Luv2Wrench

It seems that it wasn't just pace, my overlap was off in the middle of the door. Instead of 50% I probably did close to 100% on one pass because I had a hard time seeing where I had been on the previous pass and that caused the issue. The runs are only on that one pass which, of course, happened to be in the middle of the door. Obviously more practice will help and I think having more light on the sides will help me see the overlap better.

Stripped the door back down to metal with exception of where I did the bodywork, two coats of primer, touch-up bodywork, seal coat of primer, new base coat and cleared. Base coat went on great and was a fantastic match to the door mirror. Very happy with the color matching. Unfortunately I botched the clear coat. The test spray was fine and I had the gun dialed in well but the procedure for shooting this clear is a little different. They want the first coat to have the "look" of the last coat, ie; no dust coat to get started. As such I went just a tad slower and sprayed a full wet coat to start... and it ran. If I had shot with my normal pace it would have been fine so I really just kinda psyched myself out and screwed it up. The next two coats went on with little issue. I'll sand out the runs tomorrow and either buff that or shoot another coat. I learned three good lessons. 1) Trust yourself. 2) Need a better test panel for spray outs. 3) Need lights at hip height for horizontal panels. All in all I'm pretty excited. I think I can create a nice booth that will take at most a day to setup and less to take down. With that booth I'm confident I can get a show car worthy paint job.

Agreed, I thought that would be pretty easy to do. Unfortunately I called some custom paint shops and they all wanted to do the painting, none would sell just the paint. It should have been fairly simple but I think the guy made a mistake on the first mix. No biggie, I still think I'll get it done by next week. I'm learning a lot and having a good time!

Talked to Sherwin Williams today and the bottom line is the paint is not going to work. The color isn't going to change much with clear so it wasn't going to match. It looked like it was either mixed wrong and/or the base itself couldn't handle that brilliant a white (Mercedes Arctic White). As such he mixed up a new batch using their Ultra 7000 line. Only downside to this is that it isn't compatible with the ATX base that I've already sprayed. I could clear that, scuff it and then spray the new base or I could seal it with the epoxy and the spray the base. A third option is to sand it back down to the epoxy primer, seal that and go from there... that's going to be my choice. It is just a door and it is pretty flat so it will not take that much time. I also missed a ding by the door handle so I can get that now. We put some of the new base on a the side mirror from the car and it matches very well so I'm excited about seeing the results. Lesson learned... have some way of checking the paint before leaving the store. I'm learning a lot and this is fantastic practice!

Sounds like you and I have the same helpers!

That is just awesome!! I'm not sure I would have had the patience to build such a good tool. Now that I see the end result, I think I need to learn some more patience!! That was *certainly* worth the effort. Amazing.

Got the color on tonight. I sure hope it gets a lot whiter when the clear goes on because it is not really close to what it should be. Base was easy to shoot and covered well. I ended up doing 3 coats just in case I have to sand some junk out. I don't have a booth so there's all kind of trash that could get in there. As it is... I really didn't see much so it will be interesting to see what it looks like when I hit it with 800 tomorrow. I will not have time to clear tomorrow so that's scheduled for Wednesday. I've included a close up shot to show how flat the paint is laying down. I'm not pointing at anything in the paint, just using my finger so the camera would focus. The finish was flat enough that it wouldn't auto-focus, so that was a great sign. I'm using Sherwin Williams ATX line of base coat, so a decent paint but nothing really special.

Applied some filler to the dent along the top and the front. Turned out to be a bigger area than I thought. As such a bit more primer got removed. I felt it best to put two more coats of epoxy primer back on. From there I could see where I need to sharpen the line at the top of the door and add a little glaze filler to fix a couple pin holes in the previous filler coat. After two fresh coats of epoxy primer it was 220 on the DA, 320 and 400 by hand. After that I mixed up more epoxy primer and reduced it 50% with urethane reducer. I shot a tack and wet coats of that. I should be able to shoot base tomorrow and hopefully clear it after that. Very, very pleased with how the reduced coat of epoxy primer laid down. If I can get the base and clear to lay down like that then I'll be thrilled. So... as I'm looking at this, I'm wondering if I should have used a gray or white primer. I'm going to give SPI a call tomorrow and see what they think.

Looking good Chris, nice progress. I guess that's probably as bad as it gets on the car?

Just keep making the steady progress. That's all you can control. Do that and it gets done and you get to drive it. After driving it for 10 years it will seem like it took no time at all.

I was born in 1966, the same year as Roger's Toronado. I find this very pleasing. This also means that both the Toronado and myself are classified as antiques!!

Just had the strangest sense of déjà vu there but then realized I'm not out of order... I think that oil pump has knocked you out of order! We've seen this fine work before... I remembered it distinctly because of the ingenious solution for where the side detached from the top of the wing. I have the same problem with the Metz and will happily copy your method.

I was secretly thrilled when she had the accident. I realized it would give me the perfect opportunity to see if I could do the paint myself to a very high level. If this goes well I will most likely paint the MG. I've got some ideas for converting that half of the shop to a 16x12 paint booth and I think it will work very well. I think it will take about 2 hours to set up and take up minimal room when taken down. I'm essentially going to hang 4'x8' cardboard panels from a permanent structure I'll install along the ceiling. ULine sells 4'x8' cardboard panels that are white on one side. I think they're $7 a sheet and the distribution center is 10 miles north of me. I'll use positive ventilation which reduces the cost of the fans. I've got great lighting and I can cover the floor and top with plastic. It would be a pain to put up and take down on a routine basis but I don't see myself needing that. And NO, she's not driving the MG when it is finished.

Detour continues... got the paint stripped from the junkyard door. Went bare metal with 80 grit scratches on the exterior side. Interior side just got 80 grit scratches. Gave it two coats of SPI Epoxy Primer. I got the dent out to within 1/8" so I should be able to use the glazing filler to get things right. Once that's done it will be one more coat of epoxy primer but with this coat greatly reduced and only acting as a sealer coat. Then base coat and clear coat. Hope to be back on the MG in a week.

WOW

Seems this is like working on a real car... try to solve one problem and then need to take half the car apart! Could you get a couple of shots of the dash? It looks amazing!!

Please do post lots of details, where you get the rubber, temps, times, etc, etc. This sounds like something I could see myself having to do in the future.

Wow, nice collection! You might share a few more photos

I've been taking a little break to get some work done on the shop and play with some of my recent machine tool acquisitions. Last week my daughter added a new project for me as she changed lanes without making sure the lane wasn't occupied. I went to PullAPart and got a door. PullAPart if you are not familiar, is a newer style junkyard where the inventory is refreshed daily and cars don't stay around more than 60 days or so. The inventory is searchable online, the yards are very organized and clean. You walk out to the car you need and take the parts off. All parts are priced the same regardless of the make and they are priced low. I paid $45 for the door assembly which included handle, lock, airbag, side mirror, window and window mechanism. I had to go out there and take it off, but frankly I prefer it that way. Taking some part off a junked car is a great way to learn how to replace the part on your nice car. If you mess up removing the part, you can just go to the next car and try again. The door I found is silver so I'm stripping the paint, fixing a few dents and will be painting it white later this week or next.

See if you can find (or make) and offset wrench. The picture below is one for getting the engine mounts on a C-Class Mercedes so not for your Lincoln but it should show you the general idea. If you can't find one you can always make one but cutting wrench off and tack welding it on the end of an extension or pipe/bar/etc.

Great job! Now that you've gotten the basics of panel beating down it sure changes how you look at things doesn't it? Gotta be a great feeling.

Roger, over the last nine years a lot has happened. My kids went from ages 9, 11 and 13 to 18, 20 and 22... one can only imagine the highs and lows during that stretch!! I bought one project (1913 Metz) and realized I needed a lot more capability to tackle it. I've spent years trying to add those skills and tools. I put it on hold and bought another easier project (1952 MG TD) and have enjoyed it. During the whole time a constant has been your amazing progress. Checking in on your progress has always pulled me back to the right state of mind... one that patience and perseverance are the keys to getting things done. I'm thrilled that you've started the thread on the 1956 Cadillac Biarritz and look forward to the Avanti pictures here.

I'd like to wait.

Is that Vail Arizona or Vail Colorado...

Mechanical restoration would be a good idea. Start simple and expand it as you get to drive it. Step one would be to make it go, turn and stop. Step two would be reliability. Step three would be interior comfort. By then you'll know what you want to do and then do that. Please share your progress with us here. Some of us have terrible addictions to these old cars and seeing others work on their cars helps ease the pain.