JoelsBuicks

I moved the body to my paint booth to do the bodywork. I got started with a good sanding followed by another coat of epoxy. Any filler should be thinly applied over the epoxy. Very little filler was required for this entire body. I’d guess about 6 tablespoons total, primarily in 5 major areas. Further I’d guess about 40% of that was sanded away. It’s that thin. I followed the sanded filler with a good healthy coat of 2k high-build primer applied in strategic locations to help further straighten the panels and to fill in the heavy sand scratches. As with my previous posts concerning bodywork, I used some homemade sanding blocks to get things straight. For reference, the filler was Dolphin glaze by Upol and the blue 3M PSA sandpaper roll.

There’s plenty of discussions about over- restoration. I would not want to try and restore this car to match how it “came off the line.” Some of the rawness of originality would look silly on a restored example. An example of this is evident in the two pictures below where the slight undulations of the metal show up near the original weld seams. A cursory sanding make these stand out; actually they are subtle but nonetheless require correction. There are a few more of these types of things on this car. I will fix them.

Now to go back a few weeks. Probably like many of us, life has a few curve balls that come in well outside our power alley. They are all more important than my cars and so progress was a bit slow. I’m looking for some better months ahead. If you are one who sweats the small stuff, you might just be a car guy. The pics below show a total of 80 separate pieces that got painted. most notably, the hinge parts were blasted, primed and painted. Then, they were assembled with anti sieze lubricant. Of course I masked off a small area on the top of the pin because that takes the hammer strike. They will get painted later. Basically I coated these hinge parts to ensure no bare metal is left to rust and stain things.

Last post was about 6 weeks ago. I’ve got some catching up to do but I’ll start with what I did today. As I continue to prepare the body for paint, it was time to paint the firewall and the inside of the rear fender wells. For this I used the black epoxy primer and I let it ‘induce’ (sat mixed) for over 4 hours which is reported to help with its UV resistance. This epoxy will cure and have semi-gloss sheen.

Wow! That was fantastic! Thanks again for sharing that with us.

Yep, I really like that answer!

Boy isn’t that the truth! My two favorite Ace’s are both 14 miles out of my way. In addition to what you said, I have found some better prices there as well.

Today the front doors were painted. To me these pictures show the doors as a much brighter green than they really are. The color is a dark green. These turned out pretty good. im really glad to have these doors behind me. I know there’s a lot of work still left to do but it gives me a chance to focus on something different for a while. My next thing will be to get the body painted. Thanks again for the very kind words and likes.

Does your day ever start out like this?

We didn’t do that. Never occurred to me that something else could be stuck. That’s easy enough to do.

Oh that’s good to know. It gives me hope. I’d dearly love to hear this run. thank you!

I am sad to report that the big 430 is stuck. I think I’ll spray some PB Blaster in the cylinders and add a cheater pipe. Maybe just pull the engine and get started on it. It’s got at least 111,000 miles on it. Motors back then usually needed some help by then. Nothing is ever as simple as you hope it to be.

I’ve been working on refurbishing the drip rail that runs nearly the whole length of the cabin just above the doors. I call it a drip rail but I have also seen it referred to as ‘rain gutter’ and ‘J-channel’. Whatever it’s called I cannot find it reproduced. So, while I am lucky to have the originals, the previous owner did me no favors when he ripped it away causing great distortion in the process. This aluminum drip rail was first nailed to the wood and then an aluminum flap was bent down to hide the nail heads. I suspect that this required some special tool. Now, I have to get this all straightened out and then fasten it to the body. I can’t mess with that flap, it looks like I will have to use countersunk screws and the cover up those screw heads. How painful!

Today began with wet sanding (400grit) and the day ended with two dark green doors! Once wet sanded, the doors had to be sealed. The prescribed sealing procedure is to use heavily thinned epoxy primer. Then, within a couple hours spray the base or the single stage urethane color as in this case. Good adhesion is a chemical bonding process according to the manufacturer. I get rather puckered up when spraying the stuff that is nearly as thin as thinner itself. No runs, no drips, no errors allowed! The color coat goes directly atop this with no sanding. I set aside the harbor freight guns and pull out the Iwata LPH400. This air hog breaks up the paint into a cloud of fine paint particles. While I think it is terribly inefficient in paint consumption, it truly is amazing at how well it atomizes the paint. The finish pics show a show the strange reflection of the paint booth ceiling. They’re still drying tonight but it all looks pretty good.

I’ll contend that very few pieces are ever “ready to paint.” Rather, the preparation reaches a point of tolerance balanced with patience and tempered by diminishing returns. In short, it’s ready to paint when you just can’t take it anymore. You sand away the 60 grit scratches after applying a liberal coat of high build primer and then you do it all again to get rid of the 180 scratches. Then, more thick primer and 220 grit. By now things ought to be getting right as far as ironing out the right profile. More epoxy with 320 grit serves as a base for another coat of epoxy and then 400 wet sand. With each coat you get more serious about the quality of the spray. Sloppiness here makes things much more difficult when sanding with the higher grits. As you’ve likely figured out, I have reached my tolerance point with these doors. They will soon get their final coat of single stage urethane. Don’t get me wrong, they will be very nice as I am a patient person. I suspicion that patience is a strong virtue of every single person involved in this hobby!

Be it known to all that whatever limited authority I might have regarding this thread, you have my unfettered permission to use it in any way toward the enjoyment of this hobby! And, thanks again for weighing in! Joel

That one is pretty close! Thanks for posting it.

Ben you’re right. These things have a way of getting out of mind in just a little while. A round piece of rubber might just work although I think the original profile is a little more complex. I tried to take a close-up. Actually, it might just be a round piece since there are little barbs to help hold it in. you know, I’m not so sure that a removal and restretch is not out of the question. A little glue might keep that in place for a while. thanks again, Joel

But - still looking

Regarding the side molding, I have seen a similar problem before where the rubber insert in the aluminum trim has shrunk in length and thereby revealing areas at the end of each piece that appear devoid of the rubber. Pics tell the story but I wonder how this gets fixed? Any chance that new rubber is available? Or, has anyone ever removed that and restreched it without making a mess of it? thanks again folks and happy new year

Sebastian, I took a look at our 68, the same area behind the back wheels where the body soft mount is located. I did find some rust there as you’ll see in the pics. There seems to be substantial strength left; more on the drivers side . not to be too critical of Buick engineers but if I was going to design something and guarantee it rusts, it could not have been done better. I’ll mention this again, there is quite a bit of undercoating that has large loose and flaking chunks. And what’s more strange is that there appears to be undercoating in much better shape that is below that stuff. I’ve never see this before.

Thanks for the warning. I’ll take a look at this for the 68. This morning I found some more rust in a couple small places below the battery area. Your work is incredible. I really enjoy seeing it done correctly. Thank You!

The name is Ben Pearson and it’s a 9,000 lb lift. It is probably 30 years old at least. I bought it in a disassembled state and it looked horrible. I cleaned it up and painted it, replaced some chain that was rusted together and had to put new seals in the hydraulic cylinder. It works great and I love it. There are times when I wish I had a two post lift but I feel very safe under this.

Eight of the 12 door hinges were very sloppy by my standard. I did a little calculation and found that the free play or wear would amount to about 5/8” of sag or movement at the back end of the doors. That’s just too much to me. I did some bartering with a family member who machined new hinge pins, complete with the requisite knurling near the head. (All professional machinists that I know are perfectionists - to a painful degree at times!) My job is to use an adjustable reamer to achieve the proper fit in both sides of each hinge. Right now my arm is sore after only four hinges. These work very well, there’ll be no sag.

This car has some blemishes. The very front of the car has experienced a light but consequential impact. There appears to be a missing piece at the center of the front bumper. I think most of this can be straightened - I don’t yet have a rechrome on my mind. Can you imagine what that would cost?