1974 Rolling Resto

[Colin]

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.

[Colin]

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.

[indisguise]

Colin,

Loving this build, I cant believe you are at this stage after so little time. Congratulations and fantastic work. Keep up the work and thanks for sharing.

And yes I love that fiat!!!

Lance

[BLUNT]

wow im impressed with your skills. great job colin.

[HarryPR]

Looking good, Colin!

Keep it up and you'll be cruising in your '02 in no time.

[superann]

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!

[Bomer]

Glad everything is ok....

[Jimbosocal]

Ann,

I'm glad you were persuasive enough to hav Colin get checked out. I know us guys are, if it ain't broke, it doesn't need fixing. I'm glad everything turned out alright.

Rust in the eye does not sound like something ANYONE should get!!

Thanks for keeping us posted. Let him know he will be driving that car in now time at all.

Keep it safe.

-Jim

[H_Krix]

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!

[Colin]

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...

[Tommy]

You're doing very nice result. Especially considering the circumstances and your experience! I like the color too.

[Colin]

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.

[Jimbosocal]

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

[Colin]

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!

[esty]

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