Paint process(very long)

[john70t]

Here are some pics of the vehicle and a little history of the process.

The car was bought in 2001 for $8,000(too much) on an impulse buy, and as it turned out had only a few typical spots of rust and everything was evenly worn. The original owner put an "S" bumper and trim on it and I believe calipers as well.

The second owner had not maintained it well:sloppy wheel bearings, cracked windshield seals etc.. and one of the first things I had to do was put in shift coupler bushings because there was only one that was barely there. Needless to say, the transmission syncros are in need of replacement. A headlight relay kit was installed but still has quirks. I also put in sport engine mounts(very nice) and turbo tie rods(cheap rubber cracked within a year). I also put in junkyard highback seats and adapter plates to save the back. One trick that worked was to leave the plate-to-seat bolts a little loose and slide it back and forth to align the tracks in parallel.

About half a year ago I finally got acces to a work area and was planning on just redoing the suspension, window seals and put in a carpet kit. The paint, however, was faded and chipped, the factory undercoating was dried out and peeling, and after finding several holes of rust under the sills, in front of the rear wheels, on the underside, and under the windshield I decided to start a resto with only a few non-OEM upgrades. Rust turns expensive cars into scrap metal.

1. The interior was stripped to metal and Por15'd. Tar sheets from JC Witney(anyone need a roll?) were cut and put on the floor and rubberized undercoating sprayed up to the sides(use only the drying/paintable kind). Thick carpet underpadding was adhered over that so now the floor feels solid when stomped. The carpet was glued on top of that, but I made the mistake of using contact cement instead of 3M adhesive in the folds of the door seal channels. It also doesn't stick to the POR15 in the channels. Everwhere where water could sit got an application of the stuff. A lot of office clips were used to hold evrything in place while drying.

2. The rust holes were wirebrushed, sprayed with lots of rust converter, fitted cover plates welded in place, and fiberglassed over, and POR15'd. The one on the underside actually had traveled a good 6 inches and acumulated a softball-sized pile of chips. The problem is the catch-pocket in front of the rear wheels rusts through, then it travels up through the internal reinforcing braces, up through the door sills and down through the underside. I used 4x, then 3x expanding foam to fill in the holes, shaved that, fiberglassed, and Por15'd. As a caution, the foam keeps expanding for some time and will buckle out panels if overused. I still have to go through the frame channels with a flexible wand and pressure spray a good rust neutralizer/preventer.

3. The entire underside and wheel wells were chipped at with a chisel, sanded, cleaned, and painted with POR15. The front trunk got the same treatment.

4. All the windows were taken out and the headliner removed. A line was cut in the seal next to the metal trim to ease pressure on it and pressing in with a srewdriver next to it made the trim come out without a bend or nick. A hard wide chisel with a 90deg bend covered with duct tape also helps. The headliner was left flat for a couple days to minimized fold lines and test fitted in place using a mellon-sized bag of office clips. The most important part is getting the sunroof zipper in the right location as well as the proper tension on it before cutting and glueing, and it was moved around several times in the process. After the sunroof section is cut out and glued, the tension lines will change so everything has to be thought out before hand.
The excess was trimmed but a few inches was left to pull on, and then the edges were glued on one clip at a time. The sunroof cut out has to done carefully or the whole job is ruined. Its a good idea to put back the guide plates as soon as possible to hold the fabric in place. Also, mask off the area underneath and trim the brush because that stuff is messy. Again, I used contact cement instead of 3m weatherstrip, but the bottle was new and it seemed to stick sufficiently. The area where the headliner meets the rear deck was glued and duct taped down for support. After a few days the clips were removed and the leftovers cut off with a small exacto. There are a few wrinkles and the lights/hangers have to be put in, but that will wait until the window seals are in.

5. The painting process was trying to say the least, and after spending $100 or so on color matches touchup paint from two different companies, I decided to paint the whole car while it was half apart. The first painters(couple of juvenile delinquents) thankfully stopped working halfway through the job and many small parts turned up missing and a lot of progress reversed. Then I got the chance to work with the second painters and learn a few tricks from them. They are great guys and experienced mechanics as well and I don't enough praise for their work.
They used Dupont Prevair etching primer on the raw metal, Evercoat Finishsand sealer/primer(gray), Evercoat Finalsand(tan) high-build primer for buildup, PPG (1970 Burgundy#2424) base, and Dupont Premier clear, which gave it an incredible depth. Pretty expensive but worth it. Normally it's better to stick with the same brand chemicals all the way through but these were what was left.

6. All new seals and cables were used on reassembly, latches cleaned etc.. I added an extra clamp on the wires just in case the first slips and srayed PB blaster on the bolts. A TiN tap set from Harbor Freight was invaluable for cleaning threads. The ones under the sunroof and the 4 in the B-post for the quarter-window can't be replaced and made me quite nervous.
These cars are precision fit and don't like to go back together without slight tweeking (especially after being bumper parked), and I will admit to making quite a few hidden scratchs. The painter said: "Do the mechanical first, then bodywork, then paint"."

7. To do: get windows in, rebuild carbs, fix electrical quirks, alarm, stereo, bushings and t-bars, engine leaks and trans rebuild....sometime.....

[john70t]

[john70t]

[john70t]

[john70t]

[Hockey fan]

John,

Looks great - nice job on all the work. Now, when are you moving up to Portland so we can get started on mine?

Jeff