The Making of the "GLH-R/T"

[rx2mazda]

*Yawn*

Looking good How long will it be out at the body shop?

That's the $64K question! There doing the work on the side for me, when I went there yesterday they were pretty busy. It looks like they are gonna be the ones holding me up. If they take too long i'll just take the car elsewhere and pay full price. Feel free to start working on that cam thingy for me

[rx2mazda]

The R/T is done.......R.I.P. On to smaller and lighter things......

[turbovanman²]

RIP,

[rx2mazda]

Unfortunately, my friends with the body shop have gotten really busy with "real" work so my car has been just sitting. I really want to get my car together so I will be doing the engine bay prep/paint myself. I will be filling small holes with fiberglass, sanding, scuffing and getting it ready for paint. Once I get it all prepped my painter may be able to come in on the weekend and shoot it base & clear for me...if not, I will do it. Not really worried about it, it WILL turn out nice and once the TIII is in there most of it will be hidden. My friends gave me everything I needed to get the prep done which was really nice so. I plan to get a lot done tomorrow.

I have just about everything I need to get the car running now so I can't wait to make some progress. I cleaned and painted the tranny this week. A case of brake clean, some wire brushes, paint stripper, and a bunch of time gave me good results....

start......



after cleaning......



all done....




Not much of an update but, once the engine bay is painted things should go really fast.

[turboshad]

Not much of an update but, once the engine bay is painted things should go really fast.

LOL, I said that once........a year later I got done.


Looking good Carroll.

[rx2mazda]

Started sanding and filling holes and this beauty jumped out at me...........







....I was so PISSED, more at myself because I never caught it but, also because it was going to slow me down more. Murphy's Law! I read that this can be a "common" problem with the L'bodys since the sheet metal work is so poor. The shock tower is only held in place by spot welds so a big pot hole or torque from launches, etc could cause this to happen. Good news is I stopped by the Body shop on my way home yesterday to show my buddy the pics and they had cleared out most of the cars! He told me to bring it up today and he would come in on Saturday and fix everything up. He's going to go ahead and do the passenger side too while he's in there. Another good thing is that this happened before I put the motor in, that would have really sent me over the top.

Anyway, I went ahead and filled up all holes that I need and sanded everything good. Took all day and my arms are sore but it is going to be well worth it in the end. There is still some of that undercoating crap on the inner fenders in the hood channel but, I'm going to let the professionals handle that. I don't want to mess up the fenders on the outside trying to get it off. The fenders need to come off anyways to fix the A-pillars so they may just get repainted. Also, the paint came in yesterday too, it's purty and PPG. Here are some progress pics......













Hopefully, I will have some pics of it all painted soon.

[turboshad]

If there is one thing I wish I would have done it would have been welding all the seams in the engine bay and stich welding the interior. It's always good to catch that stuff in the early stages. Like you said, there would have been way more sweargin if you saw it after you had painted.

[rx2mazda]

If there is one thing I wish I would have done it would have been welding all the seams in the engine bay and stich welding the interior. It's always good to catch that stuff in the early stages. Like you said, there would have been way more sweargin if you saw it after you had painted.

Yes but, there still was a lot of swearing! lol. We are going to double the amount of welds. Tomorrow should be a productive day.

[turboshad]

I forgot to ask what color you were going with? Or are you doing the same lime green/gray gangsta style like you did to your spirit?

[rx2mazda]

I forgot to ask what color you were going with? Or are you doing the same lime green/gray gangsta style like you did to your spirit?

:LOL:

Keepin it nice and simple with the Santa Fe Blue I may airbrush my face on the door though...........

[Shadow]

Lucky you caught it now. I'm going to be starting a log myself on a TIII L-body we're building for a buddy of mine. I'll post up what we do to all of the seems up front before putting any real HP through them. You should also weld the sheetmetal to frame seam on both sides, they can be worse than the towers!

[rx2mazda]

Lucky you caught it now. I'm going to be starting a log myself on a TIII L-body we're building for a buddy of mine. I'll post up what we do to all of the seems up front before putting any real HP through them. You should also weld the sheetmetal to frame seam on both sides, they can be worse than the towers!

Cool, i'm sure that's gonna be a nice project with your help. I'm not gonna weld the sheetmetal to the frame, just not enough time/money to do more extensive welding. Hopefully what we did today will suffice. If I had my own garage and a welder I would do more. I think once I add a cage and tie the strut towers to that everything will be nice and sturdy.

[rx2mazda]

Made some good progress today. Got the car in and fixed the strut tower separation. We also reinforced the the passenger side strut tower. Added a extra spot weld in between each factory weld on both sides. After all the welding we wire wheeled, primered and undercoat underneath. Now I just need to paint underhood so I can get my motor in there. Here are some pics......


You can see I added a GLH-T decal kit from FWDPefomance and Bosch fog light covers in this pic...


Drilled holes for spot welds




All welded up....






In this pic you can see where the spot welds broke loose and the sheet metal is separated...


We used a tie strap and a block of wood to clamp the tower back down into place to be welded...



Here it is in position after welding it down...





I also wanted to seal up the area where the firewall and inner fenders meet the frame. There was a lot of ---- in there when I first cleaned the engine bay and I don't need a spot for wet leaves and dirt to hang out and start a rust party




Little more filler, putty, primer, sanding and she'll be ready for paint, etc!

[iTurbo]

Wow it's amazing how far the car has already come! I wish my projects would move that fast. Car is looking great BTW. I'm afraid to look at my strut towers and inner fenders now..

[rx2mazda]

Wow it's amazing how far the car has already come! I wish my projects would move that fast. Car is looking great BTW. I'm afraid to look at my strut towers and inner fenders now..

Thanks! To accomplish this speedy build - my bank account is shrinking exponentially......

[92spiritrt]

looks great. i'm almost done pc'ing your parts. everything is blasted, so you should be seeing them soon.

[Pat]

Looking good!

[omni_840]

^^Agreed

[turbo2point2]

Sweet!! Coming along nice

[rx2mazda]

looks great. i'm almost done pc'ing your parts. everything is blasted, so you should be seeing them soon.

Sweet, then I can put all the crap back on the motor and get it ready to install.