Dash, dash, dash....

No, it's not Morse Code. I've been working on the dash and despite many setbacks, things are coming together. Slowly.
A busy work schedule on top of a surgical procedure on my left hand has meant not much progress with Old Yeller. I really want to start reinstalling trim and bumpers, but I feel like I should roll the car outside and wet sand the paint before I put too much stuff on that I would have to work around.
To that end, I decided to turn my attention to painting and assembling some of the dash and the steering column. I also had a bunch of garnish moldings that were prepped for painting.
For this step I purchased rattle cans of acrylic urethane that I had mixed to the factory interior trim color. These cans can
be mixed as single stage spray paint, or with a hardener that you activate by pressing a button on the bottom to release the hardener into the paint, inside the can. There is a 24 hour work time to use the paint after that.
I decided to lay down a base of the turquoise on all of the trim parts, then shoot a top coat of a semi-matte for a nice finish. The moldings came out looking really nice, but I didn't like the effect on the dash, so I used a high gloss on just the top half of the dash, as well as the steering wheel. The results were better than I had hoped! There was one snafu with the dash, however, when in a rush I started the gloss coat without wiping the surface down with a tack cloth. All of the dust and dirt showed up like pimples on a teenager, and in a mild panic I took a cloth soaked in lacquer thinner and wiped the clear coat off. That made an even bigger mess, which I ended up leaving until the next day.
Once I cleared my brain the next morning, I went in with a light once-over with 500 grit paper and got the surface smooth. The base turquoise was intact, so my hope was that a nice deep coat of the clear would mitigate my mistake. Fortunately, I was right, and I'm very happy with the finished product.
I then pulled out the steering column, which has been sitting on a shelf for the past 20 years or so. It

was pretty grimy, but I applied some steel wool dipped in thinner to burnish off the grease and surface rust. I didn't want to completely disassemble the column, since it seemed to operate just fine, so I took the turn signal assembly off (because that always needs replacement with a 60 year old car) and left the rest of the column intact. I then shot a coat of color and matte clear on it, and the thing looked pretty darned good. To allow it to dry without marring the finish, I stood the column on the work bench, balanced on end. It stood there proud and pretty for a week while I busied myself with other things, working around it all week. It soon became just another object on the bench, until I spun around one afternoon and my elbow bumped it. Down to the floor it went, landing hard on the shifter arm end (the part that projects into the engine bay), then bouncing backwards and hitting the thin pot metal cone end where the shift lever attaches.
Why I do such stupid things like leaving a three foot long tube standing on end right in the middle of

my work space for a week is beyond me, because now I had a bent shifter arm on one end and a nice oval shaped cone end on the other. And of course my beautiful paint job was trashed as well.
I waited a good 48 hours before I was able to assess the damage, and by then I had come up with a plan to repair the havoc I had caused. Using the butt end of a screwdriver, I worked it around the inside of the cone until, slowly but surely, the proper round shape came back. I was really worried that I might crack the soft metal, but it was actually pretty pliable and in the end, only I will know what ever happened. I touched up the paint and then--yep--left it standing on end for another day or two. This time, though, I finally laid it down gently on a blanket after I was sure the paint was cured. Disaster resolved!
During all of this, I also installed a new firewall pad, refurbished and installed the wiper cables, as well as the defroster duct. Pretty exciting to see all of this stuff coming out of boxes and going back on the car. I'm still having problems locating and figuring out which screw or bolt goes where, but the pile of

odds and ends gets smaller each day, so it becomes less and less frustrating.
Tonight I had a couple of hours to myself, so I reassembled the steering column and installed it on the car. I ended up taking the whole thing apart after all, because I realized that when it hit the floor it dislodged the wire spring inside the shaft that moves the transmission indicator back and forth. Just as well, because now I'm satisfied that everything is clean and freshly lubed.
I may as well continue working under the dash, since I've got about half of it done now. I have an unopened box from 1999 that is a complete new wiring system for the car. I also have a box on the shelf marked "55 heater" which I have yet to open. I can't recall whether I restored that stuff 20 years ago, so it'll be a little like a mystery surprise when I open it.

A Forced Break

I've been forced to take a break for a couple of weeks due to surgery I had to have done on my left hand. Hard to accomplish much with one hand.

A Big Day

1999-before moving the whole project from Atlanta to Florida

The top picture was taken in 1999. My oldest son, in the first picture, was 11 at the time and in middle school. He's now almost 29 and living a successful life in Austin. Bill Clinton was President, "911" only meant an emergency call, and the words "year 2000" still sounded weird and distant.
It's taken almost 18 years to get from that condition to now!
Last week, I finally decided "enough" and finished the last round of sanding and prep work prior to painting. I knew there would be imperfections, but I just decided that I could live with whatever they were. After all, I'm not building a trailer queen, but a car that I can drive and enjoy without worrying about a "perfect" paint job.
Today, I enlisted the help of my dad and my two brothers to lift the body off of the dolly and position it back onto the frame. I was a little worried about alignment, because back in 1998-99, when I welded the new floor pans in, I also had to replace a number of the floor braces, and I confess that I applied a less than scientific method in doing so. Basically, I eyeballed and welded them in to what looked like close enough.

2018-last day on the dolly for ever!

The whole process took about two and a half hours, and sure enough, there were three mounting points that were somewhat off. I decided to go ahead and set the car down and I'll most likely drill up through the floorboard and make new holes. Not the most elegant solution, but it will work and never be obvious from above or below.
Next step is to wet sand and buff out my paint job to take all of the orange peel out. I don't know what it takes, if it's even possible, to avoid the orange peel texture. Polishing at this stage will be much easier and thorough than if I tried to do it at the end with all of the trim installed.
I also would like to find something to wrap onto the body to protect the paint as I move around the car and work on it, as I'm sure I'll be bumping it or dropping stuff on it many times in the months to come. 

Guide on, Guide off

The guide coat will tell the truth

At some point, body work has to finish, and since this project is a driver and not a show car (a level of which I could never achieve with my skill set), I've reached a point that is satisfactory to me.
After months of welding, filling, sanding, and primering, it was time to shoot a guide coat on to see what dips and bumps remained. It's impossible to see the very minor imperfections without this coat.
I have a half gallon of some black chassis paint that I first used years ago on my first attempt at restoring the frame. I'm glad that I removed old paint and repainted using the epoxy, because even after sitting in a covered space for 15 years, rust had started to work it's way through the paint. Therefore, I had no reservation about using this stuff as a sacrificial coat to sand off as a guide coat. It also sprays on right out of the can, making it easy to apply.
My only mistake (after the fact, of course) was not thinning it a bit, so it was a little difficult getting it off.

The black spots shot the low areas

The first guide coat revealed what I expected--lots of little spots that were not apparent to the naked eye or the hand, but would've showed up terribly on the
final product. A couple  more days of lightly block sanding showed me what needed a little more attention, to which I applied successive layers of glazing putty until I was satisfied.
As a side note, while I was working on this step, a paint and body guy from the shop next door stopped by and was surprised to see someone using glazing putty. He said he hadn't used the stuff in twenty years. I have no idea what is used in today's auto body world, so I'm sticking with the old school way.
After the first guide coat was removed, and the numerous blemishes filled and smoothed, I applied a second, more aggressive coat of filler primer. It's not possible to catch all of
the little pin holes with the glazing putty, and on this car there were a lot of them after sitting outside for so many years. Once the primer was down again, I shot another guide coat on, this time thinned out a bit and less heavy in the application.
I wanted to get the roof painted with the final finish of India Ivory before I left town for the Christmas holiday, so I was really pleased when the second guide coat came off the roof with only as few tiny imperfections remaining. Last week, in my improvised "paint booth" and perfect evening weather and temperature, I shot the final coat on the roof, then closed the doors and went out of town.

Finished roof

This week, I hope to get the final sanding done on the rest of the body and, weather permitting, shoot the final coat of Harvest Gold on. Then it will finally be time to reinstall the body on the frame.

Battle of the Bulge Part 3

Cutting the bulge out was definitely the way to go.
I've gotten the fender to be reasonable straight--I think it'll be just fine and noticeable only to a real expert that things aren't exactly as they should be. I've gone through about ten more layers of skim coats and sanding, and now I'm down to glazing putty for pin holes. My hope is to shoot the first filler primer coat on by Tuesday.
One thing that has made this whole process much easier, and resulted in a much better end product, is an air file. I wasn't aware that such a tool existed until I came across a used one on Craigslist. After researching some videos, I went to my local Harbor Freight and purchased one for myself. I figured that, for $35, I couldn't go wrong.
This is certainly not a top of the line tool, but it actually works pretty good. And, it's made this whole body work process so much easier and tolerable. There's so much more control using the air file, and the length ensures that I'm getting the straightest panel possible. Over the past week, I would lay down a layer of body filler in the morning, and then go to town with the file in the afternoon.
To paint, I've erected a barrier of plastic between the back and front of the shop. I've got the car close to the garage door. I can pull the door down and rest the bottom of it on a box fan, which I point outside. The top is open, so it's not perfect, but if I select the proper conditions to paint in, I can get a pretty good coat. I'm not too worried about the primer coat, but I'll take extra care on the final finish.

Battle of the Bulge Part 2

This past weekend was the annual Turkey Run here in Daytona Beach.

 Back to square (or triangle) one

The show's organizers allow owners of cars built before 1979 to purchase a show pass to drive into the event. The only classic I have to drive right now is my son's "66 Mustang (http://1966mustangresto.blogspot.com) so I made the drive on Saturday and took my place between a '71 Chevelle SS and a '72 Dodge Challenger. Parked in front of me was a '55 Belair with a nice paint job, so I spent a good amount of time admiring it while I sat and took a break between swap meet forays.
The thing I focused on was the finished look of the fenders, and realized that what I was doing with my bulging fender wasn't acceptable. There was still a good hump there, albeit smooth to the touch. I knew that once I got a good shiny coat of paint on the car it would stand out like a sore (bulging) thumb, so today I sucked it up and took all of the body filler off again.
This time, instead of simply cutting a line that I would try to pull together, I decided to cut a whole triangle section

Welded in, and hopefully a better contour to work with

out and put a new flatter piece in. This was also due to the metal around the old welds getting thin from so much grinding of the old weld.
The replacement piece went in really well, and a preliminary run of the hand seems to indicate that I might have resolved most of the problem. I didn't have time to apply any filler this afternoon, so the true test will come tomorrow after I apply a couple of layers and sand it down. Fingers crossed.

Battle of the Bulge Part 1

Trying to fix my poor workmanship with bondo

Back in 1999, when I made my first real attempt at restoring Old Yeller, I did a lot of cutting and welding to replace rusted floor pans, braces and fender sheet metal. At the time, I wasn't as savvy as I am now, so it didn't occur to me that I didn't have to use the whole replacement panel if an area had just a small problem. Case in point is the lower section ahead of the passenger rear wheel.
I can't remember what the condition of the original panel was, but regardless, I used the whole new piece, which meant I cut a large portion of (probably) good straight sheet metal out and welded in the whole new piece. The result, due to my crude welding skills, was a nice bulge right over the fender well where I have a seam that warped due to overheating. I remember at the time actually trying to fix the mess by re-cutting at the seam to give some space for the warped metal to flatten out.
I'm finally turning my complete focus on prepping the body, and this area is my starting point. I actually didn't remember much of what I did until I started really working
the area, trying to level it out with body filler. I quickly realized that it was going to take a really thick application to even come close to something smooth, so I immediately went to plan B.

Gave up on the filler. Time to cut and re-weld

As hard as it was, I got the cutting wheel out to try and create some space for the metal to lay down. This time, I decided to try cutting an "X" right on top of the worst area to allow the bulge to flatten. After some work with a dolly and hammer, it looked like the plan would succeed.
Once re-welded, I applied a new layer of filler. It looked like the plan would work. With the air file I recently purchased, I worked the area slowly with a finer grit (80) to the point where I think it will be imperceptible to all but the most astute Classic Chevy buff.
There was one small spot just above the lip of the fender that still had a pretty good bump, though. I again contemplated a thick layer of filler, but cooler logic prevailed, so yesterday I got the disc sander out and took all of the body filler off the reveal my sloppy, lumpy weld from 18 years ago.

A little more careful welding to pull things together

I decided to try and just grind the weld down more rather than subject the area to even more stress and heat. After I did that, I again got out the hammer and worked the spot until it felt like the majority of the lump was gone. I applied a new layer of filler and got the sander
out again.
After a number of thin layers of filler, with sanding in between each, I felt like I was finally getting to something resembling the original fender shape.