Brendon's '67 Firebird thread by Tuske427

6 minute(s) of a 286 minute read

Got some time in this weekend- I stripped some of the paint off and then tore the car apart. I'm to a point now that either I can leave the car looking rough and drive it sooner, or spend more time/ money to do all the body work and paint it. I want to drive the car so I am opting for the former. To do this I plan to paint the car with a clear paint (KBS "diamond finish") over the bare metal and leave it looking raw for a bit. This way I can drive it sooner and work the bugs out of the car without ruining a nice paint job. (I learned this the hard way with my last car)

I still have a lot of minor repairs here and there (welds to clean up/ finish, etc). Then I'll paint the chassis and interior, assemble the car and then clear coat the exterior and start assembling.

4-14-2013

Yes, me too! Oh, wait, I have to do all the work, ha ha.

I did more sanding today with these 3m bristle brushes that attach to my grinder. wow, they make easy work on the sheet metal, and without much heating, too. Good stuff. They do get chewed up on the edges, though.

I also spent some time trying to shrink the warpage out of my filled firewall. It was a wasted effort, I was just making things worse so I cut it out and made a new panel. I also filled in the old blower motor hole.

4-21-2013

I want to learn how to weld, too!

The pics in this week's post prove that I'm not there yet. I had to get the bondo out- to fill in the dips and voids in a few key areas on the visible areas inside the engine bay and interior.

4-28-2013

This weekend I did some sanding. Lots of sanding. Fingers are raw and dust is everywhere. Next weekend I'll put on another coat of primer and I think it'll be good to go. I'm only making it decent. not perfect. Yes, I need to remind myself of this, or I'll noodle this for a month...

5-12-2013

I did more sanding last weekend and this, as well as a little more patchwork. My driver door came from a car with the remote mirror. I don't have this so I had to plug the hole, as well as repair my rear corner trim piece that had rusted away.

Then I cleaned up the garage and lined it with some plastic (does anyone watch Dexter??), installed furnace filters over the openings, as well as along the bottom of the garage door with some cheapie fans and painted some of the interior. The dash and panels came out OK, but my doors will require a do over. I spilled sweat on one (rookie mistake), and the other had some sort of reaction, so they will be sanded down next weekend and I'll try again. I'll be taking a few days off and hope to get more of the insides and chassis parts painted before my bi-annual work trip to China. The goal is to have the parts be drying while I'm gone...