Or you could paint it like a Sprint , WW with Grabber BlueThat was the response, I was hoping for because everyone was saying that they didn't believe I would paint it white and not flip-flop again to Grabber Blue. I thought I would roll with the GB story, haha.
Not sure if this is what you are looking forThank you, that would be great if you wouldn't mind. I am trying to get everything as correct as I can, just so it looks right at car shows.
I think I am the only guy I know who would want to make sure the accents are correct on the car that is completely wrong by design, haha.
I changed the color, changed the interior color, installed a built M code engine in an H code car, added a tach, console, roll down quarter windows, front and rear spoilers, basically up-optioned the crap out of it. I wanted it to be what I would have ordered back in '71 if I wasn't six years old at the time. I am trying to restore it to look correct, as best I can. I do not to wish to misrepresent the car, but just to make it look right.
I ordered a new ID decal from Marti for the drivers door with all of the correct original information on it. I will get a personal chuckle out of applying the decal that will clearly document that it is a green H code car with a green interior originally, on the new Wimbledon White paint of a car with a built M code with a black interior and all kinds of other "wrong" stuff. I figure that way if it ever gets sold, the prospective new owner will be able to see it is a color changed, non-original car, because I won't be there to tell them, and there is not a spec of original paint on the vehicle. Also, I'll be six feet under and sadly my wife won't know it makes a difference, haha.
Looks great! ChuckI got to the body shop for a couple hours yesterday morning and painted the Wimbledon White base and clear on the rest of the parts that needed to be painted white. I wasn't sure that I had enough base left over from what I mixed last week to be able to get three good coats on all of the remaining parts. My first thought was to be cheap and go thin on the hood under the blackout area to save base coat, but decided I needed to do it right and just mix a few more parts of paint.
This brings the grand total to 3 1/4 gallons of base used to paint all of the sheet metal in and out with three good coats of base. These old gals are a lot thicker than they look, there's a lot of square footage to cover there. I just thought "the fricking hood alone is six feet long alone, no way I have enough paint" (except I didn't say fricking, lol). I was right, I would have run out if I hadn't mixed more. That would have been unfortunate, if I had to mix extra for the final color coat and then hope it matched the original paint mixed. Although it is the easiest paint formula I have ever mixed, (white base, 3g of black, 6g of red/orange and voila) I still didn't want to take any chances. I used the freshly mixed paint for the first coat and then I used the paint I mixed up last week with all of the other paint on the second and third coats to make sure paint matched the rest of the panels.
I wasn't able to move the parts off of the prep station and clean up yesterday, because the prep station can't really bake it like you can in the spray booth. I will still need to go back some time today and unmask and move the panels off of the prep station and sweep and clean up. I will post more pics of the panels unmasked after I do that.
Now that everything that is supposed to be white is white (I hope), I can install and align the doors and fenders over the next couple of weeks and then back in to the spray boot to paint the black on the bottom of the car and the front and rear valences. The hood black out will also need to be sprayed eventually. Depending on how long it takes to measure and lay out the stencil and then re-measure, twice, to make sure it is in the right place, I could probably knock that out on one of the Saturdays early. If it goes smoothly, I could then work on the doors and fenders, we will see how that all plays out. I was originally hoping to be done by this weekend, as next weekend is Memorial Day and the "official" start of summer. It will be hard to get time to go to the body shop then, my wife and I try to fill the weekends up pretty quick all summer with non-Mustang stuff.
I am going to try and squeeze out as much Mustang time in the next few week as I can, without pushing any limits. Hopefully I will be driving it by late June/July. The interior won't be completed but it should be a street legal car by then. After spending too many hours over Mother's day weekend (not actually Mother's Day,, but all day Saturday) painting the body panels, I have ruffled some feathers, the feathers that I prefer to stay un-ruffled, haha. I am going to lay a little low for the next few weeks and as they say, keep my ass low and try not get it shot off, lol.
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Check out Geoff's ( @Stanglover ) mod for the passenger side mirror. With the Sportroof you'll appreciate the added visibility.I will admit that I may be a bit biased, but I still think the mirrors on our cars are incredible looking. Back in 1981, I thought the sport mirrors on my 73 Mach 1 were the best looking mirrors I had ever seen. All these years later, I still haven't found a mirror that makes me feel differently about them.
I had a little time last night after work and went out to the garage and reassembled my sport mirrors, really just for the fun of seeing how they looked reassembled with the fresh Wimbledon White paint. I can not wait to install them on my car!
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FWIW, I 100% agree with your painter on doing the blackouts after body alignment.I got over to the body shop for a few hours this weekend and started installing the body panels and getting them aligned.
It is finally starting to look like a car again, woo-hoo!
The passenger fender still needs a little attention but I am overall very happy with the alignment and gaps.
My friend Mike feels we need to install and align the doors and fenders before painting the lower black accent. I would have preferred to paint the black accents on each panel separately and then assemble. I understand his plan is in the hope of making sure the paint break line is even from panel to panel. I just felt if we measured carefully off the lower body line it should be straight once we assembled and aligned. At least straight enough for a 3/4" stripe to cover up any difference. I decided to go with his plan because he is the professional painter and I am a paint novice at best. I am trusting his experience and knowledge base, he has not led me wrong yet. Besides, it is his shop and booth after all, so as they say - it's his bat and ball, so I am going to have to play by his rules, haha.
Once we were done installing the panels, I also reinstalled the inner and outer door handles so you can get in and out of the car without having to reach into the door to release the latch. It's all about the creature comforts for me, and I always loved the look of the outside handles on these cars, LOL.
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Damn, I love the body lines of this car!
Those curves were not my favorite thing while I was block sanding in and out of each and every roll and style line. Now that's it is painted I love all of those beautiful curves again that I was cursing for months of prep work.
You are both right, I am worried about bleed in and dry spots that I don't necessarily have to deal with when the panels are separated. Next week, I am hoping to get the hood on the car and aligned and recheck and adjust the fenders and doors as necessary. After that the hood comes back off to spray the center stripe and the blackout at the back of the hood. Then another weekend, (unless the spray booth and prep station are both available) I will get the car in and spray the bottom black out and the valences. And then the bumper if I ever figure out a good way to straighten the dent on the top. A friend of mine recommended a process that I am going to try but I ran out of time to try it on Saturday, I will have to give it a try next weekend.
LOL, I am trying to get it done, believe me. To quote Danny Glover, (Sgt. Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon), "I'm getting too old for this stuff" except he didn't say "stuff" in the movie, haha.
