Projects Modified Murray - The Last Build Thread

.... the car looks awesome !

 

And so it begins!! I've cut the majority of the runs down and have started color sanding. For some reason I got on a roll and just didn't stop to take pictures. Everything is turning out pretty good so far. My friend Cassie came over and helped me wet sand and we got the cowl all the way down to 2500 grit. It's ready to cut and polish. Just taking it all one panel at a time. I'll get some more pictures for you guys as I go. Sorry for the lack of visuals. I'm pretty excited about how nice it's turning out, though. It almost looks like I know what the heck I'm doing.

More soon!

 

When I did the polishing on my RPU I got a 3M foam backing pad for my variable speed polisher. It’s about 1/2” thick and fuzzy on one side with hooks on the top side.

Its a great backer for the 3M Trizact thin foam sanding discs in 3000 and 5000 grit.

A little spritz of water and they really make the next steps of the 3 stage 3M Trizact polishing compounds turn out nicely.

I used 3 different types of foam polishing pads one for each of the 3M polishing steps.

Really turns out nice.

 

Saw this little fellow on the car, Icon Derelict came to mind, build is awesome, fantastic paint even more credit to yourself having painted the car outside in a plastic tent.

 

SO much has been going on with this, so I figured I better put up an update. Color sanding is in full swing and I think I'm going to have to get an arm, elbow, and shoulder replacement when this is all over! HA!

Mostly color sanding is going good, but I've had a few issues with my results.

Let me start with that scratch situation from the shop light falling into the freshly painted car. After prepping the scratch and building it up real good with several brush applications, I was able to treat it as if I were cutting a run. The biggest scratch below the belt line was able to be saved. The others above it I had to take other measures with and still don't have repaired. Here's the cut-down and block-out of that lower scratch. Like it never happened...



Once I finish cutting that whole panel I'll post some pictures. I have a lot more to do in that area, but successful repair, overall.

Before I continue, I just want to say that I just really suck at this part of the build. I have definitely learned I am NOT a paint guy. Slowly but surely it's coming together, but this doesn't come naturally for me at all, so it's a struggle every moment of the way. But, it's going to be alright... or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

This paint job had a TON of runs in it. I got really good at cutting them with some neat techniques I learned via the University of YouTube, but unfortunately one of the runs caused some issues I'll get to that. First, here's some progress. Pretty much the entire car, with the exception of the body lines is all color sanded to 2500 and ready for the next step. Here's some visuals.\



The unfortunate part was somehow going too far on the right rear roof corner. Not even sure how I did it. I was being really careful, and I guess I didn't have as much material as I thought in that area. You can just make out the lighter blue patches in the below picture.



And on the opposite side, I had a run that happened on the first pass and apparently didn't fully get all the solvent out between coats, despite giving it quite a bit of time to gas out. So I got a bunch of tiny little bubbles that exposed the primer. So strange.



Seemed the only good solution was the re-spray solution. So I re-prepped these sections and re-shot them. The results were pretty good and I think another save.



That was pretty disheartening to have to do, but thankfully, the day after Thanksgiving was warm and I was ready to lay paint!

Next up: DOORS! They turned out pretty good! Standby...

 

Dang....I like this car alot! Looks really good!

 

DOORS! They had a crap ton of runs, also. I really developed my run cutting skills on these doors. They turned out pretty fantastic, I think. I'm pretty embarrassed by the initial paint job itself, but I'm psyched I was able to salvage the paint job.


Passenger side door had the same issues, but cut out just as nice.



The polished look on these panels is just a wipe down with wax remover to see how I did and make sure I didn't miss anything. Success, I think. So then I was able to see it on the car, for the first time and take a step back and look. Pretty stoked to see everything all one color.



So then I just continued around the car trying to get all the panels to 2500. More to do, but pretty dang close, now. Still have some details to wrap up on the re-sprayed areas and I still have to make repairs to the other scratches and gouges from the light. May end up having to re-spray the left side B-post to make the fix. Pretty bummed about that and it will have to wait until spring, if that's the case.



Last thing I've done up to this point is paint the area where the removable roof insert gasket sits. I wanted this area to be a semi-gloss black. It turned out to be a little glossier than I wanted, but that's okay.



The gasket sits right on the color split, so most of this is basically out of sight out of mind.

I don't know that this car will get polished out until spring, at this point. I have WAAAAAY too many things that I need to get moving with. I need to get the engine prepped for paint and hopefully painted. Then it needs to be prepped to go back into the car so I can move on to other details that need to get finished.

So, that's where I'm at. I'm exhausted. Trying to do this with two kids under 4 as well as manage a home renovation and meet permit requirement deadlines is going to give me a stroke, probably. Do or die, time!

Happy holidays to everyone!

 

That Chevy hood I saved from the Hershey trash years ago sure looks nice now. The color looks really nice. Merry Christmas! Bob

 

HAHAHA! Indeed it does!! I tell people about that all the time. In that particular panel there is part of that Chevy hood, a lower patch panel from what would have been the rear door patches, and above that part of the rear middle lower panel from the left side of center. The shape of all 3 together was pretty damn close. If I would have had an English wheel when I was working on this part of the car it would have been soooo much easier, but that Chevy hood shape was absolutely PERFECT! I love how it turned out!

 

I just looked back through a few of my build threads trying to find a couple pictures of the panels before and after. Sadly, "the Photobucket murderers" destroyed most of my build threads. Here's one of the left side when I was trying to figure out how to fill it. Had made wire frame bucks. Then Bob offered the Chevy hood sections.

 

Scott,

The paint is turning out beautifully! Great work! I can't wait to see it when you get it all put back together!

Steve

 

Man the sneak peak via wax remover is a brilliant idea for not only a quick check but a quick moral boost!

hot rod is looking good!

 

Those aren't runs, they are FLOW CHECKS! Good job on the cut n buff so far

 

WOW! Your finish work is amazing.

.

 

Yes! Looks so good. That shine is really deep.

 

So exciting to see the progress. Looks great - worth the work!

 

I have hood/quater panel photos locked on floppy disks. I have boxes of they, wore out FOUR cameras back in the day. Hope to find some current reader to view them again. Bob

 

By the way the wet sanding is going well, the key to a great finish is a totally flat (dull) finish, keep going, get rid of that orange peal area, buffer will not remove it, only more sanding. Bob

 

Thanks Steve! Me too!!! I may be forced to put it back together because the parts are being stored in an area of the house that needs work done for the permit inspection and I have no other place to put the parts. HAHA

Yeah! My friend Cassie told me about this stuff. It works awesome as a check and is a huge moral booster! It finds every area that's not perfect.

EXACTLY!! I keep telling people that! I think you're the one that told me that years ago! HAHA

Thanks Gary! At least the good parts looked nice, anyway. HAHA

Thanks buddy!!

Thank you!

I have the pictures all backed up on a couple hard drives, somewhere. I don't even know if Photobucket will let me sign in, anymore.

Yep! A long way to go to get all that orange people. And there was a lot of it! UGH!!! But, it sure cuts down nice. Just taking it slow.

 

It's looking really good Scott! Fun, isn't it? A quick fix for the semi gloss black channel, if you really want it less shiny, is to just hit it lightly with a Scotch-Brite pad. I did this on the reproduction aluminum trim that goes around my roof insert.

 

Paint is looking good - all your effort paying off!

 

I like primer.....It looks great...

 

LOTS of sanding work sucks. Looks super flat now, it'll turn out great. Kinda weird, urethane seems to flow out as it cures.

 

Fun??? Sometimes. HAHA Sometimes not. I don't like redoing things, so that's not fun. But being able to make repairs and leveling all this out is definitely fun!

Thank you!

RIGHT?!! Not sure how I feel about future projects getting paint jobs. May open a bucket of paint and just throw it at them and call it "art"

Yeah, this paint has really been forgiving, overall. I'm pretty impressed with it, actually. I will say, the longer it sits the harder it is getting. Working the lower rear center panel was like trying to cut concrete, the first go-around.

 

Love it man. I was going to respray and touch up Walter as I've been doing a fresh-up, but then I looked at your thread and remember all that sanding and said screw it.

 

For your first paint job it's perfect. I feel your pain when I did my coupe. Like you I have a few issues same as you did and how you fixed them gives me hope I can fix mine that is the same with solvent popping (little white bubbles). Been following along in the gram too.

 

Awesome job, Scott. You're an inspiration to all us slow-pokes.

 

I was just gonna say, your persistence is a real inspiration. But Just Gary beat me to it.

 

Great to see the progress, Scott. The paint looks awesome!

 

BWAHAHAHAHA! Don't do it! Did you forget the advice you gave me already?? HAHA

Thank man! I appreciate it!

An inspiration on what not to do, I hope! HAHA Thanks guys!

Thanks buddy!