71 rebuild

[demonx]

How did you go painting your side grills? Iam doing mine at the moment, what a PITA.

I stuffed mine up the first time. When I had some paint troubles (theres a big thread about it under yours) I had a paint tech from PPG come out and give me a hand. When he was there he showed me how he'd paint the grills and did a demo run to display proper technique.

Instead of doing full length passes and then side ways passes like I did the first time (getting too much paint build up) he painted each egg crate seperately in a quick semi circular movement. This meant no paint crossing over and a perfect job. I wish that when he was here doing it that it wasnt just a demo and he did them for me!

After you've finished painting them, then take a razor blade to reveal the chrome (so I've been told - I have to do these again myself)

[wabco40]

How did you go painting your side grills? Iam doing mine at the moment, what a PITA.

I stuffed mine up the first time. When I had some paint troubles (theres a big thread about it under yours) I had a paint tech from PPG come out and give me a hand. When he was there he showed me how he'd paint the grills and did a demo run to display proper technique.

Instead of doing full length passes and then side ways passes like I did the first time (getting too much paint build up) he painted each egg crate seperately in a quick semi circular movement. This meant no paint crossing over and a perfect job. I wish that when he was here doing it that it wasnt just a demo and he did them for me!

After you've finished painting them, then take a razor blade to reveal the chrome (so I've been told - I have to do these again myself)

I have painted mine with epoxy primer but masked up the raised chrome edge. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I laid mask tape along the full lenght of each chrome edge then cut the corners in with a new sharp #11 xacto blade. I then folded the tape down the sides of the raised edge. There is a lip at the bottom of the raised edge that is a good guide for cutting the excess tape off.
I have the same problem with uneven coverage when I shot the primer. I have since sanded the primer back with 800 and have broken through in quite a few places. I will try doing the PPG reps method next time.

I am planning on remasking the raised edges again and then shooting wet on wet with a very fine coat of primer and then the base colour. I have got clear coat that is suitable for base coat and non ferrous metal. I will remove the masking and then shoot the clear.
I am not sure how this is going to come out. If it dosn't work then it will be back to the paint stripper and start again!!!

[wabco40]

Fitting the front clip and inner fenders. Its a case of dry fit 55 times and bond once.

[Jethro]

Cleanest workshop floor i've sen in a long time Webco40:banner::banner::banner::banner::banner::banner:

[wabco40]

Cleanest workshop floor i've sen in a long time Webco40:banner::banner::banner::banner::banner::banner:

Not at the moment it ain't.


Front clip finally bonded on. Front door gaps still need to be cut.

[demonx]

You seem to have a pretty good grip on what you're doing! Your car will be on the road before mine's finished being painted!

You can take my word for it that buying the new body panels has saved you so much work. Wish I could have done the same.

[craigh]

Fantastic set of images, even nicer looking car, cant wait to see it finished and lots more shots along the way.

[wabco40]

You seem to have a pretty good grip on what you're doing! Your car will be on the road before mine's finished being painted!

You can take my word for it that buying the new body panels has saved you so much work. Wish I could have done the same.

It still will be at least mid next year before its ready for rego. Then it will be back in the shed to remove the under car exhaust and put the ss hooker side pipes on and re-map the ecu to suit.

I had already spent countless hours working on the original front clip. It just so happened I was going to the US at the same time and when I walked past the ACI display temptation got the better of me!!! The same thing happened on a prevoius visit and I shipped home a new big block hood (plus new interior +++).

[wabco40]

Fantastic set of images, even nicer looking car, cant wait to see it finished and lots more shots along the way.

Thanks Craigh.

[wabco40]

After rebuilding the original steering (Tie rod ends, idler arm, control valve etc) I decided to install a Steeroids rack instead.

[wabco40]

Had Hotrod Solutions in Memphis weld the injector bungs in and make up the fuel rails.



Sump welded onto original tank. -8 supply and -6 return. I going to reroute the hoses and secure them better.

[wabco40]

Installing the new forward lighting and fibre optics harness. I also replaced the rear lighting, under dash, engine harness, fuse panel and bulkhead connector with Lectric limited replacements.
The 40 old existing harnesses and connectors had seen better days.
I made up the ECU harness using a Fast universal harness kit. It consist of ECU header plugs and the correct colour and gauge wires. They also supply a pack of GM weatherpack connectors. By making the harness this way it can be made to suit the vehicle and not trying to adapt an existing harness to work.

[wabco40]

The owner was wondering why I was laughing when I took this picture!!!

[wabco40]

Cutting the front door gaps and blocking to get flush. The rear gaps where set by shimming and adjusting the door hinges and shimming the body on the chassis.



Fitting the front grills. making sure they are parallel with the bumper. I bended the bottom side of the fenders so they match the grills better.

[demonx]

Fitting the front grills. making sure they are parallel with the bumper. I bended the bottom side of the fenders so they match the grills better.

You may find that when the headlight assembly is back in that you could have to move the bumperettes etc in the front as they interfere with the headlights moving parts and your headlight won't go down all the way.

Before I decided to paint my car I aligned all the front chrome and grills and the bumperettes making them appear tight etc only to discover there has to be space between them or the headlights cannot lower all the way.

[Jethro]

The owner was wondering why I was laughing when I took this picture!!!

[IMG=700x525]http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff391/wabco40/IMG_1972.jpg[/IMG]

[wabco40]

Fitting the front grills. making sure they are parallel with the bumper. I bended the bottom side of the fenders so they match the grills better.

You may find that when the headlight assembly is back in that you could have to move the bumperettes etc in the front as they interfere with the headlights moving parts and your headlight won't go down all the way.

Before I decided to paint my car I aligned all the front chrome and grills and the bumperettes making them appear tight etc only to discover there has to be space between them or the headlights cannot lower all the way.

I know what you mean demonx. The parts fit on these cars are shocking and when you try rectify one thing it stuffs something else up.
I read somewhere that when rebuilding one of these cars you should mount the bumper first and build the car around it. Not a truer word could be said when it comes to mounting the grills and bumperettes.
Having said that I mounted the bumper straight and a even distance from the body. I made sure the ends of the bumper that wrap around the fender where sitting level as well and not tilted up or down.
I then mounted the grills so they where parallel with the bumper. The trouble started when I tried mounting the bumperettes. If I had them flush with the bottom of the bumper then the inner ends of the grills tilted up (and look like crap). If I adjusted the bumperettes down so that the grills where parallel with the bumper again there would be about 3/8" gap between the top of the bumperette and the bottom of the bumper.
I am also having issues with how the bottom of the bumperettes sit against the fibreglass spoiler. They dont seem to sit flat and they also stick out abit more then the grills.
I plan on doing a bit of rework on the bumperettes. The bottom can be trimmed to sit flush on the fibreglass and this should also bring the bumperette and grill more inline. For the top I am thinking about forming a strip of steel and tig welding it in. This can then be trimmed to sit flush with the bumper.
The rear edge of my bumpers are also as rough as guts so I am going to clean these up and then send the whole lot for rechroming.
When I finish colour sanding the car I will be installing the headlight units so I will check for any issues with the lights and bumper/ettes then.

[wabco40]

Block sanding the epoxy. What a dirty dusty job





Car ready for a few coats of high fill.

[wabco40]

I did all the prep work up to blocking the epoxy primer, now my painter Digger is taking over.

The car in primer and guide coat.



The doors, bonnet and a few other parts in primer. I did the same as demonx and filled the gap between the door skin and steel frame. Also filled the spot welding divots and smoothed the frames out a bit more. It makes for a much cleaner appearance.

[wabco40]

In the mean time I preped and painted a few of the smaller items.

I cleaned up and painted the inside lip of the T-tops up to where the weather strip fits.



The under side of the headlight covers (I am not sure how much of this can be seen when the outer diecast cover is fitted).



I seperated the hinges for painting and reassembled with new pins and bushes.