Sigma-galant.com

gaPhil wrote:Nice wheels dude!

Yep agreed, but we'll be needing pics to see what they look like on...

Dave...

I love this car man, before this one I didn't like 4 doors or gd's, but you have done such a good job.

You should be proud man

this is an amazing car. purely because its one of a kind and something different. youve done a great job with it. do you plan on putting the axis ogs on it?

They are nice wheels. I've not seen them around before.

So, uhh....... does this mean that you might be selling the XXR513's in the future?

Just asking s'all

i will see what the axis's look like on, but i will probably just have them as spares or i may sell them on

wont be selling the xxr's haha

what they look like polished....

Good lord, that thing's higher off the ground than Dad's Navara

test fitting the spare rims..






looks like i will get rid of them to a fellow member on here,
if he doesnt want them, i will put up a for sale thread, just not quite my style

while i had the car up, thought i would show some pics of my suspension/shortened commodore diff set-up


really needs a clean under there...

rear discs from GJ


bosch pump



rack & pinion set-up

this is an awsome car..nice work buds
i like those wheels too!

one of my fav cars

dunno about the datsun 280z wheels though

77galantv6 wrote:just not quite my style

Agreed
Not such a good look on the curvacious body of a Galant

Dave...

so long overdue update....

have been buying stuff left right and centre - rubbers, NOS parts, new steering wheel,
slim quick release steering hub, new seats, some random JDM stuff that
i have found and mainly small detail stuff waiting for the day when the car gets painted....
well that day is very close! I dropped the car off today with 75Wagon
and he is going to start working on it in the next few weeks.

hopefully he will add progress shots

i will upload photos of the bought stuff soon.

Are you staying white or going for a colour change?

77galantv6 wrote:hopefully he will add progress shots

I'll try but, I'm having problems for the first time ever uploading pics?
I got into it a bit last night. 1st job I removed the gutter rail strips.
This is why you don't put grandpa visors on your car.


I found that the grandpa visor had split the original caulking along the gutter rail, allowing water to get in. Thus, creating the perfect environment for rust. I'll treat this with rust convertor and re-caulk.

I have also removed all the excess glue from the bonnet frame and skin (can't upload the pic for some reason?)

A112H wrote:Are you staying white or going for a colour change?

The original colour is the instruction I've been given.
The engine bay is complicated to say the least, and wont be touched, so that is what determines the colour for the rest of the car.

Dave...

I've been slow to add pics because for some reason tinypic wont allow me to upload anymore pics? So I've joined up to imageshack?

Anyway, here are a few pics of what I've been up to.

I started by stripping the car, and doing other little jobs while I was at it, like removing the excess glue that attaches the bonnet skin to the frame work.









Out comes the paint stripper.


Here's a little tip I got from Agmis_Obrut.
Applying the paint stripper and then putting plastic over it to stop it from drying out before it's penetrated all the way to the metal.


Here's the first peel back of the plastic. As you can see, the stripper has done most of the work.



After I strip the panels, then I file finish them. This way I can see exactly where each dent is. This panel only appeared to have 2 small dents in it before I started, but as you can see by the pic, there is actually 6.




I've done even more today, I'll post up pics of that soon.

Dave...

looking good Dave

the plastic bag trick works a treat hey

It'd be at this point where I wouldn't be able to help myself and start pumping those guards out

Lookin good guys!

Also, I think I already asked but whatever happened to those other wheels you test fitted earlier?

Tj. wrote:It'd be at this point where I wouldn't be able to help myself and start pumping those guards out

Well, here's some almost up to date pics.
I don't know about what 77galantv6 thinks, but I think old school cars with fat as rims look better with the original body lines if possible. The rims on this are a tight squeeze on the rear, but they just fit. The fronts fit comfortably.

The back and rear guards are now stripped, but here's a shot with the stripper and plastic on.


Bonnet and front apron are also stripped.


I managed to waste a bit of time yesterday trying to strip another boot lid yesterday to use so I could save the sticker bombed boot lid. I ended up not being worth using And I managed to learn something as well, if you're trying to strip 2 pak paint off, make sure you have plenty of paint stripper and heaps off time. Paint stripper doesn't seem to do a lot to it? It took 3 applications to get through it. Just to find out that the boot lid had a heap of bog through the centre line.

So the sticker bombed boot lid isn't sticker bombed anymore, it stripped and ready to go. I'm moving onto the roof and sills today. Once the main part of the rood is stripped, the front and rear screens will come out. Then I'll just have the doors and the the plenum chamber cover (the panel in front of the windscreen) and the small panel between the boot and the rear windscreen to go.

Dave...

Here's how it sits as it was put to bed tonight.












Dave...

Awesome work Dave, this car will look sweet when done. I noticed you haven't done anything with the engine bay, will that be painted too?? How would you prepare it??
Hopeing to learn for when I need to paint mine.

BAC013 wrote:I noticed you haven't done anything with the engine bay, will that be painted too??

I don't know whether to say it's fortunate or unfortunate that I'm not touching the engine bay?
There is so much crap in this bay, because of all the extra stuff that has been added to run the Commodore EFI gear that it's not funny. Not to mention how much of a tight fit it is.

Normally, I remove the motor, wiring and brake lines and master etc, so there is nothing in the way, and then paint the bay.
I then reinstall it all and mask the bay off and paint the rest of the car. I have done it this way in the past as I have needed to keep the car drivable so I could get it in and out of my shed, as it was so small, but I don't really have that problem anymore?

I suppose, the rule I run with is, anywhere you stop the paint is the first place that the paint will lift from. So if you remove everything and paint the whole lot, then you shouldn't have a problem?

BAC013 wrote:Awesome work Dave, this car will look sweet when done.

Thanks for that, I appreciate it.
And just so everyone knows, this is the exact same amount of work I did to my wagon. I treat everybody's car as if it was my own.

Dave...

So would you paint strip it all or just sand it back?? Yeh, I will take it all out when the time comes.

I only strip the outside panels so I can file finish and fill them.
No point in the bay, just degrease and rub it back.

Dave...

This is moving along very nicely. It is going to look very, very nice when done.

Well, the updates have been a little slow. I've been working a fair bit so this has had to wait.
I am taking this whole next week off to finish this (I want my shed back ).
But anyway, here is the progress made so far.

These next 2 pics are after I'd just exchanged 2 of the doors and checked them for alignment. So after these pics I was right to dis assemble the rest of the car.




More room was needed for the 15x8 zero offset rims. Only a couple on mm. It was taken out another 6mm a side, it only just rubbed with 4 people in it under acceleration. But hoping it will be right now






Body panels pretty much all prepped and just about ready for paint.




Now this is how doors should be prepped. Everything out. Stripped, file finished, filled (as required), rubbed and cleaned inside and out. Ready for paint, and then fish oil before the car is completely reassembled.






Dave...

This looking awesome Dave. I am sure it will look fantastic when done, I will be keeping a close eye on this thread this week

looks great dave. just a quick question. might be a little bit stupid but how do you prevent the bare metal from surface rusting? when i painted the old bonnet on my lancer (was a really dodgy job as i used $2 cans of paint) i would come out in the morning and find a little bit of surface rust on the bonnet.

The best thing to do is get a coat of paint on it ASAP. Etch primer and undercoat won't keep the water of it completely.

However there are products that are designed to be used to remove that light surface rust and leave it ready for paint. They are basically a phosphoric acid solution that you pour on, give it a light scrub, then wash off. Once it's dry it's ready to be painted. Most good paint shops can supply it.

Getting goose bumps looking at this.... Can't wait to see it all polished up