Month: November 2012

I had to buff out some of the paint on the rear fenders and rear deck.  I had painted the hood a day after the body, and I had not completely covered the body to protect it from overspray.  So all the horizontal surfaces on the rear of the body got a very light mist of overspray, which dried as hard as a rock.  I thought it would buff out in an instant, but it actually took quite a while.

I painted the inside of the trunk, where I had replaced rear valence panel.  I just used a brush and some enamel paint I had bought years ago when I had repaired some damage to the trunk.  Then I re-installed the taillights and the muffler.  I also cleaned off and re-installed the front headlight assemblies, using new rubber gaskets.

After the doors and trunk lid had dried for a couple of days, I bolted them back on to the body. Now I can begin re-attaching all the other pieces I had removed.  I never got a chance to paint the headlight surrounds and the front valences that go underneath the front bumper.  Those will have to wait until next spring.  I’m burned out on painting for the time being, and I have taken down and put away the painting tent and my painting supplies.

Yesterday I wet-sanded the doors and trunk lid, and today I painted them. They came out pretty good, except that some tiny flies were attracted to the wet paint, and got stuck in it. This is the first time I’ve had this problem.  The weather was quite warm today, and it will also be warm tomorrow, so by tomorrow evening I should be able to re-attach the doors and trunk lid to the car.

After another brief interruption due to a snowstorm, I dry sanded the doors and trunk lid.  I discovered several small low spots, which I took care of with a bit of polyester finishing putty.  Since there were several spots of putty, and I had also sanded all the way into the epoxy primer in a few places, I decided to give everything one more coat of filler-surfacer, thinned a bit so it would lay down extra-smooth.

Tomorrow I will wet-sand them, and the day after that I will hopefully be able to do the color coats.  Fortunately they are predicting good, warm weather.

After several days’ delay due to Hurricane Sandy (and no power for 4 days), I got a change to prime the doors and trunk lid. Like the body, they got 2 coats of epoxy primer and 3 coats of filler-surfacer.

I also re-installed the windshield with a new rubber gasket.  It is a bit of an art to install it- you have to use a long, thin piece of rope to get the lip of the gasket to go around the edge of the opening in the frame.