Man, I’ve been terrible about updating my builds. Over the last three months…a LOT has changed on my corolla(s). Branden did a quick profile on me back at the end of 2012. You can check it out here. At that time, I had just freshly prepped and painted my coupe. Being my first time using an HVLP gun and single stage paint, I think it turned out pretty good!

Here’s a before shot of the car:

Nov. 8, 2012:
First thing first, I started sanding down the spray paint on the car to get to the original paint. Once I got to that, I scuffed up the original paint real nice for the primer to stick. And started primering with Rustoleum spray paint. (in the future, I would buy actual automotive primer from Sherwinn-Williams bc, I don’t think my single stage paint stuck to the car as well with rustoleum).

Nov. 11, 2012
After taping it all up, I drove the car into the garage and set up my pseudo paint booth, to get ready for paint. I bought some plastic sheeting from Home Depot and attached it to the ceiling around the car with duct tape. It would’ve been nice to have a paint booth, but this was the best I could do.

Nov. 19, 2012
I bought some VIS front over fenders and hood from UltimateMotorX. I was unsure of their website and couldn’t find many reviews online, so I decided to call the toll free number. A gentleman picked up the phone and was quick to help me out. I asked him levin vs. trueno and he knew! So that made me more comfortable — I didn’t want to order widebody for my levin and have trueno ones come in. Turnaround was only like a week and a half for the parts! So once, they came in, I threw the fenders and hood on to test fit before primer/paint.

Nov. 21, 2012
Looked sooooo nice! So away went the hood (into my room so it could be safe from overspray). And the primering began! Many auto paint friends told me to mop down the floor to keep dust levels down, but I was too excited, I went straight to primering and painting. Next time around, I’m going to take my time and be more patient with the process. There was a lot of dust particles floating around that would land on my paint and left imperfections. But since my coupe was to be my daily, I wasn’t too upset about it. I ended up doing about 8 coats of the single stage paint. (The paint was purchased from Sherwinn-Williams Automotive). It came with hardner, thinner, paint stirrers, paint strainer, and measuring cups. So handy! And it was only like $250 for the paint.

Nov. 28, 2012
After the paint was done, I let it dry to the touch before I pushed the car outside into the sun to dry some more. Then it was waiting time to let the paint really harden before polishing/buffing. There was a bit of orange peel on the car, which really bothered me at first. But after wetsanding and polishing, it came out amazing! I bought a wool and a foam buffing pad from Advanced Auto, along with some Mothers polishing compound and started polishing up the paint!

Dec. 9, 2012
But was I done? NOPE! I got super lucky that week and found a set of rear louvers for the ae86 coupe on Craigslist! BUT, it was in Tulsa, OK. I’m in Austin, TX. It’s an 8-9 hr drive from Austin to Tulsa. Did that stop me? NOPE. Did I take my coupe? YUP. For those of you who don’t know, I tend to take my Corollas on long (3+ hrs) road trips regardless of what other people say. OH NO, YOU WONT MAKE IT! WHAT IF YOUR CAR BREAKS DOWN?

LONG HAIR DON’T CARE. I do it anyways. So on the road to Tulsa and 8-9 hrs later, I was at a QuickTrip gas station, waiting for the guy to get there with the Louvers. After chit chatting, we discovered our mutual love for old imports and he invited me over to his house to check out his builds.

One speeding ticket later, I was back in Dallas hanging out with a few 86 guys. We caught up over some Whataburger before I continued my trek back to Austin.

Dec. 11, 2012
Two days later, the louvers were on and my coupe was looking righteous! Almost where I want it!

STAY TUNED FOR ANOTHER UPDATE ON THE COUPE! I haven’t even gotten into the coupe’s evolution in 2013 yet!

In the meantime, here’s the coupe doing a driveway burnout