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My 79 "barn find" project

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Old 07-19-15, 03:16 PM
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That ppg shop line paint is pretty good, we use that at work.
Old 07-19-15, 06:14 PM
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Originally Posted by woodmv
Thanks Tim! I definitely feel like I'm eating an elephant here - one bite at a time...



HA!!! Personally, I like the look of them on the door myself, but maybe Colin Powell's 7th leadership principle would work for you - "it's better to ask forgiveness than permission"...

I started to run with the idea of hooking up multiple propane tanks converted to air tanks, but when I started adding up the cost, I decided it would be much easier to simply go to HF and get the 11 gallon air tank....


I was 5 minutes away from HF last night, searched on my phone for a 20% off coupon and decided the economics and ease of use made this a no brainer. I may convert the propane tanks some day, but I doubt it. Lots of work to remove the valve assembly, coat the inside with pain to prevent rust, etc. and reinstall. Even if I didn't do that, I'd have to buy some fittings from an RV supply store and modify. This way I have a single tank to hook up. Should be a much cleaner and easier setup.
I meant a 100 or 200 gallon tank for a house. Sometimes you can find them cheap when they aren't legally allowed to carry LP anymore.


I might do the fender mount mirrors, I do plan on living abroad soon.
Old 07-20-15, 06:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Qingdao
I meant a 100 or 200 gallon tank for a house. Sometimes you can find them cheap when they aren't legally allowed to carry LP anymore.


I might do the fender mount mirrors, I do plan on living abroad soon.
I think if you like the mirrors on the fender it I say go for it!

And as far as the tank goes, I figured out after I started looking into buying fittings, adding up the volume and amount of fittings I'd need that you must have meant a big RV tank... It was at that moment I thought - "I'm such a dumbass"... Now I have three small tanks, one full. I'll have propane to heat my garage in the winter, and, in the words of Carl the groundskeeper from the movie Caddyshack "So, I have that going for me"........

Old 07-20-15, 06:29 PM
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Originally Posted by erick31876
That ppg shop line paint is pretty good, we use that at work.
That's good to hear! Do you know how much I'd need to cover the car? The guy at the paint store didn't really have an opinion, so I had the quote figured up for two quarts, but that's just a complete guess, so if you have an idea I'd love to hear it!
Old 10-13-15, 12:54 PM
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So, between kids activities, work, house projects and the other cars, I haven't had a lot of time to devote to old Rusty here. I have in my spare time continued to sand the body and panels from 60 grit to knock off the white lacquer to 150 and then 220, and sealing the surfaces of bare metal with the Metal Ready from POR-15.

After a visit from Cookboy earlier this weekend I decided it was time to try the purple HF paint gun my buddy Jerry gave me (thanks!) and see if my compressor would keep up. On the doors it did not and ran continuously but I managed to keep it at about 30 psi at the inlet to the gun, which contributed to some orange peel.





Got my youngest boy out there to help me sand the headlight panels















Beginning to look like a car again:



So, I learned that with this setup I'll have a lot of sanding to do to knock down the orange peel I will certainly have, but more importantly, I should be able to tackle this job myself. The clear will be the trickiest part. Maybe I'll consider a single stage, but I'm leaning towards two stage. I'd like to see a silver metallic single stage in person...

In some of the pictures you can still see the spots of old paint or bondo underneath the primer. I put on two coats of primer just to seal it up and start bondo work, which as you can see there is a fair amount of. That's my plan for the winter. Bondo and block sand then hopefully paint in the spring!

Last edited by woodmv; 10-13-15 at 01:08 PM.
Old 10-13-15, 03:23 PM
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If your getting orange peel with only 30 psi, your putting it on to heavy, try turning the paint back a little bit. It takes some getting used to, I have been doing it for 8 years and sometimes still make mistakes. It looks damn good from your pictures, the fenders look brand new, great job
Old 10-13-15, 08:01 PM
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Originally Posted by erick31876
If your getting orange peel with only 30 psi, your putting it on to heavy, try turning the paint back a little bit. It takes some getting used to, I have been doing it for 8 years and sometimes still make mistakes. It looks damn good from your pictures, the fenders look brand new, great job
Thanks Eric! I was able to play with the settings and practiced on the cardboard in the background. As I went along I managed to get more of a fine spray, but it was not very wide, and really was only a slight improvement over the first couple of tries. I'll add that secondary air tank into the mix next time and will play with the settings more.

As you can see my workspace is limited. I was only able to work one piece at a time, so I had to spray it, wait 15 minutes, spray another coat, let dry for 15 minutes to move to another part of the garage, then repeat the process. I did this for both doors, both fenders, and the front valance. So, I tried to make sure the paint gun nozzle didn't get gummed up by making sure it was clear, wiping with a rag with thinner, take the nozzle off, clean it out with a wire, reinstall... When I set up a tent and do the body, I'll prolly not have the waiting period and possibly gum up the gun.

Is there a secret to getting rid of the shadows of the old paint splotches or is it as simple as "more primer"?

Last edited by woodmv; 10-13-15 at 08:06 PM.
Old 10-13-15, 08:09 PM
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Looks Damn fine!!
Old 10-14-15, 05:00 AM
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To get rid of the shadows, you need more coats of primer, we usually put 3 coats on at work. But once in a while you might have to put more on.it could also be high edges around the places you sanded.they will look like a ring around wjere there is paint or bodywork. Iwas reading your thread and you asked how much paint you would need, but i dont tjink ibanswered you, i would go with a gallon. You will probably have some extra, but if you ever need to touch anything up, you will already have the paint made up, and it will be a perfect matc. It is very hard to match paint colors even if you have the code.this is going to look amazing when you're done. What color are you going to paint it

Last edited by erick31876; 10-14-15 at 05:19 AM.
Old 10-14-15, 06:40 PM
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Originally Posted by Qingdao
Looks Damn fine!!
Thanks Qingdao! I'm pretty happy with the results.

Originally Posted by erick31876
To get rid of the shadows, you need more coats of primer, we usually put 3 coats on at work. But once in a while you might have to put more on.it could also be high edges around the places you sanded.they will look like a ring around wjere there is paint or bodywork. Iwas reading your thread and you asked how much paint you would need, but i dont tjink ibanswered you, i would go with a gallon. You will probably have some extra, but if you ever need to touch anything up, you will already have the paint made up, and it will be a perfect matc. It is very hard to match paint colors even if you have the code.this is going to look amazing when you're done. What color are you going to paint it
That's what I thought - more primer. Thanks for the great advice about the amount. It makes perfect sense, and in the end isn't that much more expensive. I appreciate the assist!

Oh, and I'm going back original color - K3 sunbeam silver metallic.
Old 10-15-15, 11:53 AM
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Nice, I love that color, I can't wait to see it when it's done. It's gonna look great
Old 10-16-15, 12:11 PM
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Yeah, you are totally right!!!! We are at similar stages...

When are you planning on painting it???
Old 10-18-15, 05:36 PM
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Originally Posted by knight_rx7
Yeah, you are totally right!!!! We are at similar stages...

When are you planning on painting it???
Probably in the spring. Too cold here now for paint and I have to get the body smoothed out so I'm hoping for one more warm weather weekend so that I can finish the base coat of primer. That would set me up nicely to have something to work with over the winter.
Old 10-19-15, 05:05 PM
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Progress! And being in Suffolk, you'll have some warmer weather. This week is an anomaly.
Old 10-23-15, 05:27 PM
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Finishing up Sanding and a PRESENT came!!

Originally Posted by Cookboy
Progress! And being in Suffolk, you'll have some warmer weather. This week is an anomaly.
Yes! Very true! I'm hoping I can get the majority of the remainder sanded out and get a good base coat of primer on the entire car this weekend. May be tough to get it all done this weekend, but we'll see.

Took the day off today and very gingerly removed the window trim around the windshield and the drip rails to get access to the entire roof of the car. I also sanded out the roof with 220 and found a few more rust splotches lurking beneath the paint. Man, they really were everywhere. I also sanded out a circular rust spot in the roof line in the middle of the windshield.

As you can see from the pics, some of the clips stayed in place because when the windshield was installed, the clips were installed on the posts, then the bead of sealant was installed, then the windshield, so the sealant formed around some of the clips. It ought to make getting the new clips installed a challenge.

OH!! And I was cruising around an auction website last weekend and one of the first things I saw is shown in the last pic below. SCORE!! I had heard that this existed but I could never in 18 months or so of searching ever find one. I jumped on it cause the price was right.





Needed to keep this visual record of where this piece of rubber goes.





Some of the clips were embedded into the sealant when the windshield was installed





Probably one of the few remaining spots of rust on the car.










And here's my present to myself. Super excited to have found this. I was beginning to think it was a unicorn...


Old 10-23-15, 06:06 PM
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That manual is i nice find. If you need any of them clips, we have a lot of them at my work
Old 11-06-15, 04:12 PM
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Epoxy primer basecoat is ON.

Originally Posted by erick31876
That manual is i nice find. If you need any of them clips, we have a lot of them at my work
Thanks Eric! I bough some but if I ruin them in the process of installing I'll def. hit you up. I like the build you have going on as well. Nice progress!

I took advantage of the warm weather today and finished priming ole Rusty. I built a tent in the garage and hooked up my 11 gallon tank to my 5 gallon compressor, let them both pump up to about 120 psi, and got to work. I'm pretty happy with the results.








I took a wire wheel to the rust in the channel here and you can see the seam where the previous collision repair had been made... I treated this after the wire wheel and sealed it with POR-15.





This is where the other weld seam is from the previous collision repair. If you look closely you can see the brass colored filler where the weld seam is...





Hard at work sanding off the last of the white lacquer after I removed the rear hatch glass. Man, that male pattern baldness catches up with you QUICK!!





Used POR-15 in the seams of the windshield and in the rain gutters, which were so packed with paint dust from Dad and my brother's respray, and the one from the collision repair that the gutter about doubled in size after I used the wire wheel on it.





Taped up and ready to go











In the tent. Learned from the first one when I sandblasted it that higher is better. Gets the plastic closer to the lights which makes it not only more roomier, but brighter as well.





All primed up!





Nice seeing it all one color rather than leopard spotted.







Although I managed to get this part of the project done, I definitely need to find a bigger compressor. My little boy and the tank just simply can't keep up. I would have about 1 to 2 minutes of spray time with decreasing pressure and volume, then I'd have to wait 10 minutes for the compressor to fill itself and tank again, which worked out for me actually because I needed some fresh air. I really could use a good respirator when spraying epoxy. I also learned that I need to fix the door seals on the door into the garage from the kitchen. Ooops.
Old 11-06-15, 08:42 PM
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Very nice. Can't wait for the top coat
Old 11-07-15, 07:27 AM
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That looks great, you did a great job. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done
Old 11-07-15, 08:34 AM
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Originally Posted by craaaazzy
Very nice. Can't wait for the top coat
Originally Posted by erick31876
That looks great, you did a great job. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done
Thanks guys, I can't wait either! I am actually pretty happy with the way it turned out. It looks better in pictures than in person, but I ended up with only one very minor run. I definitely could have used another coat or two, but I only bought one quart of primer to see if the gun and my setup would work. That little $15 purple HF gun kicks ***! It worked best when I fed it at about 80 psi throttled down to 40 at the gun inlet.

This will give me a good base to work bondo with. The passenger side tail light opening isn't square from the collision work, and there is a LOT of bondo there. It kinda looks like it has a lazy eye. You can def. tell from the pics that it just isn't quite right, and those details drive me NUTS so I'll work to square that up as best I can. I'll also get the interior cleaned and start thinking about installing some dynamat, or something like it. Haven't made up my mind yet what I want to install there...
Old 11-07-15, 09:16 AM
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looks great keep it going
Old 11-07-15, 10:21 AM
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I can see what your talking about how the top dips down, it doesn't look too bad. I really like the color combination of the engine in the background of the one picture, is that the engine that's going into the car
Old 11-07-15, 11:41 AM
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Originally Posted by rotarytech953
looks great keep it going
Thanks rotarytech! I'm enjoying the ride so far.

Originally Posted by erick31876
I can see what your talking about how the top dips down, it doesn't look too bad. I really like the color combination of the engine in the background of the one picture, is that the engine that's going into the car
Good eye! Yes that is the engine that's going into the car. You can see it in post #233 and #252. My buddy Jerry pulled it from PnP. It's an Atkins Rebuild Special with an ARS number stamped on it that was in an 83 LS with about 30k on the odometer. Not that that means it only has 30k or so miles on it, but it turns freely and all apex seals have plenty of movement. I picked up an 85 distributer for it so I can ditch the points. I can't wait to see how it runs!

Last edited by woodmv; 11-07-15 at 11:43 AM.
Old 11-07-15, 06:03 PM
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Any plans for the interior? RB seat covers?
Old 11-07-15, 09:58 PM
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Wow. Over the past 24 hours, I have read all 21 pages of this thread. Impressive work and extreme dedication to get rid of all that rust. Subscribed!


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