I purchased my Evo with the intention of painting a few things and fixing a few issues, well 2 years later, I have finally started on it. I used to live out in NY and would drive back to IL to see my family, well this took a toll on the front end. The rock chips were getting out of control and I decided that I had waited long enough to fix it. Last night, I stayed late after work and pulled the passenger fender, front bumper and hood off the car. I decided to go into work this morning to get a start on prepping the parts for paint. I got everything I wanted done and still have time to enjoy my day!

When I first got to the shop I opted to pull the driver's fender off and paint it as well. Originally I wasn't going to paint it, but I figured what the hell why not. After that I decided to strip the hood down to the metal to make sure there was no previous bodywork that would cause problems for me later on. I am happy to say, the hood has never been painted. Here is what it looked like when I got done stripping it:



I quickly put a coat of primer on it, just in case I ran out of time later on. If I didn't put primer on it, I probably would have come in to a bit of rust on Monday. Here it is wearing yellow:



After that, I moved on to the bumper and all I have to say is rock chips much... I knew it was getting bad (driving between IL and NY a few times), but I didn't realize how bad it truly was. I literally had to DA the entire bumper (this isn't very common, normally its small parts). I also decided to fill the hole for the license plate bracket since I don't rock a front plate. Here it is waiting for the filler to dry:



Since both the hood and bumper were ready for primer, I decided to just knock it out today. I mixed up some primer quickly and shot 2 coats on each:





I had planned on leaving at noon, but since it was already 1pm by the time the primer was done, I figured I'd sand the fenders down:



On Monday, I will spend a couple hours blocking the hood down to make sure there are no waves or anything and maybe get to the bumper if I have time. I would like to have everything painted by Thursday or Friday, since I will get my car back on Friday. Once I find more time, I will continue with painting the rest of the car, most likely 1 side at a time, then getting a JDM Evo 9 rear bumper and doing the back of the car.

 

Nice! I need to do this so bad, I know how and I have materials, gun etc I just need a booth...

 

me too.....

 

Me too. Haha and the factory hood is aluminum sooo it wouldnt have rusted mine isn't too bad but I have been kicking around the idea of spraying the whole car in a army matte. It's just so much damn work. I hate spraying matte clear too. It's not like you can just cut and buff a run in that ****.

 

you should chop tht nose! evo 8 bumper with a chopped nose looks better than a evo 9 bumper IMO..

 

do a nose chop please !!!

 

Hmmm.....

I was just in an accident and need to get a fender and bumper painted... How much would you charge me to prep and paint a used bumper and fender to graphite Grey?

Or maybe even you could fix the bumper I have... it has a few scrapes and a couple drilled holes that need to be filled, but no tears.

Oh yeah, I am up in Madison, but come down to Chicago quite often.

 

I thought about doing it and was really close to it, but I bought an 8 cause I wanted a unicorn, I can't chop off the unicorn or it wouldn't be the same haha. I may do a nose chop later on, but for now it stays.

Please shoot me a PM, I'm sure I can help ya out.

 

We were swamped at work today, but I managed to find a little time to at least make some progress on the hood. I blocked it down to make sure there was no debris in the primer and so there wouldn't be weird marks all over the place and then used a primer to cover up where I went down to bare metal again:



After that was dry I sealed the hood (I'm making sure this thing will never rust lol):



And finally I sprayed a black base coat:



Tomorrow, I am going to block down the hood again and hopefully have time to spray the hood and the fenders with the actual black followed by clear. I will then begin sanding the bumper down and spraying it. I might chop the nose, since my car will be out of commission for a little bit (she may or may not be getting a 6262 ), but I am still very undecided on this. I do like the unicorn, but it would be neat to have it since I have never seen an 8 with a nose chop by me.

 

Nose chop is sweet for sure.

 

Looks good keep us updated with more good pics!

 

aluminum (aka the hood) won't rust.

 

Just curious.why did you seal the hood and let it completely dry before you based? Whenever we spray sealer we let it flash off and base over it. That way you don't have to sand it again.im sure you know but when it sits the base won't bite onto the sealer unless you scuff the thing and break the skin open and that just takes that much more time. Also what paint system are you guys on? We just made a switch a while back to basf glasurit line water base. I like the water a lot compared to the solvent. Seems the color match is better and when doing small parts it is so much quicker. Then the rapid repair clear I believe 55-140 is sweet. In 1hour air dry with that clear you can cut and but it.

 

Aluminum can suffer from corrosion, just as steel would, however with aluminum instead of a brown rust you are used to seeing you would see a white film (also known as "white rust"). Sure the aluminum hood that had not been sanded may have no trouble, but one that has been hit with 80 grit and 220 grit, may not fair as well. I would never suggest leaving any metal that has been sanded out in the open for a few days before sealing it.

The sealer was still wet, but not very wet. Right now it is 100+ degrees every day, no matter what you do the sealer dries before you can get paint on it. Hell, the bondo is drying before you get to the car, so we are mixing it at the car right now. I am being overly **** about the paint work and would have blocked the hood multiple times anyway just to ensure there is no dust, pollen, dirt or what have you on the hood and that the hood is straight instead of wavy. It also helps that my car will be down for a couple weeks, so I have plenty of time to work on the parts. We are using DuPont paints and promoters. We have been toying with the idea of a water based system, but the initial investment isn't the smallest so the owner hasn't pulled the trigger yet.

Now, on to the update!

I got quite a bit of work done today!

I sanded the fenders more and blocked the hood, followed by paint:







Then it was finally time for clear!







Thursday I will sand and buff the fenders and hood so they can be 100% done. I am shunning the bumper while I make up my mind on a nose chop or not...

Aside from the body work, the following was ordered...



JDL T3 Hot Parts Kit



Tial 44mm Wastegate



Kelford 272 Cams (the best 272 for the Evo)



BC Springs & Ti Retainers

And it is all for this...



PTE SC6262SP

I also have a slim fan, STM 3" intake and a few other things on order. The Evo is already in the shop getting torn down to have all the new parts go on.

 

Nice progress man, I just did the same thing with mine. Resprayed the hood and front bumper.

As for spraying over the sealer. Most products have a time period that you have to spray over the top before re-scuffing. My sealer I use,(sherwin williams atx sealer) has about a 5 min window to spray base straight over, but I have seen sealers that allow up to a couple hours, before they need re-scuffed.

And yea, stop tryin to prevent rust on the hood, IT WONT RUST haha, its aluminum. Pretty sure the fenders are as well. There is a corrosion that can occur over a time, but it normally is easily sanded off with a scotch brite pad.