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1990 Eagle Talon Sleeper

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Man this looks all to familiar. I did pretty much the same thing to mine a few years ago...I went pretty crazy with the wire relocating and am now just finishing that part up. Haven't had time to update my build thread quite yet with it. Good luck with the build.
 
With the stock setup, the air comes directly off of the compressor head (which is hot) into the tank. That air then cools inside the tank causing condensation resulting in the water found when you drain your tank. Even worse, this water is being transported via the air source into your tools.

This setup simply takes the air from the head and runs it through a condenser which cools the air. Next in line is a moisture trap built from some black water pipe. Since the air has been cooled back down to ambient temps, condensation is forming. As the air travels up, the heavier water falls to the bottom of the pipe. The now cool and dry air leaves the water trap and into the tank.

This avoids the issue of a rusty tank and no more water in your airlines.

I did some initial testing tonight with some promising results. Temp off the head was 140* Temp going into the tank was 84*. Ambient Temps where 84* and there was no water when I drained the tank after a couples hours of on and off use. However, the moisture trap was full of water :)
 
After work all this week, I have been putting in a few hours here and there.

It started Sunday night. No, this is not an episode of Dexter ROFL this is a makeshift sandblasting booth to remove the paint that we couldn’t reach with the DA.

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Even with the plastic in place, the dust got absolutely everywhere and on everything. I spent Monday and Tuesday pulling everything out of the garage vacuuming the floor and cleaning all the items in my driveway and then putting them back into the garage.

After all that was done, we sanded everything with 180 grit. The Tech sheet for the Epoxy called for 180 Gritt on bare metal and 220 on painted surfaces so I went with 180 and this is what we had.

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Finally it was time to cover everything in the garage with plastic, blow off the car one last time, wipe it down with wax and grease remover and tack it down.

All these weeks of prep have come down to this day. Wednesday night I hooked up my purple HF HVLP with a 1.5 tip and sprayed my first ever automotive paint. This Epoxy has a 72 hour recoat window so from this point on it is a race against time.

I can say that I loved the way that this turned out. Better than I expected and this was only the primer. It really went better than I thought it would.

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It stayed like this for less than 24 hours. I got a little wild with the grinder when I did the seam welding so it was time to scuff the primer with 80 grit and apply a small amount of body filler.

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After it was smoothed to my satisfaction, I scuffed all the seams using a red scotch brit pad and masked them off with 3/4 masking tape. I then applied some SEM seam sealer in sections and immediately removed the masking tape to create nice crisp lines.

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I have cleaned up the garage and this is where she sits right now. Tomorrow morning the garage will get one last cleaning, the bay will get one last once over to make sure I am satisfied with the current condition, wipe down with wax and grease remover, hit it with a tac rag and then one coat of Epoxy to seal everything followed by base coat and clear coat.

Videos have been taken and I plan to edit them. However, those videos take time to edit and there are 14 more that need to be done before these painting videos are made so don’t hold your breath. Hope you enjoy this little update and there will be final product photos coming soon.
 

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This morning I was able to get the second coat of epoxy, followed by 3 coats of base and lastly three coats of clear. There are some minor imperfections and slight orange peel in the clear but for my first HVLP job, I must say that I like it. It’s not perfect and it leaves some things to be desired at a latter date. This should last much longer than the spray can job I did 5 years ago.

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The next step is to get the new block off to the machine shop. While its gone, I plan to start powdercoating the smaller parts that I can fit in my toaster oven contraption and painting or outsourcing (@Detective Coating) others. Here is the delima...... what color scheme for the new white engine bay? Any suggestions with a photo would be outstanding. Just looking for some ideas since I can’t seem to find any that peak my interest.
 
I had Justin at detective coating do illusion purple and black chrome with some gloss black added in. I will send you some pics once I get back from training. Here's a pic before I add my illusion purple parts

heres another pic
 

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Thanks for the input. I like the mix of chrome and black, just not sure I can use the gold since nothing else on the car even comes close. However, I can use the idea and just substitute another color :hmm: Thanks again for the pictures.
 
Life has gotten busy with a new house, new baby and moving for work. I still have the car stripped down with the fresh paint job. The car currently sits about the same just in a new location.

I suspect the building will commence towards the end of this year if everything pans out the way it's currently planned.

I'm glad you enjoyed the thread and there will be more to follow.
 
Any updates on the build? I just spent the last couple of days going through it and it's gotta be one of the best builds that I've seen. I've learned so much and have gotten more motivated to get on my TSI. I was just rebuilding some frontend components, rebuilding the transmission and the turbo setup. Now I'm thinking about pulling the engine and painting the compartment and maybe going through the engine. I am a newbie when it comes to DSMs but I've been working on cars for over 25 years, so I have the mechanical knowledge just not the DSM knowledge. And you are like the Yoda. So get back on your build and teach me some more. Please. Keep up the good work.
 
I’m glad that you find some of the thread useful. My new garage is outfitted and organized and I have the block and head back out for re-measurement. I plan to bolt the head to the block and measure again from the bottom to insure the block is truly out of spec before sending it out for machining.

With all that being said, its spring time so yard work is beginning and work is full steam ahead. I am not sure what pace the project will be moving at but I have every intention to continue and finish it.
 
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