72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

OK, being the perfectionist I am I wasn't satisfied with the way the reproduction wheel came out. Since it is a harder urethane material, the Plasti-Dip spray nicked rather easily and didn't adhere as well as I would have hoped. When I picked at it a little, the entire coating peeled off in one piece. That, of course, meant that I did not prep the repro wheel well enough.

I also wasn't satisfied with the fact that it still had a bunch of grain along with a fake outer seam that marred the surface. So I ended up hand-sanding it with 80 grit, then 200, then 400 then 600 until it became as smooth as the factory wheel. I was very careful to keep away from the fake threads along the inner seams. I then sprayed it with a flexible plastic primer and sanded that with 600, reprimed and resanded by hand until it was shiny and smooth. I also reshaped the edges where the urethane meets the spokes as the repro was a bit too angular in that area. Once I was satisfied, (I know, I've said that before) I sprayed the wheel in numerous heavy coats of the SEM Landau Black and the result was beautiful. SEM is the coating to use and it is great stuff, much better than Duplicolor or VHT or any of the other brands. Other than the black anodizing looking way too new, the wheel looks like an NOS wheel now. And it feels a lot better as well. I will be installing this one in the car and saving the original wheel for posterity.

[mockingbird812]

Freakin' unbelievable Mac!

[njsteve]

In my spare time I'm working on creating an NOS ZL1 engine out of Wrigley's chewing gum wrappers, maple syrup and Dr. Pepper cans. (You have to use Dr.Ppper because it has more caffeine than other sodas and we all know the ZL1 was a more highly caffeinated engine than it's iron counterparts.)

[Judgeinator]

any progress since the last update?

[njsteve]

No, still waiting for the body man to finish prepping the front sheetmetal before I bring him the rest of the body. I will be making a decision either way in the next few weeks as to where the car will be finished because I am getting old and don't have the patience for these delays after 21 months of him having the panels.

[southernfriedcj]

[ QUOTE ]
No, still waiting for the body man to finish prepping the front sheetmetal before I bring him the rest of the body. I will be making a decision either way in the next few weeks as to where the car will be finished because I am getting old and don't have the patience for these delays after 21 months of him having the panels.

[/ QUOTE ]

Get a rope! 21 months! Christsakes!

[njsteve]

Future rapid progress kinda depends on whether Santa brings me the welding equipment I asked for.

[Norwood]

[ QUOTE ]
No, still waiting for the body man to finish prepping the front sheetmetal before I bring him the rest of the body. I will be making a decision either way in the next few weeks as to where the car will be finished because I am getting old and don't have the patience for these delays after 21 months of him having the panels.

[/ QUOTE ]

And I thought that I was SLOW. It's white Steve, DO IT YOURSELF.. You have done everything else..

[70-SS/RS-L78]

21 Months is entirely too long, I see that they did some metal work and blocked a lot of filler which is a time consuming process. Looks like they are
using Rage Gold in that shop. That stuff gets “Real Hard”. All that is left are the Quarters, Roof and then final sheet metal alignment, You are using the
original sheet metal so your car should come together real nice.
I do this for a living so I know how you can be easily side tracked. You have to have a time frame and game plan and try to “Stay on the car till it is finished”. The problems begin when you have a delay where you are at a stand still for whatever reason and get involved in another project...........
Steve You are doing a Great Job, I have learned a few things.

[njsteve]

I stopped up at the body shop last week and talked to my body man. We will see what happens. I am scheduled to bring the body up there in 2 weeks to get the trunk floor done and windshield channel, hopefully in a 7 to 10 day time span. Then I will take it back home to reinstall the windshield and the rest of the underside stuff: exhaust, gas tank, fuel lines, etc. while he works on other projects in the shop. We will see how this works out.