patrick66
Old Man with a Hat
A profound understatement!
1969 Imperial progress thread
- Thread starter vdk2010
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Incredible!
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Absolutely!Incredible!
The work you have done in this long thread is undeniably over the top incredible.
I just have one question though, after going through all the "out of this universe" detail work and a body that would serve well as a mirror, what were the plusses and minuses you considered in deciding to mount the various parts such as doors, fenders, hood, decklid etc after each has been painted individually?
The factory painted these cars after all the various fitting had been done to avoid the unsightliness of the adjustment marks and chips of the paint from doing so? My body/paint guy insists we do all my cars already assembled and adjusted.
So given your aspiration for absolutely the best results, and you clearly have achieved every step of the way now, what were your overall considerations in this last step (e.g. maybe you wanted all the hard to access areas covered with paint as a higher priority)?
I have had this discussion with my body/paint gut a few times and decided to go with his judgment in the end.
Thanks!
I just have one question though, after going through all the "out of this universe" detail work and a body that would serve well as a mirror, what were the plusses and minuses you considered in deciding to mount the various parts such as doors, fenders, hood, decklid etc after each has been painted individually?
The factory painted these cars after all the various fitting had been done to avoid the unsightliness of the adjustment marks and chips of the paint from doing so? My body/paint guy insists we do all my cars already assembled and adjusted.
So given your aspiration for absolutely the best results, and you clearly have achieved every step of the way now, what were your overall considerations in this last step (e.g. maybe you wanted all the hard to access areas covered with paint as a higher priority)?
I have had this discussion with my body/paint gut a few times and decided to go with his judgment in the end.
Thanks!
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
I have always gone with that you paint all the removable parts to paint the difficult and or mostly inaccessible areas, then assemble, paint entire car assembled like the factory.
Actually Stan, that is the compromise that my body and paint guy also honed in on. He would not budge on painting the car completely assembled as the final step.
My hang up was that I wanted the car's end result to mimic the factory appearance but I felt that for long term appearance reasons, the compromise was best and down the road when these cars are hardly remembered (probably even now) no one would know the difference anyway!
I finally decided to paint all my suspension pieces too for the same reasons even though the factory did not paint some of them (just coated with cosmoline, etc), then out the door they went into the salt laden streets of Detroit.
Thanks!
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Honestly, I haven't thought much about the different methods before. :O
I've never assembled a car before but in my mind it was pretty obvious that you can only achieve perfect coverage (and rust proofing going along with that) if you paint every part individually.
When thinking about the assembly process, to me, preventing the paint from chipping and scratching during assembly was simply a matter of being overly careful and using a lot of tape on the edges and such things.
But I'm thankfull for every help I can get from you guys who did that before to do it the best possible way!
I've never assembled a car before but in my mind it was pretty obvious that you can only achieve perfect coverage (and rust proofing going along with that) if you paint every part individually.
When thinking about the assembly process, to me, preventing the paint from chipping and scratching during assembly was simply a matter of being overly careful and using a lot of tape on the edges and such things.
But I'm thankfull for every help I can get from you guys who did that before to do it the best possible way!
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Samplingman
Old Man with a Hat
As everyone else has said, it’s a joy to watch your progress and over the top incredible results. I do, however, shake my head a lot, especially with the plating of every nut, bolt and clip, but it’s your money, LOL.
As for painting, I have been going through mine, painting all of the interior parts, assembling and then plan on painting the entire car as one, mostly because panel painting metallics and the expecting uniform results is way beyond my skill set.
My son and I installed the front fenders after pre paint, and the amount of contorting, maneuvering, pushing, shoving, removing again and then finally using small pry bars just to get the fender to mount correctly made me glad I will be doing the finish work as assembled. These are not German engineered cars, and “ok” fit was expected, but keep up the great work, you obviously have a skilled body man on your team.
I have a question, what are the 8 layers you mention? Is that a skim coat for block sanding?
As for painting, I have been going through mine, painting all of the interior parts, assembling and then plan on painting the entire car as one, mostly because panel painting metallics and the expecting uniform results is way beyond my skill set.
My son and I installed the front fenders after pre paint, and the amount of contorting, maneuvering, pushing, shoving, removing again and then finally using small pry bars just to get the fender to mount correctly made me glad I will be doing the finish work as assembled. These are not German engineered cars, and “ok” fit was expected, but keep up the great work, you obviously have a skilled body man on your team.
I have a question, what are the 8 layers you mention? Is that a skim coat for block sanding?
Everyone has to draw a line for themselves on where to start and where to stop.
Most things I do the way I do them are incomprehensible for a lot of people. (weird sentence
)
But for me, everything makes perfect sense!
For example: I'm using mostly original nuts, bolts, clips and so on, which were rusty after 50+ years. Sandblasting them just to have them flash rust again even before reinstalling them doesen't make sense to me at all. So for me, plating them is the only logical solution to that problem.
I don't know, maybe it's a pretty German way to tackle things, but that's how I am ;)
As for panel fitment, my metal guy did a lot of the fitting and forming before CDC, so I think/hope the Doors, Fenders, Hood and Trunk Lid will fit properly. But as I said, we will attach every part to the body before final paint just to check fitment, uniformity of the body lines and such things.
I hope that's enough preparation to be able to assemble the car properly when it's time.
The 8 layers applied were: (recapitulated from memory. I hope I've understood everything correctly when my body man explained it to me. ;))
1. a special primer to adhere to the CDC (e-coat) without the need of scuffing it.
2. a layer of filler in some areas, not the entire car, to cover some "bigger" unevennesses.
3.-6. multiple layers of a very thick sprayable filler, guide coated and mostly sanded down again to get everything streight. Also included in these layers were some aditional filler on some parts like the duchman panel since they were still not perfect.
7. a very fine sprayable filler, again mostly sanded down, to achieve a very smooth surface
8. is the purple tinted primer to seal everything since some spots were sanded through in the previous step and as the last prep for the base color.
Most things I do the way I do them are incomprehensible for a lot of people. (weird sentence
)But for me, everything makes perfect sense!
For example: I'm using mostly original nuts, bolts, clips and so on, which were rusty after 50+ years. Sandblasting them just to have them flash rust again even before reinstalling them doesen't make sense to me at all. So for me, plating them is the only logical solution to that problem.
I don't know, maybe it's a pretty German way to tackle things, but that's how I am ;)
As for panel fitment, my metal guy did a lot of the fitting and forming before CDC, so I think/hope the Doors, Fenders, Hood and Trunk Lid will fit properly. But as I said, we will attach every part to the body before final paint just to check fitment, uniformity of the body lines and such things.
I hope that's enough preparation to be able to assemble the car properly when it's time.
The 8 layers applied were: (recapitulated from memory. I hope I've understood everything correctly when my body man explained it to me. ;))
1. a special primer to adhere to the CDC (e-coat) without the need of scuffing it.
2. a layer of filler in some areas, not the entire car, to cover some "bigger" unevennesses.
3.-6. multiple layers of a very thick sprayable filler, guide coated and mostly sanded down again to get everything streight. Also included in these layers were some aditional filler on some parts like the duchman panel since they were still not perfect.
7. a very fine sprayable filler, again mostly sanded down, to achieve a very smooth surface
8. is the purple tinted primer to seal everything since some spots were sanded through in the previous step and as the last prep for the base color.
Your build reminds me of a thread I followed on the first gen Cummins ram forums for years. Entitled "ultimate first gen crew cab build" he spared no expense took him a decade or so to build and the thoroughness of his work might only be surpassed by yours!! I agree with Zymurgy. Probably the best imperial!!
I would never go that far to say it's the "ultimate" or "best" build in the world or something like that.
Especially because others with lots more money then I have can realise way more extreme builds.
But for doing most things myself, I'm pretty proud of what I have achieved over the 8 years since I bought Jacky.
And there is more cool stuff to come!
Especially because others with lots more money then I have can realise way more extreme builds.
But for doing most things myself, I'm pretty proud of what I have achieved over the 8 years since I bought Jacky.
And there is more cool stuff to come!
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Make sure you get it finished before gasoline is only available at the airport!
Speaking of..
The first 2 Coats are on the Doors and Fenders.
The only bummer is the passenger side door. My Bodyman did what he could but it's not as smooth as my painter would like it to be...
But he can fix it he says. Well well, it's still a 53 years old car and it seems not everything is gonna be 100% perfect. I'm still fine with that! ;)
The first 2 Coats are on the Doors and Fenders.
The only bummer is the passenger side door. My Bodyman did what he could but it's not as smooth as my painter would like it to be...
But he can fix it he says. Well well, it's still a 53 years old car and it seems not everything is gonna be 100% perfect. I'm still fine with that! ;)
The new Leaf Springs I bought from Springs and Things have smaller Eye-Bolts because they are for cars without the rubber isolators like Imperials have.
I've chosen them because I'm eliminating the said isolators in order to been able to install a FFI rear anti Swaybar.
And since I didn't want to cut off and replace the original spring perches, I had to come up with a solution to adept the new, smaller eye bolts of the new leaf springs to the bigger holes in the spring perches made for the isolators.
I had these adapters made for that purpose. They were turned from 304 Stainless round stock and are fitting like a glove. Should serve their purpose just fine.
I've chosen them because I'm eliminating the said isolators in order to been able to install a FFI rear anti Swaybar.
And since I didn't want to cut off and replace the original spring perches, I had to come up with a solution to adept the new, smaller eye bolts of the new leaf springs to the bigger holes in the spring perches made for the isolators.
I had these adapters made for that purpose. They were turned from 304 Stainless round stock and are fitting like a glove. Should serve their purpose just fine.
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commando1
Old Man with a Hat
I'm assuming that you know CAD... LOL
You know... that color needs to be available on Challengers.
Just the basics to do small thinks like that. I wish I had the time to learn more, but no time for that right now.
I like that lecent green paint! Would buy it. I'm not a big fan of Green cars, but such "modern" greens look nice on modern cars.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Oh, that color, ya, no I don't like that ;) A lot of cars driving around like that lately and I can't say I'm a fan.
Jacky Kebab. Finally.
mallex
New Member
Nice work. I have been working on the underside of my Fury for months, dreaming that it will look like this some day soon!
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