[fbrown]

1- dont for get to put the crome ends on the top of your fenders the last time you bolt them on.

I think I can the chrome ends with a little effort with the fender installed.

#2- Put the nuts on your fender emblem before you put your inter fender wells on.

I have been worrying about installation on the fender emblems for some time. There is no way I am removing the fenders to install emblems after I paint. I think Ames has some retainers that allow the emblems to be installed without access to the back. I hope these work out.

I take it you are not puting on a vinal top?

No. I want he low maintenance of a painted top. Every car I owned in the 60's and 70's had a vinyl top and they all looked like crap after 4 to 5 years. Maybe today's vinyl tops last longer, but I don't care to find out.



I lost several days that I had hoped to work on the car. I am rapidly running out of days warm enough to paint in. I don't think I can be ready to paint by Sunday and after Sunday the forecast doesn't call for any days in the upper 60's till a week later. I hope I can get the car ready for paint by the end of the weekend and then I will be waiting for a warm day


I struggled for a long time getting the driver side door and fender aligned. This is really is a two man job.



Before installing the passenger fender I need to deal with the PCM wiring. It took this large hole in order to get the plugs and wiring through the firewall. If I had it to do again, I would mount the PCM in the engine compartment.



I bought this two piece seal some time ago, but had not tried it until now. While it covers the hole, most of the screw holes are also in the hole.



I ended up making a two piece metal cover to reduce the size of the opening.



The installed seal. The white around the edges, is seam sealer.


With the inner fender installed, it would have been hard to install the seal.



My paint came in. I bought a Dewalt buffer. I was going to buy a harbor freight unit for $30. Figured if it did one or two cars it would had done its job. The reviews at HF made me think there was a good chance the HF buffer wouldn't even do one car.

[Greg Reid]

The guy at my body supply shop told me that they had some barrel nuts that would work for the fender emblems. The only downside is that you have to enlarge the holes a bit to get them in. Several people have also told me that they have successfully used weatherseal adhesive believe it or not.
I'd be interested in how you get those two fender top trim pieces on too.
Work is looking nice!

[jmt455]

I used the barrel nuts for the fender emblems on my previous 68. They worked fine and I don't remember opening the holes.

The edges of the installed emblem will sit about .020" off of the fender surface due to the barrel nut flange sitting between the fender and the back of the emblem. Unless you really know what to look for, you would not realize it's different than the original attachment scheme.

[6 Grrrs]

Originally Posted by jmt455

I used the barrel nuts for the fender emblems on my previous 68. They worked fine and I don't remember opening the holes.

The edges of the installed emblem will sit about .020" off of the fender surface due to the barrel nut flange sitting between the fender and the back of the emblem. Unless you really know what to look for, you would not realize it's different than the original attachment scheme.

x2 on my '66.

[fbrown]

I feel the end of painting weather getting nearer and nearer. This weekend would have worked except too many things kept me away from the car.

I lost several days recovering files from a crashed system for a friend. It was his business computer and all of his chemical formulas for his business was on the computer and naturally he didn't have a backup. In his case, if the files couldn't have been recovered he would have been out of business.

I mention this because I get requests frequently to recover family pictures and other data from crashed computers. Usually there is not a happy outcome. The data is totally lost or the cost to recover the data is too high. Just saying, back up your important pictures and other data. USB thumb drives are cheap.

Why you shouldn't leave open boxes of peanuts around. My 19 year old cat made a mess and decided to sleep in the box.


I got the flood damaged hood hinge repaired. I used electrolysis to remove the rust, then painted it with a light gray paint. Not quite the same color as the other hinge, but it your weren't looking you probably wouldn't notice.


After getting the car back together, the bumper had some gap problems. First the car didn't go back together quite the same as before. Second I had almost no gap between the bumper and the fender when I had it mocked up. It seemed that maybe there should be more of a gap, so I took Paul at Fast's advice and set the gap to 1/16". His advice is to shoot for a minimum of 1/16" and a max of 1/8". As you can the hood doesn't mate well and the bumper touches the fender at one place when adjusted for a 1/16" gap.




The contour didn't exactly match the hood, so I decided to reshape the top of the bumper, I also added a little bit to close the gap a little at the wide point. The gap is much better.



I sanded the gap at the fender. A metal filler spreader with a piece of adhesive backed sand paper does wonders when working on the gap.


First time the inner fenders have been installed since the car was taken apart. Also have have the hood springs installed.





I started on a light sanding on the entire car with 600 grit sand paper. Also feathering the paint edge where the car has been jammed. Still have about 1/2 of the car to do. In a day or two I can prime the bumper. I want to make sure the epoxy filler has cured well before priming. If all goes well the car will be ready for paint by next weekend.

[fbrown]

My plans to be ready for paint a week later didn't happen. A bad sinus infection knocked me out for almost two weeks. Still not back to 100% but much improved.

20 days late but I got the car masked and cleaned today. I'm Planning to paint Monday. Monday's forecast calls for 66 degrees. Just barely warm enough.











I masked from the bottom of the car to the floor. That way dirt from either the floor or the bottom of the car should stay out of the paint.

[cuz68]

I hope that the weather holds warm for you, Good to see you posting again take care, Your friend Randy.

[fbrown]

Well, I did last minute things like draining the compressor, covering work benches, cabinets, etc with plastic, blow as much of the dust out as I can including the ceiling and floor. Final step was to wipe the car down with a wax and grease remover one last time and cover with plastic.







I was going to build a booth around the car, but too many things got in the way. If I spend time and build a booth now, I might not be able to paint the car until spring.

[cuz68]

Looking good cant wait to see it with the paint on it. Have a great day. Randy

[fbrown]

It was a long day, but I finally got color. I started painting about noon. The painting didn't go entirely smooth. I got a few runs. The result of using a new gun and not being familiar with it. The gun is a Tekna Copper with 7E7 cap. I was both moving the gun too slow and got to close. The runs occurred in the first coat of base. After fixing the runs, I almost ran out of time. I was apply the last coat of clear at 6:45PM. Outside temperature had already dropped to 56 but inside was still 61.


Here is some shots of base only, 1 coat.








Here are some shots with clear. It's hard to really tell what the color looks like in the photos, between reflections and bright lights, the color looks really off in the photos.









The top of the door is what the color really looks like.

[Greg Reid]

Looks great. I wish I had a place (and the nerve) to paint mine. I hate contracting work out.

[2cdavis3]

Looks good & glad you're feeling better

[ponjohn]

Fantastic!!

[cuz68]

You have color looking good.

[Colin Frolick]

That looks wonderful!!

[2002Z4CSS]

That "basement" paint job looks amazing !!! Hard to believe this was done in the basement. I will be reading this thread for time and time again. I may do a LS swap one day, looks pretty straight forward. Keep up the great work !

[kainedogg]

Great work brother. Your guidance when I was at Fort McPherson was instrumental in my build. Looking forward to the engine startup. I won't be doing bodywork until next year but I did stick a 5.3/4l60e in the '68.

[kainedogg]

Love the late model GTO seats by the way.

[fbrown]

Thanks guys for all the compliments on the paint job.

Things are kind of on hold right now. The day after I painted the car, my dad fell and broke his hip. He is 90 and was living in an assisted living facility.



A few things. I made a bracket to support the gas filler tube. Anticipating that the bumper could be installed before long, it would be easier to install the support bracket before the bumper goes on.

Made from 16 gauge steel. The mounting strap was spot welded.


Painted and installed.


I thought about cut and buffing around the door handle location so I could install the door handle but decided I should wait until the buffing is complete. I did however color sand and cut the area with a rubbing compound before giving up. While I took several pictures, none of them shows how clear the reflection in the paint really is. This was the best photo and it sucks.


Unfortunately the clear is starting to harden and is very hard to sand. I'm using 1000 grit sand paper without much luck. The orange peel does sand out, it just takes a long time. If the cost of 1500 grit DA sandpaper wasn't so high I think I would use a DA sander. A pack of 1500 sells for over $100 at the local auto paint store.

[cuz68]

I hope you and your dad are doing well. Looks like winter is on us to cold to be out be safe.