I've finished painting the Chromoly roll bar on Saturday, and thought you might want to see the pictures. One thing is for sure: Do not underestimate the amount of taping off you need to do. Tape everything off that is glass on both sides. Tape off the dash, footbox, steering column, pedals, and more. Add lots of newspaper everywhere. Tape your car of to look like a giant spitball if you have to. Whatever surface you leave unmasked will be covered in overspray and the newsprint will be sticky with paint.

Anyway, the paint looks pretty good, though I discovered that if you wait more than an hour or two, you will need to wait a day or so, then wipe all painted surfaces free of overspray before recoating. I have some rough surfaces now that I will have to rub down and wetsand.

It seems the key to a good painted surface is preparation. This Chromoly steel was DIRTY! I scrubbed AND scrubbed for two hours with some Sherwin WIlliams Sher-will-clean, an industrial solvent chock full of VOC's. I had to wear rubber gloves and a respirator while working with it. FInally, when the steel quit giving up dirt, and the rags were coming off the steel looking clean, I decided to paint everything. I then added another couple of hours taping off the car. I didn't tape everything off, so I will have some rubbing to do when everything is back together.

I chose to use a paint called "Hammertone", an indoor/outdoor paint for use on every surface known to man. It's tough stuff, but it takes about two weeks to cure. The painted surface comes off with a textured finish and almost looks pitted. It feels nice to the touch, though. I added four coats and used three cans of paint.

That said, here's the pictures! Forgive me, I didn't shrink them so they are kind of big (150K each) right now. I can reduce them to 50K apiece, maybe later when I get the rollbar installation page online.

Now I need to complete a 6-speed installation, then get back to the Minirammed 385.

Now, onto that T56 transmission retrofit project!

Cheers,

--Dan Burk


http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rbpainted1.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rbpainted2.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rbpainted3.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rhsideview.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rearview.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/lhsidebardetail.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/lhsidebardetail2.jpg

 

wow great job, i like the look of it.

 

Silver! Looks good! And familiar!! I'm interested in seeing how your choice of paint holds up vs. how mine is. I'm not impressed with my choice honestly. Color is nice but it's not too tough. Congrats and be careful around the new artwork.

 

Dam thats pretty. Sweet job!

 

did you have that custom bent or was it ready to weld together? If it was pre-fabbed, who made it? Is it all welded to the body or is it bolted? Can't tell from the photos. Looks good

 

This bar , by S&W Race Cars, is supposed to be ready-to-weld, although there is plenty of work necessary for you. I ordered the "optional" pieces, to preserve my door handles and my rear seat, and these pieces, though bent at all the proper angles, did require me to make some slash cuts and some fishmouths. I did it with the die grinder and a carbide blade on the Sawzall. 5130 is a tough metal to cut! It's easier to grind it than cut it, I swear. Although, when at the welding shop, we needed to re-do some slash cuts and his portable band saw made quick work of my tubes. In addition, the main hoop is intentionally long so that it can be used in cars where the owner wants to go through the floor and into a subframe connector or tube chassis. I had to cut them down. It's all purely weld-in stuff and I had to take the flat steel plates that were provided, and fabricate my own floor mounting plates. I did that with a big hammer, a big bench vise, and a MAPP torch. However I must say that S&W did a great job on getting the angles right. The main hoop fit perfectly when I shortened it to length!



Denny, this silver paint matches my silver aero effects on my '84 color scheme. Pure coincidence to your choice! I chose to use Hammertone paint, which is a textured paint that sticks to everything except teflon. Hopefully if I let it cure two weeks before crawling around in there, it'll stick. If it doesn't, then I can always shoot it in Jamaica yellow!

 

very nice job. so since ur done with that roll bar, wanna come over and do mine j/k

 

Ya, shure, just as soon as I'm done with my airline pilot's certification correspondence course!