IML: Rough day in the garage

[Kenyon Wills <imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx>]

Alrighty.  

I decided against paying someone else to paint my 72. 
I'm presently low on discretionary funds, and there
were plenty of raw materials in the garage anyway, so
what the hell?  Go for it I says.

I spent the morning using the DA to sand down the
crummy respray that is on the hood and valence below
the front bumper, taping everything off, and then
grabbed the catalysed primer that was on the shelf.

My wife has a 1960 Pontiac Catalina that she got
hammered, and it's not improving in her ownership now
that she's distracted with other hobbies like washing
oiled sea-birds, but that's not my problem and it gets
her out of the house on Saturdays for no-distraction
work in the garage (hooray).  

This primer was for her rust-bucket, and I'd planned
to sand blast it and then use this stuff, since the
spray-paint paint job didn't seal the body and it has
a nice coat of surface rust blooming.  I'd forgotten
that I'd specified that route when the gallon of
catalyzed primer was purchased.

Most primer I've used gets mixed with thinner and
sprayed.  Using one that needs a catalyst actually
seals the car body to prevent rust, where just primer
does not seal.

I merrily mixed it up and started spraying.  

Problem was that it came out in lumps and was far too
solid to atomize and lay down properly.  I figured I'd
knock it down with sandpaper later and sprayed the
whole hood and valence.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but that crap is about as
hard as a diamond when it cures?  Now I have a surface
that looks like skateboard grip-tape or man's stubble
on the car, and it just doesn't want to sand down.  I
rapidly formed an opinion about that and tried to
extract myself from the quicksand, but the day wasn't
over yet.

Lazy-ass that I am, I went to the hardware store on a
lark and bought sandable primer and tried to lay a
coat down on top as an experiment to maybe fill in the
low and knock THAT down so that things would be flat
and smooth.  Can't go wrong for $8.

I am a fool at times, and that went pretty much.....
wrong.

Did I mention that I'm trying to shade-tree my way to
doing this project on the cheap?

Yeah, well that didn't work either.  When I put
sandpaper on it, it immediately went straight down to
the little mountain peaks of the first coat and the
surface got even worse.  I think it was actually angry
at me for thinking too much.

The good news was that I had a can of Jasco Paint
stripper that I'd been kicking out of the way on the
garage floor for the last two years, so I poured that
on, figuring I'd just do a scorched-earth policy and
start over.  That worked OK - pulled the two primer
coats up and softened the crappo secondary paint job
that was still there in patches.  Amazingly, the
factory paint resisted it, and that jasco was a dream.

So I just got done sanding the snot out of the flat
part of the hood for the last 4 hours.  I'm thrilled
to think of all of the hand sanding in front of me on
the valleys on the side of the hood where the seams
are.  I'm sure that there are areas on other cars more
resistant to mechanical sanders, but I don't know of
many.  

Good news is that I have more time than money, and
that's what this project is calling for about now.

Next step is to knock down the remaining residue, get
it smooth, retape, and purchase some non-catalized
high-build primer.  I've had stuff that just turned to
powder with 600 grit paper, and boy I sure did miss it
when I was going after that sealer stuff with the
80grit DA and getting nowhere fast.

Once it's all prepped, AGAIN, I'll flow some gloss
black onto the hood and valence, to make the car look
sinister in the rear veiw mirror of my fellow road
users - Hardtop Imperials really do look best in black
or very dark colors in my opinion...  (Don't tell my
white convertible - verts seem to like lighter
colors...).



After that I get to use the 3 foot sanding board and a
lot of body filler to straighten the sides out for
painting the rest of the car an aluminum.  There are
some ripples and dings, but nothing major and no rust,
so it should not be as much drama as the 196o was (see
my 196o Epic on the 1960 page).  

If I can pull this car off, I'll probably rotate back
to getting the 196o into color and sealed next, since
once again, I have more time than money just now, and
the other stuff on the GT will require some silly
money to move forward in the stereo and sway-bar dept.

Oh, and one other thing:  It looks like it's a good
idea if you're a deep thinker like me, but don't go
putting a 1962 power steering pump onto a 1970 engine
in your 1972.  The larger pulley turns the impeller
slower, meaning that if you're below 2000 rpm, the
power steering goes away and you look like an ape
grapling with your steering wheel in parking lots.  

I normally like my power steering the most under 2000
rpm, so I guess that I should have grabbed the other
PS pump instead.  It's only time to swap that out, so
while it's not "good" news, at least it's not all bad.



Kenyon Wills
 
 






















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