65 GTO

[Scott Liggett]

Re: 65 GTO

Aaahh. A nice relaxing day teaching the kids to drive. 8)

[DanStokes]

Re: 65 GTO

Sounds like we both slid into body work sideways - I too started doing it because I couldn't afford to have it done. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with it. I don't love it so much as I'm doing it but the results are like "I love you". Sort of long-term instant gratification. I can tell you have somewhat the same feelings - your work is WAY too good to be the work of someone who hates it.

Dan

[Thumpin455]

Re: 65 GTO

Thanks Dan, I dont know how good my work is, because I see the pro builds and stuff on TV sometimes and mine pales in comparison. I have seen $30k paint jobs and it is easy to tell the difference, but I dont know if I am decent or just driver quality. I am hyper critical of my work so I see every low spot and dent I missed, and I dont know if I am doing it right or not. I just try to do it so it wont break in half or fall apart later. I like working with metal, to me its like sculpting rather than drudgery.

It is delayed gratification, I never look at how big the job is to start, I break it down into segments, manageable bites so to speak. As I get something done I look forward to the next bit and stop to admire what I have gotten done, or at least acknowledge it. I can be a perfectionist, but not about keeping things tidy, but about doing the job at hand right, and sometimes I need to tell myself it is good enough as it is.

I dont hate body work, but I would much rather be building power. I am just tired of all my cars being rattle canned and looking like crap. I have the place to do it now so I can fix the rust and paint things. The sanding is the worst part, I can feel IQ points dripping out my ears while I do that. Painting brings its own worries and trepidation, did I mix it right, am I getting good coverage, is it going to run or sag, was it clean enough or will I get fish eyes, will there be tiger stripes in the metal flake, and my biggest enemy so far has been orange peel. It is always colder up here, so I have to shoot on cold metal with usually around 60F temps, and that makes it peel real bad unless I thin the hell out of it. It takes quite a bit of learning to get it right, and the last two came out ok. Not great but single stage cheap enamel doesnt have to be great, it looks good from a few feet away and i am ok with that.

This car will get the best I can do, I want it arrow straight and the paint laid down with minimal peel so I dont have to worry about cutting through the clear with sanding or buffing. I think it would be kinda cool to have it look extremely nice after what it once was. Still it is just a driver, not a show car, but I want it to draw stares and awe... and not because it is all messed up like my 70 GTO..

[DanStokes]

Re: 65 GTO

Every one gets better. The best buy I've made recently is a double DA pad system for power block sanding. I can block and buff a car in a half day now! Great invention. I did the hood on the Dakota in about 20 minutes.

I did a black Duster a few years back in cheap black enamel. I let it sit a week or so then blocked and buffed it and it looked like a mirror, even though it was sprayed in a 2 car garage with a 3 hp Sears compressor and too much dust. I've learned over the years that I can save almost any paint job with enough blocking and buffing - just don't try to get it TOO perfect and go thru the color!

Dan

Dan

[milner351]

Re: 65 GTO

Todd
I hate to tell you this - but from your thought process around painting trepidations - we think alot alike!

I admire your work ethic and ability to put your "what if" fears aside and just get to work.

I wish you all the best with the relationship thing - I too have been divorced and was pretty sure I wouldn't get married for a long time, I didn't even date for a year after the divorce was final. Hopefully I got it right the second time around.

I very much appreciate and respect you for your service to this country and hope that all the things I will never understand, you can sort out in time.

[Thumpin455]

Re: 65 GTO

Thanks guys. I am well past the what if fears when it comes to cars. I can fix anything I break or screw up, all it takes is more time. Hell even the last two engines I broke didnt cause me undue stress, and one was very expensive. I wasnt responsible for it breaking, someone dumped gravel down the carb as a gift to me. Still it was pull it out, rip it apart and fix it. So cutting up a car to replace metal is very simple and easy by comparison, I can do it myself and if I screw it up I rip it off and start over. No need to freak or get discouraged, just redo it. Its fun for me so I dont get upset over more work, to me its an opportunity to do better and learn from the mistake. I do it often too...

I got more work done on it last night, today I will get farther since it is raining again. Just stay inside bend metal and weld. With luck I should have the quarter back on, the filler behind the rear window finished, and have a good start on the windshield channel. I have kinda decided to build it more for me than Dave at this point. I dont know if I will be living her much longer or if I will be moving to Nebraska again, so I am just planning on being by myself. That means moving or perhaps selling off a few cars and buying this place. That would be a good way of paying him back, let him store his boats and stuff here for free, and I just keep the car. I always wanted a 65 GTO anyway, it is my favorite year, so with everything up in the air, it just changes how I do some things.

We are at a crossroads, her and I. I should know within a week or two what is going on with 'us' and then I can plan again. Right now I cant plan ahead much, all I can do is react and try to figure out which way to go. I plan out everything, but it is a flexible plan that can change as it goes, nothing is set in stone with me. I have a general direction with a goal, but how to get there is a matter of what works best at that time. If I cant do one thing when I want to do it, then I will do something else that also needs done. Until it is actually done, it can change a bit or be disregarded entirely, depending on what it is and how it is done. Its sorta like driving from San Diego to Maine. There are lots of different roads you can take to get there, some are faster, some are more interesting, some cost less, some cost more, but they all get you there. Just keep heading east and you will find it eventually.

So now back to the shop to continue with the project I started last night.

[Runner1972]

Re: 65 GTO

Thanks Dan, I dont know how good my work is, because I see the pro builds and stuff on TV sometimes and mine pales in comparison. I have seen $30k paint jobs and it is easy to tell the difference, but I dont know if I am decent or just driver quality. I am hyper critical of my work so I see every low spot and dent I missed, and I dont know if I am doing it right or not. I just try to do it so it wont break in half or fall apart later. I like working with metal, to me its like sculpting rather than drudgery.

It is delayed gratification, I never look at how big the job is to start, I break it down into segments, manageable bites so to speak. As I get something done I look forward to the next bit and stop to admire what I have gotten done, or at least acknowledge it. I can be a perfectionist, but not about keeping things tidy, but about doing the job at hand right, and sometimes I need to tell myself it is good enough as it is.

I dont hate body work, but I would much rather be building power. I am just tired of all my cars being rattle canned and looking like crap. I have the place to do it now so I can fix the rust and paint things. The sanding is the worst part, I can feel IQ points dripping out my ears while I do that. Painting brings its own worries and trepidation, did I mix it right, am I getting good coverage, is it going to run or sag, was it clean enough or will I get fish eyes, will there be tiger stripes in the metal flake, and my biggest enemy so far has been orange peel. It is always colder up here, so I have to shoot on cold metal with usually around 60F temps, and that makes it peel real bad unless I thin the hell out of it. It takes quite a bit of learning to get it right, and the last two came out ok. Not great but single stage cheap enamel doesnt have to be great, it looks good from a few feet away and i am ok with that.

This car will get the best I can do, I want it arrow straight and the paint laid down with minimal peel so I dont have to worry about cutting through the clear with sanding or buffing. I think it would be kinda cool to have it look extremely nice after what it once was. Still it is just a driver, not a show car, but I want it to draw stares and awe... and not because it is all messed up like my 70 GTO..

You are doing an excellent job considering what you started with and it's coming alone nice. I really need to start doing my car and paint it. Been putting it off for too long cause of other things, but now it's my time.

[Thumpin455]

Re: 65 GTO

I got something done today. I did the outer wheelhouse last week and finally got the motivation to fit the quarter. It is almost ready to weld. I have a few more hours of work to do on it before I can say it fits right, but it is quite close right now.

[milner351]

Re: 65 GTO

looking good, man that's a lot of work.

Can you tell me the process from bare metal up?

I'm trying to get the right stuff to do a quick and dirty sand down, self etching primer, filler primer, equipment enamel job on the ranger.

I need to take off the paint that's there (rattle can paint in some areas) get down to bare metal, then build it back up.

80 grit to strip paint and get down to metal?
then self etching primer
scotchbrite to scuff that?
filler primer
then xx grit to smooth it out?
then more primer as needed
then xx grit before spraying the paint?

[Thumpin455]

Re: 65 GTO

I use Nason products, its what the place I get my supplies from carries.

I use epoxy primer rather than self etch. I leave the surface pretty rough with 40-80 grit so it can bite. If I am applying filler to bare metal, such as on a large area where I have welded a seam down a quarter, I rough that with my angle grinder. For small spots of filler I put it over the epoxy primer.

After I am done with the majority of filler, I shoot another coat of epoxy on it to seal it so I dont get feather edges showing through the color coat. Then sand it down a bit to rough it and knock down any peel.

After that I use high build primer, knocking it down and finding any dents I missed with a guide coat. After I have the high build where I want it, I shoot either epoxy again in a light coat or a sealer, because the high build doesnt like the color coats with a base clear. It needs to be sealed and the epoxy does that.

Then base color, and clear or just shoot the single stage enamel.

On the heavily pitted sections, this car has plenty, I used POR15 after sandblasting them to get as much out as possible. Also I use Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator if I have good metal to start, like in my Cougar. It depends on how much rust is left and how bad it was before, also where it is as to what I use for that. This one got POR top and bottom on the floors, the Cougar got Eastwoods RE top and bottom, and on the roof where it had some pitting from a vinyl top.

With either one of those products you need to seal it, and epoxy primer works pretty good for that, just make sure you dont sand through it because it can make a mess of top coats and color base if it isnt compatible.

[milner351]

Re: 65 GTO

Thanks Todd.

what sanding grit do you use on the primer, and before you're ready to lay the paint down (is 400 fine enough to wetsand with before color)

Yea - I need to get some books out.

I'm trying to figure out which rolls of paper da refills to order either from ebay or some place on line - seems the body shop supply places around here thing sandpaper has gold in it or something.

[Thumpin455]

Re: 65 GTO

I get my stuff from CarQuest, at least what I cant get in bulk at Menards or somewhere like that. I block it with 220 and 400, seems to stick pretty good. I dont wet sand the primer though, high build is porous and it will retain water and other stuff, so the only thing I wet sand is clear coat.

[milner351]

Re: 65 GTO

thanks Todd.

now I need time and motivation.

Most of the sanding is going to be by machine - my right shoulder is shot - one of these days I have to get it looked at, but sanding work is one of the things that makes it bad enough I can't sleep.

[Thumpin455]

Re: 65 GTO

Blocking high build isnt back breaking, it is mind numbing. You use a long board and you tread lightly so to speak. If you push too hard or sand too long all you do is knock off the stuff you have laid down. The idea is to find the high spots, and fill in the low spots that are too shallow to use filler. I have a couple long foam boards and a small one about the size of a dollar bill, my air powered board sander works great to smooth filler, but it rips the high build away far too quickly. The guide coat really helps to see where you are, a tinted primer would work too. Just be careful if you use tints so that it doesnt show through the base as a feather edge or dark spot. Think of it more like sculpting a car than painting it, really that is what body work is.

If you arent concerned about getting all the waves out, or it perfectly flat, then you dont really need to do as much blocking or even use the high build. On my drag car I didnt fill in most of the small dents, I only fixed the minor rust and the big dents, and shot epoxy primer on it. It is the blue Formula in my sig, it didnt have to be perfect since its only purpose is to embarrass people driving Chevy and Fords. Mopar owners are already embarrassed enough just being in a Chrysler product.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: 65 GTO

I only fixed the minor rust and the big dents,

Anybody else wondering what his definition of minor rust is? ;D



I haven't been commenting, but I've definately been watching this thread :o