Body paint

Well, the game plan has changed. Drastically. I got and accepted the job at Oregon State, and I have less than a month to finish the project... or at least to get the car to a point where it's not in a bunch of little parts... so no more messing around. No more mister nice guy. I want to have the body connected by the weekend of the 16th and I want the car in the body shop early the following week. I ought to be able to do it unless I can't coordinate with Matt S to weld on the rear apron.

So all of last week was shot - 3 days in Oregon, one day wondering whether to accept the job offer, another day racing, assorted errands, and who knows what else. Ditto Monday. But now, I'm on task.

Tuesday the main task was prepping the body. I finished brushing (yes, with a power tool) - the wheel wells, underneath the rear bulkhead, underneath the gas tank, and where the body mates with the chassis. I didn't remove all the undercoating - I just brushed over it to see where it was loose and where it was solid. Anywhere it was loose I removed it and looked for rust. Anywhere it was solid I just left it in place. This was a very dirty job. Very. After using a power took to jettison dirt all over my body, I degreased and cleaned all surfaces and prepped for paint. The most annoying thing about this is that I can't wear gloves when working with water cause the gloves get all soggy, and I've been tearing up my fingers against pieces of sheet metal.

I then primed all surfaces and put a light topcoat on one (it was all the paint I had in the shop). Here are some before and after pictures of the area underneath the gas tank:

Like I said, the first top coat was very thin for lack of paint, but I'd say it's looking pretty damn good! Here are a few more photos of the area where the apron was removed, the rear bulkhead, and the rear wheel well:

You can see in the wheel well how I'm not treating the parts of the undercoating that are in good shape. I would say that this is another successful day. Not much left for the body to be ready. One more day painting - maybe two with dry time, reinstall the apron, new firewall and seals in the engine compartment. On the chassis side, I need to clean the engine, install the tins, and clean and paint the rear. This last one is the most time-consuming, but the nice thing is that since I have work to do on both the body and the chassis, I won't lose as much time to drying time.

I did a bit of work on the chassis today - adjusted the clutch and removed the fan cover. I'll see if I can squeeze it into the powder coater. If not, I may just reassemble it as is, or paint it, or buy a new one. We'll see.

Today: 5.5 hrs