The Second Stage - Paint

[Tire Shredder]

The time has come for my supra to get some much needed TLC. I love looking at people's build thread so I thought I'd post up to document it here for your enjoyment, as well.

Now is a good time for a little reflection on how things got this way and where things started... and if you don't care, skip to the pics! It feels good for me to type this out so bear with me...

I decided I wanted a supra when I was about 13 years old, which is when I got my first job. It was the sole thing I worked for. I worked at minimum wage a few hours a day at the local movie theatre. Following that, I worked a restaurant job and at a go kart track simultaneously, riding my bicycle if need be, saving pennies (and I was only making pennies).

That winter I met our beloved George, Steve brecht and Bob Greiger at the Toronto Autoshow. I had no idea there was a toronto supra club, and I was incredibly excited that they would be so kind to invite me to a meet, even without a car!! (oh, how naive I was... haha!). Of course this meeting was the catalyst for some fantastic relationships within the TSC and celicasupra, which I won't ramble about but you all know who you are...

somewhere along the way, at 15, with no driver's license and no car, I found cs.com and purchased lowering springs and shocks from a forum member. Needless to say, I was committed to getting myself a black 84.

My parents drove me to a couple meets as I still could not drive. At one of the meets I met DJ (scarletlizard) whom had just picked up a black 84. We talked about how I was interested in owning one and a couple months later he called me to see if I was interested in purchainsg it.

I looked at the car and I could afford it, my parents were supportive and said they'd cover the insurance, but nothing else. I had never driven a manual car before so DJ took me for the first test drive, complete with donuts in the rain. I was sold.

so, at 16, I bought the car $2800 with 256,000km on the clock. it was 100% stock, a little rough around the edges but a solid runner. It needed a good cleaning, bumpers were spider cracked and plenty of stone chips... nothing I couldn't take care of, I thought! It was my pride and joy. I was as proud as anybody could be pulling into highschool with the thing.

With my bank account empty and the ambition running at an all-time maximum...I dumped my time into the car. I cleaned and cleaned and painted and polished. It was these moments of OCD that I would later be known for...

I cleaned and cleaned...
http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...car&highlight=

and polished 'till I couldn't polish anymore
http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...9-*56k-WARNING

and touched up some bodywork
http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...ighlight=paint

later, in university I Installed a 7MGE

http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...ighlight=paint
which got the car into the 14s!

http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...ighlight=track

and most recently, bought some wheels

http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...chromium-black

the wheels had tires on them that made the car faster

http://www.celicasupra.com/forums/sh...oX-results-yet!

looks pretty good in picture huh? that's because you can't see the flat surfaces.

My passion for this car extended through my whole life. I went to school and completed my automotive engineering degree last year and even opened a detailing business to help pay the bills for two summers which was reasonably successful. I joined the formula SAE team at school. led the drivetrain team, then lead the team. I designed and machined a differential from scrtach, aluminum subframe and even designed and manufactured carbon-fiber driveshafts for the race car. The supra had made an impact, that's for sure.

My hard work has been recognized a couple times by taking home the "best of class" trophy at the TSC meets, despite it's general wear and tear, and mileage.

The car has gone through a lot of wear and tear and is something that I have not documented well, and certainly not online. I have been daily driving the car now for nearly 10 summers and 110,000km. The engineering degree with a minor in business took me 6 years and every one of those years the car sat outside all summer. Trim faded and cracked, interior parts worn, dashes cracked and painted started falling off…literally. The hatch started rusting and the windshield leaking.

The paint job was old when I got a hold of it, with many stone chips and scratches. My work merely bought me another 5 years or so. It took a beating but I had no choice. I swore I would not go into debt for the car and was only able to spare $500-$1000 per summer to spend on the car (hence why the 7mge took nearly three years).

Three years ago it started to go downhill quickly. The clearcoat began to fail; first on the hatch, then the roof, and most recently the hood. At this point I even began to neglect the car. It hurt me too much to wash it, to pull the clearcoat out of my wash mitt. The money wasn’t there to do anything about it. just forget about it. It hurts too much and I didn’t want to go into debt for it. I still loved it and wanted to keep it, but I had to wait to turn a corner.

I thought about painting this car since I bought it. Every single day I forced myself to learn something in school, I was thinking of one goal... to get a job to buy myself things that I love...to get this car painted.

Now, 1.5 years after my graduation I have a good job in my field, bought a house with my fiancée (yeah, did that ) and can give this car some attention before it’s too late. I feel like now is the time I need to do something or get rid of it. In general the car is very solid, especially for a canadian car. But there is a large amount of things that need to be corrected right now. labour intensive band-aids will not stave off the inevetiable anymore. The car needs a major reset.

Of course, I had to do the right thing. Paint it!

This will also be a good time for me to install some of the things hiding in my parts closet, that I have been collecting over the years.

Here’s some pictures of the issues that need to be solved and it’s current state:

The hood is sandblasted


The gutters a bit rusted and full of junk


Flaking clear on the mirrors


Clear gone on the hatch and rust busting through (notice the touch up paint to try and slow it down




Clear nearly gone from the sunshade


These weird bondo covered spots have been there since I bought the thing


Clear gone from the roof


Little rust spot on the left fender


Water being held against the door for years


With george’s help, we got the car ready to go under the knife

[Tire Shredder]

I visited the bodyshop today, as a couple key things were examined. The glass has come out.



I knew there was rust here but was a little surprised to find the 15+ year old fiberglass and bondo in there, too. This area will be cut out.




It appears that a previous window leak was just re-sealed and slapped in many years ago.


The other side is just as bad


This bubble on the exterior has been there since day 1, odd but it hasn’t changed.. we’ll see once it’s taken down the to the metal




Top of the hatch is ok


Yeaaah not good. The corners are in good shape but towards the center…ahhhhh..yeeaaha... This really isn’t a surprise. The bodyman and myself both knew it would be like this under here. My POR-15 job about 5 years ago did nothing but suppress it a little bit, until it popped out on the exterior paint.
The good news is the lower portion of the hatch is very solid and it is salvageable. This will be fixed properly. It will all be cut out.















Dusty already! I am glad I took it all out…

[Solo1Supra]

It'll look better than ever once it's done Steve.

[Eric]

Good work, a black '84 is the ultimate MK2 in my book, can't wait to see the results!

[EwGoetsch]

Doin all the work takes dedication, good luck with the project

[Tire Shredder]

Thanks guys. I am very excited and nervous. The bodyshop owner has been telling me everything I wanted to hear so far, so that's very reassuring.

Doin all the work takes dedication, good luck with the project

That is true, but in this case it's just a couple weekends of work for me, and a wad of $100 bills given to a professional. So, dedication of my wallet? lol

[1982 Dragon]

Looking good Steve. I can't wait to see this in person next summer!
Let us know what trim you are going with! I need to do my hatch soon.

[Tanya]

Man, those pics just make me feel ill thinking about how bad mine really is under all those parts I don't wanna take off. O_O

[pdupler]

One thing that I am keenly aware is even when somebody has simply written checks to obtain or build their dream car, often, those checks have come at the expense of working a 2nd job at night, years and years of patience in saving money and doing without, and probably most importantly, getting a good education first. You sound a lot like me 20 years ago. I predict this 84 Supra will not be the last classic car you write checks to professionals for but it will no doubt always be your favorite. I hope your story inspires a lot of our even younger members. Looking forward to seeing it when the body is done.

[Tire Shredder]

Thank you for the support.

Phil, I think you are very correct on all points. I can certainly see myself owning another car classic car at some point, but the supra will always have a guaranteed place in the garage.

I saw the first of the materials to be used on the car recently - black 2K epoxy high build primer. It was a special request and should help make the stone chips less noticeable that will inevitably happen.