Dave Martin - Upstate Super Replicars Daytona Coupe
The body frame kit showed up on a rainy night in late January. Bill has a set
of dolly wheels that he'll loan you so it rolled right off the transporter and into
my garage. You can see the red powder coated frame on these shots - think of
it with a red body and tan interior and you'll have the final car. In an Upstate,
the body is glassed around the side roll frame - they lay down the floor pan,
add the side impact bars which are welded to the main chassis, place the main
body in place and then bolt and glass it all together for a really tight unit. Of
course you can add aluminum panels overtop and get the original look.
   
My first task was to lay a suitable undercoating on prior to running any hard
line for brakes and fuel. I decided to go with 2 part epoxy truck bed liner with
rubber additive in black. This should give me a durable, easy to clean under
coating. There's not a whole lot worse than sanding the underside of a
fiberglass car while laying on the floor! You judge the results.
   
Updated 07/20/05
 
Updated 09/16/06
Big event... Finally finished the rough bodywork on the right side and completed
front and rear suspension so it's time to flip the car so it's facing out in
preparation of installing the motor/transmission assembly. The problem with this
is two fold - First, I don't have the final rims yet and since the front suspension
is already the 6 pin spinner type I can't just go to the local junk yard and buy a
couple of spares which I could do for the rear which hasn't been converted over
from 5 lug yet. To get around this I built a couple of dolly wheels that I could
mount on the front. The second problem is emotional - I've seen constant
improvement on the Coupe for the last year and just when it starts looking like
a car, I get to look at the plain unfinished side! So two views of the Coupe.
  
   
Updated 08/08/07
More work done! I've been busy on the drivers side of the car which was the
worst side from the fiberglass/assembly point of view. The drivers door was
twisted which required me to completely split the inner and outer door
panels, re-prep and then re-bond them mounted to the body so they
would be perfect. I also spent the normal amount of time sanding mold lines
off and correcting body flaws along with straightening out the window edges.
With the Drivers side open to the garage I tackled the the creation of the
quarter window brake scoop inlets to make them functional (future tech
article) along with installing the rear spoiler with a really swift 3rd brake light
(see tech article for 3rd brake light install). I also mounted the brake pedals
backing plate and drilled all the holes for the master cylinders. I created an
aluminum backsplash for the master cylinders with a angled bottom that will
allow me to later mount a heat shield to protect the cylinders from the header
heat. Pretty neat idea don't you think? The target is "out for paint" by
October 15, 2007. Wish me luck!
   
   
Targets come and they usually go. Finally got it out for paint at the end of
November. Paint is going to be applied by Maestro Aleandro of Sylmar using
PPG Ferrari Redand Ford White. After a couple of weeks of cleanup on the
body, a total of 7 coats of primer were sprayed on. That may sound like a
lot but after all the blocking was done, we'd be lucky if we ended up with
2 - 3 coats worth still in place.
From here we moved into the paint booth where a sealer coat and 3 coats of
PPG Ferrari Red and 2 coats of clear were applied. The paint was "brushed"
with a scotch brite pad between coats of color and clear.
Laying out the stripes was by far the most difficult task. As the Upstate
Coupe is splashed from an original Daytona (CSX 2602), the body lines
are not symetrical. In the end, Aleandro and I placed the lines where they
"looked" centered while also cutting the width of the strips down from 10
inches to around 9 1/4" to give it a better perspective. Two coats of Ford
Racing White went on. After the stripes were dry the edges were scotch
brite they were then masked off and 2 coats of clear added to the
exposed red. This was allowed to dry for 5 days and then color sanded
with paper (ok, it 2000 grit sand paper but it felt like paper!). A
final 3 coats of clear were then added.
After drying for another week the entire car was again wet sanded and then
sent home. Since I knew the process, having painted a half a dozen cars
myself in younger days, I knew Aleandro's recommendation to allow it to dry
for a month before attempting the final wet sand and polish was the right
move. It was quite funny when the "club" came over in mid January for the
annual club Chili Cook-off and they saw a very "dull" looking Coupe "fresh"
Knott's is now 4 months away!
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