No, the beer is not missing. It is after the job, so you can celebrate, not inebriate while doing the job. Get it straight..........or it may not be. :thumbsup:
Ok ok... It's just my diecast model '69 GTO, I have never been able to find a good '68 diecast, but I did use the JD Buff primer and JD Blitz Black. I've painted this model 5-6 times to try out different paints and colors. The model is the best swatch you can find, IMHO.
American Muscle put out the 1/18" scale 1968 GTO. I bought one about 8 or so years ago at a retail store, so I didn't get raped on the price. You can get one on Ebay, but not inexpensive.
There is presently a 1/18" scale '68 GTO in the Royal Bobcat colors. About $90.
And, there was also a Revlle 1/25" scale 1968 plastic kit put out several years ago. I purchased 2 of those at a hobby store.
The temporary paint booth has been erected and used last night. I didn't close off the end since most of the spraying was done in the garage and on the body's doors and quarters. For that it worked nicely. I will need to do something different for when I shoot the whole car as the legs of the canopy got in my way and they were very difficult to get by maintaining good distance and consistent lines back by the quarters.
I put up 4mil plastic up in the garage and hung the fenders on the back wall, I'll get a picture of that tonight. Everything came out really good, I shot some Slick Sand high build filler primer, so I will block sand tonight and tomorrow then re do the booth. A neighbor says he will let me use his 12X20 harbor freight party tent. I'm going to give that a try for the next stage, which is applying the sealer primer to everything.
I can't get this image to populate rotated in the correct orientation for the life of me...
The weekend was spent doing the final prep work and erecting the final paint booth. Cleaning, spot filling, dusting and final masking took up most of the day. By the time I was ready to shoot primer the temp dropped into the 70's and was only 10-15 deg off of the dew point. I will be shooting today as it appears it will be dry enough when I get home from work after I get my hood on the stand there in the foreground. A quick wipe down with tack cloth over everything and I'm off and running. I'm aiming for a light coat and 1-2 wet coats of the Buff primer sealer. If time permits I will hit the jambs, gaps and hidden edges with the black too. 3-4 days later I'll get the bumper, fenders and hood installed then shoot everything with the JD Blitz Black.
I love that my boy photo bombed this one... lol. These are the memories I will cherish the most, my goofy boy.
All primed and sealed. I have to wait 36 hours from when I laid it down so I plan on hitting the jambs and gaps with the final paint Thursday, install the fenders, bumper and hood Friday and possibly shoot the whole thing Friday evening or Sunday. It's very exciting!
After the body panels are reinstalled and I have my garage back I will prime and top coat all the trim and vent window parts. My shoe box of a garage would not accommodate the two tables I would have needed to paint all of that plus the space to hang some of it.
The primer is much more dark amber in the flesh. The canopy makes it look like a light pastel but the shot of the bumper is the closest to reality.
Today's progress...
All the jambs, gaps and such are all painted with the final coat of John Deere Blitz Black. Temp was about 76F and humidity was in the low 50%. I mixed it 8-1-1 paint to JD thinner and the recommended hardener .
I took these a couple hours after it was laid down and was to the point where I could touch. I am very happy with the outcome and am excited to get the body panels back on to shoot the whole thing. I will test the paint in a discreet spot tomorrow for hardness and make a decision on if it's hard enough for me to handle and install.
The paint has been laid down! I am quite pleased with the results. There is some over spray in a few areas that make it look a little streaked but I tested a spot and it appears it will wash off. I'm going to let it cure for a couple weeks before I wash it but in the mean time I am so stoked. A few tweaks of some body panels and she will be ready for reassembly of trim, gaskets and seals. I have since installed the new door seals and trunk seal. I'll be painting the trim and vent window pieces then reinstall in the coming weeks.
For an inexpensive paint like this John Deere Blitz Black I am really happy with how it laid down. It was really easy to shoot. In the sun it's not a deep rich black like the Hot Rodz Boulevard Black I originally wanted to shoot. At the right angle there is a hint of some red to it, almost brown, but it is extremely subtle and the light and angle have to be just so to notice it and this is me being nit-picky. It has an incredible sheen which ads a depth I love. It's not flat at all and the high gloss i sprayed on the spoiler is a nice contrast...
I started adding some LED’s. Dash lights and tail lights so far. Huge difference and completely unnoticeable as an aftermarket upgrade. Safer and much brighter.
Trim is going back on! Rockers, drip rails, door handles, locks etc... I'll get a picture today when i install the snorkels I finally painted high gloss black. The contrast looks awesome. I might repaint some of the trim pieces in a high gloss black too for the subtly contrast.
On a sad note.... We had a storm blow through a couple days ago and there was a burst that took the canopy the car was under and turned it into a pretzel... there are a few deep scratches on the roof, paint chipped off the edge of the door handle and some bad scuffs on the D/S door, 1/4 and pillar... I'm pretty upset about it and now looking for remedies for getting the scuffs out of this paint. I read a few promising things and will do some testing. The unfortunate part is, this paint once fully cured can drive nails and I've read it is very difficult to scratch and probably would not have suffered the same damage had it had more time to cure. It takes weeks if not months to fully cure though. Over night it is hard to the touch but weeks for it to be hard as nails.
A buddy lent me his air brush so I can touch-up the door handle and possibly the scratch on the roof that went through to primer...
Finally working on the valance. It was in really rough shape. It's obvious it's had quite a few hits. Since they aren't too expensive to get replaces I'm not going to break my back trying to get it perfect. It's dented so badly in a few spots I'm worried about oil-canning once I hammer it out from the metal stretching. I did manage to get 90% of the dents out though and started to apply filler. I was blown away at how much filler was applied to it when i was stripping it. It was about 1/4" thick in an area that was completely straight. I don't understand people. Also, most of the dents did come out with just 2 hours of hammering. If i spend half a day on it I could get it really straight but that's when I'd be worried about the oil-canning so I'm going to leave it as is. I imagine someone proficient would have gotten more out and smoother than myself but rather this thing was loaded with filler.... it absolutely baffles me...
It looks like a lot of filler in the image but it's the second coat and has yet to be sanded. The first coat was thin and took care of most of the small dents. The second one looks like it may be the last one but I have a lot of sanding to do. I will probably take most of it off once done. I tend to lay it on a little thicker than I probably should which causes a lot more sanding work for me but still, it's not too terrible sanding it down when you have the right materials.
After this I'll be putting her away for yet another winter...
Oh! So I took her for a long drive in the neighborhood and discovered something... I had yet gotten her up to speed enough to shift out of first since getting her driving this summer. You'd think I would have learned from the last time I took the Transmission out.... So I had been getting nervous about the shuddering she was doing off the line and why the hell I had to have her up in 2-3K RPM to get her going and having to ride the clutch for so damn long after she started rolling. I have a bigger cam so I just chocked it up to that and it's a new friction plate on the clutch so I thought that was the shuddering. Turns out I was not starting out in 1st but I was starting out in second. I stupidly installed all three linkage plates in upside-down which completely flipped my shift pattern. 1<-->2 and 3<-->4 and reverse was left and down instead of up... oye... That is the second time I had done that. I did it the first time I built the engine back in '04. Lesson learned? not so much. I'll be taking care of that first thing next spring when i get her out of hibernation.
I also got the axles squared away with respect to installing 1/2-20 studs. It turns out after removing the stock studs the holes were the perfect size to tap with 1/2-20 threads. So I went with screw-in studs instead of press-in studs. It turned out really nice and now I have the same lug nuts all the way around with the correct 45deg taper for these wheels.
Here is the latest photo shoot... with the gloss snorkels installed and sans valance...
Thanks man. Both myself and my goat were born and raised in California. She was built in Fremont; I was born in Santa Clara and raised in Hollister. I've been stuck in NY since '03... She used to be my daily driver back home too... Damn I miss the West Coast. A few more years and I'm out of here. I still have the original black and gold plates on her too and never will a NY plate be installed if I can help it. I still get registration in the mail. Johnny law will probably give me a hard time eventually. Stop and collect... or is it serve and protect...? Sometimes I just can't remember.
There is something so satisfying about hammering out dents and laying down some smooth paint...
Here I've laid down some black epoxy primer then two wet coats of Slick Sand high build filler primer. It's getting damn cold up here and it took two days for the filler primer to dry completely. Next is guide coat and block sanding then I'll lay down the JD Buff sealer/primer, JD Blitz Black and then she will be all done. I can't wait to get the valance back on to shoot some photo's with the lights on showing off the LED's.
The valance is done! I'm happy with how it came out and love the LED's! The pictures don't really do justice on the richness of color in the LED's. They are a bit washed out but they are damn bright and look great against all that black! Now it's time to finally tuck her in for the winter...
Back at it again!! What on earth is going on with this site... why did they have to go and ruin the method for inserting images?!?!?! Now every single image on this thread is gone. What the hell is the point of even continuing. A huge portion of the value of this thread and many others is gone now. What ever. Obviously someone knew this would happen and calculated the decision anyway. I can't believe the page developer had no idea this would happen...
Back to the project...
It's been a long winter but an early spring! I have started a couple projects and one major event has happened... For the first time in 10 years she finally has a registration sticker and for the first time in 15 years I will take her out and just cruze... I have the same damn butterflies in my stomach the first time i bought her and drove her out of the neighborhood back when I was 19.
The first can of worms I've opened is securing my fuel cell. Up till now it's just been floating around my trunk and since I've only been driving around the block at 15mph that hasn't been a problem. So I went to a local steel supply outlet and picked up a 20' length of 2" x 2.5" angle iron and got to cutting. I'm about 80% there. Half way through I had second thoughts about the top portion so I have to cut my tack welds on that part and rearrange it. The bottom and sides are all set and ready to be painted and permanently mounted to the trunk floor. I'm depating just strapping the cell to what i have so far. all i really need at this point is something keeping it from falling out in the event of a rollover. I'm happy with it and it's not gioing anywhere...
Second was soundproofing. I purchased 50 sqft of Kilmat 50mil sound deadening material, just enough to do the floor, roof and doors. I've heard mixed advice on installing it. Some say 50% coverage is adequate and anything over that is a waste of material and yet others say 100% coverage... So I went somewhere in between. Super easy to install and WOW what a difference! Especially on the roof where there are no ribs or bead rolls or any feature to reduce vibration. I also installed a product I saw on a restoration YouTube channel. The material is from a company called Bonded RV Products. It's a thermal barrier material made of recycled clothing material, mainly denim. There are a lot of products like these out there but the price was right and it certainly does the trick. I installed the Bonded stuff on the floor pan/firewall and will also install it on the roof to protect against the heat of the sun. I'll need 2.5 orders of it to cover all these surfaces (4' x 6' sheets).
Third... Time for a new shifter. I will keep my original and possible rebuild it and freshen it up but I had a Hurst Indy shifter and wanted to use it. The throw is much shorter, smoother and tighter than my original. The problem is all the interference it presents. It's a universal kit and in order to have such short throws it sits really high to support the geometry needed for the desired results. This means modifying my floor pan in that area and modifying the shifter cover to fit. I am happy with it overall. I will be improving it with a great product by 5speeds.com. It's a product he developed, hardened steel bushings and much better springs for installing the linkages to the plates and shifter.
Headers have been pulled, wrapped and reinstalled. I was this damn close to throwing them away and investing in over sized factory headers from Ram Air Restorations but that would have required other changes and would have put me back nearly a grand in the end. I'll see how this wrap holds up on the headers. If they are still melting my lower control arm bushings I will make an additional heat shield as a last ditch effort.
I must say though... They do look perdy in that particular wrap. I installed DEI's lava wrap, not the fiberglass wrap.
I have also installed a new shifter/linkage kit. It's a Street Super Shifter. I am so happy with it. Some modifications to the floor pan were needed and the shifter cover plate will need to be either hand made or the original tweaked in order to fit. The throw is incredibly short and tight. The reverse lockout is really light, however, and therefore if one is too aggressive attempting to get into first they can find themselves in reverse without knowing it. There is no provisions on the shifter for a reverse light switch as it's a universal shifter so I'll need to get creative there. I'm thinking of just mounting a rocker switch under the dash for the reverse lights if nothing else.
Finally I am able to enjoy her! I took her out LEGALLY on Easter Sunday, (Zombie Day) for the first time. It seemed fitting since she had risen from the grave lol! With nice weather on the horizon I lan on putting some good miles on her this year. I have already racked up 100 miles on the couple nice day's we've had since Easter. A few hundred more and the clutch should be broken in.
Next up is having a shop dial in my alignment better than I was able to do with jack stands, string and a ruler, and a tint job on the windows to finish off the look.
Hi Everyone,
In dismantling my 1966 dash bezel, I noticed that 2 of the 4 heater control bolts have stripped threads, so the "speed nuts" cannot be tightened fully.(most of the threads are good, except right at the bottom so nut cannot be fully tightened) I believe that the studs are pot metal...
Hey Everyone - I'm in the process of a '66 restoration and have a question for you. I have a solid set of 1967 bucket seat cores and was planning on installing new 66 foam, upholstery, and seat backs/bases. However, I do like the locking mechanism on the 67's. Is it possible to install 66...
I thought I would start sharing my restoration story. I have a 67 GTO I purchased about a month ago. It has blue exterior, black interior, bench seat, automatic on the tree, PS, 4bbl, 2.93 posi, AC and that is about it. I bought it from the original owner and so far, it looks like everything...
The question was asked about the front fender wheel well splash shields found over the A-arm mounts and front area of the wheel well. These are rubber material and are held on by steel staples.
This is from my '68 Lemans and may be all the same for the '68-'72 A-bodies as the frames are about...
Someone suggested I start a restoration page for my 1965 GTO restoration. The story behind the car is my dad purchased it when I was in high school and we had visions of restoring the car. I moved away due to work and it had been sitting at our family land for some time, things began to...
A forum community dedicated to Pontiac GTO owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, troubleshooting, maintenance, history, and more!
...3-2-1 Cali haters chime in
