If you’re keeping up with the blog you’ll know I just wrapped up a ton of work on the bay, including painting it. The initial results were decent, but the more I looked at it the more my mistakes screamed at me to be fixed. Simply wet-sanding and buffing weren’t going to fix the streaks in the base-coat, and the gun I used to spray the clear wasn’t the best. The orange peel from poor atomization combined with some big runs just couldn’t be ignored.

I decided to sand down the problem areas and respray the base and clear. I sanded out all the orange peel and runs with 600 grit and resprayed the base-coat. Unfortunately, I kept getting a weird haze on the wall of the driver’s side tub. I ended up having to mask off that section and going back down to primer, which I then wet sanded with 400 grit to get it smooth and ready for the base-coat.

I was pretty careful to lay the base down smooth and with the correct overlap to avoid streaking this time. If I was using a gun to base, the streaks wouldn’t have been an issue, but I was using Duplicolor Perfect Match aerosol cans.

While I was at it I decided to go ahead and paint the intake manifold, which I had spent a good amount of time shaving and smoothing. I thought about painting it the same gun-metal as the bay, but decided a lighter gray metallic would look better.

I decided to clear it as well so it wouldn’t get scratched so easy in the engine bay while I was working on stuff. I ended up fixing my “good” HVLP spray gun (an Iwata knock-off) and used it to clear-coat the engine bay and the intake manifold in my driveway.

After I was done clear-coating the intake manifold and the bay, I pushed the S13 back into the garage to let it dry overnight. I was happy with the results and glad I took the time to go back and fix the issues.

I test fit the intake manifold and it looked decent. I really thought the gray metallic I used was going to end up lighter, but it turned out close the the color of the bay. There’s a good chance it’s going to end up getting Cera-Kromed down the road…

A few days after clear-coating the bay I went ahead and sealed and undercoated the wheel wells. I used etching primer on the sections of bare metal, and after it dried I sprayed a few coats of Duplicolor rubberized undercoating to protect it all from rust and give it a uniform color.

With the bay finished it was time to start putting everything back in. The S13 had a rough life in Japan and the condition of all the bay bits showed. I definitely couldn’t bolt a bunch of rusty and dirty parts in a freshly mint bay, so I went to work cleaning everything up. I started with the brake booster. After grinding all the rust off I primed it and sprayed it with black Rustoleum. I didn’t like the gloss finish, so i sprayed a couple coats of black Plastic Dip, which gave it the satin look I preferred..

I did the same to the lower window trim. I might end up replacing it later, but it looks good enough for now. Honestly. I was reading Damon’s blog post about replacing seals and trim on his S13 and it motivated me to clean these pieces up. If you haven’t read his blog CamryOnBronze dedicated to 240SX restoration and modification it’s one of the best on the internet. Click here to check it out.

I still had the original clutch master cylinder, but it was pretty nasty. Instead of trying to clean it up I decided to pick up a new one from Exedy. I was considering doing the same for the brake master cylinder, but it’s an BNR32 GT-R N1 unit, so I’m going to clean it up later.

That wraps this quick post up. I’m going to keep rolling updates out on a regular basis. I’m getting a good amount of work done in a short amount of time and I have plenty of content to share.