Finally Doing A Build Thread

[350_85cutty]

now the fun stuff...I'm finally gonna start on the bodywork and hopefully get my car painted in the coming months. I took autobody in highschool back in '03 and learned a lil but mostly self taught by doing, asking lots of questions and reading on forums like this and searches on google, don't you just love the net! I won a Sharpe paint gun in autobody class at a competion for a fiberglass speaker enclosure i made and I finally have a good reason to use it. I'll try to post lots of pics. I'm doing the trunk and pass side first, then working my way around the rest of the car, and i'm taking full advantage of working at a shop where my boss let's me take my car up and work on it after hours and on the weekends.

a lil tricky but I figured out how to take off all the chrome rocker trim w/o damaging anything, of course the lil "arms" on the plastic clips broke off on some but that was expected. good to use a rubber mallet when doing this. and that's not rust, just dirt that cleaned up real well. was not expecting all the lil studs underneath but how else would the trim be held up right? lol. well no rust is good and very minimal bodywork on this side and the whole car for that matter

no reason for the black rattle can paint on the trunk, just wanted to see how that color combo would look. all thats coming off and then I'll be using Kustom Shop's Epoxy Primer/Sealer, then Poly Surfacer, then topcoat with HOT ROD FLATZ Cream Yellow, just ordered 2 quarts of the epoxy prime to do my spot priming on bare metal and filler work, and 1 gallon of the poly primer surfacer to shoot the whole car, also got there K-Block 9", 16", and 24" firm flex sanding block kit and some RAGE Gold filler

 

[Blake442]

Excellent... One gets painted, another one begins... 😀

Are you going to keep the trim along the bottoms of the doors, fenders and quarters, or are you going to leave it off?

 

[350_85cutty]

i have to admit, i was motivated by 85 Cutlass Brougham's build thread, and now look at him, he's got a finished product! as for the chrome, that's a big decision i haven't made yet. I'm a fan of the chrome and all the Brougham trim, but for the look I'm goin for, it won't fit. The more i look at it as is, the more I want to leave it off. I have thought about getting them powdercoated with a satin or flat clear, we did an aluminum sign at work with that finish and it came out real good, but then i'd have to do that to all the shiny trim on the car or a nice silver like 85 Cutlass Brougham did. The bumpers i've thought about painting too, idk body color or satin black, as I might 2 tone it. they are not in tip top shape and i have spare chrome bumpers on my parts car if i ever wanted to switch back, idk so many decisions to make in the near future.

 

[Blake442]

I think I'd leave the big trim along the fenders, doors, and quarters off. Not that I don't like it on some cars, but it looks cleaner without it.
If you do get rid of them, don't grind the mounting studs off, grab them with a vise grip and twist them off.
But I would keep the trim along the rocker panel.

Also, invest in a good floor jack. Scissor jacks are dangerous.
I bought a pretty nice one for about $120 a few years ago. It's worth it.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

If you want to do the silver trim paint, I used Mercedes-Benz Code 744, "Brilliant Silver Metallic" for mine. (Silver is the national racing color of Germany, and Mercedes does silver the best.) It looks almost identical to the way those bumper trim strips look when new. I used a base-clear and cleared them with the rest of the car. The masking was a b*tch though, and it took me an hour, mainly because I forgot my fine line tape at home! Doh! As for the shiny metal trim pieces, look for a writeup in my build thread as to how to make them look like new for a minimal investment. I practiced my ideas on a vintage Kirby vacuum, and it turned out so well that I am doing all my trim. PS! Your car is in MUCH better shape than mine was when I first painted it! Consider yourself lucky not to have roof rot.

My general opinion on trim is that these cars are so bland that they need it to break up the boxiness. I am keeping my rocker trims as they are a good contrast to the dark blue, and an option to the silver 2 tone bottom that I was considering if I got rid of them. For bumpers, I am polishing them with some chrome polish and calling it good. I did eliminate all the emblems and the ding strips though, as I feel this cleans up the car visually. The ding strips break up the lines too much for my taste. One of the trim themes on the Cutlass seems to be 1/4 in chrome lines. The edges of the trim for the side windows, the trunk lip moldings, tail light trim, trim on the bumpers, etc. all have the same form factor, which is another reason I kept it.

 

[83Cutlass2181]

that thing looks awesome. nice project. i love the color, and the new pulley and bracket set-ups really make the motor look nice, thats my next project.

 

[350_85cutty]

anybody have pics of a cutlass with hood pins? I'm thinking of getting some, I just like the look don't need them for the function.

 

[350_85cutty]

so i was bored this morning, and I don't have photoshop so this is my MS paint rendition, this is just an idea, i've been doing alot of thinking as to what kind of finish i want, i know the look i'm goin for, i really love the Project Supernova car. I still don't know if I wanna go with the flat like i had intended, but then agian i do, but then I don't know how well the chrome bumpers and rocker trim will look with the flat color, so i do it like the pic, i'll have to take them off. *note the tires are suppose to represent my Indy 500's lol, i had white walls and body color rallys on in this pic

salon style headlight bezels, will have HID headlights by then, powdercoated front and back bumpers look so mean with the amber parking lights. and the black, notic i'm not following the body line, but the fender line and I don't know how i would go about doing the roof and back so any ideas would be helpfull. and also the mirror pods black keep in mind all satin no gloss. maybe for a lil detal, paint the back of the yellow lens on the sidemarkers amber, then clearing the top, and tinting my tailights black, and for the reverse lights, i have no clue what to do with them. if i don't go any further with the black and just keep it up front, i was thinking of doing the bac of the trunklid satin, like 79 Hurst Olds style

so badass! but see the color is gloss and the black is satin, my color combo would be satin/satin

another one with body color bumpers and the two tone follwing the bodylines, everyone does that tho, so I'm staying away from it an this time i followed the top of the headlight bezels and grille with the black up front

the guy who tuned my carb let me borrow his K&N, he seen my cheap mr.gasket one and said "i thought you were getting a new one" lol, so I have mine on order, and he said in return just to clean and recharge it for him, and i thought that was a good deal. makes the motor look all business

 

[KCEE442]

looks good so far.. nice work
cant wait to see it outa the booth

did u smooth ur firewall &
do u have a a/c delete? bc that seems really small where the ac& heat goes
.. I like it =D

 

[Blake442]

I like the body color bumpers about 1000 times more than the black ones.