Welded back together :

I had a hole in one of my a-arms that needed attention, so I decided to fix that this afternoon:

.. and gone: it’s not much to report on, but it’s something:

So my next step is to paint the underside of the car, which is in epoxy BUT Im gonna have to figure out and buy a rig for spot blasting where I have rust (@ the areas where I’ve welded on brackets and reinforcements mostly). I figured just a simple HF setup.. suggestions? I’m not impressed with the small cabinet setup I have for blasting smaller items - but I’ve considered using it as a hopper for spot blasting the car, if only I could make it more efficient. Any ways to turbo charge those things short of buying a huge compressor?

In primer:

Taped off:

And sealer coat:

Looks good.

Looks good……isn’t masking fun?

Oh my god, it takes forever.. then we get rain and I have to do it over

BTW, I’d bought a temporary garage from HF, to spray paint in like I did with previous cars.. but after painting the underside and trunks (of this car, out in the open) I decided I didn’t need it. The plan is just to add enough coats to cut and buff, but we’ll see. I did get some runs in the sealer that I need to work out before proceeding.
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Added POR15 to the fender seal gaps, both sides:

This area was a major reason for not just scuffing the car and painting, so now I feel confident it’ll stay solid for a while:

Back when I finally got my plated hardware back I kept having a feeling that something was missing but I never could put my finger on what it was (I didn’t make a thorough list of items - live and learn).

So I broke out the stash and finally realized what it was… I received the steering rod knuckles but not the steering rods themselves (two for two separate projects). So anyway I called the SORRY plating company to see if there’s any chance they’re still hanging out in the back of their shop. I got their highly toxic rep that I struggled to deal with months back - she’s supposed to be looking for me. Needless to say, I’m not holding my breath - never use Texas Precision Plating in Garland!! You’ve been warned. Rant over, sorry..
So anyway I ran out to the parts car and pulled an extra to paint:

Where did you get your Plating done? I always photograph my stuff that I send then lay it out to match the photograph when it comes back. What didn't come back?

Texas Precision was the name of the plating company - the quality of the finished product is good but customer service is abysmal - you will be pissed off. I thought of taking pics but it was a big jumble/ pile and I guess I couldn’t be bothered at the time to separate and organize into groups - next rime for sure tho.


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I’m enjoying this thread, I have a similar car, front clipped, floors rotted and some hellhole damage. Like yours it has pretty good longs. Anyway your project is coming together good!

Thanks Nate, I’m trying to enjoy the process.. the elements are making that a struggle tho. It’s kind of liberating using a clipped car that a lot of people would have looked at as a poor candidate.. I feel like I can veer off course from stock a bit with the build and be ok with it. Plus I won’t feel so bad when I mod it later.

I have a half gallon of POR-15 left so I thought I’d burn some of it up with whatever I could, so I did up the heating system and a few other items:

Before and after on the crappy headlight buckets:

I also got a chance to prime some of the small pieces that will get painted black:

I’m painting this car in sections because I’m not in a shelter and am dodging heat, humidity and showers, etc. here’s a shot showing how it’s coming along (ignor the dirt and orange peel - it'll all be cut and buffed out eventually):

Yea, a little at a time:

Passenger side taped off, ready for paint:

and Painted:

The gun started shooting chunky particles of paint at one point, I guess the paint was setting up too quick.. so I’ve got some work to do to get it improved:

very nice!

Hey Doug, Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the plating company. I know I had difficulties finding a good plating company locally (in Texas) and thats why I send mine to Finish and Plating services in Wisconsin. It costs in shipping, but their prices are very fair and the work is top notch. Good thing is that no matter the size of the parts I have sent, I have always gotten them back, and believe me the small parts I kind of expected to be lost, but nope.

Any way the car is coming along very nicely. This weather we are having has made it miserable to get anything done, let alone paint. My hat is off to you.

Nice! Painting is always a challenge in one way or another! Looks very similar to the color I’m currently painting mine, what color is it?

Porsche's Medium Ivory

..OK, ok.. it's Porsche's Chiffon White


I swear I can not lie for shit - it's actually Wimbledon White


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This car looks really great. I love the "painting it in sections" approach... Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Result will be beautiful...

Thanks.. and they said it couldn’t be done

I’m not sure that I showed any of the under side paint when I did it a few months back, so just to prove that those sections were not ignored:

Yea it’s dirty from the car being stored upside down during rain:

The front where I replaced the floor cut away from AC box:

I eventually found time (and favorable weather) to get the driver side of the car painted. Here’s some shots after I masked:

Fresh paint, and I haven’t shown any pics of the doors but they’ve been done too - so the car is finally completely painted. Well I still have the engine lid, bumpers, etc to do.. but it feels good to have the car itself painted (I’ll be color sanding soon):

you are a brave soul! That is a lot of work. wish i could do that but i think being a metallic is a more involved process, it seems single stage paint would be less involved, and i am not doing to try and do 2 stage base+clear i dont think. Great color, was it offered in earlier years?


Phil

Thanks Phil, the color is Wimbledon White, a classic ford color I used because I had a bunch of gift card credits from Summit Racing (because I’m a car guy ) and it’s one of their stocked colors.. so paint was basically free. It really closely matches Porsche’s “Chiffon White”, btw.

I really like the single stage paints (this is acrylic urethane) for vintage solid color cars. Metallics are offered in single stage but my understanding is that it’s very hard to get done right unless using bc/cc .. however single stage is usually compatible with, and clears are made for, use with them, so..kinda the same thing there. Cheers!


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I probably should have thought through this detail more before proceeding to paint but I kept putting it off. On the one hand I wanted to leave the lock hole open in case I ever wanted to revert back to a stock trunk lock (so I didn’t weld up the hole), but of course if I did go back then there are three little extra holes exposed from where the roundel was. In the end I just painted. So now I need to figure a way to make this water tight. I can probably figure something out but was hoping for some ideas and suggestions from you guys. How would you handle this:

I would imagine a circle of butyl rubber around it and then squashed to seal with the emblem.

Yeah I was thinking along those lines as a first step and whether I put something behind it. I was thinking a small rubber backed cover with a machine screw thru it and a large washer on the other side also rubber backed (sandwich the lock hole), the add the roundel with rtv along its back perimeter.

Ok it’s been a while since I’ve updated my build thread so here goes: I’ve been working on my wiring harness for much too long. I add some wiring for extra accessories while it was out of the car and convenient to do so. But now I’ve finally got it (mostly) reinstalled. Here you can see that I rearranged the placement of the stock relays in order to added an extra for aux. fogs.

And here’s my lambda controller, I’ve opened up the hole in the firewall (where the shift rod used to pivot -early shift rods ) to accommodate the lambda wiring and the CHT thermocouple wire.

Engine side.. had to buy a 3/4” drill bit to open it
Up enough and it’ll get grommets in both sides.

I stripped my fuse block before installing the harness and cleaned all of the male and female terminals.

This shot shows my custom dash layout. On the left of the Column I’m adding an A/F gauge (14point7) and on the right side will be the aux. fog light switch, Dakota digital CHT gauge and an analog voltmeter.

Having the harness back where it belongs is nice, after all this time!! I’ve added some wires, both front and back for an eventual A/C project.

Stripes.. the cars not polished out yet but you get the idea.

I’m not sure if I’m in love with the paint scheme yet.. but it’s fun and I figure I could always change it.

I got a lot of stuff done since last report, so here’s a little update on my project. I got this car off the rotisserie a few weeks back, installed the windshield, main rubber seals (all new targa seals, a-pillar, b, doors & threshold, etc, etc), reassembled and installed the doors. In short it now stays dry when rained on