81 Malibu project restarting

[08Malibu]

A little update. We had my sons pinewood derby race yesterday. His car faired a bit better than my daughters. 2nd in his group, and he won coolest paint job. He’s happy about winning almost all of his races, but I’m extremely happy that he won coolest paint, since he did it himself.
I put the clutch fan back on, so the car was drivable, afterI ran out of gas moving it out of the garage. With the weather getting nice, I really want to drive the car. Plus my kid was egging me on to use it so I pretty much did nothing to the car this year. Hopefully next winter I will.
Today I worked on my neighbors chevelle hood. Got the one side 90% done, the other is about 70%. Hopefully my camera shots will give me a good enough color match so I don’t have to tint too much. I need to get this thing out of here to make room for the s15 Jimmy.

 

[08Malibu]

Got my neighbor’s hood all sanded and ready for primer. Hopefully Thursday or Friday I can take to my buddy’s shop to prime it. Threw a little etch primer on the metal for now.
Yesterday my old boss asked me to spray a 67 GT350 convertible clone. The catch is he wants me to polish it too. We’ll have to agree on a price that’s worth it, but not taking advantage of him, but I’ll probably wind up doing it. Just when I thought I’d have some free time, I think I’ll be booked back up.

 

[08Malibu]

Got the 65 chevelle hood primed yesterday. Pretty happy with how it turned out. There were 2 spots I didn’t feel, but they should block out. Next step is sprayouts to see how close the camera is to matching the color. Going to be pretty tough, the car is painted with laquer and then clear coated.

 

[melloelky]

i heard lacquered and cleared but i didn't hear why?

 

[08Malibu]

i heard lacquered and cleared but i didn't hear why?

His car was restored in the 80’s. The hood on the car is failing so he picked up this one.

 

[melloelky]

im sorry I ment why the lacquer?

 

[08Malibu]

im sorry I ment why the lacquer?

I’m spraying the hood in base/clear Diamont. Back when it was restored they used laquer color than cleared the whole car. I’m guessing this was common in the 80’s when it was done. I’m only 41 so I’ve shot laquer one time in my life. I had an original paint 78 nova in school. If heeded a fender so my teacher order some lucite. It was GM 15 sulver. It surprisingly matched pretty good. Buffed it out with the compound that came in the bucket.

 

[melloelky]

that stuff in the bucket was rough..

 

[08Malibu]

So last Saturday about 30 minutes into a 2 hour ride my wife’s ac quit working. Monday I took the car to work and she had my truck. We checked it out and determined it needed a new compressor clutch, no big deal. She mentioned my exhaust was making a noise so I checked it out when I got home. I couldn’t find any issues with the exhaust but I did find that the crossmember over my fuel tank was cracked where it meets the main frame. I guess I missed it when I was under there about a month ago. Tonight I dropped the tank and found some more rot. The main rails still look solid though. I’ll probably start another thread on the frame repair.
Lucky for me I have a company car to use, and my Malibu is still drivable. I’m so glad I didn’t tear into it this winter.

 

[08Malibu]

Passenger side window motor quit on me so I’ll be replacing it today. Should be working on my truck frame, but I need at least one of my vehicles fully operational. Luckily I have a company car to drive for work, and can do most of my running around in my way home from work. It really stinks not having my pickup. First time in 18 years it’s been off the road for more than a week. I guess I neglected it for the past few years and it’s showing.
I finally got all of the rust scale off of the frame. There’s only one bad spot on the back side of the drivers side rail. Once i fix that, put a longer boxing plate on each side, and replace the two crossmembers, I’ll be back up and running. I really should do the rockers now, but I just don’t have the time.