Can anyone spot the difference?

These long pauses between periods of progress have to come to an end. This summer was very unsatisfying, even though it was fairly busy, and due to the rain delaying a couple things, other projects have piled up until pretty much last weekend. My goal now is to have it done for Street Machine Weekend 2020, or done enough to bring down and play. I have some life to deal with in the meantime so there might not be much progress every weekend but I'm working on it whenever reasonable, and I have a rough timeframe laid out to help keep me on target. This car has been weighing me down for too long, and has not been a fun experience. I've learned a lot though.

Last time I saw that rear quarter it looked like someone had taken a very large hammer to it (may have even been me!). It looks fantastic now! Way to go.

It's really not bad, considering. We had way too much material behind the arch, I really should have cut some out but I wasn't in a good place for that (still true). I just want the car done and am happy it looks as good as it does. I spent plenty of time trying to shrink it and work it and get it to be close while not oil canning, the rest had to be done with filler. I sacrificed some shape to keep the filler thickness to a minimum. You'll only see the shape difference if you template the right side, and even then it's not major, but a paint thickness gauge probably wouldn't tell a very nice story...

Good to see you back at it Matt, look forward to seeing the car for SMW 2020!

I've had a few rough weeks so progress was slow, but I finally have something to show for my effort. Epoxy is down.







I have a little work to do on the roof before I can spray the primer surfacer, at which point I'll mask off the body and spray some colour on the front & rear glass sealing lip, the trunk sealing lip, and the door jambs. We need paint underneath the window seals and the tape line will be hidden by the seal, and doing the trunk seal area is something I should have done when I painted the trunk but didn't think of it. Masking these areas from the backside sucks a little, so I'd rather get the paint on them now while I have the insides masked. The door jambs are being done because the doors will be hung, painted, and all of that will be sealed off for painting the rest of the car in the booth.

Once that's done we'll be on to the next panel: the trunk lid.

Leave the glass out...it's more work than it's worth. Sure doors etc...but I'd be leaving that glass out or you may have problems like I've got with the 242.

Are you two-tone painting the car?

I hate trunk lids.

Glass will remain out during painting, my thought was that when we paint the exterior I'd rather mask the front & rear window openings from the outside rather than try to mask them from the inside. Masking to the inside leaves a big dust trap in the giant gap between the backside of the window frame and the outside surface of the paper: masking to the outside is much cleaner.

No, I'm not two-tone painting the car. Why, did you have a thought?

I know you hate trunk lids... you've only been working on one of your own for a couple months now.

Slow and steady. I laid a few coats of primer-surfacer over the epoxy, then had to redo the roof as I was trying to do it without a platform to stand on and I got a terrible finish up high and in the middle or the roof, with a lot of pockmarks and texturing. I blocked it all down smooth and laid on some more after digging out my crap stool. Then I masked off everything that wasn't door jamb, window frame, and trunk seal lip (after sanding down all these areas), and blew on some colour and clear. For the most part it all went on just great - a couple of unimportant textured spots and a few flaws I need to work out, but overall I'm pretty happy with the progress.





The next bits of the restoration aren't very photogenic so there won't be photographic updates until I get to working on the doors. I'll be under the car scraping some old undercoating, seam sealing the buttcheeks to the trunk floor, revising the seatbelt anchors, and finally priming and undercoating the trunk floor & rear wheel wells. Then the chassis is sealed up tight.

I'm not dead, the car hasn't won.

Lots and lots has happened since my last post. Yesterday I primed the last panel on the car. I had a few surprises along the way, though - lots of damage on the two left side doors that I didn't anticipate, made somewhat worse by my inexperience, but I struggled through and got it to a point where I can accept it. There was some rust repair to take care of on one of my front fenders, and quite a bit of damage from the accident that caused the RR quarter to be rebuilt. I'll let the pictures do the talking for now.

















































I have a bunch of body adjustment to do - the nose cone and front fenders need to pivot around the right rear fender to the left, the driver's front door needs to go up and back, and the bottom of the front left fender needs to get pulled in about 3/8". The right rear door needs an adjustment to the striker plate to get it to close cleanly, but I should be good to start blocking out the high build primer and get the car prepped for paint.

But with everything closed and social distancing a really really good idea, I'm not sure where or how I'll be painting this thing. Originally I planned on renting the booth from U-wrench, but now it will probably be done in my garage. My skills aren't quite up to the proficiency required for painting an entire car, and Craig has offered to risk his health to come up and help, but I'm not sure this is the best idea. It might be best to wait until this whole thing cools off.

Nice work Matt, good to see you’re keeping busy and making good progress.

Curious, it looks familiar? What’s the serial number?

And yes, may be better to wait for the covid to blow over.

204826

I don't know the history of the car but I can tell you that it was originally white and repainted, twice I think in the burgundy red, and I'm pretty sure the nose & front fenders were replaced at some point afterwards. The car came with some bitchin' brand new tires from the 1980s that were age cracked and basically destroyed, and not a lot of rust so I think it was painted & parked and not driven for about 25-30 years before I bought it. It was last registered in Alberta as I didn't have to get an out-of-province inspection. That's about all I know.

Matt, thx for providing that. Not mine though, probably long gone now. Parted company with it in the early ‘80s.

Yours is looking good.

Looks good Matt, so much detail to get a nice finished product.

Thanks guys. Yes, so much detail. I got the front end as aligned as I can get it, doors are pretty good, trunk might still need a little something something. I'm currently sanding my arms off. Everything but the hood and nose cone are flattened to 180, the roof/trunk/rear clip are done to 400. Today's a day off so I'll get the doors to 400 today, hopefully the fenders to 400 tomorrow after work. The hood was giving me some grief a few days ago when I tried sanding it so either the primer hadn't fully cured or there's something amiss with that, and the nose cone might need some more primer from sitting in storage for 4 years.

Craig's assured me I can paint this myself, in place. So I'm gonna. I'll do it in stages though.

Getting excited to see the finish line on this one.

Been too busy for updates. It's getting really close now, I have a few more things to do before the glass guy shows up to install the front and rear windscreens, but at that point it'll be finished!















Since these photos were taken most of the interior has been installed as well - dash cap, carpets, kick panels, trunk trim, etc. I have to do the headliner, windlace, a bit of polishing, and a couple touch-ups, and I'll pretty much be ready to go. I'm not happy with the driving light brackets so I'll have to re-do them and I still have to finish the wiring for them, so for now I'll probably tuck all of that away and we'll deal with that stuff later.

It's been a bit of a marathon to get from primer in November to here, and I can't believe how much I've underestimated the time required to reassemble this thing, but I've left all the trim polishing and straightening and cleaning etc until the end, which has taken a ton of time.

Can't wait to drive this thing to see how all the little mechanical and comfort items have transformed the car. It's been damn near 5 years since I've properly driven it, except for back and forth from my garage to storage at my Mom's 2 blocks away.