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Date: 10-2-08 08:12
From: Colin in San Francisco 
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto  
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I haven't had time to post lately, mostly because, other than work, I've been spending all my time laboring over the car. I finally got all the welding and bondo done, which was a huge relief, until I made a horrible discovery. The passenger side tailight frame was broken when I bought the car and I didn't have a replacement until AFTER I finished putting in the rear panel. I had the seams already smoothed to perfection and primed when I placed my replacement taillight frame on, only to realize that it sat about 1" away from the body! After a bit of stress, I realized I just had to start over. I cut the weld at the seam and banged the panel back into shape. I had to re-bondo the seam, re-epoxy it, and then re-prime it, but all in all, it really only took about an hour and a half. It did, however, screw up my spraying schedule for the weekend (I have to maximize my fair weather working time). I have been carefully working around the weather inorder to spray paint at the time of day when the weather gets closest to 70 degrees. With the surprise repair, I had to put off spraying until the next evening, after work.
The above photos show the car after the epoxy primer and some 2k high build urethane primer surfacer. The primer surfacer goes on super thick and is pretty great stuff. Its very easy to block sound out all the little blemishes. I could have easily spent 3 weeks at this stage, but I am on a tight schedule, so instead, I spent 2 days.
Ann took this shot of this brilliantly restored Fiat 500 which we spotted parked outside the temple in Japantown. We've since seen it there, again, so it must belong to someone in the kendo club or something. We've also seen a nice dark gray one in the area, as well. I think it would be a really fun car to restore, but I can't really think about that right now. _________________ www.sfrecording.com
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Date: 10-2-08 08:23
From: Colin in San Francisco
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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Monday night I finally got a chance to spray on some base coat and clear. The color is "machinery gray" from "Restoration Shop." Its just a run of the mill urethane paint system. Their color selection is limited, but the quality seems quite good and I liked the color (and the price).
Everything went on pretty smooth. I had too small runs, which were actually from a blob of paint dripping off the gun (totally my fault). The clear coat was a bit more difficult. I sprayed too heavy on the final coat and ended up with some runs and "dieback" on the roof. This is when the clear doesn't cure properly and loses it's gloss. Rather than try to just buff it all out, I hand sanded the entire car with 400 grit paper and took it down quite a bit. I sanded through the clear, unfortunately, in several spots. Fortunately, I have a small Iwata airbrush that I use to paint model cars, so I used it touch up the basecoat. This worked great, thankfully, and you can't even notice the spots. Wednesday, I went back and sprayed 3 more coats of clear, this time with higher air pressure (to lessen the orange peel) and in much thinner coats. Thankfully, it cured properly this time. Currently, I'm sanding out the clear now and will be polishing it in the coming days.
Here is the "new fender" which I am quite proud off. Putting it on properly is quite a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. The front piece, that fits around the lip, is tricky to get aligned nicely. I MIG welded the top seam and then smoothed it with bondo. This should joint should out last me and never crack. The driver's side fender has been dented since I bought the car so it was a great feeling to finally see it this way.
I test fitted the rear tail lights, and everything fits as it should now.
My "seamless" corner. _________________ www.sfrecording.com
Last edited by Colin on 10-3-08 08:28; edited 1 time in total
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Date: 10-3-08 11:26
From: BLUNT in Wayzata,Minnesota, gods country 
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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wow im impressed with your skills. great job colin. _________________  
lowest pricing on new OE bmw parts
email me unkorama@gmail.com
VISA/MC
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Date: 10-3-08 04:56
From: HarryPR in Puerto Rico
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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Looking good, Colin!
Keep it up and you'll be cruising in your '02 in no time. _________________ HarryPR
BMWCCA #19290
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Date: 10-4-08 12:36
From: superann in San Francisco
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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I spent almost 4 hours last night waiting in the emergency room at Kaiser with Colin. He'd gotten a speck of something in his eye on Monday while working on the car and I was finally able to convince him that it was worth a trip to the emergency room! He'd been reluctant to go (despite my constant nagging, I might add) because it didn't hurt at all and wasn't affecting his vision... but it turned out to be a small piece of metal, which apparently rusts very quickly in the eye and should thus be taken care of as soon as possible!
The doctor in the emergency room, who we saw after about 2 and a half hours of waiting, ended up not being able to do anything for him as the speck didn't come away easily with a swab, so after another hour and a half of waiting we were finally referred to a specialist in the morning. We woke up bright and early at around 7am to see him and within minutes he quickly removed the speck (pictured above) with some kind of plastic toothpick. We thought all was well, but then he took a closer look at what appeared to be rust rings... and realized that it was another more deeply embedded piece of metal, requiring slightly more invasive digging to remove!!! DOH!
The good news is that the piece, though fairly deeply embedded, hasn't actually pierced the eye and Colin's vision is still perfect (without glasses even). Also even this more invasive type of removal procedure isn't that uncommon. The bad news is that we need to make another trip to the emergency room on Monday morning so another specialist can do the removing, with other staff on duty in case things get a bit complicated (we sure hope not).
Anyway, Colin's very lucky as this could have been much much worse! The lesson to learn is that you should ALWAYS wear safety goggles when working with power tools!
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Date: 10-6-08 07:49
From: H_Krix in Atlanta, Ga
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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MAN that looks like a painful little speck. Glad to hear you're okay man, but really - GOGGLES!
Check the blast radius...
I've never had to learn the lesson the hard way. but my grandfather was a Machinist and hammered this stuff into both my Dad's mind and my own. Stay safe out there! _________________ 
click signature above for my resto blog
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Date: 10-6-08 08:00
From: Colin in San Francisco
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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Man, the eye thing is scary. I go in today to get the last little chunk out. I do wear goggles usually, but this was such a classic situation where I was finishing blending in the weld on the new fender, and my goggles are old, scratched, and hazy so I couldn't see clearly enough. I probably ran the tool for less than 45 seconds without goggles, and I don't remember feeling something hit my eye, but obviously, it happened somewhere in that time frame.
Anyways, the obvious lesson is that its worth it to go out and get the best eye protection you can get and to always wear it. I am lucky that it actually wasn't anything that bad and it mostly just caused some discomfort and redness in my eye.
There is a second little piece which should be coming out today, but the doctor said it could actually just be left in and heal over. I jokingly told my girlfriend that its like there will always be a little piece of the car with me, where ever I go... _________________ www.sfrecording.com
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Date: 10-7-08 11:53
From: Colin in San Francisco
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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Update:
My eye is feeling pretty good, thankfully, although I do need to go in tomorrow to get some rust scraped out.
I have been sanding out the clear coat, which has been a slow process for several reasons. 1 is that I first tried to to do it with 2000 grit, then 1500, then 1000 before settling on some 800. I realize I may need to go back over it with 1000 and then 1500 before buffing, but that really depending on how much work the buffer can do on the scratches.
I feel that I should have sprayed the clear at an even higher pressure and with more volume (ie. putting it on heavier). I was conservative in my last few coats after experiences some dieback on my initial passes. Lesson learned.
I sanded through the clear in a few places and had to go back and touch it up with my little Iwata airbrust which, somehow, manages to lay down the clear coat like glass. This is what really made me start to think about upping the air pressure with the big gun.
So most of the body has been wet sanded with 800 grit and I should have a polisher soon, so then I'll know where I'm at.
Thankfully, I've left most the doors, trunk, and hood for last so I will have the benefit of experience when clearing those and maybe I won't need to sand so much. _________________ www.sfrecording.com
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Date: 10-8-08 10:12
From: Colin in San Francisco
Subject: ...
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| Jimbosocal wrote: | Colin,
Maybe I didn't see it in your messages, but is your car originally from California? Mine spend all of its life in San Diego. I was amazed at how little rust it had. After seeing some blogs though, I hate to remove the rubber around my windshield and rear window. From what I hear, this is yet another place where our cars rust.
Just curious. How are the eyes doing?
-Jim |
I am pretty sure the care is a California lifer (like myself.) It has a very old looking sticker on it from a detailer in Palo Alto, which is a pretty good sign since Palo Alto is an affluent area with excellent weather.
The only bad rust was the areas under the window seals, a low bit on the fender, and the bit on the front skirt. The trunk had some around the inside seam, too, but nothing major. Also, there was the usual surface rust underneath the trim pieces. Not too bad, compared to what many people have to deal with. I'm grateful.
My eye is much better now, thank you. It took several trips (mostly to being shuffled off by one doctor) but they removed the initial chunk and then today I had a rust deposit pulled out. That was TERRIFYING. The doctor (who was amazing) used literally, a 3 inch long needle to pick it out of my eye. I had no idea that this is what the procedure was going to be until I saw the needle coming at my eye. I really freaked out (I usually can keep calm). I think some sort of instinctual fear kicked in and I just panicked. The doctor had Ann hold my head into the head rest and to help keep it still. Its REALLY hard to hold your eye still and keep from blinking when you are not only looking at, but FEELING a massive needle in your eye.
PROTECT YOUR EYES!
If you have the misfortune to get some metal in your eye, the key is to go in straight away so it doesn't rust! _________________ www.sfrecording.com
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Date: 10-12-08 11:50
From: esty
Subject: Re: ...
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looking good mister...i really should spend some time on this forum....i like the color...
i've used TCP Globals Restoration line and it's good product for the money...as a matter of fact, the wimbledon white on the 69 is their line..it sprayed equally as well as the double priced, green dupont i use
i have a gal on the shelf now ready to paint my e30 _________________ 
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Date: 10-29-08 01:02
From: superann in San Francisco
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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So the car is looking sweeter than we could ever have imagined! There are a few small touch-ups to make, but the horrifyingly expensive 3M polishing and glazing compound (did not expect that to cost so much!) and laborious hand sanding have really given us some excellent results! Pics will have to come later as Colin wants to wash the car before showing it off here.
The back side windows and doors are now back on. If you want to avoid scratching you'll probably need two people for the doors, preferably one person who is fairly strong and one person with small hands as getting those bolts back into the hinge through the small access hole is a real PITA.
For the back window and upper part of the door seals we used a blunt screwdriver to push the rubber in which was sort of trickier than we expected! Make sure to tuck/glue the headliner in first and lay the seal down over it. To get the bottom of the door seals on we cleaned the mold release off the seals and then used clear Permatex weatherstripping cement. The tubes they come in are fairly annoying... If you've ever worked with rubber cement this stuff looks, feels, and smells the same, so using a small brush like the kind that comes with rubber cement also works much better to get it to spread evenly. We followed the directions and applied to both surfaces and they're on just fine.
Using the glancing blows trick in the windshield install FAQ, we were also able to get the back windshield in ourselves! We're currently shopping around for a front windshield, but if all goes well we'll have a new PPG in by the end of tomorrow.
So we'd almost be all done with the body... except that we unfortunately hit a snag with rust in the inside lip of the hood which is unreachable with our tools. Can't find anyone who will agree to sandblast the thing so we reluctantly have to get the hood acid dipped. We're hoping it won't run us more than $150; dropped it off at a local shop yesterday and will have to wait until next week to get it back. Hope the good weather holds out for getting paint on this last piece!
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Date: 11-17-08 01:40
From: Colin in San Francisco
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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| Jimbosocal wrote: | Colin and/or Ann,
How is the car coming along? We haven't seen a post in while.
Hope the eye is doing better too!!
-Jim |
Hi Jim. The car is almost done, actually. We just hadn't taken any pictures as it has sort of looked the same for a few weeks.
The big delay was the hood, actually. It had lots of rust around its seam that I could not effectively remove with abrasives. After doing some research and shopping around, we took it to Durafinish in San Mateo and had them dump it in their rust tank and then phosphate. It worked out very well. The cost was under $150 which I think was very reasonable. It took a little over a week, though.
We have all the glass in and the car is pretty much assembled now. The window scrapers, turn signals, and the kamei front end need to go on and that's it! _________________ www.sfrecording.com
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Date: 11-17-08 09:43
From: superann in San Francisco
Subject: Re: 1974 Rolling Resto
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Hey Jim, thanks for asking! I guess it's about time for a photo update.
The hood is finally on after some trouble getting the torsion bar on correctly. Here it is after a lot of sanding and the first round of polishing...
The car's been sitting out here in the driveway for quite some time now so pardon the dirtiness. We need to do a few small touch ups and do more polishing before giving it a thorough wash! We also reinstalled the front windshield and seal this past weekend to get it seated in better. The lockstrip installation was surprisingly much easier than expected and we didn't have too much trouble with it, except for the very last bit getting the cap into the seal.
The end is in sight!
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