DTMAce's project updated... June 17th... Going together!

Money pit Beretta · **Joined:** Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:36 pm **Location:** Kansas

I know that Beretta's are tough,but 70mph makes me think it could have been worse. On the latch, my thought was: why did they use that thing and not grab another one that was better. If it took you extra time it would take them the same amount. Not that it was bent at the factory. I know how it works on the line,but those that work there still have a choice on what they put on. This is the US, not China. Not that big of a deal,but still I'd like to get what I pay for. Rant over,sorry. ÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…Â¡ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š :glare

DTMAce · **Posted:** Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:10 am

Well it wasn't the latch, it was the driver's side hinge, but anyway. Its fixed.

Spent most of the day working on computer stuff, did managed to get most of the front bumper sanded down. It was stone chipped baaaaaaaaaadddd!

If I could spend a whole day or two, I could probably get most of this thing ready for paint. Problem is I can't get a whole day to do it. As it is I only get to work on it during the week. lol My weekends are spent in another country.

Money pit Beretta · **Joined:** Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:36 pm **Location:** Kansas

The hinge? Oh well, that was a worthless rant anyway. Where do you spend the weekends? Leave the girl alone and get to work lol.

DTMAce · **Posted:** Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:29 pm

Naw, not just a girl, but a son too. So.. I keep busy.

Money pit Beretta · **Joined:** Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:36 pm **Location:** Kansas

Sounds like you are very busy. How's everthing going, got the front clip on?

DTMAce · **Posted:** Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:32 pm

Nope. Had to take a 3 day break and do other stuff. Probably will get the rest of the GEs and bumper covers worked on this week, sanding them and stuff, so they are ready for paint.

Time has been a problem is all.

Money pit Beretta · **Joined:** Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:36 pm **Location:** Kansas

Sounds good, I'll look for updates.

DTMAce · **Posted:** Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:31 pm

More updates:

Took some new pictures of the car today as well as the box of LED stuff.

Picture of the front bumper after being attacked with a DA.

Passenger side shot.

Driver side shot as well.

A LOT of work was done to this fender. Apparently it was rusted rather badly, complete with pin holes. I still have some repair to do to the inner wall behind the door jamb between it and the front of the rear fender. Ugh. Not a good place to get at with sand paper.

A shot from the low front, to show you how high it is off the floor.

Our heat source. Nice wood furnace, completely built by us. And it will run you out of the garage it can get so warm. Had it 80 in here last night.

The box of the LED lighting, and the sidemarkers that are going back on the car, once I get them torn apart.

Pic of the LED bulb and a normal rear brakelight/turnlight bulb. 24 LEDs on that sucker. Couldn't get anything bigger, as they wouldn't have fit though the hole in the lens. These are a narrow angle, to focus more of the light to the rear so they are better seen from cars behind me. But with the fill area of the lens they should look fine. Will find out soon enough.

Money pit Beretta · **Joined:** Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:36 pm **Location:** Kansas

Man, you have been working hard! That's a great shop, it would be like a dream to me. I don't think anybody will have trouble knowing when the brakes are on. Are the LED's set up for parking lights and brake lights?

DTMAce · **Posted:** Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:02 am

Dude, they just replace the existing bulbs, so they work the exact same way. lol The only things being done special are the side markers and the 3rd brake, but they still feed the same way so they will operate as they did before.

I may have to either drop in an LED compatible flasher and/or resistors however to make the lights blink properly. LEDs use a lot less power for the light they put out, so it will affect how the blinker works for hazard and turning. The cheat way is to put load resistors to simulate the original bulbs being there (thereby defeating the purpose of using LEDs to draw less power), or an LED blinker, problem with the LED blinker is if the car tells you a light is out because the current draw is too low, you will still need the resistor. I doubt many of you have replaced ALL the light bulbs with LEDs before. Side markers and that **** is easy though I am trying to hopefully do mine in a way no one else has yet.

Anyways..... Work in progress that I hope to work a LOT more on tomorrow before I have to go back up north.

Will update again most likely tomorrow night or something.

Bandit · **Posted:** Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:35 pm

I've seen those bulbs before. I tried using them once and in the daylight they kind of sucked. But at night they were awesome. The car looks like it is coming together nicely. I like the idea of ALL LED lighting. That's going to be sweet.

DTMAce · **Posted:** Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:26 pm

Where did you see them Bandit? These I ordered from superbrightled.com Not exactly cheap either, the 4 white bulbs were 50 bucks just by themselves.

DTMAce · **Posted:** Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:31 am

Well, finally got to work on her again today, spent time working on wet sanding the front bumper, fixing the tears/breaks in the rear bumper, the lower GE skirts and a crack in the rear filler panel near a mount point. Then wet sanded the mirrors. As for the door window trim, all I am going to do is pull the upper trim pieces down around the top half, so I get a good adhesion there. I am not going any further than this, regardless of how easy it will be. I just don't have time to be messing with it and to be quite frank, it is not going to matter that much. I can worry about it later in another 10-15 years, if the car lasts that long, who knows.

Also patched the hole in the rear driver corner of the trunk, ground a lot of the rusty areas, then went back over most of the rear end with 80 grit, trying to knock all the "worm trail" rust there. Was quite a lot of rust on the *** of this Z, more than I expected to be honest. Pretty much had to remove most of the paint on the rear, knock it down to the metal. Going to spray some rust treatment on the sanded portions, then primer, then paint. Nobody sees the area anyway so not too worried about it, just want to slow down the rusting. Have to get that done and painted before I can paint the rest of the car anyway.

Tomorrow, goal is to get all the GEs wetsanded, the rear bumper wet sanded, and finish the front bumper. That one takes time, with all the recesses and crap in it, but I am sure many of you know this. Plus I am trying to make sure I won't have too many peeling issues.

(at least with the areas I can work on)

Will probably put up some more pics tomorrow. Later!

Money pit Beretta · **Joined:** Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:36 pm **Location:** Kansas

Man, this thing is going to be a show car after you are done. How is your rear bumper support? Mine had about two pounds of sand and dirt in it. That and the shale rust and I was only able to convert and paint about 50% of it with it on the car.

DTMAce · **Posted:** Tue Nov 25, 2008 4:05 am

Rear bumper absorbers are junk for absorbing anything (shale rust). I dare not take them off, never be able to reinstall those, and don't have another set to replace them with. I would have to torch the bolts to get them off anyway. May pull the rear bumper back off when I redo the interior and fix that **** then. May not. They are solid at least for the time being, just may not work like they are supposed to anymore.

As for dirt, actually that part wasn't too bad. Plenty of rust on the lower portion of the trunk area but no holes down there ... yet. If I can keep it out of the ugly weather more in the future it should hold up a while. Inner bumper is rusty, but not anything more than I expected. Hell the inner bumper out of the purple Z bumper assembly I bought was in worse shape.

As for a show car, well, we will see. Not too worried really.

DTMAce's project updated... June 17th... Going together!

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