Thanks Dataway,

He (doggie) is the job foreman. Lucky he works for frisbee throws, as I'm a little over budget. Lol

Man time flies. Another year almost gone and still haven't got my car painted. But I am 100% finished with my garage. I started taking trim off the car and have been crawling around underneath and all around it looking at it like I never did in the last 19years of ownership i noticed last night that unlike last year, when I look at a part of the car hood, engine compartment, frontend sheet metal etc. I actually know what I need to do, stip paint, sand blast, epoxy, mig weld, grind etc. That is a testament to my watching, reading, think about the project this past year. I've learned a lot and am ready to finally start disassembly.

I am looking to buy a 60 gallon 5hp compressor in the next couple weeks. All the ones in my price range 1000. - 1500. Have iffy reviews regardless of the brand. I might get the DeWalt from tractor supply or an IR from Northern tool. I wired the garage with 220 for that.

I have a welder I bought last year and a tank of argon. Ive watched hours and hours of metal working. Got to get to the salvage yard to get a fender or hood to practice on. Something older than 1990s.

I'm also still buying stuff too. A few air tools, sanding blocks, and all that kind of stuff.

I'll start posting more as I get going on it.

The worst rust I found so far is around a vinyl top trim pin.

what a nice clean car and super nice shop. what did you use on the floor? I like it and wanting to turn attention to mine and man cave it a bit more.

Thanks, So far is still raw concrete. I need to get something on it ASAP. I might just seal it with concrete stain.

A few after vinyl top trim removed.

I started removing the body side molding. After taking 2 nuts off the front of one that I accessed inside the engine compartment, I realized this is going to be a little more difficult than imagined. More disassembly required.

I have already put a nut back on the trim in this pic.

When I painted mine I found leaving the car in one piece was just more than I was comfortable shooting all at once. You may end up feeling that way as you get deeper into the project ... so you might end up with those fenders off anyway.

If the car is as solid as it looks you won't have a whole lot of metal work. Just a lot of time with stripping disks.

My recommendation- Air fed respirator or isocyanate free paint.

I'd honestly find a nice used compressor then spend the money on a good air/water separator system. Be very patient with welding. You can weld a patch panel in and be all proud of yourself, then comeback from lunch and the whole area is warped and twisted.

My biggest regret was getting my car painted, wish I would've left it as it was when it was pulled out from under that tree. I waste so much time on the computer looking for unicorn NOS parts I doubt I will find. I should scratch it now since I know it's going to happen sooner or later. In retrospect, I should've built a killer drivetrain for it and drove its wheels off.

When I saw the date on the first post, I thought I'd not have too much to contribute, but see you have been busy "prepping" for the job in other ways like building a shop......nice shop!

I'm a big proponent of turbine HVLP and since you have not obtained the compressor required to supply pneumatic guns, I thought to add my $0.02.

A good turbine set would cost you about the $1k you're considering for a compressor gun, hose and all. You're pretty handy so you could probably build a premium rated setup for about half that buying the turbine motor and building around it as they are brutally simple.

I also second the suggestion to get a breathing air system since you are painting in a area that is probably not going to have the rated ventilation, especially dealing with isos.