View single post by Gary Martin JH 15371
 Posted: 05-20-2006 08:30 pm
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Gary Martin JH 15371

 

Joined: 03-12-2005
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 98
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 Thanks, Art and Judson. To answer some of Art's questions about what I've done so far. The front fenders, hood, trunk, windshield and doors are off the car. All exterior surfaces have been stripped to bare metal. I repainted engine bay a year ago, this is fine but will likely paint another coat when the car is painted. Floor boards were stripped of paint where surface rust was present, and used the POR procedure here. As the POR was still tacky, I sprayed PPG epoxy primer over the POR. I'm using the PPG line of paint materials. I did the same procedure for the surface rust at fender/rocker panel joints. Here I removed the rivits on rear fenders so I could pull out the bottom part of fender to access the surface rust between fender and rocker. Since I sprayed epoxy primer over the POR, I assumed I could then paint over this later. The rest of the exterior is still bare metal. I had planned to go over all this with 3M Rust Conditioner which I think might be similar to the PickelX before priming. There is not much body work needed. Just a few small dents and a minor crease on left side. The hood will need the most body work. I bought a nice used hood, but when I stripped the paint off I found it was about 60% covered with bondo. The underside shows no signs of major dents so I'm not sure why it has all these thin patches of bondo.

I know a bit about painting. I have painted lots of fenders and varoius parts before. I once painted a whole car, it turned out OK, but not really a professional job. I was planing to paint the car in pieces, since it is difficult to spray door jams, trunk lip, etc with the car togheter. I will probably go the base coat/clear coat road.  My friend with the restoration shop also paints cars in pieces for the same reasons and he also uses the PPG line of paint. He said he does this all the time and there is no problem matching panels by painting in pieces. His shop does everything from low buck repairs, to high dollar restorations. He has done several show cars that are in magazines. He does not like to set a price for a job as there are usually unexpected costs that can run the bill up.  I don't know any other painters in the area that I can work with. At least I have known this guy for 10 years.

 I think I might do this in stages to help avoid sticker shock. Have my friend strip the rust, fit panels, body work and prime the car. Then stop and see where we are at. If costs have not gone too far out of control, then proceed to paint the car. I do not want to go the Maaco route. They look OK for two years, then the paint goes dull. It seems I'm kind of a prefectionist. I see no reason doing something half ass. You might as well do it right the first time.  As for calming the nerves, I do have a keg of Pelican IPA in my garage. A typical evening in the garage will be a two pint affair on the IPA index.

Gary