1939 Chevy coupe

[1946Austin]

Darn it! I went into the shop last evening and the headliner material around the top of the back window was loose and hanging in the air! I glued it all around with 3M headliner glue, but it didn't hold. It's the only area without a tack strip, and I suspect it should have one, but no idea.
It has a tack strip along the top of the windshield opening, and I stapled and glued it there, and that held great. Asked about on the rear, but didn't get any response.
So today I came up with my own fix. I sat down in the back with a 1/8" drill bit, and a bunch of 1/8" pop rivets, and set off to drill and rivet the headliner to the metal structure around the frame. Put a rivet every few inches and twice as close in the corners.
This seems to be holding great, and once the weatherstrip is in place it will be even better! I would have simply made a tack strip, but no idea where it would mount and not interfere with the weatherstrip? No signs of where one could have been, but shop manual says the headliner gets "glued and tacked around the window", so must have had something?
Clean up day tomorrow again! Even with not bodywork, it seems to be covered in dust. Rolling it outside tomorrow, and doing a deep cleaning, which means I'll get wet as I plan to scrub the engine bay, frame rails, and everything I can reach! It all looks like 10 years of accumulated dust!

[1946Austin]

Cleanup day. Pulled the coupe into the driveway and mixed up a bucket of suds. Sprayed it off with the air hose everywhere first, and then washed it down and scrubbed with bristle brush. Lots of overspray on the newly painted frame rails, so scuffed them and shot another coat of gloss black engine enamel.
After that I remembered I forgot to install the lap belts I got, so removed the bolts on the seats and installed the belts. Cleaned up inside and out, and touched up black paint wherever. The engine survived the build without much dirt, so a quick dusting, and hose down got it looking good again.
Decided I'm just going to leave it in primer for the summer unless I find somebody who can paint it reasonably and then I'll have it done.

[DanStokes]

Looks pretty good!

Dan

[1946Austin]

Looks pretty good!

Dan

Thanks Dan. Starting to ponder it might look good in a slightly darker metallic gray.

[oletrux4evr]

Thanks Dan. Starting to ponder it might look good in a slightly darker metallic gray.

Yeah. I really like that with the pearl in it.

[1946Austin]

Yeah. I really like that with the pearl in it.

No pearl for my paint jobs. Not a fan of any pearl paints.

[fatguyzinc]

love it!

[oletrux4evr]

No pearl for my paint jobs. Not a fan of any pearl paints.

Your car, your choice. I use OEM colors, many have pearl in them, but easy to match because they are.....OEM. I'm not a big fan of the exotics.........but again, guys build cars to their own tastes.

[DanStokes]

Your car, your choice. I use OEM colors, many have pearl in them, but easy to match because they are.....OEM. I'm not a big fan of the exotics.........but again, guys build cars to their own tastes.

We may have a difference in semantics here. "Pearl" is an extreme flake which used to be made of ground up pearls, hence the name (I don't think they actually use pearls these days). Metallics (of varying flake size and flake color) are technically called "polychrome" and are what is used in OEM paints. The flakes are little bits of shiny plastic. They used to be a real pain to paint as they'd easily stripe (light and darker areas of flake) but modern base/clear systems are pretty much immune to striping.

Dan

[1946Austin]

We may have a difference in semantics here. "Pearl" is an extreme flake which used to be made of ground up pearls, hence the name (I don't think they actually use pearls these days). Metallics (of varying flake size and flake color) are technically called "polychrome" and are what is used in OEM paints. The flakes are little bits of shiny plastic. They used to be a real pain to paint as they'd easily stripe (light and darker areas of flake) but modern base/clear systems are pretty much immune to striping.

Dan

I mainly don't care for pearls on a vintage build because they're incorrect, and date the vehicle. Not against pearl in paint jobs in general, just for my usual old school cars. I do like metallics, and also like non metallic paint too. I just avoid any paint styles that date a build to some newer trendy style.
Not a fan of metalflake paint jobs on my vehicles, but I've got a few friends that have had some very cool roof paint jobs on their hotrods in metalflake and graphics that are amazing.
There were some pretty neat panel paint jobs back in the 60's on old coupes at the drag strips too. Loved seeing them, but I'm too conservative to have one done on my builds. Guess I'm just too conservative in general.

[milner351]

Really nice paint jobs intimidate me. I'm starting to think I'm destined to always have cars in sealer/primer since it just makes me paranoid to be around shiny paint.
You've built another really cool car here, whatever paint makes you happy is the right choice!

[oletrux4evr]

Your car, your choice. I use OEM colors, many have pearl in them, but easy to match because they are.....OEM. I'm not a big fan of the exotics.........but again, guys build cars to their own tastes.

[1946Austin]

Really nice paint jobs intimidate me. I'm starting to think I'm destined to always have cars in sealer/primer since it just makes me paranoid to be around shiny paint.
You've built another really cool car here, whatever paint makes you happy is the right choice!

New paint is always scary, until the first chip, ding, or nick. Bit sometimes the first one can be heartbreaking. When I had my '71 Camaro painted I was paranoid to even walk away from it at car shows. Then after a few shows I was at one of big weekly cruise ins and decided it was OK to walk around. Came back an hour later to a scratch dead center on the driver's door, just a couple inches below the window! Just into the clear coat, and looked like somebody had leaned against the door and maybe a rivet on their Levis, or a belt buckle scraped a 5" or 6" scratch on it.
My Austin has fared OK, but after 10 years it's got the usual chips, and stuff cars get from lots of driving.

[1946Austin]

Finally got the speaker system done, and the divider panel covered and installed. So interior is completed now, other than a good cleaning as usual.

[1946Austin]

Ha! Nothing to this glass installation! Got bored this afternoon and knowing I had this nifty glass suction cup tool, I thought I'd give the rear glass a try. I put the weatherstripping on the glass, but it kept falling away on the bottom. So duct taped it to the glass at bottom center to hold it. Then used 12 awg insulated electrical wire in the rubber channel as a pull cord, and sprayed soap all over the weatherstrip.
Using this suction cup tool to hold it in place, I began pulling the wire and the rubber lip pulled right over the opening! When it got to the end the window popped into place perfectly! I was surprised how quick and easy it was. Maybe a few minutes total to install it. Piece of cake. Gonna try the windshield halves next, and maybe get this all done sooner, and save $300. They wanted $125 just for the back window.