Wanted an original paint car to build from for years, and now it's starting to come to fruition. Just have to show it off. Seeing daylight after many years of being covered up:
Awesome. As a guy who spent a long time into early vws where original paint is everything I love these projects. Labor intensive but cool. Now for the haters......
The car had been sprayed with a primer over the original paint probably decades ago. I bought it from a fellow HAMB'er, and it is thought to have been shed parked in the early sixties. My guess is that it was done to protect some areas that has no paint remaining from rusting further. ???????? I played around with the old fenders to see what worked best first. Using 600 on rusty areas only, very lightly and wet. Then 1000 wet over it all, and then 2000 wet over it all. I'm totally green when it comes to paint and body, but this method works perfectly for me.
Starting on the chassis now. After 4 months of replacing wood and fabricating the complete body structure, I'm ready move on ! I cussed myself for choosing a Chevy, but I guess it was worth the extra work. There's a reason you see very few early Chevy's !
Paint reveal update: After wet sanding it all, buffed with a paste cleaner wax, and couldn't be happier with results !
That is outstanding, is the bits of primer left, above or below the original paint? You can spot in the area on the door with black lacquer. You've got the touch for polishing, I think you can get any touch up to disappear right into the original finish. Nice body cart, by the way.
That's the original primer under the black. These must have been painted with a brush, because you can see brush marks in the primer that the black settled in. Except for the blending where it was chopped, plan on leaving just the way it is. Blended the chopped area with plain Rustoleum from the hardware store. Cart is just an old textile mill cart.
Understand leaving the way it is, wasn't suggesting touch up any more than necessary to cover bare metal. It's cool that rustoleum blends in. I've been using 7 parts rustoleum, 2 parts acetone, 1/3 part valspar hardener as a mix ratio. Sets up quickly, cures and hardens well. Can't wait to see more of your build, your attention to the little details tells me this will be a great one.
The doors have been chopped but are still wood inner structure, and not paint blended yet. Body is going back on frame today for the final time, then I will de-skin doors and fab a door frame to fit the body in it's final position. The whole car has been mock assembled, so after the doors are complete, just a matter of bolt together, wire, upholstery, etc....
Looks AWESOME! Can you share details about the products used? What grit sandpaper for the wet sand...what buffing compound? Machine? ???
Just plain wet sandpaper from the hardware store, 600 grit for the rough areas, then 1000, then 2000 grit. Buffed with Meguires paste cleaner wax via cheap Harbor Freight buffer @ 1000 rpm.
This car has original paint and 35,000 original miles. Showroom condition inside and out. It was stored for over 46 years. Gary
Personally I dig it....of course no car had worn paint or "patina" in the 50s and 60s....they all shined like jewels in a goats ass. I find posts like the above tiresome....I mean why bother? Guy is proud of his work....and I can tell it was a shit ton of work. If it aint your cup of tea...there are other threads with shiny cars and LT-1s....which incidentally came out in 1970 and in no way are traditional as defined on this site.
I gotta jump in here! I don't know a whole lot about anything but..... That thing is KILLER just the way it is!! Especially black with red oxide underneath. I was there in the 50's and 60's. Where I come from there were plenty of cool cars with paint rubbed through to the primer! It was always cool to have an original finish, even if the car was rodded. If you had an original finish car you weren't hiding shitty bondo body work with paint! Just my $.02!
Its in his memories of the good old days back in the 50s....problem is...its 2016. The fact that this Chevy looks as GREAT as it does is amazing. Youd be hard pressed to find any car let alone a chopped hot rod with paint this old that looks this good.
Hey Deuceman, The thing about rust is relative to where you are. Upstate NY, '50s and 60's, salt all winter, (yes we drove our cars in winter) everything had some rust! You couldn't escape it. The only cars that didn't have it after a few years were the little old lady cars that didn't go out when the roads were bad. Unfortunately most of those cars were more doors! If you are from some southwest state where you have 5 days a year of rain, naturally your cars ain't rusty... but I bet the interiors are all dried out and cracked! Just my $.02.
There is something very satisfying about bringing an old finish back to life like that...all I can say is WOW! Great job!
OK, Black Panther- Tell me what your user name has to do with traditional or non-traditional? I am aware it is a lot of work but my question remains why is that traditional when you guys jump all over someone who would dare use radials or anything else that you can see from outside the car. A 5 speed is fine if you hide it (under the floorboards). How many boxed frames did you see back in the day yet you marvel at pretty welds done with mig and tig. Neither very traditional because the machines were not readily available to the hobbyist. All I am saying is the patina and clearcoated rust look is a relatively new fad.
LT1? "Deuceman' Yeah, you got this thread covered troll style as far as trad goes. Just could not let this thread be, eh? Post those better bodies in junkyards you claim. Pix, or it did not happen~
DLRIDES You really think I was referring to an 84 year old junkyard? The context of the conversation is what is or is not traditional and by definition "traditional" is 65 or older. Therefore, I was referring to junkyards back int that period. I have a feeling you knew that but you just wanted to be funny. I never said paint perfect.
Deuceman.....Black Panther is the name of a 1950 Chevy custom that I owned. It was a custom car that competed at the Oakland Roadster show in the mid 50s...it was also in several magazines..most notably the 1957 Custom Cars Annual. Before that I owned a 1954 Olds custom done in the late 50s early 60s called Joannes Dream. Happy? I appreciate all cars...and the people that own/built them and have yet to post a single deragotary remark...and I just now went over 1000 posts here. Maybe you can look at my posts and then look at yours to see whats what. I see threads on a daily basis here about things that arent my style....you know what? I keep my opinion to myself...noone should give a shit about my opinion..
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