Gerb's Mirage Project

[gerbsinmd]

Here's where we are today.

[res0o7eb]

Wow! Looks GREAT!!!!
Considering it's humble beginnings - even more amazing.

It was through you and your post here at H-body that I find out about the roller painting method.

Good work, Darrel.

[monza75tc]

Darrel,

That is looking Great. A lot different than when you got it from Iowa. How are you doing the door jams? Rattlecan or brushing? Since yours looks so good, I am definately thinking of rolling mine.

Dick

[gerbsinmd]

Thanks Dick. I'm rattle canning the door jams, too many odd shapes in there to get it to look good.

[gerbsinmd]

Putting the new engine in my Blazer took a LOT of time away from the Mirage, but I did make some progress on it over the summer.

Got some new wheels on it, well, 2 of them but I got the other 2 for my birthday!!! I think the wheels dress it up a bunch!

Got the junk worked out of the front flares, they're looking good. Got some work to do on the rear flares yet but they are shaping up too.

[gerbsinmd]

I took the driver's side valve cover off, YUCK, what a mess. Before I could remove the Valve cover I had to jack the back of the car up as high as I could to get the oil to run down the drain hole on the front of the engine.... I scraped out as much of the stuff as I could, took the air compressor and blew out the drain holes cleaned it up and put it back together. Hopefully it won't smoke so bad now. In fact I bet it will run better as soon as I put the new plugs in it, maybe this weekend.

[NixVegaGT]

WOW! It looks like you got some field on the intake too. LOL!. Do you think some seafoam will clean this enough?

[gerbsinmd]

Heh that's what happens when they sit for 20 years.... And that amount of gook on the intake is good compared to what it started out with, it has been pressure washed once. I don't think I took the air cleaner off though when I did that, so that may be why there is so much junk on top.

Its inevitable, it needs to come out and apart, but for now we'll see what we can do without doing that.

[mldeolde]

WOW!!!!!!!!!! UNDER THAT VALVE COVER COULD PASS FOR ALL THE STUFF I'VE SCRAPED OFF MY BARBEQUE GRILL FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS. HOPE YOU CAN GET THAT GUNK OUT OF THERE. LOOKS NASTY........

[gerbsinmd]

I thought about the Seafoam but I haven't done that yet.

Over the weekend I was talking with One of my neighbors who works at a dealership and they have stuff made just for this type of stuff, supposedly you spray it on and let it sit, it eats up all the sludge and it runs down into the pan. Then remove the pan to get the gook out and clean it up and run some oil thru to clean it out and change it again.

I think this is going to be a multi-step, multiple chemical process. Ah Chemical warfare!!!!!!

[mldeolde]

just as a more positive note,love the new body work,looks great. have you decieded on a final paint scheme yet ???

[gerbsinmd]

The final paint scheme will eventually be the traditional Mirage red white and blue, with a couple of subtle changes that I think make a white car look better. If you're not pretty familiar with a Mirage you probably won't even know what is different.

[gerbsinmd]

Did a half a$$ tune-up today, changed 5 of the plugs, the easy ones that I could do in the amount of time that I had. The car runs better than ever before! Took some carb cleaner to the carb and it runs great!!!!!! Oh and no more smoke!!!! I can actually stand to be in the same area as the car and if its in the garage its not bad to be in there with it.

[gerbsinmd]

I have been working on the Mirage. Here are my latest efforts. The front bumper needed a lot of repair and smoothing but has turned out quite nice.

Hopefully tonight I can install one of them on the car.

[gerbsinmd]

The windshield is in!