Just before christmas I sold my 64 VW Beetle, to get something bigger. I stumbled on this 54 Belvedere, and fell in love straight away. Having always been a fan of 50's styling, it suited me to a tee. I'm a big fan of early 50's Chev's, but they were just out of my budget. A deal was struck, and I roadtripped down to Sydney, with a couple of friends, to pick it up. Unfortunately, on the way home I broke down, about 20 mins south of Ballina. I had to call a mate out to come rescue me. haha. The original flathead 6, and Powerflite 2 speed goes pretty well. I assumed the cause of my breakdown to be related to the electric fuel pump thats been installed, but its been running well ever since, and I haven't touched it. Go figure. The motor was rebuilt in 2006, and everything else under the hood has been replaced or rebuilt since. I'm planning on making this a tidy, cool looking weekend driver. Nothing too over the top, but i still want it to stand out. Here's what I've been doing in the past 6 months.
I finally got a bit of spare time on New Years day, so I sorted out the bootful of parts that came with it. Spare chrome, headlights, generator, 2 carbies, carby rebuild kit, wheel bearings, gauges. Can't have too much spare parts!! Then I busted out my new buff, and got to work giving her a cleanup. The paint isn't the best, and a lot of it is peeling, but it was very chalky, marked and dull. After a buff, and a wash she looks a lot better! My girlfriend has named her Betty. It suits her to a tee. Here are a couple interior shots. The pearl steering wheel is my favourite part. Also, this is what the left rear rim looked like when I picked up the car. The PO didn't change it as 'the tyre didn't go down, so I figured it was okay'.
Moving on a bit to the end of February. I decided to make a start on prettying her up a bit. I'd always wanted to try my hand at a patterned roof, and a mate offered the use of his panel shop, and spray booth, so I got stuck in. First up, I bare metalled it. The existing paint is peeling and flaking pretty bad, so the whole car will need to be taken back to bare metal eventually. There was a couple of previous repairs, but it looked good so I left them alone. I was surprised to find a lead repair just above the passenger door. Pretty cool Etch Primed And High Fill Primed After blocking back the primer, I laid down a Silver basecoat, then cleared it with Silver & Silver Holographic Flake. After wet rubbing the clear with 800, the fun began. I've done lace jobs, and sprayed flake plenty of times, but I'd never attempted patterns, but was eager to give it a go. I masked off some centre lines, and did water drops on them. Basically you spray water down, then paint it from each side. One side sprayed with the blue, and white from the other. This is left overnight for the water to evaporate. Once it's dry, I edged it with the touch up gun. Once that was done, the centre was covered, an I masked off for the lace panels. I also sprayed the visor in the same way. A length of lace was laid down, and a couple passes of blue over it. Remove the lace, and voila! Edged off with the touch up gun..... Remove the tape, and it's done
Once the lace was done,I started on the patterns. I masked off 3 seperate panels on each side, each getting a different pattern. Pretty much incorporating everything I wanted to try! haha the first one I masked off was the Endless Line. I love the look of this, and it was pretty fun to do. I started running the tape and I think I nailed it first try. I carefully followed the line around with the gun. Then the tape is removed leaving this At this stage I had spent an entire weekend from friday night til sunday night just doing the primer and basecoat, and 4 nights (about 4:30 till 11pm) on what you see here.
RH rear panel got some Fish Scales in it. I whipped up a template using some stencil plastic I found at Spotlight when I got the lace. The centre sections both got fan patterns. Straight, and curved. On the front right panel, I laid down some bubbles. Again, using the stencil plastic I cut out 3 different circles to use as a template. And on the front left - Freak Drops! You don't see these done very much, so I had to incorporate these too! These were fun to do. The paint is over-reduced til it's very thin. A blast of paint is applied, then keep the air on and fan it outwards in a circular motion.
Then, its ready for Candy and Clear. My girlfriend talked me into adding more flake over the Turquoise Candy, so I added some Holographic Blue, and Light Blue into the mix. Here's the outcome.
And the finished product. Visor re-assembled, and installed. Stoked with the outcome. Even moreso as it was my first attempt at anything like this. All thats left to do is a quick wet rub, and a buff & polish.
That roof came out BADASS. I love it. How much flake do you need for full coverage on a roof that size? I want to flake mine soon ... I can only hope it comes out this nice!
The Jalopy Journal
