Roller Paint Job Diary

I learned more by reading your thread and going to the links you provided.So I feel like I can do the painting part.I just need to learn the body work and how to mix the paint properly.

 

Here's the full 10 Hotrod 'Ultimate' series. Don't know why some are harder to find, but when I got them, they were cross-referenced:

http://www.hotrod.com/howto/hdrp_0605_paint_body_1/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/howto/hdrp_0606_paint_stripping_basics_tips/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/howto/hrdp_0607_dents/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/howto/hdrp_0608_rust_war/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/howto/hdrp_0609_panel_alignment/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/howto/hdrp_0610_paint_body_tips_tricks_materials_sanding/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/body/hrdp_0611_car_paint_techniques/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/body/hrdp_0612_color_sanding_paint/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/body/hrdp_0701_automotive_trim_decals/index.html

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/body/hrdp_0702_car_polishing_techniques/index.html

Breaking myths about real Bondo:
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/body/402367-using-bondo-fiber-glass.html

http://forums.mustangworks.com/f23/i-need-some-tips-using-bondo-45739/

Woodgrain replacement company (sells through JC Whitney) has some good guides on prepping sheetmetal too, to reapply new material.
http://www.sharpline.com/guides.html

 

Stormin' I have to say you have a wealth of information.

 

Thanks, I needed a boost. I posted this in Site Suggestions:

I was doing the final adjustments on the doors and locks and latches, leaving the tailgate to the last. I broke one of the gas-filled cylinders, reinstalling them the right way for the Fairmont - the chrome plunger goes down, not up. That wasn't so bad.

Then I started installing the rubber bumpers back in - they went fine - two are alignment on the sides, two are just simple bumpers and one is a guide at the bottom of the door.

Then I started on fine-tuning the hinges. The manuals have no dimensions to guide you, so its visual, align with the roof curve, align side to side and Bob's Your Uncle, right?

I did that a few times, having to remove the gas-filled gate supports, because they push the hinges up too high. So did, then I put blocking between the hinge and the weatherstrip lip (body sheetmetal). All nice, careful, go-slow. Then I lowered the gate. The wind was up to 55 MPH today, bring us the warm weather. I couldn't hear the scraping, and I couldn't watch because I was lowering the gate, the newly 8 coated, buffed and waxed with new window installed tailgate and the top of the frame wrinkled by 3 inches on the top edge. The tailgate is a wreck, the window survived, because the sealant broke away at the bend. My newly painted, newly undercoated, newly re-woodied tailgate, with nely refinished and clearcoated inside panel is wrecked, BY ME! :confused:

Another pair of eyes would have avoided that disaster.

I called up a freind and we went to a place that had an 1982 Zephur last week. They recycled it - all gone. It was getting to closing time, but we found 2 - a brown Fairmont and an LTDII, so I'll call around tomorrow and put that on for the winter.

All expletives never came to mind, and for me, with 5 languages to choose from, that is surprising. I was really sad. Really stuck for words.

 

Sorry to hear about that.... But at least you can find the parts you need up there. I haven't seen a Fairmont or Zephyr down here in years.

 

When Internet Explorer 7.0 came out, I was using IE 6.0 with all the updates. I emailed some friends as Microsoft and asked what I had to do to get IE 7.0 to load up my bookmarks faster. They changed the data-management architecture between versions. I had something like 8,000 links all together. (Car, Woodworking, Recipes, Health, Computing, our Birdhouse/Yard products research for the business, Government, News, TV schedules, weather sites, etc.)

So I exported each major Favorites Category in HTM files and saved them in the My Documents directory (default for bookmark exports).

If you'd like that, I can zip it and upload or PM it. It's 245,000 bytes of nothing but car-related links. It ZIPS down to 60KB.

Everything you wanted to know and didn't know existed!:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

I'm lucky just to get the forums to pull up

 

Tailgate Saga II

There's a couple of shops that can straighten it out, so I'm going to remove it and take it over for a quote. It's -8C with the windchill, so I get to find out if my thermal underwear are up for it (or sing soprano if not).

I can only find one tailgate outside of my Province, and the guy that has the LTDII won't part it out (He wants $1500 and doesn't recall if it runs.) and the other one on the property next to his, has no contact number. Can't even buy it! So we'll see about salvaging mine. Here's hoping. I'll post the details later.

 

Just to add to my pain, I was printing some pictures for the bodyshop guys to empathize and give a lower price. Think it'll work?

December 19, 2006 (-10C):


November 4, 2007 (10C):

 

I'm thinking you should get a great price since they won't know how to do the paint! They may not even believe you when you tell them.

 

We went to 2 shops:

The first one is well-known and highly recommended by car buffs. 3 Hours for $225. I told him it bolted on and off, but he wanted to car to test the straightness.

Second shop, also well recommended was $450, but didn't need the car to test for straightness.

I think they figured they had a live one. It might take me a an hour to get the thing straight enough and then some tin-bashing time to get the front edge to match the roof curve. Then I'll spray-bomb it, while the wife's out and air out the house before she gets back. That'll do until I find another one. I figured I could do a functional repair and get it back on until spring time.

The one that we missed yesterday, the wrecker only wanted $30 for any tailgate - flat price, but the car had been squashed last week. Ouch!

No car shows for a while, but she'll be on the road again.

The march goes on...

PS: I'll get pics up later today.

 

I don't know if I'm being optomistic or what but you ought to give it a shot yourself.

What haven't you mastered yet?

 

That's what I'm going to try. It's the wrinkle on the top outside surface (curves up to merge into the roof line) that could be really tricky.

I think I have to pull out the wrinkle's deep section and straighten the inside (it wasn't affected very much) sort of back and forth (inside, outside and repeat) and then get the outside egde right again. I haven't got the pictures yet, but I've got the tailgate in the house.

All I'll need is another tube of window sealant (applied inside the house this time). I've already got the inside trim color and clear coat to refinish that, and two cans of spray paint, matching the car's new finish. I'll just mask off the rest.

 

Tin-Bashing From a master

Hotrod's Ulimate Series is really good on this stuff:

http://www.hotrod.com/howto/hrdp_0607_dents/index.html

Reading, reading...

 

The Scene of the Whine

Just got the pictures. If anyone has ideas on the straightening strategy, I'm all ears.

The pics are all taken off the car onto my 'saw-horse' table. We took the glass out unharmed before we went 'bodyshop' shopping.

The inside hinge side of the bend:

Looks pretty flat - its only 1" or so in a smooth, unkinked surface on all the contour curves in both shots.




The outside warp:

This really makes it look bad - unrepairable.


It's about 2" high here - has potential.


I'll put new hinge pins in while I'm at it. One is pretty slack and the other will get there soon enough.

The roof edge has only scraped off paint - Thank God!