msspartin7616

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This is how mine turned out before paint.

dcains

iTrader: (15)

You're way overthinking this. Just follow the directions on whatever can of primer/paint you buy. Spray a thin coat, wait a while, repeat, etc. until you get a smooth even finish. I like to wait overnight before sanding, just to be safe. I think I used a few dabs of superglue to hold the 'Z' back in place.

Chromatic

iTrader: (4)

It's what I do.

I picked up Paint, Primer, and Clearcoat spray today. Directions on the cans say ready to paint, clearcoat etc in 10 minutes on all of them and they are Dupli-color. So 10mins vs. overnight is a fairly large gap.

Only reason I ask so many questions is to prevent having to re-do things.. and I was asking about adhesive because I like sealing things like this in ways that are strong, but not so strong you need to break surrounding parts to get them back off.

With the emblem I think I'll just go with some clear plastic/metal bonding adhesive I found and used for mounting my component tweeters .. Great bond that is easily removable over and over should you need to change something.

But, I shan't ask anymore questions regarding the Emblem.. I'll figure it out. Thanks for the advice.

Chromatic

iTrader: (4)

Thanks.. looks nice.

dcains

iTrader: (15)

No worries - just don't sweat the small stuff so much, and there's often more than one way to do things. I am happy to help, and this forum was certainly a big help to me whan I got my Z 4+ years ago,

Chromatic

iTrader: (4)

Well I finally finished it.. didn't take many pictures as I re-did it a few times as I wanted to get as close to the stock look as possible (my goal on this)..

Here's the Z emblem all stripped and sanded.. (took a lot of tries on this thing to get it right and fill in some gaps from sanding).

Front:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/12317420585/
Back:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/12317576053/

The final result (The circle shape in the middle is the flashlight I was holding in vain trying to get more light on it. )
http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/12319244025/
Thanks for the help,

dcains

iTrader: (15)

Looks great, especially the 'Z'.

Chromatic

iTrader: (4)

Thanks.. I used the tips from the thread.. and matched the paint by mixing them actually and putting them in a sprayer.. couldn't find anything that was the exact looking match.. so said what the heck.

It works, looks fine to me.. So it's done (plus I relocated those LEDS and Re did the wiring there .. so it looks "clean" and you don't see any lights at all.. just A lot of useful light with the hatch open.)

As an aside.. I put some new springs in the hatch (crazy expensive).. and had my doubts they'd work.. but so far they do.. every time, pops and only needs one "pop" to open.

Will they last 2 months or 2 years? Who knows.

dcains

iTrader: (15)

About a year ago I bought a pair of hatch struts from Amazon - Strongarm is the brand. Paid ~$50 or so for the pair, and they've been working great.

Chromatic

iTrader: (4)

Yeah.. you know my DIY I'm sure on the Hatch struts.. I consider it the best one on the web lol.. Mostly because it's such an easy job, no one else bothered to do a DIY to that degree of thoroughness..

But, I ordered my Stage 2 struts/shocks for $115 shipped.. High I know.. but, that said.. they are definitely much stronger than anything out there that isn't specifically Stage 2,3,4 etc and made to lift 30-40-50lb's for ridiculous wings. THe Stage 2 I have is just perfect enough to not be TOO hard to pull down, yet have a great deal of force opening where it should last the life of the car (or welll.. a good 6-7 years at least..) As , as these wear down .. these worn down would operate like OEM at some point. AND,.. given they are designed for more weight, they aren't under pressure.. Probably work at about 50% capacity or so, which is bound to cause them to last longer.

If I had to do it over.. I'd still grab these,.. but for most others who don't care at all.. You can get them for considerably cheaper like you did.. especially if you are willing to do what I did and remove the factory brackets/bolts and reuse them. But I've even seen ones with new brackets for under $100..

As for the topic here -- Here's a daytime picture of it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/12330918434/
I was going to go Charcoal grey like the 2006's had in them.. but I couldn't find the color that I was comfortable with. This I actually mixed 3 different colors into a sprayer.. to try and match the factory pictures as best as I could.. sort of like mixing paint together when painting oil, etc.

I want to refinish the button on my compartment above the head unit.. I took a look at it, and underneath the door there are 4 screws.. I'm wondering if that whole front bit of it comes off,.. only one way to find out I guess.

dcains

iTrader: (15)

Unfortunately, you'll never get that cubby release button out without pulling the whole waterfall, and then removing and disassembling the door. I took apart my button (slide, actually), wet-sanded it and then mirror-polished it. So, now I've got a finish which will never scratch or mar again. Here's a pic of it reassembled (not the best, as I missed some of the polish residue):



I can't remember exactly how I installed the hatch struts, but they didn't come with brackets for the bottom or the studs for the top. I didn't have to do any cutting on the old struts, and the whole task took ~15 minutes. I guess there's a way to pop apart the ball and socket joints, but I can't recall what I did. The new struts have a little circlip to keep the joints together, so they're a bit different.

Chromatic

iTrader: (4)

Well then I'll be masking off a few feet of the interior.. and sanding the button best I can .. probably with a dremel attachment on low speed.. I've become really good working with that thing so much. I did my whole Rear strut bar cover with the dremel (and just used sandpaper for the finishing touches..) Though one wrong move and you create a lot more work for yourself.

Mine isn't that bad really.. but I'll get it done right.. and down the road I may end up pulling everything out again .. but not at this point.

Interesting,.. my shock ball joints and brackets had no obvious way to come off you see the videos.. But the whole job was 45 minutes and that was because I was making a DIY.. it's a short job even with the cutting to be honest. One of the easier things I've done to the Z so far.

dcains

iTrader: (15)

I tried that first. Hopefully you'll have a better result.

Chromatic

iTrader: (4)

Yeah I anticipate being unable to sand into the extreme edges of the button (latch) .. but that's where the dremel comes in.. I can get much closer, if not to the corner edges with it as opposed to hand sanding,.. already figured that one out as I was using sandpaper by hand on the z emblem and knife.. and switched to dremel and it was SO much easier and able to get to every "nook" of the emblem.

It's not high on the priority list.. Installing my new exhaust is next.. tomorrow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/12355324363/