The New Project: Part Deux!

[njsteve]

I just noticed on the calendar: This is the one year anniversary of me buying this car. Wow what a difference in progress versus the prior project! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[9566 BA]

Steve
everything looks great! Its hard to put back something like seam sealer that is gobbed on or looks messy on a car you are trying to make look nice but thats how they came.

[njsteve]

Finally finished the passenger side wheel tub repairs and slopped the seam sealer on, just like the assembly line did. The best method to reproduce the original application style seemed to be by wearing rubber gloves and applying three parallel lines of the sealer next to each other. Then you smeared it down the entire length of the seam with your index, middle and ring fingers held tightly alongside each other. This seems to duplicate the &quot;triple stripe&quot; application that is on my Gramma's 75 and the other car's I have examples of.





So, in the end, the Votech adult education course at the local highschool really paid off. For $400 and 12 weeks of Tuesday night dedication I was able to use their entire body shop and all the associated welding and bodywork equipment, and get expert tutelage on its use. I removed and replaced both trunk drop-offs, repaired the passenger side trunk-to-wheel tub section, and the rocker-to-wheel tub section, and refinished the trunk floor. Sure beats the estimate I got to have the work done (by around $7000). [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[K code Mustang]

And you know the work was done to your satisfaction. Great work as always.

[njsteve]

Thanks, John. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Now I have to find someone to do the topside. (A man's got to know his limitations...and painting a black car is well beyond mine at the moment). [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Maybe one more body shop class will do it.......

Great job, very inspiring to try some resto/repair items myself.

Ryan

[Dave Rifkin]

Are you sure it needs to be repainted? Some detailers do what is referred to as &quot;paint correction&quot; and it is a much more involved detailing process that can, in some cases, produce excellent results on the existing paint. It's not cheap but, much cheaper than a respray.

[njsteve]

It deserves a repaint. It is 30 year old enamel and has contaminants from the original application (tiny bumps from water in the air lines), chips, scratches and the entire lower 8 inches of the car including front and rear valances are coated in that darn gravel guard crap that everyone loved to apply back in the 1980s.

I also need to fix a couple cracks in the fiberglass hood near the scoops from incorrect hood closing procedures. These hoods should never be slammed down in the center. They should be gently prssed closed with two hands, one on each scoop. If not done this way, you get a crack alongside each scoop on the centerline of the hood. This hood has those cracks.

[njsteve]

Spent a couple hours at my buddy's garage this morning. We filled up the A/C system with R12 and man does it blow cold. 37 degrees at idle! Ready for summer cruising. I finally used the R12 that a fellow Yenko.net member gave me a year or so ago. Thanks again!

[njsteve]

Another evening at the votech body shop class. I forgot to take any before shots but here are a couple after shots. I had to weld up several 1/2&quot; Ziebart rust proofing holes in the doors. The one on the driver's side was right in the middle of where the conformance decal is supposed to be. The original rustproofers must have drilled right through the decal. DUMB! There were also a couple extra 1/4&quot; size holes where they must have tried to install a non-original replacement, power door lock solenoid. The large hex-head screws are the retaining bolts for the power door lock solenoids.


Anyway, here is the result after I reinstalled the door panels and made sure everything still worked: