Mothra SR20DE Swap in Florida

[Bigtaku]

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I had to replace the non-stainless round stock with stainless double D stock after I cleaned this up. I will be painting the non stainless parts.

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The steering shaft now has plenty of room around the compressor. Needs a little clean up and paint and it will be a thing of beauty. This set up may work good for tight fits thru or around headers.IMG_2970.PNG

[Bigtaku]

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I know I have said this before but this time it's going to happen. MOTHRA IS GETTING PAINT THIS WEEK MAYBE TODAY! Just a bit of ruffing up the primer and finish sanding the hard top.

[notoptoy]

I see you completely welded and cleaned up the valance panel, that looks great.
Will be nice to see this in color!

[theunz]

Looks great, even in primer!

[Bigtaku]

I see you completely welded and cleaned up the valance panel, that looks great.
Will be nice to see this in color!

Form over function, I love the look, don't get me wrong but not having three separate front body parts is a bit more difficult to fix if I ever get in a fender bender. So much work to get to this point. Florida starts it's lock down on Friday but repair shops will stay open!

[Bigtaku]

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I had a crack in the paint on my rear engine bay ledge. Decided to see why, it was because the body shop I took it to three years ago screwed it all up. They had asked if I would like a flat ledge and they would weld in the metal to make it so. I thought that would be cool and different. I never got to see the work before it was primed, I remember saying oh nice work... Turns out the bondo was $#%^E@ thick, of course it would have cracked. Look at where they drilled the holes for the vin plate. Morons! Anyway at least it will be fixed before paint which is put off until this train wreck of a fix gets done. Really pisses me off though. I'm so glad I got the car away from that shop and to a reliable one.

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It will be painted in the next few days, I promise.

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This is before I removed the mess.

[RCMike]

Wow. Glad you caught that!

[Bigtaku]

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worked hard to fix the ledge today. Used as little bondo as possible to make it look good. Wow the little slots that look like inverted hot dogs are really hard to get right! I have no finger nails left after sanding on these all day. I'm sure that you guys and gals that have done this know what I'm talking about.

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I was hoping to get primer on the top today but ran out of time. It's almost ready though. I had the sides rounded off just perfect but added a bit of product to fix some dips so more sanding to follow.

[Mattk]

So quick question, how did you prep the top for Bondo so doesn’t separate? I want to do the same to my top.

Cheers
Matthew

[2mAn]

This is going to look so good when it’s painted! I’m excited, I imagine you’re itching to get color on it

[Bigtaku]

So quick question, how did you prep the top for Bondo so doesn’t separate? I want to do the same to my top.

Cheers
Matthew

We are using a resin base bondo that the shop says will not separate if applied lightly. I will take a picture of it and post.

[Bigtaku]

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Paint is this planned for this weekend. I have resanded the rollbar and would love to keep it red like the car but it was already scratched up and chipped just sitting around the shop. I am leaning toward using black truck bed paint so I don't worry about this later. What do you think?

[Linda]

Maybe powder coat your roll bar? It will look nice to match your new paint job and you won’t have to worry about runs etc from painting. Look forward to seeing your new paint.
Linda

[Mattk]

That looks beautiful. That’s the same red metallic I’m shooting for. The red I’m going to use is the Mazda metallic red on the new CX5s.

[Bigtaku]

The Paint is the 2018 Nissan NBA (paint code) shown here on the 2018 370Z. I wanted to stay true to Nissan with the color. It is a three part candy.

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I have thought maybe adding a clear plastic strip to the areas that may come in contact with the soft top to protect the paint.