57 Special 2 Door Sedan

Aaaaaand another 57. I think they're growing on trees here.

This was supposed to be a favor for a friend who had his car painted by a guy that must have been half blind. I later found out the painter was having some health issues and his nephew was helping him do some work.

He had me come check the car out at his house to see if I could do anything with it before tossing everything out the window and starting over. I noticed many spots where the clear coat was really thin and created what appeared to be orange peel...and it was really severe in some spots, and light in others. I also noticed thin base coat below the clear. The car had been color sanded and half-ass buffed. I agreed to take the car and do a thorough cut and buff to see if we could save the paint.

Fast forward to last weekend, I had it completed. The paint was a solid 6 out of 10. It looked GREAT from 10 feet, but as you got closer, you could still see that thin clear and crappy base coat coverage. The decision was made to stick the car back in the garage and completely repaint it.

Both doors had cracks in the door skin right where the vent window corner is...so those had to be welded and smoothed. There were several high spots in the roof. Several dents that were missed on the first repaint. Chips all over the place. The hood was really poorly aligned, and as a result, was hitting the passenger side fender.

This evening, I was finally able to shoot some paint on it. I'll have some photos of it in clear tomorrow after I can get it into the driveway to bake a bit.

 

Now I stuff it into the home garage to cure for a month while I work on the 57 Roadmaster coupe....

 

Ok, so more like a month and a half to cure.

This past week, I was able to get the entire car cut with 1000 grit. Today, I finished the 2000 and 3000 rounds. I also started to buff the roof. I ran out of energy about 5:30 today...black cars are a lot of work!

This is the first round of buffing...you can see the hazing in the photos. That is as clean as the first round of buffing gets. The second round will clear up the hazing, but there will be swirl marks when seen in the sun. So, a third round of buffing with ultra fine pad and compound will clear all of that up and make this car look like a mirror.

 

One panel at a time...hope to be done with this on Sunday. Deliver to owner Monday.

 

Done...being delivered a day early.

 

Oh, I'm sure Keith had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek on that statement.

 

Thanks guys LOL

The customer is very happy....he now wants a 68 Impala done, and a 57 Chrysler 300 done. Also two other "small" projects. Lordy...I am in a pickle.

 

It's back! Interior job was done, and got scuffed up a bit with all of the work that was done on and around it. I'll spend some time buffing the black paint again, and get it back to the owner soon.