[dataway]

Roger ... what brand chrome spray paint did you use?

[roger1]

Originally Posted by dataway

Roger ... what brand chrome spray paint did you use?

Here's what I used for both colors. I really like this cast iron paint and have used it on a bunch of things. It's really a tough paint for rattle can paint and I've used it on several original bolts after blasting them in my cabinet using no primer.

[Scarebird]

ah, the top was still attached to the frame with the trim sticks - a much more bulky fit than the frame alone...

[roger1]

I see. Different ball game with the top still installed on the frame. Then you've got that rear bow to contend with too. Can't see doing that without at least 2 helpers.

[Scarebird]

I wonder how GM did it - I would guess they had a master fixture to attach the top then some jizzy to install it.

[roger1]

After getting the convertible top motor/pump and cylinders out of my shed and doing a thorough inspection of them, I decided to opt for all-new and bought them from Convertible Service.
I also bought this item from they call their Fluid Master Bleed Tool and wow, it sure made the bleeding process super easy. Zero spillage and makes bench bleeding unnecessary.



After installation and bleeding with a couple of videos going up and down:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsECpMboNa0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Ha5f0HWQU

Brought in my side glass and inspected them all much closer than I did before I packed them away. Many more scratches than I noticed before and some edge chipping on the driver door glass. Plus I didn't pay attention enough when I removed them to notice that my car didn't have the option for tinted glass. I sure like that for down here in Texas. So I ordered all new tinted side glass from Auto City Classic. While waiting for those I then cleaned and reinspected all the window regulators and ended up ordering new ones for both doors and one of the quarter windows. That all arrived and I'm in the process of installing.

So far, I have all the regulators, the driver door glass and both quarter windows in place. Also the driver side top weatherstrip and temporarily the windshield pillar seal. I've been lining that side up some but a long way to go still. I think this is going to take a lot of time and patience.





I bought a pair of rear speakers and have them installed. It turned out to be a bit more complicated to install them than I thought they would be. I ended up fabricating some plates in order to hold the top well liner tight around the holes (that will need to be cut) in the top well liner when it gets installed. I made them out of 18 gauge sheet metal.



I also realized it was going to be a bear to install nuts on the rear side to mount the speakers. So, I used JB Weld and glued them directly to the speakers. It's still not easy to hold the speaker from the back and get it to line up to be able to install the bolts but I found it near impossible to do without the nuts held in place.



I blasted the plates clean and painted them black and the speakers installed and wired up and tested.



I may install a speaker grill material on the backs of the plates later. I think I will also apply some thin foam sheeting over the other large holes on the panel where the speakers are mounted. I think that may help the sound some.

[Dave1969]

Hey Roger, I tried to go back through your thread but it is not all there. I am getting to the coil springs on my 69 and wondered what you ended up doing. Your engine weight went down about the same as mine. Does the car sit like you want? Anything different you would have done? Thx for your input.

[tininjun68]

Just saw the wheel paint process and WOW!!! Spectacular!
I would talk to Raytheon about an Active Protection System so nothing on Earth attempts to dirty your car once done 😁
You could likely design/build yourself but give yourself a day off!

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Dave1969

Hey Roger, I tried to go back through your thread but it is not all there. I am getting to the coil springs on my 69 and wondered what you ended up doing. Your engine weight went down about the same as mine. Does the car sit like you want? Anything different you would have done? Thx for your input.

My thread look like it's all there to me. Let me know exactly what you think is missing if you would.

I'm not going to decide on what to do about my front springs until the car is completely assembled and at it's final weight. Once I have it there, I'll then be able to judge if the car will have the stance I want. I'm also going to put a set of Airlift bags in the stock rear springs so I will be able to adjust the rear height some. The front springs are Moog 5386 which were on the car when I bought it and they didn't look very old at all.

If the car does ride higher in the front than I want with the 5386, it looks like one step down would be 5390 and the next step down would be 5374.
Here's a chart I made that may help you:



If you are going to make a choice on springs before I do, I'd sure be interested in hearing what choice make and how it turns out.

Originally Posted by tininjun68

Just saw the wheel paint process and WOW!!! Spectacular!
I would talk to Raytheon about an Active Protection System so nothing on Earth attempts to dirty your car once done 😁
You could likely design/build yourself but give yourself a day off!

Thanks! Glad you like my wheels. I am quite proud of them.

[Dave1969]

Roger it appears it may be my computer doing funny things. I am just disassembling my chassis now for sandblasting etc and didn’t want to put it all together if you had done something different. The weight reduction in our cars is very similar. You will definitely have your car all together before me but I will let you know anything I find. Thx

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Dave1969

Roger it appears it may be my computer doing funny things. I am just disassembling my chassis now for sandblasting etc and didn’t want to put it all together if you had done something different. The weight reduction in our cars is very similar. You will definitely have your car all together before me but I will let you know anything I find. Thx

Start a build thread. I'd love to follow!

[roger1]

Been a while. I hadn't had as many hours available to work on the car lately and it also took me an inordinate amount of time to get the side windows (and top frame weatherstrip) adjusted to my satisfaction. I also spent some time on the quarter window weatherstrip seals that fasten at the top of the quarters. They weren't bent right and weren't fitting well in the curved area near the door.
I started another thread to ask about these issues and you can see the details and photos there of how I dealt with that:
Need help with installing the convertible top weatherstrip on my '69

I am now extremely pleased how all the side glass fits and I think it's going to seal as well as a convertible possibly can. I have read that replacement side glass can fit differently than original glass. I can't really say though. I didn't have any strange issues getting it all to line up perfectly. It just took me a long time and I had to make little adjustments in the top frame weatherstrip by drilling new screw mounting holes. But the adjustment amount needed wasn't a lot. I have zero complaints with this glass. Got it from Auto City Classic. Sure looks great being all new and I like having it be tinted instead of the original clear. I took new photos of it all today:















I will be removing the stainless windshield post moldings for ding removal and polishing. I will also replace the weatherstrip clips that rivet onto the stainless channels.

A few things done since moving on from the side windows. The 4 brackets that help hold the rocker moldings on were pretty rusty but the metal wasn't compromised. I blasted them, soaked them in vinegar overnight to get the rust out from down in the pits and blasted them again. Then sprayed them with 3 coats of black epoxy primer.
Also got the stainless headlight bulb retainers cleaned and polished.





I epoxy primered the 2 plastic parking light mounting bezels and block sanded them to smooth out. Got them painted today and also painted the 2 new front marker light surrounds.









Next thing is getting the plastic front grilles painted. Haven't decided the best way to go about that yet but have decided I'm going to paint the egg crate parts black like they do with the Judge.

[tinindian68]

Man, that glass looks GREAT!

[Mark Simiele]

Everything looks superb, especially the wheels. Fantastic!

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Mark Simiele

Everything looks superb, especially the wheels. Fantastic!

Originally Posted by tinindian68

Man, that glass looks GREAT!

Thanks for the compliments guys!

[roger1]

Here's how I went about painting the grilles:
First thing I did was paint the grilles all over with black SPI epoxy. I then lightly scuffed it all except the egg crate centers. I then taped off the parts that remain black before spraying the Argent Silver base coat. Taping the center parts are difficult and time consuming.





This is the same Motobase base coat that I used for the wheels.



After some dry time, I removed the tape and sprayed the entire grilles with SPI Universal Clear.





My original headlight bezel chrome isn't perfect but isn't all that bad either. So I decided to clean them up, repaint the black and then get them installed before deciding if I needed to explore getting others.

First thing I did was tape the chrome edges off and blast the areas to be painted. black. There were a few pits in the bottom part of the inside areas that I filled with JB Weld and then sanded smooth.



Taping the bezel chrome is a real pain to do and again takes a lot of patience and time. I decided the only way to do it was to tape and paint the inside part, let that cure well and then tape off the inside part to paint the perimeters.



Again, used SPI black epoxy primer. I wanted these to remain a semi-gloss so did not spray any clear.





Since my original horns didn't work, I decided to go aftermarket and bought a pair of Hella universal trumpet horns. They are nice and small and were easy to mount and take up less room than originals. They are plastic but sound fine to me and are very loud.





After getting those installed, I was then ready to install the marker lights, parking lights, grilles, headlights, headlight bezels, valance moldings and the header filler panel under the hood. I had to do some adjusting on both the grillles and the headlight backing plates to get them all adjusted to my satisfaction. Several hours over the last 3 days getting it all installed.













I bought a new set of Wagner headlights from Rock Auto but one of them was broken when they arrived. A replacement is on the way, so for now I installed one of the old Sylvania ones that came on the car.

I'm extremely pleased with how well I was able to get the grilles and headlight bezels to line up and match where they meet. I also am pleased with how the paint came out on the grilles. Black centers look a lot better to me especially on a red car. I think the chrome edges on the headlight bezels will be fine. You have to get pretty close to see the imperfections

[OCMDGTO]

Looks fantastic!!!!

[dataway]

Roger, what is your preferred system for sanding/buffing/polishing the SPI clear?

I'll be using the Porta-Cable polisher.

I've got a roll of Dura-Gold 2000, and a roll of 3000, plenty of blocks but I've yet to decide on what compound/polishes to use. The test I did and posted in another thread was done with a sheet of 3M 2000, and Chemical Guys #32 and #36 polish, turned out OK. Was doing some work tonight with the Dura-Gold and was getting some scratches that surprised me ... only difference in technique was I was spraying water from a bottle instead of dipping the block in a bucket of water .... maybe picking up some grit that wasn't getting washed off the paper?

Anyway, any pointers, product suggestions etc would be appreciated ... I have this feeling that you are very accomplished at polishing.

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Dave1969

Your car is looking great won’t be long and you’ll be tearing it up. I wanted to let you know I went with the non AC front coil springs from Ames and standard rear coils. I purchased the complete polyurethane graphite steering package from PST along with same for rear control arms except I’m installing rubber on the upper control arms at the rear differential. I’ll let you know how it all works out once it’s back on the road.

Thanks.
I'll be anxious to hear how you like your stance and see photos.
I'm guessing the Ames front springs are Moog. Can you see a 4 digit number stamped into them? If so, let me know what that number is.

Originally Posted by Andretti

It's nice to see her face again after all this time. Soon the bugs will love that fresh paint :\

Yes it is! It's getting even more fun to look at the car when I walk into the shop.

Originally Posted by dataway

Roger, what is your preferred system for sanding/buffing/polishing the SPI clear?

I'll be using the Porta-Cable polisher.

I've got a roll of Dura-Gold 2000, and a roll of 3000, plenty of blocks but I've yet to decide on what compound/polishes to use. The test I did and posted in another thread was done with a sheet of 3M 2000, and Chemical Guys #32 and #36 polish, turned out OK. Was doing some work tonight with the Dura-Gold and was getting some scratches that surprised me ... only difference in technique was I was spraying water from a bottle instead of dipping the block in a bucket of water .... maybe picking up some grit that wasn't getting washed off the paper?
Anyway, any pointers, product suggestions etc would be appreciated ... I have this feeling that you are very accomplished at polishing.

Over the years, I've tried many different processes and products and wasted a lot of money doing so. I never could see the point in sanding with 2000 and 3000. You can't tell if you've done it enough or done it too much and can't tell if the paper is worn out or not Tried the bumpy foam pads with a few newer 3M compounds and all the Chemical Guys products including their pads and ended up giving it all away when I couldn't get it to work for me very well at all. I kept going back to the old tried and true method of using a wool bonnet on a rotary with the older 3M compounds I was used to. My only problem with the wool pad method was introducing swirl marks from contaminates in the air.

Then back in about 2014 or so, I happened to read a forum thread on how to remove orange peel without sanding:
https://www.autopia.org/forums/paint-correction-and-gloss-enhancement/41226-game-changing-performance-carpro-denim-orange-peel-pad-review.html
I also watched a couple youtube videos on the process.

I wanted to try this out for myself so I bought a few of the Car-Pro denim pads and a bottle of Menzerna 400 compound. I already had a nice Rupes Bigfoot 15 orbital but my rotary was pretty old so I bought a new DeWalt DWP849X to use for the denim pads.
At this time, I was working on my '57 Chevy pickup which I had just painted with a dark green single-stage paint.
Immediately, I was impressed with what these pads and compound could do.
I did this without any color sanding at all:



This took about 4 or 5 iterations of applying compound to the pad and running the polisher over it.
For the next area, I color sanded with by hand wet with a rubber block and used a progression of 1000, 1200 and 1500 paper and then polished with the denim pad and Menzerna. This brought out the shine perfectly with just 2 iterations of compound/polishing. I thought this made more sense so that's the way I did it for the rest of the truck. I did figure out that depending on how much peel a particular area had, I could skip the 1000 or both the 1000 and 1200 and just use the 1500. The Menzerna 400 is a diminishing type of compound. Even though they call it a heavy cut once it drys out a bit, it will continue to polish to very high level of shine as you can see.

You can apply a final type polish on a foam pad if you want to but from what I found, it doesn't give much additional benefit. I have been using Meguiar's 205 on a Lake Country white foam pad and my Rupes orbital for that. It also makes a good maintenance polish when needed.
If a more aggressive maintenance polish it needed, I found using Meguiar's 105 on an orbital with a Lake Country HDO-550F microfiber pad works really well. Then follow up with the 205 on a white pad for a final.

My next project was my '83 El Camino which I painted with SPI single-stage white. I used the same process as I ended up using on the pickup.



I painted my Bel Air back in 2011/12 with base/clear (SPI Universal Clear). It came out so well as sprayed, I didn't color sand it at all back then. However, after I finished my El Camino, I went back and used the denim pad and Menzerna 400 on without color sanding at all. Then finaled with the 205 and white pad.
I used an LED flashlight to check for flatness, swirls and micro scratches:



I've also done this on some factory cars (no color sanding). It worked really well on the 2008 Corvette I owned and a couple of other late model GM cars. I tried it on a friend's 2002 Porsche that had a lot of micro scratching and it did not work well. Something different about the clear coat on that car. The denim pad would grab and jump and even when I could hold it steady for a while, it didn't polish well.

It does take some practice to polish with a denim pad on a rotary. You have to be very conscious about holding it perfectly flat on the surface while keeping the pressure relatively light. Otherwise it can jump around on you and damage the edges of the pad. Speed is important. I use between 900 and 1300 and check for heat often. It can definitely build some heat but it will burn the compound before it damages the paint. I've never damaged paint with the process but have burned the compound a couple of times and it's hard to get off if that happens.

[Island Boy]

I have only one bad thing to say, I can’t believe that a person took a factory liberty blue convertible and painted it red. Wow. Like there is not enough red GTOs already out there. Nice job on restoration- but killed it with the color change.