hose kit to replace the stock FC hoses, and a greddy bov adaptor. Usually, to run a greddy bov, you need to buy a $150 cast pipe, or weld in a flange. Himni sell a flange that just clamps right on to the stock hose, genius! (this way I can go back to stock Bov if I sell the car or if I have any problems.


PS: Also ordered like $250 more worth of gaskets, seals, and orings from Mazdatrix, I swear, by this time, it would have been cheaper to just get an entire fucking rebuild kit.... damn. Got an OMP rebuild kit from Pineapple racing as well while I'm in here.
Pics of all this being installed will be up within the month cause I'm trying to finish my car for a drift comp at the end of the month.

If you were able to make that damage look good, I should be okay with my major crinkle.

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...4/IMG_0208.jpg

very nice project you've got there. i respect anyone that does their own bodywork and painting. i tried once, many, many moons ago and i decided to simply have respect for my limitations. however, you also mentioned that you took a class, so i guess it was a learned talent. maybe one day i'll do the same and also take a welding class, too.

anyway, like that you're starting out with the details first, and working your way out. it's a different approach. keep the updates coming.

Nice progress!
Thats almost exactly what my FC looked like when I got it....add in that dent and its about what it looks like today lol. I've never even considered fixing it myself because the investment in equipment would not be worth it, but I'll have to look into this class situation...

Hey guys! Thanks a lot for the compliments, it gives me inspiration to finish it up.

Right now, I've been putting the car together slowly and ordering more and more parts... I've spent about $500 with mazdatrix alone in the past month. =) (and that's just on oem parts, nothing fancy)

I was planning to get coilovers, but those may have to wait, because I found an S12 for sale that I might pick up, and after seeing THIS:

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010...t-an-ae86.aspx

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get it and sell my volvo 740.


Anyway, I'll post up some pics of the progress tomorrow, got quite a bit done.

Well, Decided that I'm too broke for an S12, so I went and bought some stance GR+ Pro coilovers instead!

Got these barely used for $440!

some update pics of the car:

moar:

I have the same strut tower shot, lol....

Car looks good...

Engine is IN! Today! Got 3 more days to get it running! :D

Good choice! an S12 woulda been kinda cool, but it would have siphoned funds away from the real project and would never be as good.

Update:

So.... I ended up getting a Microtech LT8 for $450 with a harness!

I got the ecu, a harness (a bit chopped up but fixable) and the "dongle" thing that you save your maps to, as well as a windshield wiper harness section.

Right now, I'm looking up the entire wiring diagrams and about to re-do the harness to make it nice and tidy.

Great progress!

car is all back together, pics will have to wait until I can get it started.

Yesterday I finished putting it together, put in gas, coolant, oil, reinstalled the battery, and went to fire it up... no crank!

Well, I didn't expect things to go so smoothly anyway. I've been having intermittent solenoid problems with the starter for like half a year now, so it may have well just rusted stuck in the 3 months it hasn't been used. I'll go test it at autozone today... If that's not the problem, then I'm not sure where to go next...

Perhaps the ground cables?


PS: Engine bay looks clean as fawk.

Update since last post:

installed starter,

car cranks,

no compression...

Put in some MMO and let it sit overnight, cranked the FAWK out of it the next day, finally flooded it 3 times, and it fired up... Compression is back up to 100psi front and rear (roughly) and the cars starts and runs, doesn't die, and doesn't catch on fire... thank god..

Next thing I notice is that the boost gauge is reading 5inHg vacuum at idle... And the car wont accelerate past 3800rpm very well.

Also having problems with bleeding the brakes, the master cylinder leaked right onto my fresh paint job, had to buy a new one.

I bench bled the MC, and bled the calipers twice, but my brakes still feel like crap.

Right now, I havent had time to mess with it again for a while, but I'll try to keep this updated more often.

The brakes are tricky on FCs, my buddy and I bled his about 4 times over a month until they stiffened up. Build looks good! Keep us posted.