BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
I wish! Unfortunately no one in my family was ever into cars or fabrication, so I kind of broke the mold in that respect I guess. I think I’ve done alright though, considering I’m mostly self taught except for my formal autobody training.
As far as The Skunkworks are concerned, I have to keep it neat and orderly or else I’d lose my ever loving anal retentive mind! Even at that, I still seem to spend far too long looking for that tool I just put down. I had the damn thing a minute ago, now where the hell…???
I swear sometimes I spend more time looking for the tool I just had than I do working on the car
Well, the last 72 hours have been an absolute marathon in the Skunkworks.
In that time, I have:
-completed the filler work on the doors and fenders
-cleaned and blew out the shop
-masked the car and shop
-cleaned the panels
-sprayed 2 coats of epoxy primer
-sprayed 2 coats of poly spray filler
-let everything cure overnight
-blocked the poly with 120 grit
-guide coated everything
-blocked the poly with 220 grit
-cleaned and blew out the shop again
-blew off and cleaned the panels again
-sprayed an additional coat of epoxy
And finally,
-mixed and sprayed 3 coats of high build primer
Whew. I need a vacation, I think I’ll go collapse in a corner somewhere now.
I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the tale as to how it turned out, enjoy.
Factory Malibu fender flares on a Cutlass:
More pictures with everything unmasked and reassembled back on the ground coming soon, stay tuned for that.
D.
In that time, I have:
-completed the filler work on the doors and fenders
-cleaned and blew out the shop
-masked the car and shop
-cleaned the panels
-sprayed 2 coats of epoxy primer
-sprayed 2 coats of poly spray filler
-let everything cure overnight
-blocked the poly with 120 grit
-guide coated everything
-blocked the poly with 220 grit
-cleaned and blew out the shop again
-blew off and cleaned the panels again
-sprayed an additional coat of epoxy
And finally,
-mixed and sprayed 3 coats of high build primer
Whew. I need a vacation, I think I’ll go collapse in a corner somewhere now.
I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the tale as to how it turned out, enjoy.
Factory Malibu fender flares on a Cutlass:
More pictures with everything unmasked and reassembled back on the ground coming soon, stay tuned for that.
D.
Unmasked and reassembled it late last night, and snapped a couple quick pictures this morning.
Just out of curiosity, what's your sandpaper budget for this project? I bet you could buy a small car for what you've invested in consumables.
Looking good. I noticed you still put 2k urethane over your spray poly. I’ve done it that way as well, most times. On the vette I’m doing now I’m going to go spray poly to sealer and paint. I did my boat cowl that way, and I was happy with the result.
Looking killer D. That's a whole bunch of hard work! And that's going to equal laser straight body panels.
Budget? What’s that?
Lol
You’re not wrong, the consumables are the most expensive part of the whole equation. I joke with my supplier that it’s physically impossible for me to leave for under $100. But that being said, they do take exceptional care of me. Discounts on partial/opened product, free trials of things like grinding discs, splitting up sealed boxes of paint strainers, selling individual 8” grinding discs, etc that no other company would do for you.
So it’s a give and take relationship. Usually I give, and they take.
😅
Thanks Chris.
Yes, you are correct. I look at spray filler as just that - filler. You wouldn’t ordinarily apply paint directly over filler, so I still utilize 2K high build primer surfacer over top of the poly spray filler. I know the car will still need at least one more round of blocking before paint yet, so the primer affords me that additional material for that as well.
Thank you Tony.
It was definitely a taxing thrash to say the least. But when you’re that close to the finish line, it’s hard not to just keep going. It’s the knowing that you’re thaaat close to being done, just sand this, just finish that, then I can move on to the next thing… I know you know what I mean, you’ve been there too.
As for equaling laser straight panels, here’s hoping. If I’ve done the work correctly, that should be the case.
In other news…
After unmasking and reassembling the car last night, I got to really looking at it, and realized there’s not really all that much bodywork left to do. The mirrors are next on my hit list, then probably the front bumper filler panel, and the front bumper itself.
I want to rework the “A” pillars and where the windshield trim meets the roof, but the roof itself needs nothing. Just a strip to bare metal, epoxy and primer.
The “C” pillars will need a little bit of loving, the torque of the big block wrinkled them a little bit so some additional reinforcement work will need to be done there.
The quarter panels will be their own entity that we will gloss over right now due to utmost secrecy, and will be the most intensive part yet to come.
I plan on welding in the back window/trunk lid filler panel to streamline and simplify back there a bit, and I will be making my own metal quarter extensions, so that should be an interesting but fun exercise.
I may or may not keep the existing trunk spoiler, but at the moment am leaning more towards scratch building a totally new and different style. The trunk lid itself needs very little to be perfect.
That leaves just the rear bumper, it still needs to be sectioned and tucked, but that’s it for the bodywork.
I know it sounds like a lot, but should be completely manageable.
Sounds good in theory at least…
🙄
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