Dad's 62 Ford Galaxie

[Texas82GP]

Well, we got back from vacation on Friday morning. We spent Friday getting everything unpacked and washing the beach off of the trucks and beach gear. Saturday Sean and Dad made good progress on block sanding the Galaxie. I stayed home. I had to work on my truck. I think I got a little too hot doing it. I didn't feel too well the rest of the day so I stayed home. I'm bummed that I didn't make any progress on the vent window but I did get the rivets figured out the weekend before and got some extra rivets ordered. If I don't work on it some this week (nights) then I should still be able to get close to finishing it up next weekend.

Sean and Dad also had our glass guy over to Dad's house Saturday. This is the same guy that cut out the windshield and rear window in the Camaro and reinstalled them. He replaced the windshields in both Dad's and Sean's trucks. He also replaced the windshield in my step-mom's car. He also pulled the windshield out of the Galaxie and replaced the trim around it. The trim on the car looked pretty good but it was dinged up pretty badly behind the wiper arm posts from some worm trying to get the wiper arms off prying against the trim. Dad had recently bought a very nice set of trim on eBay off of a 4-door that is being parted out. The new trim is much nicer. Here are some pics of the blocking and of the new windshield trim.....

To be perfectly honest, I was a little shocked at how much filler work they did when Sean sent me the pictures. When I expressed this to Sean, he assured me that all of these areas were very thin and would have just appeared as slight waves had the car been painted without this step. The car is getting pretty straight. He and Dad have done much more work on the car than Sean and I did to the Camaro. The painter missed a few places on the Camaro and that has caused some minor disappointment so they want to send the Galaxie to him much straighter. Don't get me wrong, the Camaro looks amazing but we are picky. We wish our painter had spent just a little more time blocking. I think it must be harder to see it in the grey primer than it is in this black primer. If I understand the plan of attack properly, I believe Sean and Dad plan to spot in all of these repair areas with the black epoxy primer, then sand them, then shoot the entire car with the lacquer based primer surfacer, and then block the entire car again.

There are still a few body work issues to work on before they re-prime and block the entire car again. On the passenger side, the bottom rear corner of the door is sticking out some. Dad wants to pull the door again, pull the lower hinge, elongate one of the bolt holes to provide more adjustment, and then refit the door. On the driver's side, we are having trouble with the bottom rear corner of the door rubbing on the corner of the jamb. Dad had worked on it but evidently now that its painted, there isn't enough clearance. The patch panel on that side just didn't fit near as well as the one on the passenger side. I don't think the die for that panel was as good a reproduction of the original shape as on the passenger. Otherwise, the fault is our fit-up. Nevertheless, we likely will have to strip that corner of the jamb back, make some relief cuts and weld it back up, and then redo the bodywork and repaint the jamb, or at least that portion of it. That's the game plan anyway. Thanks for following along guys and as always, thanks for the positive feedback. We all appreciate it. I'll follow up with another update when there is more progress to report.

 

[Longroof79]

It's best to catch all those areas now...and before the painter gets it. At least they'll be no regrets and beating yourselves up that you overlooked some spots. Plus the fact that the car is going to be black...which requires extra attention.
So far it's looking amazing.
I'm glad you're able to find the odd parts that you need like the windshield moulding and vent window parts.
Are the white spots spot putty, or just where they sanded thru?

 

[1evilregal]

love the attention to detail all three of you put into these cars! that is gonna be gorgeous!

 

[Texas82GP]

Jared,
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed a restful weekend retreat with the family...you certainly deserve it.
Lookin' forward to further updates...
It's good to see Dad's car getting much needed love and attention..

It's best to catch all those areas now...and before the painter gets it. At least they'll be no regrets and beating yourselves up that you overlooked some spots. Plus the fact that the car is going to be black...which requires extra attention.
So far it's looking amazing.
I'm glad you're able to find the odd parts that you need like the windshield moulding and vent window parts.
Are the white spots spot putty, or just where they sanded thru?

As always Jack, thanks for always having something good to say. I really appreciate it. I hope all this extra attention to the blocking will payoff with a pretty straight looking black car. We didn't really block the Camaro. We just addressed the obvious spots and left the rest for the painter. Maybe that was a mistake. We are constantly learning. I would say Dad and Sean have learned a lot on blocking out a car. I think it is going to turn out great thanks to their hard work. The white spots are the Evercoat Rage Extreme. It comes out of the can pretty much white and then the hardener is blue. If you put it on thick, it looks light blue. It looks white in the pics because it is so thin. I can't say enough good about the Rage Extreme. All of this work and not one single pinhole. It still blows Dad away. He was used to traditional Bondo when I turned he and Sean onto the Rage Extreme, based on internet (forum) research.

love the attention to detail all three of you put into these cars! that is gonna be gorgeous!

Thanks Darin. I think the attention to detail is our best asset and all three of us have it. Sean and I got it from Dad and its a great trait to inherit. I find there are people that have it and there are people that just don't. Sometimes it can be a curse because maybe if I wasn't so picky my car would be back together and I would be driving it but I just can't throw it back together. Thanks for the feedback gents. We truly appreciate it.

 

[Longroof79]

Jared,
You can't compare the products produced today over the old bondo and lacquer based surfacer/ spot putty. Body finish technology has become so much more advanced with ease of usage
durability, longevity, and overall finish.
I'm really impressed with how nice the Evercoat products work. The Rage fillers are a pleasure to use...and like you said, no pin holes. I used to hate to go over the pin holes and pock marks with spot putty.

 

[Texas82GP]

Jared,
You can't compare the products produced today over the old bondo and lacquer based surfacer/ spot putty. Body finish technology has become so much more advanced with ease of usage
durability, longevity, and overall finish.
I'm really impressed with how nice the Evercoat products work. The Rage fillers are a pleasure to use...and like you said, no pin holes. I used to hate to go over the pin holes and pock marks with spot putty.

Jack,

I couldn't agree with you more. It's funny, I was looking at a Car Craft magazine earlier today and was shocked to see Chip Foose putting his name on Bondo products. I seriously doubt they are using Bondo products on anything that comes out of his shop. The technology in the new paint/body materials is truly impressive.

 

[Longroof79]

Jack,

I couldn't agree with you more. It's funny, I was looking at a Car Craft magazine earlier today and was shocked to see Chip Foose putting his name on Bondo products. I seriously doubt they are using Bondo products on anything that comes out of his shop. The technology in the new paint/body materials is truly impressive.

Jared,
Just because they endorse a product, it doesn't necessarily mean they use these products. I'm sure he was compensated well for his endorsement. I wonder he catches a ribbing from people about his Bondo product endorsement.

 

[Texas82GP]

We had a good day yesterday on the Galaxie. Dad and Sean continued with the blocking. They fine tuned at least a dozen spots. They worked until probably 2:30 and then spent some time cleaning up the car and cleaning up the garage. Next weekend, they intend to spot in the bodywork with the epoxy primer and then their next major task is to further adjust the passenger door. As I mentioned previously, the rear lower corner of the door is sticking out a little bit.

While they were moving forward with the blocking, I got back on the passenger vent window. I started by riveting in the new main weatherstrip. Last weekend I came to the conclusion that a regular 1/8" blind pop rivet would work fine for this. Next, I riveted the rear 'divider' back to the main frame. Here, I used regular 5/32 blind pop rivets. It went back together well....

Next, I needed to do something about the broken lower vent window post. Initially, I planned to try to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but part of it had significant corrosion damage and I didn't feel that confident in getting it back together in just the right orientation....

The weekend before last, when we broke the post, we bought a vent window off of a four-door car that was being parted out. Yesterday, I initially was having second thoughts about parting out the four-door vent window assembly but once I decided against welding the busted post back together, I moved on to getting the post out of the donor window. Here is a look at the donor....

Here is a look at the vent window frame after getting the window out of the assembly and removing the glass. The post that we need is clearly visible...

After drilling a few rivets the post was liberated from the four door window frame. Actually the four door sedan window frame was exactly the same as the hard-top window frame. It was necessary to move the post only because the donor frame was a driver and I'm working on a passenger, so the post for the vent window handle is on the wrong side of the frame. Here's the liberated vent window post....

A few rivets later and the replacement post is in the passenger vent window frame. It turns out the four door glass was the same as the two-door hardtop glass and the four door glass was nicer so we'll be using it when we go back together. Here's the glass we will use and the vent window frame with the post transplanted in...

I went ahead and installed the vent window frame in the assembly to see how it fits with the new weatherstrips. I continue to be impressed at the job Steele Rubber Products did with reproducing this rubber. It looks like everything is fitting well....

At this point we need a glass guy to reseal the vent window glass back into the vent window frame. We texted with our glass guy yesterday afternoon but we didn't hear back from him. We're hoping he'll be available to go by Dad's sometime this week or that Dad can take it by a glass shop sometime next week. If we can get the glass back in the frame I should be able to easily finish assembling the vent window and we can move on to putting it and the side window back in the car. As always, thanks for tuning in. I'll follow up with more updates as the progress warrants.

 

[Longroof79]

That worked out well with the vent window. So, had the donor 4-dr vent window been the right needed side, you could have theoretically used the whole assembly.
That's good to know. You lucked out finding the donor vent window..

 

[Texas82GP]

Jared,
Just because they endorse a product, it doesn't necessarily mean they use these products. I'm sure he was compensated well for his endorsement. I wonder he catches a ribbing from people about his Bondo product endorsement.

Jack, Agreed. I doubt seriously that he or his shop use Bondo products. I'm sure it was a good payday and it is good exposure for him in the magazines. Still, I'm a little disappointed in him. It feels like a sellout. Bondo is o.k. but it products like Rage Extreme are light years ahead of it. Foose's style isn't always my cup of tea but he looks to be a great guy and an asset to the car community. He endorses Magnaflow which is pretty nice stuff. We bought our dad a catback kit for his 06 Sierra and the quality was very good. I was surprised Foose put his name on Bondo. I hope he does take some ribbing from his colleagues.

That worked out well with the vent window. So, had the donor 4-dr vent window been the right needed side, you could have theoretically used the whole assembly.
That's good to know. You lucked out finding the donor vent window..

If the 4-door vent window assembly had been for the passenger side, I could have used the vent window glass and it's frame, without removing the stud and transferring it to our frame. The outer diecast frame of the vent window assembly itself is different since Dad's car is a hardtop and the 4-door was a sedan. The parts book indicated the that the vent window glass frame was different between hardtops and sedans but based on a visual comparison that is not the case. The glass is exactly the same. It's good that we could locate a donor for that broken stud and its fortunate that the donor had better glass than the glass that was original to dad's car. I'm looking forward to wrapping up this vent window so it can go back in the door and I'm pleased to have an understanding on how to work on the vent window now so the Driver's side should hopefully be easier. I can't thank Steele Rubber Products enough for reproducing the rubber for the 62 hardtop. It took a few years but it was worth the wait. Jack, as always, thanks for the replies and positive feedback. Much appreciated, my friend.