Update pics

[Luva65wagon]

Well, that at least explains the bright yellow glow I see just over the hill... I hope you're wearing your sunglasses.

[doghows]

WOW. beautiful work.I hope mine gets to that stage one day.

[BadBird]

Well, if anyone ever needs to go through a painting project and have "Lessons Learned" given to them, I am the dude to talk to. This painting project is the first car I ever painted and it is a learning process for sure.
I polished out the hood, the trunk, roof, doors and thought it looked good. It looked great even using a halogen light for reflection. I pushed the car out in the sun light and it showed small indentations that show up like light bulbs in the sun. I am sanding it again and will polish all over again. I originally block sanded the car and had the body the way I wanted. But when I final sanded the clearcoat prior to polishing I used a softer rubber block and it didn't hold the smoothness that I wanted. Thought it wouldn't matter since the body was smooth. Wrong. According to the "Auto-body 101" web site I should have used the harder block and I am not the first dufus to do this. Minor imperfections only are visible and my wife thinks I am nuts but I don't like it.
Sooooooooo resanding it all and polishing again. May have to reapply additional coats of clear if I have to sand very much. I will get there someday. If the temperatures stay in the 50's I can keep my garage at 65 with heaters to finish the job during the Christmas break. More to come I am sure and the next pics should look better than the last ones.

[BadBird]

I finally have the back half of my car polished. Couple of pics attached. Still need to do the doors, front fenders and hood. I am going to take a couple of days off from working on the body and install the Tri-Y headers. It will give me a chance to do something different for awhile and I won't have to lean over polished front fenders to do it. Larry

[redfalken]

That bird really sparkles! Good job on sticking to it through the gloomy months. You'll be glad it's done when you're cruising around this summer with the windows down and your sunglasses on!!

[SmithKid]

Wow! That car is so shiny. I don't think I want to try to follow it in the bright sunlight. Have to have VERY dark sunglasses! Beautiful, Larry!

[Luva65wagon]

Pretty cool Larry... I'll have to arrange to visit and see it in person soon. Just think, pretty soon the fun part begins of putting on all the new shiny stuff to match the other new shiny stuff! Fun...

[BadBird]

How about coming over when I get all done with the paint polishing and you can give me some tips on putting in things like the windows, windshield, back glass, trim, etc, etc. Or you might even want to put some of the shiny things on while you are here????? I am soooooo anxious to start putting things together it will be hard to wait. I started to put the tail lights in but then decided to wait awhile. Seems like such a long time ago that I built the rotisserie, sand blasted, sanded it all down to the empty shell that was.
Finally I feel like I am getting somewhere. It is not a simple task by any means but if I get it done and GOD willing I will, it may be one of the best, difficult and rewarding tasks I ever tackled.
The members of this club have been so helpful with my myriad questions and technical help. Hopefully it will be on the road this year and going to shows with you all. Larry

[doghows]

When you get it done can you come help me!?!? I am where you were probably a year or two ago. Can't wait to start doing the sheet metal work. At least that will be putting something back on the car instead of cutting it off.
Beautiful work by the way.

[Luva65wagon]

How about coming over when I get all done with the paint polishing and you can give me some tips on putting in things like the windows, windshield, back glass, trim, etc, etc. Or you might even want to put some of the shiny things on while you are here?????

Whenever you're wanting a hand with the shiny stuff, just call.

I still dread heading out into my garage to do anything; it's so miserable out there. Come-on Spring! Though I guess I "now" have something to do out there...

[BadBird]

I mentioned that I was going to work on installing the Tri-Y headers and someone asked to let them know about the fit. Well I put them in and bolted them down to check fit before I install them permanently and they are going ok so far. The pics will show that the passenger side has clearances that are close. They really new the tolerances in that area to get that close of a fit.
The clearance between the header and the frame is around a .25", between the header and the bell housing it's .125". The pic makes it look closer than it really is. 1/8" isn't much clearance but it is clearance.

The drivers side has no issues.

I am going to place the starter in position just to make sure it fits and then the electric exhaust openers for clearance checks from the tranny and frame. I will let you know if there are any other issues. Larry

[SmithKid]

Larry, thanks for the update/pictures of the header clearances. I guess I'll have to start watching eBay for a set of these headers for my Ranchero. I assume the clearances will be proper for a manual tranny also.

[BadBird]

Better check with Doug's because the manual transmission has a different set of issues. After I torqued the bolts down on the passenger side header the clearance at the bell housing was .004". So removed the header and filed the bell housing.
Now have .125". Wouldn't have thought the torquing process would pull the header in that far. Oh well. It's installed now and I have plenty of room at the starter (It's a smaller than stock version). Doesn't look like there will be a problem installing the electric exhaust cut-outs.

[BadBird]

Just got the hood latch parts back from Tucson chroming and installed today. I also shot the last of the clear coat on the right front fender, hood and dash.
Nothing is easy on this car. I originally had to redo the hood this time because the cheap (*+# mini paint gun that I bought from harbor freight leaked base paint on the hood when I was doing a repair. I tried to wipe up the mess but didn't do a good enough job. It looked ok before I applied the clear coat. Then when I polished the hood it had a slight discoloration that was evident.
The fender just turned out crappy due to color mismatch for whatever reason.
So this morning I heated the garage to 70 degrees, sprayed the high reduced clear on the parts. Then I started putting on the basecoat. I got about half way through the hood when I noticed a small moth had landed on the hood and he tried crawling out of the reduced clear. It left a black smudge about two inches in length I guess from the powder on his body.
Sooooooo I had to completely clean everything off the hood with acetone and start over. That doesn't sound like much, but it meant cleaning the paint gun out three extra times and about 2 hours of additional work.
Finally got it all reshot and I think it will be good. That is if I don't *^&^%% it up again some how.
The one pic is of the left front which is all polished out and looks good along with the rest of the car. Now to just finish the hood and right fender. The next chroming I do will be of the hood hinges. The powder coating on them detracts from the engine bay.
The other pics are of the new clear on the left fender and the new latch parts. They really really look a lot better than the powder coating I had on them.

[SmithKid]

1st Class, Larry!