Schedule Set!
I met with the
painter and I have reserved a slot in his schedule. The plan right now
is to deliver the car on the frame to him around the first of July, 2011.
He will gap the doors and then remove the body from the frame to paint it on
a body buck. I will take the frame and running gear back, disassemble
it, and send it out for powder coating and chrome.
So for now, I have to
get my nose to the grindstone to get the remaining body "stuff" completed.
At the Painter
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
I dropped the body off
at my painter's shop on Wednesday, July 6th. The body is sitting on
the rolling chassis with all the doors, hood, and trunk attached. I am
very fortunate that Phil Riley (www.rileycustoms.com)
is about 2 miles down the road from me. He is a very experienced car
nut and he does fabulous work. We went over all the particulars of the
custom paint job I want and Phil has already offered a couple of neat trick
items. This is going to be fun.
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
Here's just one shot
of his small shop. He works on about three cars at once and I was
lucky to get on his schedule at a time that worked for my schedule. In
just the first day, he and his helper already had all the seams sanded and
filled, the hood filled, and most of the trunk done. The doors,
however, are another question.
Seems on my car (maybe
all Lone Stars), the passenger door is pretty flat and not rounded like the
driver's door. It is also warped and twisted slightly so the fit to
the body is not pretty. I talked to Brian at Lone Star about getting
another door and he was more than willing to help me out. For now,
Phil is going to talk to a painter in Texas who has painted a lot of Lone
Stars to determine if this is a unique problem with my car or a common one.
This is what I like about Phil, he does quality work and will not settle for
less so we're going to find the best solution for the door problem.
Current plan is 6-8
weeks for the complete paint job. I will get the rolling chassis back
in about two weeks so I can complete disassembly for paint/chrome/powdercoat.
Then the real fun begins, final assembly.
Body Prep
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
First step is to
adjust the gaps in the hood and the doors and then fill the body seams.
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
I also asked Phil to
fill in around the headlights so they fit a little better.
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
The hood need some
major fill work. When I cut the inner liner out of the hood to get my
air filter to fit, it caused the top of the hood to sag around the scoop.
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
The doors are the
major problem. Rather than build up a bunch of fiberglass and filler,
Phil decided to cut open the doors and adjust the panels for a better fit.
This cut is used to raise and twist the right door to fit up top.
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
A common problem is
that the "wings" on the doors sit too low. Above is Phil's solution to
that problem.
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
This is the picture
after the filler is sanded back down.
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
The right door was a
little worse and required some draconian cuts to get a better fit.
Photo courtesy of Riley
Customs, Phil Riley photographer
Filled and ready to
sand.
Here is the car with
multiple coats of filling primer applied.
It is sitting out in
the sun to heat and bake the filler.
After sitting for a
week to cure, it will be time to block sand the entire body to get all the
waves out of the panel.
It will actually be
block sanded, primed, and block sanded a second time.
Then the final primer
for the paint will be applied and it will be ready for the color coats.
The car is now ready
for the application of the paint, stripes, and clear. That work can be
found on the next page.
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