My name Christopher Heitzmann
Last edited:
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
It’s my full name, I forgot. I haven’t posted anything yet. I mainly got it for work, and I’m not working right now.
There is a lot of cool stuff on there, just be critical of what you follow.
Yikes, apparently it has been quite a while since I last updated!
I actually had to go back a couple pages here to figure out what the last thing I posted about was. It was about the back bumper when I installed it after giving it the brushed nickel finish. Quite a bit of progress has been made since then, as always I’ve been continuing to take pictures as I went along, so I’ll use those as my guide to write this.
Ok, so since the back bumper went on, next I returned to the paint correction work (wet sanding and polishing). I had a REALLY nasty run on the passenger side fender that I had been procrastinating on, so after getting the sail panels finished off I finally tackled this next.
Here it is highlighted with some black guidecoat so it would show up in the pictures and make it easier for me to see as I worked on it:
I knocked the tops of the highest points off with my run file first, then when it stopped removing much material, I switched over to the wet sandpaper. I started by lightly but thoroughly blocking the run with 800 wet until it was pretty much flush with the rest of the surface...
...then switched to 1000 grit to remove the 800 scratches and proceeded to wet sand the rest of the fender in 1000 as well as usual. Then rinse and repeat in 2000 before polishing. It turned out really well, you can’t tell there was ever anything there to begin with:
Guys, I’m just like y’all, fairly cheap and definitely not made of money. That’s part of the reason I do all my own work. I generally don’t have a bunch of fancy tools, for example doing this I had a paint mixing bucket for water, a simple rubber block, and a spray bottle to rinse away the sanding residue and guidecoat as I went. And I even had to find a new container to put the glass cleaner in so I could use the spray bottle!
😁
Next according to my pictures, I tackled the quarter panels. Same procedure as before, DA 1st with 1000 grit dry, then 1000 and 2000 wet, then polish. I find the dark guidecoat really helps gauge the progress on a white background. Simple but effective.
Most of the rest of the pictures I’ve got are of each part of the car as the paint correction process got completed on each panel, so I won’t bore you with most of them. Suffice to say, after I completed the driver’s quarter, I went on to do the grey sections under the quarter glass on both sides, the passenger’s quarter panel, and just last night I completed the driver’s door.
Somewhere in there too, I found the time to strip the front bumper down to its bare bones and give it the brushed finish as well.
On the car, sans bumper fillers which I still need to paint:
I’m really digging the look of the front of the car now with everything brushed to match. It gives it a bold and unique look IMO without deviating too much from stock.
Shortly after the bumper went on, we were finally blessed with a decent day weather-wise (we’ve had an absolutely atrocious year here for weather; rain, flooding, hail, tornadoes, you name it), so I fired it up, topped it off with some premium dino go-juice, and blew the cobwebs out of it for several hours.
And damn boys, I tell you what: it sure felt great after working on this thing night and day pretty much nonstop for the last 3 years. It was the first real chance I’d had to drive it in all that time, and it was epic!
Continued... >>>
I actually had to go back a couple pages here to figure out what the last thing I posted about was. It was about the back bumper when I installed it after giving it the brushed nickel finish. Quite a bit of progress has been made since then, as always I’ve been continuing to take pictures as I went along, so I’ll use those as my guide to write this.
Ok, so since the back bumper went on, next I returned to the paint correction work (wet sanding and polishing). I had a REALLY nasty run on the passenger side fender that I had been procrastinating on, so after getting the sail panels finished off I finally tackled this next.
Here it is highlighted with some black guidecoat so it would show up in the pictures and make it easier for me to see as I worked on it:
I knocked the tops of the highest points off with my run file first, then when it stopped removing much material, I switched over to the wet sandpaper. I started by lightly but thoroughly blocking the run with 800 wet until it was pretty much flush with the rest of the surface...
...then switched to 1000 grit to remove the 800 scratches and proceeded to wet sand the rest of the fender in 1000 as well as usual. Then rinse and repeat in 2000 before polishing. It turned out really well, you can’t tell there was ever anything there to begin with:
Guys, I’m just like y’all, fairly cheap and definitely not made of money. That’s part of the reason I do all my own work. I generally don’t have a bunch of fancy tools, for example doing this I had a paint mixing bucket for water, a simple rubber block, and a spray bottle to rinse away the sanding residue and guidecoat as I went. And I even had to find a new container to put the glass cleaner in so I could use the spray bottle!
😁
Next according to my pictures, I tackled the quarter panels. Same procedure as before, DA 1st with 1000 grit dry, then 1000 and 2000 wet, then polish. I find the dark guidecoat really helps gauge the progress on a white background. Simple but effective.
Most of the rest of the pictures I’ve got are of each part of the car as the paint correction process got completed on each panel, so I won’t bore you with most of them. Suffice to say, after I completed the driver’s quarter, I went on to do the grey sections under the quarter glass on both sides, the passenger’s quarter panel, and just last night I completed the driver’s door.
Somewhere in there too, I found the time to strip the front bumper down to its bare bones and give it the brushed finish as well.
On the car, sans bumper fillers which I still need to paint:
I’m really digging the look of the front of the car now with everything brushed to match. It gives it a bold and unique look IMO without deviating too much from stock.
Shortly after the bumper went on, we were finally blessed with a decent day weather-wise (we’ve had an absolutely atrocious year here for weather; rain, flooding, hail, tornadoes, you name it), so I fired it up, topped it off with some premium dino go-juice, and blew the cobwebs out of it for several hours.
And damn boys, I tell you what: it sure felt great after working on this thing night and day pretty much nonstop for the last 3 years. It was the first real chance I’d had to drive it in all that time, and it was epic!
Continued... >>>
Wow Donovan, All that work you did has paid off big time, it looks friggin' AMAZING! The long awaited cruise must have felt incredible, pics are great and hope to see it in person one day!!
Drivers door, hoo boy.
Let’s talk about that next. It all was actually going extremely well, I had about 99% of it sanded out in 1000 grit dry when I had an “AW ****!!!” moment. I had burnt through the clear and a bit of the grey right on the body line somehow, right by the door handle. This had to be fixed immediately before I could proceed any further.
One of the good and nice things about a base/clear paint job is the relative ease of which it can be fixed. If you know how, you can do a spot repair or “spot blend” to correct the issue. After I burnt through, I finished sanding the rest of the areas, then masked it up in preparation for the repair. You can see exactly where I F’d up, and where it needed to be fixed:
Luckily I had only sanded through a bit of the grey, the claret pinstripe was still ok. So I mixed up a little Sterling Grey, carefully spotted in the area, then unmasked back to the white a little ways down:
This is where things get interesting, and ya gotta do it right or it’ll backfire on ya. I mixed up a little clear and applied 3 coats next, each one overlapping slightly more than the previous. The paint and body guys here know exactly what I’m doing. I made sure each coat of clear was gently feathered off into the surrounding areas, then waited overnight for it to cure.
Once it had cured, I unmasked and wet sanded the new clear and the transition areas with 1000 wet to blend it into the original clear:
Success! The new clear feathered in seamlessly to the original just as it should, so then it was onto wet sanding the rest of the door.
This however, is when I discovered a SECOND burn through, this one at the very back bottom corner. So I got to repeat the whole process all over again for that one. But at the end of the day, it was all successful. I finished up polishing out the door early last night, and it turned out great:
I’m sure some of you are wondering why I’m going to such an extent on the paint job on this car. It’s not because I’m trying to make some sort of show car or anything, it’s simply because I’ve never EVER had a car with nice paint. Ever. Although I worked in the refinishing industry for years and did a lot of stuff out of the garage, it was always for others. Never for myself. Always the bridesmaid, and never the bride as it were. I’ve never owned a new car either, always got someone else’s previously abused and/or already rusting stuff when I bought secondhand.
So yeah, you could say this is kind of a big deal for me. You can’t exactly blame me for wanting to get it as good as I can.
Anyways, since I already had some grey base and clear on the go, I decided to do something about another little annoyance I found while cruising the car that beautiful day. The billet aluminum G Body Parts shifter handle I had painted with a cheap rattle can looked great, but was starting to chip and flake from the rings on my fingers, and the handle itself would get kinda tacky once it got really warm.
So, off it came, and stripped back down to raw aluminum. Then masked, hung, hit with etch primer, base and clear:
Now it not only looks great and feels much nicer in the hand, but it’ll also be a LOT more durable. It’s very glossy, but I’m gonna run with it for a bit and see how I like it. If I think it’s still a little too glossy after a bit, then I can always knock it down a little with some grey or white Scotchbrite.
Last night was a very busy but extremely productive one, I got the door handle and belt moulding installed, and the glass perfectly adjusted and sealing nicely. The glass was way off because this isn’t the original door anymore. All the window components got swapped over to this door once I had painted the inside of it.
It’s hard to believe that not even 6 short months ago, this was a dirty muddy piece of yard art that had been floating around outside for a decade!!
In amongst all this work, I also removed the rear marker lights after completing the quarters, laid some thin butyl sealant around the inside flanges and reinstalled them. This is invisible but will keep the water out of the trunk. I also installed the rear bumper to quarter panel filler panels and aligned them. This really helped finish off the back of the car, but unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of that.
I also scored a really nice 8/10 passenger rocker panel moulding a couple weeks ago, and restored it and gave it the now “signature” brushed finish. Just lots of all the little things that needed to be done to turn it from a project into an actual functioning and nice looking car.
I’ve got more progress from today to report on yet, but I’ll leave that for next time. She’s starting to really come together now, so definitely stay tuned. I’ll try and do more on my part too to keep this updated so it’s not such a monster undertaking each time.
Thanks for looking,
D.
Let’s talk about that next. It all was actually going extremely well, I had about 99% of it sanded out in 1000 grit dry when I had an “AW ****!!!” moment. I had burnt through the clear and a bit of the grey right on the body line somehow, right by the door handle. This had to be fixed immediately before I could proceed any further.
One of the good and nice things about a base/clear paint job is the relative ease of which it can be fixed. If you know how, you can do a spot repair or “spot blend” to correct the issue. After I burnt through, I finished sanding the rest of the areas, then masked it up in preparation for the repair. You can see exactly where I F’d up, and where it needed to be fixed:
Luckily I had only sanded through a bit of the grey, the claret pinstripe was still ok. So I mixed up a little Sterling Grey, carefully spotted in the area, then unmasked back to the white a little ways down:
This is where things get interesting, and ya gotta do it right or it’ll backfire on ya. I mixed up a little clear and applied 3 coats next, each one overlapping slightly more than the previous. The paint and body guys here know exactly what I’m doing. I made sure each coat of clear was gently feathered off into the surrounding areas, then waited overnight for it to cure.
Once it had cured, I unmasked and wet sanded the new clear and the transition areas with 1000 wet to blend it into the original clear:
Success! The new clear feathered in seamlessly to the original just as it should, so then it was onto wet sanding the rest of the door.
This however, is when I discovered a SECOND burn through, this one at the very back bottom corner. So I got to repeat the whole process all over again for that one. But at the end of the day, it was all successful. I finished up polishing out the door early last night, and it turned out great:
I’m sure some of you are wondering why I’m going to such an extent on the paint job on this car. It’s not because I’m trying to make some sort of show car or anything, it’s simply because I’ve never EVER had a car with nice paint. Ever. Although I worked in the refinishing industry for years and did a lot of stuff out of the garage, it was always for others. Never for myself. Always the bridesmaid, and never the bride as it were. I’ve never owned a new car either, always got someone else’s previously abused and/or already rusting stuff when I bought secondhand.
So yeah, you could say this is kind of a big deal for me. You can’t exactly blame me for wanting to get it as good as I can.
Anyways, since I already had some grey base and clear on the go, I decided to do something about another little annoyance I found while cruising the car that beautiful day. The billet aluminum G Body Parts shifter handle I had painted with a cheap rattle can looked great, but was starting to chip and flake from the rings on my fingers, and the handle itself would get kinda tacky once it got really warm.
So, off it came, and stripped back down to raw aluminum. Then masked, hung, hit with etch primer, base and clear:
Now it not only looks great and feels much nicer in the hand, but it’ll also be a LOT more durable. It’s very glossy, but I’m gonna run with it for a bit and see how I like it. If I think it’s still a little too glossy after a bit, then I can always knock it down a little with some grey or white Scotchbrite.
Last night was a very busy but extremely productive one, I got the door handle and belt moulding installed, and the glass perfectly adjusted and sealing nicely. The glass was way off because this isn’t the original door anymore. All the window components got swapped over to this door once I had painted the inside of it.
It’s hard to believe that not even 6 short months ago, this was a dirty muddy piece of yard art that had been floating around outside for a decade!!
In amongst all this work, I also removed the rear marker lights after completing the quarters, laid some thin butyl sealant around the inside flanges and reinstalled them. This is invisible but will keep the water out of the trunk. I also installed the rear bumper to quarter panel filler panels and aligned them. This really helped finish off the back of the car, but unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of that.
I also scored a really nice 8/10 passenger rocker panel moulding a couple weeks ago, and restored it and gave it the now “signature” brushed finish. Just lots of all the little things that needed to be done to turn it from a project into an actual functioning and nice looking car.
I’ve got more progress from today to report on yet, but I’ll leave that for next time. She’s starting to really come together now, so definitely stay tuned. I’ll try and do more on my part too to keep this updated so it’s not such a monster undertaking each time.
Thanks for looking,
D.
Thanks very much for the updates Donovan. The car is looking amazing. Looking forward to the next one.
Epic work, Donovan! I bet you had to go change pants after the burn-through. On the other hand, your confidence in your skills meant that no pants change was required.
What do you use as the finish guide coat? Spray paint?!? Now that make me clench...
Nice work, nice recovery, nice attitude - you've earned your reward.
What do you use as the finish guide coat? Spray paint?!? Now that make me clench...
Nice work, nice recovery, nice attitude - you've earned your reward.
Spectacular work as always. I didn't know that you never had painted one of your own cars! To say you knocked it out of the park is the epitome of an understatement.
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