72 Grande Coupe project, starting Fall 2017!

[vikingsandpintos]

Finally got the cowl repair done. Went pretty smooth. I already had the heater box off, and pulled the dash structure so I could get to the bad spot from underneth. I really didn't want to have to undo the top of the cowl. In this case, with just the 1 bad section in the lower cowl, this was what I decided to do. Here is the bad section. I wire wheeled to get into good metal, then cut out the bad

 

[vikingsandpintos]

Old cut off part

 

[vikingsandpintos]

New cowl, marked and cut out a replacement piece with body saw. Hated to cut up a new panel like this, but it was all I really needed

 

[vikingsandpintos]

Welded in new piece. Pro tip, when welding upside down, use ear plugs. Cause nobody likes that sizzle when slag gets in your ear!. As I'm not the best welder in strange positions, I did lots of like tack welds. Then back over them. I then checked in the dark garage and a flashlight looking for any gaps missed, and touched up a couple of spots.

 

[vikingsandpintos]

Then some grinding, a liberal amount of brushable seam sealer just in case, and a touch of paint, and all fixed! Being under the dash, and doing it just for me, I wasn't too concerned with making it look too pretty. Just don't want leaks anymore, lol! Ready for some re-assembly, but that will be another day. I am going to make a repair thread for the cowl with this same info, hope it helps someone out there

 

[vikingsandpintos]

Onto outer body paint! I painted the bumpers and some small parts. Also did the hood, using the stencil from Graphic Express. The lights make the hood look pinker than it really is, and the black is hot rod matte black but wasn't fully dry when pic was taken so looks more glossy.

 

[vikingsandpintos]

Fenders were also painted off the car, not sure what happened to the pics. On the right fender, I got a few clear coat runs. I sanded the runs and buffed it, and looks decent. I did burn thru a couple of small spots, and am going to just dab them with paint and q tip. (Again, not a show car, just going to be a driver). I painted all this in 1 batch, off the car.

 

[vikingsandpintos]

Onto the body itself. That was an adventure, lol! Remember, this is the 1st street car I have painted... Got the primer and sealer done ok. Sprayed the color on inside of doors, deck lid, and jambs. Not bad, also

 

[vikingsandpintos]

Got body ready, primer and sealer. Sprayed the color and clear, but didn't really come out too good. No runs, but after the runs on the fender, I think I sprayed the color too dry trying to avoid runs. I got a more grainy texture, and when I sent the fenders on the car, it didn't all match good. Thought about it a few days, and decided to respray the body color. I scuffed it all, and re did it, color then clear. I was much happier with the 2nd try.

I do wish I had spent more time on the roof, but I will live with it. The car was a Grande with the vinyl roof, so it was pitted badly. I thought I did a better job filling than I did, in the garage under the led lights shining straight down, the spots show in the fresh paint. I did buy a special color match flashlight, that is supposed to look like the sun, to check paint. I turned off the led lights, and used that, and didn't look as bad, so I'm thinking in the real world outside it will be livable, lol.

The pic makes the car look a little darker that it is

 

[vikingsandpintos]

I sprayed the bottom blackout on the sides, turned out pretty good. I got out the stripe kit out to sort out the pieces, and ran into a problem with the deck lid. The kit is the Mach I hockey stick set. As it turns out, the coupe decklid, like mine, has a shorter face than the fastback sportroof ones. The fastback key lock is also lower, as opposed to the coupe that is more in the middle. So, there is not room for the Mach I lettering above the stripe. I am trying to decide how to proceed right now, if I want to put the stripe on, or what.

 

[vikingsandpintos]

I got the rear end of the car mostly together. New taillights, as the old ones were crap. I added the honeycomb panel, and new gas cap. the bumper was a pain, I had it on and off several times trying to get it even side to side, and finally realized the stock brackets had 1 that was bent (Must have been banged before I got it). Bent it back best I could, and got it looking more even.

Got the deck lid looking decent, but had to slam it pretty good to latch. It was at the max adjustment, so I unbolted the bracket from the car, and slotted it more to get it raised up a little, and now the trunk latches much easier. The lid was not wanting to close even side to side, no matter how i adjusted it the driver side was a little low. I finally drilled the body and and put a rubber bump on it to keep that side up a little when closed, worked out good, much more level now when closed.

Went to put the valance on, and realized the top screws are behind the bumper, so had to pull that back off, mount the valance, and bumper back on. Always something, lol!

 

[Sheriff41]

Nice progress!

 

[tpj71mach]

Looking good! Really coming together nicely

 

[vikingsandpintos]

The spoiler was a little tricky. Again, made for a fastback, but on a coupe. I drilled the holes using the template (More details in an earlier post in this thread). The mounting studs on the coupe come thru a curved part of the underneth, I assume the fastback is flat there. So I used some longer studs, and used plastic stock as spacers. One bolt on each side I had to angle the plastic to match the lid. The other, didn't have to angle but used it to space out the nut so it didn't hit the curved part.

I also don't really like how close the ends of the spoiler are to the body. I have a buddy with a 3d printer, I might see if he can make some spacers to move it up. Would just have to put longer studs in, leaving it as is for now. But that is on my list to upgrade once the car is actually going!

 

[vikingsandpintos]

Annnd, this was one of those days......

Went to put on the lower transition stripes over the blackout paint. Using the Graphic Express set. Got the right side all taped in place like I've seen in others videos. Tape at the top to make a hinge, flipped the long piece for the door up, and sprayed the included water/soapy stuff on the car and back of decal. Went to peel the backing off, and no peel.... It kind of gummed up, and shredded! I had to more or less scrape off what I could, before setting the decal in place to smooth it down.

The top layer then came off ok, but by then I got a lot of wrinkles in the stripe. I worked out what I could, but its not right. I am going to leave it for now, and see what it looks like when the car is in the open (Hard to look at it good in the small garage), but will probably have to remove that piece and put another on.

The rest of the lower pieces all went ok, once I learned to tape, hinge, PEEL THE BACKING OFF, spray it and lay it down. Many bad words were said, good thing I was alone!! But I am determined in this build to show my mistakes and all, to hopefully help others to avoid problems. I didn't take pics of the stripe yet, but here is some of the shredded backing I had to scrape off when it was wet, instead of 1 long piece!