Primed

When I checked on the car yesterday, Nick told me that he would have primer on it by the weekend. I hated to doubt him, but I might have questioned him. It seemed that there was too much to finish before it was ready. Naturally, Friday after work, I stopped to check his progress and I have to say that I should not have doubted him.

 The driver side door is primed and ready to be hung.

 The deck lid with fresh primer. This was not actually part of our agreement, so even though he painted it, it did not have any repair work. There are some holes in the corners where a spoiler was mounted.

The driver side, after the first primer. This will all be block sanded, touched up and then primed again. 

 Driver side quarter panel. Cut, shaped, welded, blended and painted with primer.

 Passenger side. A twenty plus year old welded quarter panel that isn't quite right. There is a buckle just above the wheel well. This was caused by an improper welding job. I should make it clear that Nick did not weld this side.

It is very early to be thinking about part colors, but the idea of the original mountain green is starting to grow on me. It is light enough to be forgiving to any imperfections, and it stays true to the cowl tag. The originality isn't that important to me, as I do not have the original motor. Another difference from the original is that this car had a Landau top, and I cannot talk myself into doing that to this car.

Update

Nick told me that he was working out in his yard during the last two nice days, so since it was raining all day on Thursday, I decided to stop and see how it was looking. It is looking pretty close. I can tell that Nick is proud of what he does and gets excited telling me the details of what he did, why he did it and what he is going to do next.

Here is how things are on the Thursday before priming. The driver’s side quarter panel needs to be sanded with 220 grit paper.

 The rear end/ tail light area has been sanded and is ready for primer.

 Nick spent quite a bit of time working  on cleaning up detail areas. An example of this is the gas cap area and the trunk key hole areas.

 The drivers side door has been sprayed with Etch Primer, which forms a better bond with the metal. It will be primed off the car and then installed.

 The front end has been covered and taped off. The interior will all be taped off soon.

 When I visit tomorrow night, these parts will all be covered in 2K primer.

It is hard for me to see how it is going to turn out. It looks good, but I know that there are things that are not right. This car originally had a Landau roof, so the sail panels might not look so smooth. There was a dent in the roof that wasn’t included in the scope of this project. I am sure that once the primer is on, we will see additional areas that will need to be addressed. Nick seems confident that it is going to look nice, so I need to trust him that it will.

Nick inspecting the roof condition. It will get sprayed with the Etch Primer and then 2K Primer.

Beginning the Second Week

I went by Nick’s place to check on the status of the car. The weather was pretty good today, so Nick spent most of the day working in his yard. The plan is to have the rear clip of the car in primer by the end of this week, so if Nick isn’t worried about the time, I shouldn’t be either. I took additional photographs of the car, but they do not show much of the changes that have taken place.

Nick did some additional sanding and finishing work on the passenger side rear quarter panel. The door has been hung and aligned. The speed line matches nicely. The driver’s side door is off the car and will be replaced with the new door after the primer is complete. The second fender is off the car to allow access to the door hinges. The original fenders will remain off, as I am planning on installing two new fenders in a few weeks.

 

 

As with most projects, there is something called job creep. This is all of the little things that were not discussed on the original estimate. Typical Job creep items in regards to body work are: hidden damage, unnoticed dents, rust under paint and countless other add-ons. So far, Nick has performed above and beyond when it comes to job creep. I am amazed at the amount of work that he has done on items that were not part of our deal. He removed and will reinstall both doors. He sanded and will prime the deck lid. He is going to sand the rear end (tail light section). He ground out the trunk weather stripping grooves. He ground out all of the silicon in the rear window channel. He is taking care of the rocker panels. I could go on and on, but I am afraid that he might see this and charge me more. 

freshly ground out rear window channel. This view is looking down into the car. The metal at the top of the image is the package tray behind the back seat.

The First Friday

I stopped by to check on the progress after work on Friday. Nick had the new quarter panel welded and ready for the final finishing. The door was straightened and aligned to make sure that everything lines up properly. 

On the passenger side, he was able to blend the quarter panel weld seam. Since the quarter panel was already welded, he adjusted the door to align as good as possible. Once the sanding and priming is complete, we will install the hardware for the door and the window mechanisms.