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Chasers 66 408 Restomod / ProTouring Coupe

Alright jerks :-D...I've decided to put my big girl panties on and endure body work for another month. The body work wont be perfect but it should be close. I'm planning on making some calls to get some quotes in case my painter is busy...also to make sure they'll do a car that most of the work was done by a amateur.
 
Last time I got quotes for paint I had to reply that I needed a quote and not the shop phone number....then they said all those numbers were the quote. Looks Like I'll be talking to the Maacos around here.
 
I hear ya Boom. The guy who did the paint on my Dad's car (he also did my bike) is awesome and reasonable albeit not quick. Unfortunately he had to go off and start having a family so he didnt think he'd have time to do the body work but could probably touch up my crap, finish it, and spray it if i got it mostly straight. It would probably still take him a couple of months but it'd probably only run me about $4-5k depending on how good i got it.
I'm going to hit up a car show this evening and see if i can get some leads on other painters. There are also a couple restoration places but they scare me...really afraid of those numbers...
 
Painting the car is not difficult. Buy a couple of good guns and do it yourselves. It's always fun to learn a new skill!
 
I had a similar issue when came time to paint my 67, I did most of the bodywork. Not as well as you either. But most shops I talked to didn't even want to look at the car. They said their rep could be on the line if they paint it and my bodywork wasn't up to their standards. I did eventually find a shop to paint it and they did the final prep too. They were willing to work with me too. I had the car running and driving. They wanted it stripped to the shell so they let me come in there shop and take it all apart. Saved me some coin. They even loaned me a trailer so I could get it to my house to put it back together. Picture 046.jpg Picture 399.jpg Picture 695.jpg Picture 706.jpg Anyway, good luck!
 
Spraying the actual paint is not hard. At all. You don't even need a fancy big buck gun. With today's BC/CC systems it has become very easy. Make a mistake, sand it out and spray again. But I will tell you with a little practice and attention to your actions they don't have to happen. I had one tiny run as the only spray flaw in the whole process and it was because I got careless on the final CC and got a bit out of balance moving along the car causing me to allow the gun to get too close. The real work is the prep...as you are learning. Been a long time since I painted mine but I'm sure for well under a grand you can buy all the paint and cc you need. I think people are foolish not to at least give it a try if they have access to a garage space in which to paint.
 
The convertible used two gallons of sapphire blue at $564 / gallon plus $300 / gallon for clear.

I'm still mulling over what color(s) this one's going to be but, from the couple shops I've spoken with, red is an expensive color palette and I should plan on around $3k just for materials...then again the one that gave me that number also quoted 12-15k. Which I cant pay so back to sanding i go...

Working on the underside of the hood this week. I didnt use a MTF hood (didnt know when i bought it) and it came with just the top side in finishable fiberglass. So I've been glassing and fillering the underside to get it smooth. Hoping to have the majority of that done today and get back to farting around with gaps.

If anyone's in the St Louis area and has a hankering to sand / adjust gaps feel free to swing by :-P
 
Got most of the underside of the hood roughed straight. There were some serious waves. I still need to do a couple of rounds of Slick Sand to finish it in. I dont necessarily want it perfect but presentable...it would not have been before.

I also did some more straightening on the rear fender lips and a few other low areas. I tried to roll the fender lips before I knew what I was doing and waved the shit out of them. They're 90% fixed now. Just need to finish skimming them.

I plan to work on some panel alignment over the next week. The plan is to get the front fenders touched up in areas, get them aligned and gapped (this will require some light shaping...the repops left a little to be desired in their back contours), spray some slick sand and get back to sanding.

Here's a wet check I did of the roof. The roof wasnt bad. It had a couple of low spots that I skimmed. I then sprayed 2 coats of SPI 2k regular build and blocked it 2x with 180 and 1x with 220. I plan to spray another coat and block it a couple times with 400 but overall...not too shabby I think.

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Drivers door is adjusted. I believe this is about as good as I'm going to get it. The contours of the quarter panel are not 100% perfect but they're close enough that I can work them in proper I think. The lower part of the door stuck out about 1/16" or so. I ended up taking the slapper and easing it in toward the rocker. You can barely tell it has a contour and it lines up damn good.

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I also welded a hoop on the rear lower mount point on the fender that binds it to the rocker since the existing one was really thin and brittle. I think it should work nicely since I was going to have to put a shim or two in there anyhow.

I have also set the hood on. Here's how I have the rear gap set.

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I also think this is about as good as I'm going to get it since the hood has a little bit of an inward bow'd contour...not sure if that's normal or not but it's what I've got.

Its about too hot for me to be in the shop but I think I'm going to power through and get the drivers fender set on and see what i need to "adjust" on it...aka...what I need to beat the shit out of...delicately
 

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Looking great. I'm dreading this phase for my car. I'm stuck doing an AAW harness right now
 
Thanks dudeski's. I know I was pissing and moaning about doing this but once I stopped bitching and got to work, it really wasnt 'that' bad. Although truth be told, if it wasnt so expensive to have this part done, i would have happily handed over moneys to have it done. Adding to the edges helped a ton.

I managed to get the drivers door adjusted enough that I can feather the edges in. Drivers fender went on with very little argument. The contours are great. I want to bump the back of it up a nut hair and push the center in a little to close the gap to the hood but the rest is amaze balls. I dont like how wide the gap is from the hood to the rest of the car (fenders and cowl) but, I think its the best its going to get on account of it being fiberglass.

Unfortunately the garage is now about 100 degrees and the wife was none to happy about me leaving the door to the house open to blow air conditioned air in so I had to evacuate for the day.

The plan for tomorrow is to finish the small fender adjustments, fit the chin / rest of the front pieces, and work on getting the edges fillered up perfect. It's a long shot but, I may be able to get another coat of slick sand down as well. I'm debating going with a single coat on the areas that I've blocked with the SPI since they dont need nearly as much buildup. I probably could get away with another couple coats of the SPI on them but I'm getting kind of fond of the SS. The body worked parts will get 2 coats of the SS regardless. Then it's on to blocking!
 
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Also @Boom
I read through your thread. You're doing some stellar work as well dude! I'm going to be stealing your Lokar pedals I think. I'm planning on starting my AAW harness in October. I've been mapping out the additional circuits I'm going to need when i'm not beating the car with a hammer.
 
I pulled the engine and trans out of mine this week. It's been 90+ everyday and HUMID. I was tempted to leave the door open to the house too but the gas, oil, coolant smells seeping inot the house plus the heat might have had me sleeping in the garage!
 
Most everything has been leveled with the exception of a spot on each fender. The drivers fender needs some slight reshaping to mesh with the door. I also think I should trim down the filler rod I added to the door as it's a might bit close but I like how the rest of the fender sits. Nothing a couple minutes with the wheel cant fix.

The passenger side still needs the lower rear adjusted. That side has been fighting me tooth and nail ever since I put it on. The top side needed to be trimmed underneath and bent to line up better with the cowl. The lower part refuses to line up in position and I think i'm out matched trying to do it by myself. I think I'll have to convince the wife to help me get it in place. It needs some slight touch up on the lower style line since I wasnt paying attention and bent it in opening the door awhile back. I dollied it mostly back in position but it's not perfect. I'll probably spend some more time beating on it.

The contours on the back side of the doors look phenomenal if I do say so myself. I did skim them perfect since no amount of adjustment was going to fix the contour lines between the repop doors and PO skinned quarters. I think I have about 2 hours left of shaping to get everything up to snuff. Then it'll get (hopefully) the last round of SS. The plan is to block it down one or two times with 180 followed by at least one of 220...if there's still enough on there I'll do another round or two of 220. Following all that up with a couple rounds of 400. The tech sheet says sealing isnt required but if I get down to the epoxy layer before the 400 rounds I'll give it a coat of thinned epoxy to finish.

Estimating all that crap to take about a month...oh and i still need to finish the underside of the hood.
 
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