BUILD THREAD 87 Cutlass EFI build: 9/13/23..NEW STUFF!

liquidh8 said:

It's all in the prep Scott. And I. The final rub and Polish, which sucks.

Are you painting the engine body color? Can't tell on my phone.

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For sure Jim! 95% prep, 5% paint!!!! I just picked up some more consumables to wet sand the mirrors back down! They have some issues that I'm not happy with, so there's that!!!

The engine will be close to body color and match the overall theme. It's hard to tell in pics, but the black is GM satin black. Here is the shortblock...valve covers and valley pan cover will match the oil pan.

Wooey!!!!! It's been tedious getting some parts prepped for paint, but I have the mirrors, quarter extensions, and my spoiler done and ready!

Those pretty mirrors needed attention due to a couple paint sags and dirt crud, so they were hit with 320, 400, and 600 wet....

The quarter extensions received the same treatment.....

I absolutely dreaded sanding the spoiler as I already have many hours on it, but it looked like crap and I wasn't happy. My bodyguy painted it hanging vertical and isn't used to high metallics so it was in desperate need of my OCD! I finished it at 3am this morning, yep 3am but it looks way better!!!!
Before:

After:

I'm going to wetsand on the car later and hopefully have it ready by the days end, fingers crossed!

fleming442 said:

I'm having flashbacks! I hate sanding!

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My wife thought I was joking about hating sanding! I was bitchin about it yesterday and told her "I do not enjoy this, but it has to be done!"

liquidh8 said:

This is also one of my least favorite things, but it's also one of the most important to get the smooth look we should love.

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That's for sure Jim! It's a night and day difference after 3 rounds, and about 3 hours of some 3M and a soft sanding block! The bodywork/paint is budget priced job, but I still want it as close to perfection as possible!
It truly takes patience and dedication, and if it weren't for my trunk having 6 mounting holes in it I would've smashed that spoiler long ago !!!! However, I think the SS laydown style looks cool on my Cutlass, so the time had to be spent to ensure it looks good.

383_GrandPrix said:

I got kinda used to sanding at the last job I had. We did a lot of interior trim for private jets and the finnish requirements were always a satin brush or some variant there of and had to be perfect. Never sanded a car though, probably not the same at all.

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It's essentially the same. I'm no expert, but have alot of time spent sanding, painting, sanding again to achieve a flat, uniform surface that will represent well once color and clear is applied.
Just sand until everything looks the same, get it wet and wipe it down, hit any missed spots and move on.

Well, it's been a long, exhausting day to say the least! After several more hours of wet sanding the car, I can finally say IT'S READY FOR PAINT!!!!!

I'm going to give it a once over tomorrow just to be sure, but as of now I'm 99% sure it's done! I will call the professional shop tomorrow to confirm the delivery of the Cutlass on Tuesday, and hopefully the next update will be of it getting dropped off for some shiney.

Anyways, here are a few pics....