Well... I finaly got tired of wise cracks about my bird. And, I met my goals of an 11 second time slip on the motor and 10 second slip on the bottle. So, it's time to make it all pretty. After pricing out some local shops, I realized I couldnt swing someone else doing it. Then, after pricing out PPG's Omni... I realized that was even out of reach. The Summit brand paint, however, fit within my budget. And after reading alot of positive reviews on here, I decided to start tearing down the bird. The motor will be freshend and detailed too. My goal is to make it to the Piston Power Show at the IX center in March.





car getting tore down (that's buck in the pix, my 80 year old crew cheif/ grandfather)













Sorry about the Droid pictures. They look pretty good on the phone, but look like crap blown up here

 

What color did you choose?

 

Viper Red. Posibly some jet black graphics (havnt decided yet). The car was origanaly red, you can see it poking through in some places.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/shz-swbc502v-12

I've always wanted a viper, but I can just barely afford the paint for one

 

Should be nice... In for progress pics!

 

That's funny, Mine is Viper Blue. Haha

 

I used up about $40 of stripper wheels and wire brush wheels, not to mention the better part of Saturday stripping the jams. Then, Saturday night a friend that does body work on the side suggested I use a bernzomatic, and a hand held wire brush… It worked SOOO much better, and quicker, despite the fact my wire brush was 40 years old, and the torch was on the fritz. I’m glad he turned me on to that trick, because getting a drill into the hatch jam, would have sucked. Just be mindful of using the torch… It does bad things to carpet and plastic, and will boil out seam sealer, too. But it works much faster.

I also welded the holes shut that used to hold the side trim on.

Hopefuly I will be mixing primer by the end of next weekend

 

I got most of the body sanded down last night. The body is in remarkably good shape (which I thought and hoped) there is only one rust hole, smaller than a dime, in the t-top jam, and some of the lips for the weatherstrip is rusted, but nothing major.

 

How much was the summit paint? Omni is not bad at under $150 / gallon. Hawthorne makes on 2 stage paint as well (their single stage sucks), as long as you use a decent clear.

Proform DTM epoxy is great over bare metal. You can do that, then shoot high build over it. Block the car, tint your sealer, then shoot your color/clear.

-- Joe

 

Thanks for the tips.

Omni base clear was $360, for just the can of viper red paint (no reducers). The whole quote for omni materials was over $1800, and they said it was going up after the first of the year.

It looks like it will be about $500 for the summit materials.

I've used omni before, its just more than I want to spend on this car. I also don't mind being a test subject... Hopefully it will turn out nice, and debunk rumors about the summit materials.

I'll post the numbers, but like you sugest, summit has a dtm epoxy, then high build, then their white sealed, then base/clear.

I spent this weekend smoothing out some dents & waves with filler... Hopefully be spraying primer next weekend.

 

I finally got some primer on the body.







I started with 2 coats of Summit’s DTM black epoxy primer, UP235, mixed 1:1 with UP233 catalyst, after cleaning the bare metal with UP403 cleaner, per the instructions. Cost: $19/quart + $16/quart of catalyst. This went on really nice and smooth, and it was the consistency of normal paint, maybe a little thicker. The instructions said reduction is not necessary, and I agree. I only bought 1 quart, and it took almost the whole quart to do what you see here. I wish I had bought the gallon, but at the time, I was only planning on doing the body and doors and getting new front fenders. But, after seeing the price of fenders, I think I will end up fixing the ones I have.





I let the epoxy dry overnight, then next up was UP220 2K primer surfacer & UK100 activator. Cost: $45/ gallon + $22/quart for activator + $10/ quart for reducer. This stuff was heavy, and it took some getting used to and messing with the gun settings to get it to lay right. I had the pressure all out of whack, and I was getting some dry spray. But once I figured it out it went down ok. I paint fast, but this stuff needed me to slow down. I’m just glad it is the sandable high build. I will be reducing it with some UP400 for future coats (didn’t have any on had this go-round). Live & learn…





So far I have $112 in primer, $75 in filler, and $100 in sandpaper & shop materials.

I plan to fill some little dings and pinholes with Icing, then block the whole car with 220, reprime with 2k, block again with 400, then it's color time...

 

Gonna look great. Getting mine painted to. Going white as well.

 

Thanks. The car was red from the factory, then someone painted it white with latex house paint or something (it was horrible)... I wanted to go back with red, and chose this:http://static.summitracing.com/globa...-swbc502_w.jpg

 

Despite the rather rough finish of the 2K (which I think was my fault, gun settings), the primer sanded really easy, and I was able to block both quarters and the "roof". I still need to block the window frame and rockers, and run some scotch-brite over the jams, but it should go smoothly. This step was 220 dry.

The primer even took out a couple minor dings I thought I'd have to fix with icing.

Like I said, I'll get some reducer when I spray the next coat... and I think I am going to wet sand it with 400.

 

I unfortunately didn’t have a very productive holiday weekend… I did too much running around & caught up on chores I had been neglecting because of working on this.

I did take advantage of Summit’s black Friday sale, though.



And I had an issue in this area. The Icing body filler popped & bubbled. I think I washed it down with too much wax & grease remover, and didn’t dry it off. So I had to sand the whole area down and start over.



Also, I finally determined my driver’s door is beyond fixing, which I found odd, because the rest of the car is so nice, so I luckily found a used one with very little rust. I did get the deck lid stripped down.

My friend that agreed to prime the bumpers & wing finished them, and then told me to bring over the color & clear… he got them sprayed already!!! He said he’s bored this month, so he agreed to help out on the whole car!

He’s a body man of 30+ years, and says he loves this summit product so far (this is the first he’s used it). He said it reminded him of old SW paint. He was skeptical at first, but said it laid down & covered great, and probably doesn’t even need to be wet sanded!

 

nice, wish i had some place to do body work and paint my car, glad to know the paint is working well, ill be doing a low cost paint myself (if i ever get a place to do it) ... keep it up, looking quite nice so far

 

Good luck. Invest in a good compressor, a little oil-less won't cut it.

Other than that, the tools aren't too expensive.

 

Red

 

That red looks awesome on those pieces man!!

 

Thanks! It looks better in person, too. I'm picky about paint, but it came out real nice & I'm thrilled with the result. It's not even cut & buffed, yet!

 

Gettin her ready for battle I see.....looking goood!

 

Thanks Tony! I'll be ordering all the weatherstriping this payday!


I had a pretty productive weekend. I got the body re-primed Saturday, and stripped down the passanger door, and got some mud on it. Sunday, I got the whole body wet sanded with 400. Reducing the 2K primer did the trick, wet sanding it was effortless. I'd recommend reducing it when putting it on, even though the instructions say it's not required.

Welded the holes shut from the body protection strip:


stripped the door jams and passanger door:

 

The furnace in the shop was on it's last leg, so I've spent the last two nights replacing that, but I did start tearing apart my new used door.

There is some surface rust on the bottom of the door skin, which I worried would also be rusty on the face of the door. I was pleasantly surprised when I removed the ground effect piece, the door was in realy nice shape. There is a little rot through on the jam, but its way better than the original door. I still cant get over that the original door is trash, but the passenger door is in perfect shape, with no signs of rust anywhere...

 

 

Looking nice! Cool 47 Hudson in the 4th pic too.

 

paint mine next because that LOOKS GREAT

 

Thanks guys. The Hudson is Buck's 1947 pickup truck... hard to come by. He also has a 1950 pacemaker "A" convertible (one of 3 known to still exist, and ours is the most original of them), and I have a 1948 commodore. The convert & my car we both painted in the same bay as the bird

a couple more pix. I don't know why it looks pink-ish in these pictures. It's a VERY deep red in real life. In fact, it's so glossy, Porkchop said it's probably the deepest shine he has seen out of a non-metallic red. The car is not even cut and buffed, yet, and it's got a 1 foot shine.

He's a bodyman of 30 years, and said he's going to start using this summit paint on projects like this (this is the first time he's used it). The color covered very well (the whole car is almost painted and we didn't even use two quarts, yet). The clear is very very hard. He said after 48 hours it's like concrete. He said it takes a little more effort than normal to sand it, but it lays so smoothly, it doesn't need all that much sanding. The good thing is, it should be very chip resistant, perfect for this application.

White sealer:


porkchop painting away:


drivers side:

 

Coming along nicely man!! Almost there!

 

My dad didn't think I had enough going on, so he brought me the motor out of his 1964 GTO to freshen, so I've been messing with that since the sunday.

Last night, I did get the junk yard door tore apart, and found the hinge roller was shot So, I'm waiting on a new one to come in. Hopefully it will be here before Christmas.

I sand blasted the bottom of the door jam, and it's rough, but better shape than I thought. Luckaly, I will be able to fix it with a little all metal. I also replaced the top hinge pins.

 

I'd like to thank you and 1A's crew. I ordered up my rubber Tuesday morning, and it was waiting for me when I got home last night!!!

I told Tony what I needed, and he set up a part number just for my list of stuff! http://www.1aauto.com/1A/Weatherstri...ampaign=1ATony

That will get you every piece you need if you go to paint your car, if you have t tops. And, it's the best price I could find, anywhere (and boy, did I look). Also, the Youtube video's have been a huge help to me on this!

The summit box is full of trim paint, and some other goodies I needed to get the car back together.




Everything looks awesome, and was well packaged. I laid it all out to get warmed up on the pool table in the house. I'm planning to get it all installed this week (except the door stuff).

 

How much did that ttop weatherstripping set cost you? If you dont mind my asking of course.

 

•Door Seals
•T-Top Seals
•T-Top Side Rail Hatch Seals
•Rear hatch Seal
•Door outer belt window weatherstrips
•Door inner window sweeps and moldings
•Front window triangle seals
•Rubber drip edge seals

was $470, to my door. There is a link in my previous post to the part number I bought.

check out 1Aauto.com, they have kits with different seals, and individual seals, too.

 

Thank you for the heads up on a good place to get seals. If everything goes as planned, the 83 will be ready for new seals in March.

Look forward to seeing you car together. Also, that is really cool y'all own some cool hudsons! I have a 47 Hudson Super 6 coupe, My great grandpa bought it new.

 

I hate it when folks re-paint a car, then skimp on the details.

So, I've spent the last few days cleaning & painting trim & wheel wells, and the underside of the car. I also re-wired my n2o heater & added a relay to shut off my alternator with my kill switch.

If you doing trim, spend a lil more on real trim paint. Rustoleum doesn't have the right sheen, and may fade over time.

 

Looks great man!!

 

Thanks!

 

Been busy since getting back from Christmas in Fort Myers…

Got the hatch rubber & T-top weather-strip installed.

This stuff went on without any drama, fit well and looks great. I installed the t tops to compress the rubber & hold it in place. The rubber around the hatch was a no brainer, and snapped in place without glue.

Thanks again to Tony and 1A Auto for getting the stuff out fast & affordably!

A few tips for when you go to do the t top rubbers: Take the rubber out of the box to let it acclimate and warm up. Then, loosely set the T-top rubber into place for a few hours (overnight), so it can find it’s shape. Get some 3M weather-strip adhesive cleaner & clean, lint free cloths, and clean the mold release agents off the rubber, where you want adhesive to stick. I prefer little 2x2” squares, so I can do about 12” of rubber, then toss them. Then, wipe down the channel where you are going to glue with some more cleaner. Next, put a bead of adhesive in the channel, and smooth it out with an acid brush. I worked in about 24” sections at a time. Start with one of the 90* corners of the rubber, and work both directions, taking care not to stretch the rubber out. A small plastic bar will help get the rubber snapped into the grooves. Also, if you repainted like I did, there is some holes in the door jams for little plastic push pins, take a moment to clean the paint build up out of the holes, because the push pins won’t fit (ask how I know). You will need to get a little butyl caulking compound (or windshield adhesive), and put some in the corners where the rubber changes directions around the top of the window. I see a few spots of daylight around these areas. My car had little dabs in this area when I took it apart, so either the factory put it in place, or someone else, but my rubber was original.

This may sound complex, but it’s really easy. It took me about 45 minutes each side, including cleaning time.

Rear hatch:


Set in place:


All done:




Put the T tops on to compress and hold in place:

 

Anyone that has done something like this knows there are hundreds of little details to take care of, that take up 80% of the time, but cant get pictured or described. here are some of the noteworthy ones...

I sanded and painted the steel edge of the hatch with trim paint:



And had a friend help me install it:



Then installed the deck lid, using some 3M 3/8" windshield strip adhesive, and some TLC. I tightened the nuts a little bit at a time, over the period of a few hours, to let the adhesive settle in and compress, and not break the glass.



After the deck lid, the wing was easy....

 

In between watching paint dry and dealing with Christmas, I started unhooking everything off the engine:



and yanked it:



I'm not going to go crazy under here for now, just scuff and shoot with semi gloss black. Future plans include an 8.50 spec cage, with bars through the engine compartment, and probably motor plates and other stuff. when I do that, I'll slick it all down, fill holes and such, and paint under the hood body color.

 

i dont think you can call her the ugly bird any longer ... nice work, cant wait to see it roll out into the sun

 

Thanks! I cant wait to see the sun, period





I wanted to take a moment and do a price check:

120 in primer and materials
90 in body filler and misc.
420 in sealer, color, clear, and some misc.
470 in rubber
75 in rattle cans and misc. materials

So… to this point it looks like I have under 1200 in paint, materials, and rubber… I think if anyone budgeted 1500 for materials, and put in a butload of elbow grease, they could have a shiny red third gen, too. Of course, that is assuming you have a pretty clean car to start with.

I had to buy a door for $200, too.

The only big ticket item left (for the body) is the hood, it looks like that will be in the $500-$600 range. I need to put some money in the engine, first, and get that ready to go back in. I hope to buy the hood the first of February, or perhaps sooner.

 

Do you think if your seals were in good condition you would have been able to reuse them? Or is the process of removing them destructive even in the best scenarios?

 

The pass t top rubber came off ok, and was almost reusable. The drives side came off in 6" sections. The rest of it was pretty well shot (it is 30 years old).

If your planning on removing them, plan on having the budget to buy new ones.

 

Well since I dont have T-Tops I have just door seals to contend with. But those get a lot of abuse from doors slamming shut on them for years, not exactly optimistic on them. They are cheaper to replace though.

Thanks for the advice, kind of what I expected, but confirmation is always good.

 

The thing to watch on the door seals is the plastic pins that hold the seals to the bottom of the door. I have a really small pry bar (like for thumb tacks) I used, and tried to get them all out, but still ended up pulling them through the rubber. Good luck with it.

 

Well... Since the first, the flu knocked me out physically, and my propane bill knocked me out financially, so haven't made much progress this week.

I'm feeling better now, so hopefully will be able to tear into the motor this weekend.

Porkchop called, and said my passenger door is ready to hang, and all the small parts are done, too. That only leaves the drivers door and hood to go.

A note on painting a car this way, it eats up more material than doing it all at once. I bought two quarts of sealer and a gallon of clear, and I am going to be just short, I need one more quart of sealer and a quart of clear to finish. The gallon of color has gone a really long way, though. Mixing a little too much once isn't too bad, but doing it piecemail like this, you end up with unused paint going in the trash.

Exciting news, though, the RRA caught wind of my project and invited me to be in the Renegade Racing Association booth at the Piston Power Show in the IX center outside of Cleveland in March. So, if your in the area, stop on by and see it in person... I might be taking a nap, though

Check out the RRA website: http://www.renegaderacingassociation.com/

 

and, I found some more "before" pix, courtesy of Mike C at MC pix...

 

I'm almost over my cold, and had made some good progress this week.

I know this is the paint and body section, but I figured I'd update on the engine situation. The bearings and rings look like brand new. The top end, though was a different story. The exhaust valves were just kissing the pistons, and the rockers and one lifter were beat up pretty bad. This was all caused by the valves floating, as I have plenty of PTV clearance on the stand. The distributor and wires are also worn out, I don't know how this was running as good as it was.

I got some new-used darts I to replace the old double bumps, so it should make the car quite a bit quicker, especially with the new glass hood I will be ordering here next pay day.

I got the bone yard drivers door almost stripped down (I need to take pictures). A nice surprise was 1/4" of bondo, slide hammer holes, and 3 paint jobs on it... but with some more labor, it should be ok. Porkchop has the passenger door and all the small parts done, hopefully I will be installing them in the next week or two.

 

Well, been fighting through some personal stuff, but now I'm back on track, and made some good progress this weekend.

Got the engine's bottom end buttoned up and painted:





new freeze plugs and timing pointer:



Got my heads inspected, it was a real dog fight, the QC dude is very thorough:



and then I assembled them:





My piston to valve clearance was too tight, so I need to get some thicker head gaskets, or the top end would have been done, too:



So I test fitted my new summit radiator (oh boy was that fun!):



Prepped the engine compartment:



and painted it:





hopefully this week the engine will be wrapped up, and if this weather breaks for long enough to get the engine across town, I'll get it into the car this weekend. My goal is to have it test fired by the 5th, then I can assemble the front end, and test fit the new hood I need to order this Friday.

 

Got the heads torqued down and painted last night...

 

Got some milestone things done Saturday:

Got the motor in


Picked up the passenger door from pork chop


and installed it