Rust Repair!

[dhbfaster]

Really looking forward to seeing the final product....(I wonder if your wife is related to mine?) I'm following the same philosophy...get mechanical all done first, then go to body, paint & upholstry. (and there's a lot of stuff to be done..) Are you also going to have them paint the engine compartment or trunk inside? Mine needs all that.
Do you mind if I ask which Maaco you went to? i know Kenny also had a recomendation and wonder if it's the same one.

[ew1usnr]

Do you mind if I ask which Maaco you went to? i know Kenny also had a recomendation and wonder if it's the same one.

Hello, dhbfaster.

It is located at 5409 Anderson Road, Tampa, Florida. (It is probably not the one that Kenny was recommending.)

The last time I had a car painted was my 1977 Dodge Colt in 1983. I tried to sand it myself, and bought a sandpaper disc that attached to my drill motor. I went over the car with it and then had it painted. It didn't turn out well. A girl told me that the car looked like it had a leather finish.

I didn't do any prep work myself on the Falcon because (based on my experience with the Colt), I figured that I would probably do more harm than good. Maaco said that they would just put masking tape over the side trim and window trim rather than remove it. That sounded good to me because if they pulled that stuff off, they might bend it or not be able to get it back on.

[redfalken]

i know Kenny also had a recomendation and wonder if it's the same one.

The local Maaco that gets good reviews and did Patrick's final base/clear is in Seattle, near Westlake & Mercer.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/maaco-auto-b...inting-seattle

[ew1usnr]

Are you also going to have them paint the engine compartment or trunk inside?

No, just the underside of the hood. Someone else had previously painted the engine compartment and the inside of the trunk. They look OK, but they unfortunately painted over all the wiring under the hood and inside the trunk with black paint while they were doing so. That has made tracing wires and figuring out color codes somewhat difficult.

The guy at Maaco sent me some updated photos today. They have finished the rust repairs and "will start sanding and prepping the rest of vehicle this week".

On the right and left quarter panels I asked him to keep the seam visible that runs along the top of the rocker panel to the rear fender. He traced a groove to replicate the original seam.

Left quarter:
Left quarter s.jpg

Right quarter:
right quarter s.jpg

They also repaired some rust on the tail:
Tail s.jpg

Here are the front end left and right. The car looks like a 1960's gasser hot rod with the front bumper removed:

Front s.jpg

right side s.jpg

[ew1usnr]

The paint shop has had my car for over three weeks now. I hadn't heard anything from them for a couple of weeks, so I stopped by today on my way home from work and saw that things are coming along very nicely. The manager (Danny) took me back into the shop and explained what they had been up to. He said that everyone who had been coming by to see their cars had been looking at my Falcon and asking if it was for sale!

Danny explained that they had hand sanded the car because they didn't know how much bondo it might have, and if they media-blasted it the bondo would be blown away. They sanded the hood, roof, and trunk down to bare metal and didn't find bondo, but he said that the paint had been really thick and that they had filled the shop up with dust from all the paint. He said that it looked that there had been maybe nine layers and that some of it had been lacquer (the car originally had baked enamel). He said that the thick paint was why the finish on mine had looked cracked and wrinkled.

They sanded the hood to bare metal and filled a number of small dents and dings to make it smooth.
hood.jpg

They also sanded the roof. He said that it had no dents. They will paint the bare metal with self-etching primer, and then sealer, then the base coat, and then clear coat, and buff it when they are finished.
Roof.JPG

The manager said that the trunk lid was the most dented, but they had sanded it down and filled and smoothed all the dents. (The trunk lid was probably dented from 50 years of setting grocery bags on it.)
Trunk lid.JPG

[dhbfaster]

Exciting stuff...wow 9 layers! I thought mine would would have more paint than any other car out there but I've been trumped. It sounds like you're really getting your money's worth. Can't wait to see the final product, I hope mine will be ready to paint by Spring time.

Thanks for sharing!

[Luva65wagon]

It makes me SO NERVOUS seeing the trim and tailights, etc left on. I've seen so many post-paint job scuffs on these things. Tape won't keep a sander from sanding the trim. I know, most of it's hard to remove, but the taillights and grille are not hard to remove and would be better to paint below them than around them.

It's looking very good though - I hope it comes out to your liking.

[ew1usnr]

It makes me SO NERVOUS seeing the trim and tailights, etc left on. I've seen so many post-paint job scuffs on these things. I know, most of it's hard to remove, but the taillights and grille are not hard to remove and would be better to paint below them than around them.

True, but .... removing items has its own risks.

Point noted on the tail lights. I am not eager to insist that they be removed because that would require detaching the wires and all the wires were painted black when a previous owner painted inside the trunk. The paint guys will not want to get involved with figuring out the electrical wiring. It (hopefully) would not be terribly difficult for me to sort out in their parking lot before driving the car home, but it might be easier to avoid that issue by just taping the lights and carefully sanding around them.

It would be easy to remove the grill, but it looks like it would be OK to cover it with paper and leave it in place. I won't be painting behind the grill. They have already sanded the hood. They do need to sand the "lip" below the grill, but it doesn't seem necessary to remove the grill in order to do that.

For each trim item removed, there is a chance that it might get bent, screws or nuts or the part itself might be lost, or they might scratch the paint while re-attaching it.

The side trim strip on each side is held in place with probably twenty attachment points. The strips could be bent while trying to pull them off. The insertion holes could be rusted and make it difficult to re-attach the trim.

Removing things like roof-gutter trim, window and windshield trim, and door handles would be nice because it would avoid the scuff issue and allow painting beneath them. But, that would be a lot of additional work and time is money.

I am not expecting perfection out of this, but am hoping for something a good bit better than what I had going in. We shall see. The manager said that he expects to "start shooting color" this coming week.

[redfalken]

Well, do want you will but I agree with Roger on removing what you can of the trim. You'll be happier in the end. I've seen too many cars where you can tell things were masked when you look close and I just think "Why?"

As far as the taillight wiring goes, just use some masking tape and a Sharpie to label the corresponding terminals and you'll have both lights out in 30 minutes or less.

Just be careful with transporting the grille but I would remove that for sure. While the paint job is getting finished, use the time to put the trim on the bench and give it a spit shine. Maybe touch up the black paint if needed. If you pay attention when transporting, the risk of damage is minimal.

I would even take five minutes to remove the antenna bezel and drop the rest into the finder a little before they tape the hole. Just leave enough antenna sticking up to grab it when you're putting things back together.

I know I wouldn't want someone cutting and buffing around trim that I could easily remove. High RPM disks can suddenly skip and just a fraction of a second on the trim can leave a nasty mark! In a perfect world that wouldn't happen but why take the chance.

All of the side trim hardware to reattach it is available repop. I'd remove those if it was my car. Same with door handles. The stainless trim could be left on and masked. Stainless is pretty tough so risk of damage is minimal.

So, just my 2¢. Paint is a pricey piece of the restoration process that you won't want to redo anytime soon. Not a good place to skimp IMHO.