> I am now considering pulling all the chrome myself and having a "low cost"
> shop fix some of the body stuff and spray the car. Would I be worse off in
> five years for having done this? I really want to be able to drive the
car
> more and mechanically it is in pretty good shape. I just don't drive it
due
> to the needed bodywork and bad chrome. Fortunatley I got lots of decent
> chrome off of the parts car before it moved on to parts car heaven.
Where are you located at?
I'm kind of in between an amateur and professional bodyman. That means I've
done cars, but I don't do it for a living. I know a bunch of people who do
quality work and do it inexpensively, but they're in Southeast Texas.
I'm going to tell you what I would do in that situation, and I don't mean to
imply the other ways are the wrong way. First, if it's stored inside you'll
have more flexibility as far as time goes, if it's outside, well, you're
going to be up a creek if you let it go longer. Even covered parking,
though better, isn't as good as a garage hooked up to a house. Second, you
just said it needs bodywork. My Imperial needs body work because the right
rear fender is all but gone. What's yours like? 6 grand from a high
quality body shop means a little, but I've had quotes for 1500 bucks to fix
a dent in the fender from a high quality body shop (insurance claim, needed
a really high estimate to go with a medium and low one). Third, what kind
of tools do you have? Have an air compressor? If you have a decent sized
one, you could all-metal it and paint it yourself, and farm out the welding.
I'm a lousy welder so that's what I do. Lastly, what are your goals for the
car? Do you want a museum piece? This will require lead and there's not a
whole lot of shops that do that. Do you want something nice but driveable,
you can use allmetal filler. You want something that looks better than it
does? Use bondo. There are good fillers that fall in between allmetal and
bondo, so you have some leverage there. I use dynaglass and dyna-lite, and
they hold up pretty good and are relatively inexpensive but not crap like
bondo.
If it were my car, and it had typical Mopar problems, like rusty trunks,
rusted lower fenders, and the sill panel where the window sits, I'd cut out
as much of the rust as I could and take it to a guy who can do good welding
work to patch the panels. I'd shoot a coat of epoxy primer over the area to
be filled to seal the metal from the filler. Then if it's lower fender
work, I'd use dynaglass to fill in the welded area (a good bodyman will make
the patch panel lower than the surrounding metal as it's easier to fill than
to raise), because dynaglass is fiberglass filler that's waterproof and
won't absorb moisture. Everything else I use Dynalite. Then when the
filler has been put on, sand it down with 36 grit and fill in the low spots.
Then sand it with 80 grit until it's level. Then sand it with 160 grit
until it's smooth, then hand sand it with a block (never sand with your
hands direct on the paper) and 220 grit. Then I'd shoot a coat of Epoxy
Primer over it. PPG makes a good one called DP-90 that's about 50 bucks a
quart and you could probably cover most of the patch spots with a
quart+reducer. Then I'd shoot some primer surfacer over it, then block sand
it with 220, then 400 grit paper. You could probably even use 600 if you
like. I try to go in no more than 120 grit increments unless it's
unavoidable. Then I'd seal it with a good primer sealer. Then I'd use a
basecoat system like PPG DBU. You could wet sand it with 1000 if there's
any problems with the base. It's a bit expensive but it's extremely
durable, and you definitely want to make sure you have a good clear over it
that's compatable with the base. Then you could polish it out with some
professional polishing compound like Meguiars or Mothers. Don't buy the crap
at the auto parts store, you want something that's quality. You might want
to shoot a self-etching primer first so that will remove microscopic traces
of rust that can come back and haunt you.
If you have a compressor, you can use a Sharpe Cobalt gun which costs about
130 bucks. You want HVLP and ONLY HVLP as most municipalities have rules now
prohibiting non HVLP guns. Gravity feed ones flow better than siphon feed
ones, though there are those who will contradict me. Use what you're
comfortable with. You want a 1.3-1.5 tip on it, so decide which paint you
want to shoot before you buy the gun, as the paint corporation will advise
you the best tip for the gun. A bigger tip does not mean you're going to
get better flow, actually, the smaller the better but you could go too
small. Add a moisture filter for 6 bucks and you could even add a regulator
as well. I wouldn't use a taiwan gun for anything other than primer. A lot
of pawn shops sell used guns, and if you look for a quality HVLP one like
DeVillbiss, Sharpe, Binks, and the best being SATA. I use a SATAjet MC-95 I
found for 90 bucks at a pawn shop. It's about a 400 dollar gun and puts 90%
of the paint on the car, so it's definitely worth the extra expense if you
plan on doing more than one car. If you paint it yourself you'll need a
"space suit" and a good respirator (20 and 30 bucks minimum respectively).
You should have a DA sander and an inline sander, the DA being required, the
inline you may be able to get away without one.
If you go to a juke-joint like MAACO, Earl Scheib, Fact-o-bake, you WILL get
what you pay for. They're not going to spend a lot of time masking.
They're going to spay cheap paint. They're going to weld patch panels OVER
the rust and fill them in with cheap Bondo. They're not going to do much
sanding, they're not going to do much prep, and if they wipe it down between
coats you're probably going to be one of the lucky ones. You will get orange
peel. Most of those paint shops work lasts 2 years or less.
Even if painting it is something that scares you (which it really shouldn't
if you take time and effort to do a good job), you can still do a lot of the
smaller items yourself and that will reduce the price considerably. Sanding
is something all of us can do, and a lot of the cost of a paint job is
mundane stuff like sanding.
If you're anywhere near Houston, I'd be happy to help you out. I have most
of the equipment and can loan it to you if you promise to treat it better
than your own stuff. If you're somewheres else, go find an adult education
program at a JC/Comm Coll, and take their autobody program at night. If you
don't want to do that, at least talk to the person who runs the program and
ask if they know a student who does good work and would like to make some
extra cash.
Ray Funke
69 Fury 3 ragtop
70 Imperial LeBaron 4dr HT
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