1947 56C Project "Can't finish unless you start"

Great job Matt. Gives me a preview of what I'm in for down the road. She's looking good!

Heck yeah!!!!

These pics could go into the dictionary under "labor of love". Beautiful job, sir.

Great work, Matt!

Keith

Looking good Matt

Two thumbs up, sir. Beautiful.

Dan

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments. I have been really getting "close" to the paint and have found a few more defects that I cannot live with. But, NOT so many that I shouldn't be able to take care of all of them when I get my other batch of parts ready to be painted.

We had a pretty bad storm this last week which knocked out the power for a day and after helping out the neighbors and pumping out the basement (4 inches of rain and hail in 45 minutes) I have been in cleanup mode and kicking myself for not having my new generator installed. I finally was able to purchase one after the hurricane Sandy mess and then I "fergot" about finishing up and wiring everything up so it is "legal" and SAFE. So, I should be able to finish that up this week. Then, back to the car.

Should have my rebuilt transmission sometime this week for the 56' so that will take a day or two to install. So much work, so little time for cars. Matt

Yep, often it takes COLOR on a panel to SHOW issues.

You will WIN.

Dale in Indy

Matt, I'm going over your posts from the last couple of weeks, and man, you've done an amazing amount of work. Its sounds like you're doing it right; "plan, plan, plan, then DO". Looks like its paying off. And thanks for sharing so many of the progress photos. It really is encouraging to see the progress. I know you were down awhile back because you were unable to do a lot, but now you are really making headway. kudos!

You must smile every time you flip on the garage light? :cool:

Gotta get more sandpaper.............................Wet sanding is fun. Yeah, right!?:confused:

At least you are taking clear off. I hate that everything is red in my garage now

At least you are taking clear off. I hate that everything is red in my garage now

I painted some antique metal lawn furniture for a friend last Winter, and my floor is still red/pink from the single stage urethane.

Getting all of my parts that need to be chromed together so I can take them to Hershey to be quoted. Cannot wait to see that bill:-p

Ok, I picked up some windlace while at hershey. Scored on a nice set of sun visors, a visor mirror and an original set of mirrors for the car. Got some other parts for the 48' convertible.

Came home early because of the rain, but stayed in car mode and wet sanded for 5 hours today. Looking a lot better. No pics yet.

Since the hood has to be masaged Matt, I might suggest top coating the entire car with clear coast after it has been wet sanded. Here's an observation from my experience ( which is admittedly very little): Polishing after wet sanding often leaves swirls on the finish. These can be masked by todays clear coat waxes and glazes but they do not seem to go away. Now, I am probably doing something wrong that I wind up with this BUT I do know that if you wet sand and then throw another coat of clear ( or even single stage color) on, the new layer will come out much smoother to begin with. And keeping in mind that it is not good to have too much paint on the car alltogether, I believe that if you keep wet sanding and then top coating, eventually you will have a finish that does not need either wet sanding or polishing. Look at new cars. No swirling on those babies. I bet they do not even have to wet sand or polish during the manufacturing process.

I'm not disagreeing with John, but even my wife mentioned the heinous factory orange peel on a Mercedes we saw the other day.

Guys;

I like the comments, my observations are that for the most part new cars have nice paint jobs, but there are a few exceptions. The interesting thing I find is that even the lesser priced cars often have quite nice paint work.

About wet sanding, I've wet sanded and polished most of '41, and I put enough clear on to do this, but I cannot get all the swirls out, no matter what I do.

I bought the pro grade compounds and buffers with the hope that I wouldn't have this, so maybe I need to use glaze as well?

Matt, sorry, I don't mean to highjack your thread! Hope to see some pictures soon.

Keith

I never have problems getting sanding scratches out, but swirl marks from the buffer require several different grades of compound and pads. I usually use 3 different levels of compound, and a different pad for each one. I started doing this on my black paint cars, and it works perfectly. They look like glass.

After sanding 85% of the orange peel off of the back half of the car, it looks better, but still need to do the other 15%. It buffed out nice, but has the typical swirls from the buffer. As Adam says, these should come out with lighter compounds and different pads. I have to get the hood put back on and re-arrange the hanging parts.......wifey wants her side of the garage back. It snowed this morning! haha Matt

I never have problems getting sanding scratches out, but swirl marks from the buffer require several different grades of compound and pads. I usually use 3 different levels of compound, and a different pad for each one. I started doing this on my black paint cars, and it works perfectly. They look like glass.

Wait a minute, I just looked at your signature. you don't have a black car?

I just sold my black Yukon, and I have worked on several other black cars. I just finished painting a black Yamaha GSX-R sport bike.

Well, following the prescribed "Wet sand and wet sand, then wet sand some more and buff", I was able to spend an hour or so in the garage doing just that today. I took my time and turned on the music. Had the heat on and had a great time with the car. If anyone would have been listening, they would think that I'd have gone crazy or that I had a woman in there and was trying to seduce her. I have two pictures to load here so you can see the results of before and after. This was only after buffing with a "heavy cut" compound. I didn't want to change out the bonnet and lo

ok for the lighter compound. It's funny how "fat" we look when we take pictures of our paint!

Looking good Matt! My favorite part is that BEAUTIFUL white wall tire and 16" rim...man!

Haha! Funny, but I happen to have 3 more of those that look just like it!

Nice job on that area Matt. It will be great to see it done.

I am dedicating at least 1 hour per night during the week to wet sanding. If I do not do this, I'll never get past this stage. It might take a couple of weeks, but I am moving along. I have several spots that are gonna need touching up, but I was expecting worse as I hadn't painted in 25+ years or so. Here are a couple more pictures. I get ahead of myself, but I also cannot help myself! Haha:p

I am dedicating at least 1 hour per night during the week to wet sanding. If I do not do this, I'll never get past this stage. It might take a couple of weeks, but I am moving along. I have several spots that are gonna need touching up, but I was expecting worse as I hadn't painted in 25+ years or so. Here are a couple more pictures. I get ahead of myself, but I also cannot help myself! Haha:p

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looks great matt,4 bufords

Looking nice! Keep up the good work!

I'd never done wet sanding till I did my '41, and could not believe how much time it took. It seemed as time consuming as doing all the paint prep itself.

Keith

Some time to post, but not done much work on the car. I have the resto of the hood to sand/buff and the drivers fender and passenger door. Don't know how I managed that. Then, I need to sand out all of the pontoons, etc. Matt

Too stinkin' cold to make myself go to the garage and stick my hands in water to sand. Even though I can heat the garage up to around 70 deg, still cannot do it.

Maybe this next week I will try and see if I can do anything.

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Hi Matt!

I hope the cold weather is about finishing soon. This year was awsome the extreme cold weather conditions at North. The same issue downhere... last week we had temperatures about 47°C (116°F). In Buenos Aires, the last great "heat" was 52 years ago. Then, it rains how if here were tropical weather and several neighborhoods at the city and surroundings gets flood. Every time the weather changes worsens. I hope you and your family are well.

Nice to hear from you again. Take your time and do it right. It's supposed to be a hobby not work, and the slower you go may let me catch up to you!

Don't blame you Matt. Here in Toronto (current temp -4F) I have a heated and insulated garage, but no matter how warm the air temp is inside, and I can get it to 65-70 F in any weather the floor is still awfully cold.

Keith

Back at it again the last two nights! Feels good to have my hands all over her again!

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Here's a pic or two

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Lucky guy! It's looking so good!

Beautiful day today, so I sanded and sanded and sanded and......

With every bit I wet sand, I'm getting that much closer!

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So, today I sanded and sanded and..... You get the picture. Sorry, no pictures until I get further along. As long as the temperatures stay warm, I hope this shouldn't be much longer.

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I've sanded a bit more. Working my way around the car. On the windshield frame now.

When finished sanding, going to spray a little more paint.

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The fender is just hanging there. To get it out of the way. That is the only part of the car that had runs in the paint.

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