Wrapping it up

Today was dedicated to the Mustang. Like most of our projects, once we reach a certain stage in the restoration things tend to speed up and a lot of work seems to get done rather quickly. Like you see here. Last Monday we painted the body, today we have a car again. We really got quite a bit of work done today. Both doors, both fenders and the hood. When you list it out like that, it doesn’t seem like all that much until you consider how careful you have to be not to scratch the paint and make sure the body lines look as good as possible. Yes.  A pretty tough task, but its  impossible to do quickly. Tomorrow we have a few more little things to button up on this project and it will be ready to go back home to the owner and get the rest of its goodies installed.

Knick knack, pony wack

Today we spent the better part of the day working on tid bits for the Mustang. Inner rear door panels were up first. The paint on these was flaking so badly that we had to strip them to bare metal then paint them. The grey on there is the epoxy primer that must be used to ensure the paint adheres to the metal. The next set of pictures is of the little tid bits. Bumper brackets, hood and trunk latches and catches and things of the sort. While those were drying, we started putting the rear valence on as well as the trunk lid and quarter extensions. Tomorrow we will do some final buffing and hopefully start installing the doors and fenders.  Moving right along. This one wont take much longer.

Now that’s slick!

We spent all afternoon wet sanding and buffing the Mustang. We started by blocking the clear coat with 1000 grit sand paper. This assures that the paint is as smooth and flat as possible. Next we switch to 2000 grit paper, then we do a final sanding with 3000 grit on the DA sander. That makes buffing the paint back up to a shine much easier and faster. With buffing, we use a three step process as well. First we start with a heavy cut compound with a white pad. This step is the step that removes all of the sanding scratches.  Next we switch to a grey buffing glaze with a black pad. This step removes the light buffing swirls from the first buffing step. Lastly we go over the panels with a blue pad and blue polishing glaze. Yes, its a bunch of steps and it takes quite a bit of time, but the results are worth it.

 

Hahaha  good one Chase! Now we can say you helped!!

Introducing the next project, 1967 Camaro

We started a brand new project today, a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. This car is Chevy’s answer to the Mustang that came out about 3 years earlier. A small sporty looking car with a lot of power was the goal. These cars feature a unibody chassis design. This simply means that it has no frame. The main structure of the car is not the frame, its the body as a whole. It does have a front sub-frame. That is the part in these pictures that Chris is sanding. This area of the car is what holds the front suspension and the engine. We will be painting this and the front suspension pieces tomorrow with a rust proofing paint for its durability and its love of bare metal. This is the first step of this project. Stay tuned to see this one move through the processes. It should be a fun and exciting build!

Painting the Pony II

Yesterday was paint day for the body, today we got busy on the the rest of the parts. We spent all morning sanding and prepping these parts you see here in the booth for paint. After lunch, Chase got busy making them RED! As with all of our High Performance Finishes, we started the paint process with a coat of sealer, followed by 3 coats of red base coat then finally 3 coats of high solids clear. The clear is layer that makes this color actually POP. It also protects the base coat from the sun. Without clear over the base, the color coat would be eaten up from the sun because there is no UV protection in the base. These parts will get wet sanded and buffed just like the body will to ensure a super slick, mirror like finish. Hopefully we will start that process tomorrow on the body.

Painting the Pony

Today was FUN day at JMC. Today we finally got some color sprayed on the ’64 Mustang and as you can see it turned out pretty good. If you remember, we have already painted the hood, doors, trunk and the left fender for this car. Tomorrow we will get this car out, block the right fender and hopefully paint it and a few other little knick knacks that go on here. Chase started out by applying a coat of urethane sealer over the primer. Then 3 good coats of the Candy Apple Red, a factory color for the 1966 Mustang, was applied. Once those dried sufficiently, 3 coats of urethane clear coat was applied. This will allow us to wet sand and buff the clear and still leave enough material there to protect the color coats underneath.  So all in all it was a good day at the shop today.

Honda time

We have been hammering away on this Honda for a week now. After a new door, new quarter panel and a hub cap its finally ready to  go back home.  It turned out pretty good as you can see.  The owner was very happy with the work and the quick turn around time.

Slinging color

These first few pictures are from Friday. Friday we were able to get the Honda in primer, and trimmed out. By that I mean we painted the jambs around the door and trunk.
Today, Chase painted  the outside and took a few pictures of it in process.  The first two picture of the Honda in the booth shows it with just the base coat applied. The very last picture show it taped up and ready to start shooting. Unfortunately we didnt get a picture of it cleared.  Tomorrow we will start the process of putting it all back together. We should be able to wrap this one up by Wednesday.

That left a mark

This Lexus popped in today to get some nasty dents fixed in the left rear door and left quarter panel. We first started this repair with a stud welder. This tool welds a small stud to the panel. We then us a special slide hammer to attach to the stud and pull out on the slide part of the hammer to pull the dent out. Picture 3 show me welding studs to the panel. After we are satisfied with the metal work, we apply the body filler. Using the stud welder greatly reduces the amount of filler needed to repair dents. This one too should be in primer tomorrow.

Still moving

Still plugging away on the Civic today but making plenty of progress. We were able to get the bare metal spots in epoxy primer followed by seam sealing all of the seams and even had time you do the body work over the welded seams. We ran out of time before we could get it in primer so that will happen first thing in the morning. We will then trim it out which entails painting the area where the trunk closes, the door jamb area, the tail lamp area and the area where the windows go. We then hope to have enough time to get it set up to paint on Monday.