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1950 Suburban 5.7 Hemi project


Don Colliau

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So,

I have had two painters over here to look at the wagon. One was at 5500.00 and the other at 5000.00. I am going with the higher priced painter because I had a better feeling about him. He also has references and a actual store front. Got to get with him and sign a contract and cough up 1/2 down.  4 to 6 weeks out but I can live with that.

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A good friend of mine and I painted my wagon in my shop over last winter. We started taking it apart the first week of December and worked on it every Friday(I work part-time and am off every Fri.) and my buddy Grant is retired. And then we painted it in mid April as the weather broke and did not have to run the heat in the shop except to help dry coats between. We put about 250 hours in just getting it ready, blocking, sanding, filler primer and more blocking. The colors ,the off white and turquoise are exact matches for 60 Plymouth paint chips. I used Dupont filler primer and Dupont colors. The cost of the colors was $100 a quart and we used 3 quarts for the roof and 6 quarts of turquoise. Now take into consideration that we had to also get the activator for the paint as well as the primer and the clear was $400 for 2 gallons. We didn't quite use all the clear. I figured I spent about $3000 just for material.

 I took it up to a good friend of mine who has a custom paint shop here in town. He does high dollar custom paint jobs. I asked him what it would have cost to have it done at his place, he said multiply how many hours you have in by $75 an hour. Most non-car people have no idea what goes into a paint job. It's not just about the paint but the preparation. Of the 300 hours we have in this, about 250 are just body prep. The other 50 is paint and then color sanding and buffing. It is a laboring job to do a nice job but it does pay off in the end and this is my last one.

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  • 4 weeks later...

beautiful wagon, i seen you  in  sept at the  pottstown  street car show from the  classic club,looks great,  if a 49 grille is the same a friend of mine passed away there are a few grilles said to be 49 but look like yours that will be,and are for sale see u  in the spring

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I believe my car is going to paint next weekend. As far as the grille situation I found a plater and he has the grille. Now I have two extra. One is stainless and the other is steel. The steel piece seems to be a aftermarket replacement part that was never used. It is really straight but the plating is all flaking off. It would be a good candidate for someone hot rodding a car and wanting to paint the bright work. The other stainless one needs some work but is in good enough condition to save from the scrap pile. I'll be posting pictures of the paint progress and grille progress when I get them.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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2 hours ago, Niel Hoback said:

There really IS such a thing as "better than new" !

Neil,

 I just got back from looking at the car. All I can say is amazing! Its hard to tell in the pictures but it came out beautiful. We are going to move it out of the paint shop and back to the painters house for sanding and polishing Monday. It took three of us to pull this off and i am really amazed how flat and smooth the car is. More pictures to follow on Monday!

Don

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13 hours ago, Niel Hoback said:

I can't imagine how sanding and polishing could make it look any better than that.

Sanding and polishing is going to sharpen up all the reflections.  Right now the reflections would be just a bit fuzzy.   looks really good Don,  You'll love the cut and buff results, maybe do the dollar test for Niel.

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36 minutes ago, LODI3QTR said:

WOW ! ! ! !  That Color looks even better on the wagon out in the sun. Some time after the New Year I'd like to come out take pictures and see it in person....

We will have to set that up! 

I will welcome you to my shop.

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