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This weekend I was able to finish stripping the front clip, despite spending Saturday tailgating at going to the LSU game!
I've gotten really zeroed in on the razor blades and heat gun, and decided to try again with a metal razor. I used a different blade holder and angle, as well as little heat and was able to strip the door in an hour! Hopefully I can keep this going!
On today's efforts I got back to my weekly underbody cleaning and made a BIG progress on that department! It's becoming more apparent to me that I need to get my body back on the frame in order to complete some of the upcoming tasks: 1) windshield frame repairs, 2) possibly quarters, 3) having it easily mobile is a big bonus for how I'm going to paint.
First up was to remove the rotted #4 BM support on the PS. This was easy to remove because it was so rotted, just drilled the rivets an pulled the pieces off:
This brings me to the next part of the task, which I've started to figure out on the DS in the past: removing this sloppy undercoating job and years of crust. I found that a heat gun and razor blade enabled me to scrape it away, and once again went to work with them as I had been the past few weeks:
So a scraped away and got all I could off. Then sprayed is down with Simple Green and scrubbed don with scotch pads, then soapy water, then heavily rinsed all it off. I finally exposed fiberglass and overspray from my rainbows of paint jobs:
I found these serial numbers by the #3 body mount, anyone know what they mean?
After I got the rear wheel wells cleaned up I went to the front clip. There was no undercoating here so just scrubbing was able to remove all the grime and expose clean fiberglass and some overspray there as well. The front will clean up nicely with black paint that I'm planning on spraying in the engine bay soon. But the rears will have too much imperfections exposed (even though no one will ever see them) . I do like the results shared in the recent thread with 3M 08883 Undercoating in the rear wells. Anyone ever used this? What is commonly used to clean up these wheel wells?
Today I got back to the front clip and finish sanded everything with 400 grit in preparation for paint. I had previously filled a couple of spots with VPA and sanded them down to smooth everything out. started masking stuff off, covering everything in my shop, and getting ready to paint the engine bay and fender wells. I also picked up some 3M 08883 undercoating to for the rear wheel wells today. Either going to use that or semi gloss black paint on the rear fender wells.
I've been gathering auto body supplies and have a good collection coming along: Epoxy primer, 2K Primer, and all kinds of little goodies:
My ne paint gun came in this week as well. This is a really cool design that uses disposable cups and tips that are quickly and easily changed out!
Hope Everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Wife and I enjoyed a lot of quality time with our family and ended with the final home game in Death Valley watching Jayden Daniels with LSU defeat the Aggies!
Today I got to lay paint on this car for the first time! I had the engine bay, fender wells, and underside prepped and ready to spray so my buddy came over to help me setup my new paint gun and give me some car painting lessons. He taught me how to make adjustments in the fluid and pressure we fogging in nooks and crannies, how to do trigger control , and other useful techniques for painting. I really like the new gun, it's so easy to clean and paints great! I laid down the primer and my buddy laid down the semi-gloss black. The results are great:
Painted it all with epoxy primer first. Used the Kirker Enduro Prime, and it laid down beautifully. It was my first time painting in years and I had no issues getting a nice and smooth finish
We then gave the primer an hour to dry, before mixing up the semi-gloss black that went on top
I got a little time in the shop this evening and moved my efforts towards finishing the rear wheel wells. I had previously removed the PS #4 Body mount, and was easily able to get the reinforcement and nut cage off. The drivers side has one broken rivet on the nut cage, and I decided it'd be easier to just remove that enforcement bracket to drill the rivet. This would also give the opportunity to repair/replace that bracket as well.
Driver's side #4 BM nut cage hanging on by a rivet! I'll rivet in fresh nut cages and nuts in here soon:
While the DS #4 bracket appeared okay, after removal it was quickly apparent that I need to go ahead and replace it with a fresh reinforcement bracket.:
I already had all the parts for the passenger side, went ahead and ordered the set for the driver's side. Current plan is to use the 3M 0883 undercoating on the rear wheel wells . There was a recent thread with pictures of this product and I really like the look - it's not gritty and a nice finish.
I'm happy with it: It's not gritty like a lot of products so won't hold a lot of dirt, but it has enough texture to blend some of the imperfections from the decades. From a spray can too!
Today is Friday which means half day at work, and the rest in the shop!!!
Today in body work, I tackled a spot in the corner I messed up removing the body when I left a bracket in place.... This is going to be way easier to fix with the body off the frame, so I wanted to go ahead and tackle it.
First step is stripping all the paint:
Then I degreased and cleaned with acetone. I stripped the inside with a 36 grit wheel and degreased as well. Now it was time to cut some fiberglass mat and make a mess:
Inside and outside, made a nice patch that should hold it together nicely:
While the epoxy cured, I slowly stripped paint off the car. I've learned a lot about the ins and outs of the razor blade stripping. The areas I'm having issues is where it's full of bondo or feather fill, because the razor digs into it and bites the glass. When I did the doors which were just paint it went super smooth, like you see others doing! So I'm lucky to have a car that is SUPER difficult to strip everywhere except the damn doors! I'd happily pay a grand to have someone soda-blast it, but at least I'm half way through the paint stripping now! lol I tackled the deck lid today, which didn't have bondo, but was full of feather fill. Some areas I could razor blade, some were a challenge. But this is what I did in two hours with a razor and a DA sander:
Then I sanded through all the mud on the quarters to find the bonding strips. There was a LOT of bondo! but I found them, and it looks like I'm going to remove these and put OEM quarters back in:
Last night I went and helped my neighbor out to strip down the LS and trans for his current build so we can blast and paint it Sunday. We're planning to blast and paint a pile of parts for both our builds, what a great friend to have in the neighborhood! I'll give y'all a sneak peek of what he's doing, although he doesn't want it on social media until the processional launch for Barret Jackson.. It's a '71 Cutlass Convertible resto-mod with a twin turbo LS , and every badass part money can buy. Here's the chassis that was just finished to be under the all black exterior:
Every nut and bolt on this chassis is ARP polished SS 12 point!!!
This is what a fender well looks like after a car is blasted, blocked, then treated to high end PPG (so jealous!)
Today I had a work day planned with my buddy to sand blast and paint a bunch of our parts for our builds. I had all my brackets for the front end, radiator support, engine bay heat shields, gas tank crossmember, and more that needed to be rejuvenated. I had 200lbs of sand to match his 200lbs and went around the corner to his house at lunch time to get to work!
Most of my brackets ready for the sandblaster:
My buddy blasted an LS/6L80 for the '71 Cutlass he's building. They'll be painted orange to match the chassis:
Took some time to get all these parts cleaned up, and remove the over 50 years of crud! But here they are hanging on the paint rack, looking fresh!
My engine heat shields were caked with years of crud & grime, it really took some effort with the blaster to get it all off ! What a difference it makes:
Seth laying don epoxy primer on his LS:
After black epoxy primer laid down on all the fresh metal:
Heat shields finally getting some fresh paint:
I as able to get some more practice tonight with the paint gun and get a better feel for the trigger and fluid flow. Primer is just too easy to shoot, but it certainly is great for practice!! All these parts will be top coated with the same satin black I used on my engine bay recently, which has proven to produce a fantastic finish. Getting closer to having things wrapped up to put the body back on the frame this month. Another step closer, then I'll have my work cut out for me on the rest of the body work!
Wow! You're fortunate to have a nearby buddy to help you out like that.
Does he have a thread on some forum tracking his build progress? It'd be neat to see what he has going on.
Yeah it's great having that wealth of knowledge I can lean on ! He's the one that pushed me into diving into a frame off restoration : "Do it right, or don't do it!" . He doesn't have any of it posted on a forum or social media unfortunately, he's waiting for it to be finished then having a professional video made and putting it all over social media to hype it before the auction. He does a new build every year, and sends them to Barrett Jackson or Mecum shortly after they're finished. Current build is a '71 Cutlass Convertible Resto-Mod with a Twin Turbo LS. The interior and level of detail is out of this world! I'll launch the videos and pics once it's done. Below is the truck he built last year, and it broke $300K at the Mecum in Kissimmee:
