Project update and photos for Steveplym

[bigred48]

I have been working of and on for the last sixth months and I have finaly finished removing the old paint from my car. When I first started I had no idea how long it would take, but I am finally getting ready to prime and start the long process of body work.

[bigred48]

here are some pictures of my radio faceplate let me know if you would like any more.

[Young Ed]

The car looks great. What color is it going to become now?

[bigred48]

Ha the color changes on about a weekly basis now, but don't be mad Ed but I am leaning toward cream I made a few rough photoshop edits in the fall and that was what I thought looked best.

[1955 plymouth]

There is a complete running twin to yours for $600.00 in Washington state. Check out "skagit craigslist" hit the cars link, type in 1946 and you will see the car. I wish I had more ambition I would pick it up and do what you are doing now.

Good luck, Cream should look real nice.

[55 Fargo]

Looks great, and the finished product will be very nice.. You are doing this project the right way, yes it's a long haul doing bodywork, hey it could be worse with lots of welding in patch panels and such. Keep up the good work.......

[55 Fargo]

Ha the color changes on about a weekly basis now, but don't be mad Ed but I am leaning toward cream I made a few rough photoshop edits in the fall and that was what I thought looked best.

Thes cars look very nice in a cream color, or a pale yellow. The chrome, and the body design makes the car with a cream color look real classy.

The guy who is supposed to paint my car, wants to talk me into a cream color, not sure, my car is big, it will look bigger in cream, but cream color hides a lot of waves........Fred

[Young Ed]

Andy go ahead and paint it whatever color you want. I haven't even gotten close to getting mine painted and may change my mind again. I did already start painting mine cruiser maroon. I'd probably be painting it the light blue but there is already a light blue club coupe in our club.

[Joe Flanagan]

What did you use to remove the old paint and what kind of paint are you going to use?

[bigred48]

hey it could be worse with lots of welding in patch panels and such. Keep up the good work.......

I do have some welding left to do I fixed most of the major holes when I did the rockers and floor pans. But i found some interesting things when I took the paint off, the previous owner liked to use chicken wire and bondo to fix just about everything.

[bigred48]

What did you use to remove the old paint and what kind of paint are you going to use?

To remove the paint I started with aircraft stripper and then as that got closer to bare metal I moved to a DA sander with 80 grit. the parts I did not do with a sander I did with a stripping wheel on my grinder or I sandblasted. I was shocked at how long it takes to remove the paint on these things the old primer underneath was very tough, even the aircraft stripper had trouble removing it in most spots. As far as paint goes I haven't decided yet I am looking for something that is not too expensive but will do a good job and not be very difficult for a beginner to use, I've never painted a car before so it could get very interesting doing this for the first time.

[Joe Flanagan]

Well, you and I are in the same boat there, Big Red. I have never painted a car before either and it should be interesting. I did shoot epoxy primer on the roof and firewall and that was pretty easy. I stripped mine with 80 grit sandpaper on an 8-inch disc powered by a Makita grinder. It did pretty well but you're right about the factory primer. It can be tough to get off. Mine had the red stuff and if you got it too hot it would soften and then gum up the sandpaper and make it worthless. I found it helpful to switch to a coarser grit paper. I had a lot of rust on my car so the only option in many places was to sandblast, which I'm nearing the end of now. I plan to use PPG paint but I don't want to mortgage the house for it. The way I look at it, if I paint this thing myself, then I save a lot of money which I can spend on chrome. I don't have as good a space as you, judging from the pictures. It will be an adventure, that's for sure.

[bigred48]

Joe do you know which kind of paint is the most user friendly? I mean like a base coat clear coat or an acrylic enamel or even a lacquer.

[steveplym]

Looking good Bigred. The most user friendly paint in my opinion is lacquer. You have to sand and buff it to get a good shine, but it cleans up easy. Only problem is due to regulations it is almost impossible to get anymore. Next up would be single stage enamel. Only because it is a single stage process, where basecoat/clearcoat is two stages.

IMHO you will be more happy with a basecoat/clearcoat paint job.

[dndrodshop]

I like my White.

[Joe Flanagan]

I agree with steveplym. I think that after all that work you would want to go with base coat/clear coat. I think it comes down to the equipment you're using. I'm using an HVLP gun, which I think performs much better than a siphon gun. Also, you'll want to make sure you have adequate filters so you don't wind up with moisture in your paint. I'll be using a good wax and grease remover to clean the metal before paint, too. After that, I think it's just getting a feel for how the gun is laying on the paint. I understand applying clear coat can be tricky. I'm sure others here will chime in. For technical advice, I go here: www.autobodystore.com. It's a very helpful website.