Eric's 33 Build #583

[kraftee]

Leaving the body on was my decision. After having it on and off the car several times, I felt there was a pretty good chance that I would damage it reinstalling after paint. Plus, I wanted my body guy to be able to actually mount the doors, hood, and trunk on the car when working them to be sure of best panel alignment - and to eliminate possible interference when opening doors or trunk.

Body work was the part of this project that most concerned me. I tried to fit and gap the panels as best I could. As it turns out, I made LOTS of mistakes in fitting the panels. If they had painted the body off the car, the end result would be far inferior to what I am getting this way. So far, I think it was the right decision for me and my lousy body-fitting skills!

ERIC

[kraftee]

Finally! We are getting color! They have started spraying parts with ground coat. Areas that will be completely hidden when the car is temporarily assembled for the full painting are also getting the translucent mid-coats (like the underside of the hood.) Not great light in the booth - but loving the color!

[erlihemi]

Looks great Eric!

[Barrel]

Very impressive Eric. I love that red you have chosen and those engine side panels will look grouse. (adjective : Austral/NZ informal.)
Pleased to see that you kept the doors and their frames assembled for the paint job too.
Cheers,
Neil

[wallace18]

Looks Great! I like the red better than the yellow.

[kraftee]

Stopped by for my weekly visit at the body shop and all the pieces (except the body itself) now have the metallic red base coat on them - with the translucent mid coats and clear on the undersides and edges. Shannon is going to put the car into the booth on Friday - and it won't come out until it is painted. So, he'll paint it with base coat, do the dash, trunk lips, and door jambs with mid coats and then clear the whole thing to protect it. He'll also paint the underside of the trunk lid and the waterfall. On Sunday morning, I plan to go in to help him finish up. We'll reassemble all the panels onto the car, scuff the whole thing and then he will lay on the midcoats. Finally, we'll disassemble the body panels and everything will get clear coated. Monday, everything will come out of the booth and it should be ready to buff. Getting pretty excited about finally completing this project!

[kraftee]

....AND we are in the booth and starting to put color on the body! Groundcoats and clearcoat to protect until Sunday morning, when we scuff it, hang the body panels, and then start laying on the midcoats!

[Dodgeman]

Eric,
Did you mount the body permanently before paint? I am thinking on doing the same.

[kraftee]

Yes. Felt like it was the best way to get uniform paint coverage and to prevent damaging it on re-install. It was a b1tch to mask, but I think it was the way to go, for me.

[wallace18]

Looking good!

[kraftee]

So I spent the entire day at the body shop helping painter and bodyman extraordinaire, Shannon Woodruff, finish the painting on my 33. We started by DA'ing and scuffing the entire body and all the body parts to get them ready for their midcoats. We had put some clearcoat on to protect the groundcoats on Friday evening and needed to knock the gloss off so that the midcoats would adhere properly. When Shannon was finally happy with the scuffing, we assembled all the body parts loosely onto the car. After lots of wiping down and blowing off, Shannon laid on an "orientation" coat of clear, then three midcoats of the translucent red. We then disassembled the body again in order to back tape it and paint all the door jambs, underhood area, trunk lips, etc. with midcoats. The reason for all this is that Shannon was very concerned that the color would not match perfectly unless all the panels were mounted where the were going to stay when the all-important mid-color-coats were applied.

So, at this point, pretty much everything was ready for final clear coating. Shannon cleared the body and a few smaller parts, then, once it had set, we pulled all the tape off, put the wheels back on, and pulled it out of the booth. After taking pictures and drooling over the beautiful paint, we loaded the rest of the body parts into the booth for their final clear coats. Since Friday evening, the car has gotten a total of 14 coats of primer, groundcoat, orientation coat, midcoat, and clearcoat.

So the car will stay at the body shop this week until it's ready for sanding and buffing. Then I get it back for final assembly. Can't wait.

[kraftee]

Some more of today's pics.

[erlihemi]

Eric, wow what a weekend! I probably will be painting mine with body on also. The Red looks great and deep. Ready for summer cruising now!

[wrp]

Really looking good

[kraftee]

Stopped by the body shop yesterday. Shannon has finished the waterfall and also the inside of the trunk lid. He says that he should be able to sand and buff the body itself early in the week so that I can bring it home and begin installing instruments, clean the interior, and get it ready for the body panels at the end of the week. I am also upgrading my speed density EFI system to mass air - with 30 lb injectors, 75mm throttle body, 76mm MAF. That way it will be ready for the inevitable performance mods - camshaft, heads, etc.

[kraftee]

WOW! When we finished painting the car last Sunday evening, I told Shannon that it didn't really need sanding and buffing. Was I ever wrong. I picked up the car today and the newly buffed paint looks deep enough to reach your hand into! I can now begin reassembly of the main body while Shannon finishes sanding and buffing the hood, trunk, doors, hood sides, etc.

I spent over 25 years as a Mercedes-Benz dealer and I can honestly say that this is the most beautiful paint job I have ever seen. Blown away by the quality of the work. Pictures do NOT do it justice. Now, if I can just avoid scratching it...

[wallace18]

Very Nice !

[erlihemi]

Super!

[WIS89]

Eric-

WOW, great looking paint job! It came out just terrific.

I look forward to seeing her all back together.

Great paint choice, and great choice of painter; well done!

Regards,

Steve

[Mick Scarborough]

nice

[Svtfreak]

Dat color tho!

[kraftee]

Yes. Ford Ruby Red Pearlcoat. Ford color (Glasurit Paint though) + Ford engine + Ford rear end = "Ford" Hot Rod!

It's killing me now waiting for the other body panels to be sanded and buffed. So, just working away at little things. I am also waiting for my Mass-Air conversion parts (updating from Speed-Density EFI). So, more waiting - then I will be gone on business...hopefully, everything will be ready when I get back in a week and a half...

[kraftee]

So, took the red eye back from Seattle last night. Tried to get some sleep, but, unfortunately the baby three rows up screamed bloody murder all night. Not fun. But, in the spirit of trying to stay awake until bed time tonight (hopefully avoiding getting lagged), I picked up the newly sanded and buffed doors at the body shop this afternoon and set to work.

Before I headed to Seattle last weekend, I had already pulled off the fiberglass blasting FFR mufflers. It was a GIGANTIC pain. Ended up having to disassemble the entire system and sledge hammer the mufflers off of the pipes. Prior to reinstall, I wrapped the new Flowmaster Delta 40s with Heatshield Products' "Muffler Armor". Supposed to reduce heat by 70%. Hope it works - it was pricey enough! Anyway, the install went pretty smoothly, only having to trim a total of about an inch from the front and rear pipes to make them fit the slightly longer mufflers. They sure look more purposeful than the originals - and I KNOW they won't choke me to death on fiberglass particles!

I am waiting for my new Mass Air computer to get here (hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday) so that I can climb under the dash and change out the old Speed Density computer. So, since I will need lots of room for legs to stick out of the door of the car for that project, I decided to only mount the passenger door today. And since Shannon was kind enough to fit the doors during bodywork and drill index holes in the hinges and door frames, the door literally fell into place with just a little moving around until the finish nails dropped through their holes.

All in all, a really good day for one tired guy and a very red hot rod!

Eric

[wallace18]

Boy! That is looking great!

[DaveS53]

A well done custom paint job should look far better than any paint job on a production car.

Next time you need muffler insulation, try this. My kit had enough to wrap all the way around two oval muffler and put two layers on top. Maybe I bought a kit for each muffler.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/dei-010455/overview/

[kraftee]

I don't really want to offer FFR a ton of free advertising, so I have pretty much decided not to put the colorful badges on the car. I also decided I did not like the FFR logo in the middle of my steering wheel. So I filled the horn button with JB Weld, sanded it smooth and made a vinyl sticker that, I think, really looks great and sets off the interior.

[erlihemi]

That's cool! I have a Plymouth horn button for mine and I may do similar for the wheel caps.

[kraftee]

So in the continuing saga of "Body Shop Keeps Teasing Eric by Getting One Piece Per Week Sanded and Buffed", I picked up the waterfall and installed it today. I used fender welting between the waterfall and the body. Looks great and gets rid of that raw edge. As soon as the car is all together, I'm taking her to my upholstery shop for them to fabricate a convertible top boot and also a removable pad similar to the one that comes with the car, but narrow enough that it will work with my Rod Tops soft top in place. That should make the seat belt slots a little less obnoxious.

In the pictures, you can also make out the fiberglass "glove compartment" behind the seats where FFR intended the battery to go (mine's in the trunk.) The last pic shows the inside of the compartment with the hidden master ignition cutoff. There's a 1" lip at the front of the box to keep stuff from sliding out, and the box is carpeted. VERY happy with how that all came out!

[kraftee]

Really loving the Hagan Fatties. Worth every cent.

[H R Lucky]

Great Job Eric, it really looks nice.

Nevin

[kraftee]

Thanks Nevin. The hard work and waiting are starting to be worth it as the painted body comes together - ever so slowly.

I picked up the hood side pieces on Friday afternoon and just installed them this morning - along with the headlights. Some time back, I cut the hood sides so that they would be removable without having to remove the headlights (which is a royal PITA as you all know.) So that means the little forward corners and headlights are now installed permanently! The hood sides themselves will come back off this afternoon so that I can take them to the boat factory tomorrow and glue in the mesh with Plexus methacrylate. Then, I'll spray the backs of the hood sides with flat black and reinstall. When I was at the body shop, Shannon showed me that the hood and trunk lids are already sanded and just need to be final buffed. So, I SHOULD have everything sometime early next week. Fingers crossed.. I am really ready to finish this car!

Meanwhile, I.S.T. keeps jerking me around with my fuel injection parts. After pitching a fit that it's been over a month, they finally sent half the stuff on Friday. Of that stuff, half of IT is wrong. REALLY beginning to wish I had bought everything from Summit! Oh well. The car will eventually run again, I'm pretty sure...

You can see the headlights pretty well in the pictures. I don't know if I mentioned it before (probably - I'm just too lazy to go back and re-read my posts), but the FFR chrome headlights started flaking off large sections of chrome after about a year, so I bought some very nice Deitz-type stainless headlight buckets from Speedway - and then adapted their Delta Xenon lights with integral LED turn signals. Ended up having to put bigger, brighter LED amber turn signal bulbs in the headlights and it was a LOT of cutting and grinding to adapt the Deitz buckets for horizontal mounting. But the end result is worth it. HUGE increase in the amount of light produced. Who knows, this hot rod might even be safe to drive at night! BTW, since I used the integral LEDs on the headlights for turn signals, I just glued some amber LED strips onto the bottom of the grille (visible in the last pic) as parking lights. You really can't see the strips at all unless you are looking for them from directly above - or they're on!

[kraftee]

When I installed the standard FFR door sills, I really didn't care for the sharp, unfinished outer edge. So I bought some cheap fender welting from Speedway and glued it to the back side of the sills. REALLY happy with how it came out.

[kraftee]

Parking lights.

[H R Lucky]

The sills look good with the welting on. I don't think I received any door sills from FFR, what box were they in?

[kraftee]

According to my FFR inventory list, they were part of Group 33254 "Hot Rod Mounted Aluminum". So they must have been taped to the body, I guess. Been WAY too long for me to remember! If it helps, the FFR #s are 33927 and 33928.

[H R Lucky]

Thanks Eric, I'll check my inventory sheets.

[kraftee]

Bonded the mesh into the side panels today with Acralock 2-part methacrylate adhesive. VERY tough stuff. Some boat manufacturers use it to glue stringers into hulls. We use it to bond the hardtop onto the cabin of our new TT35. Suffice to say, the mesh ain't going anywhere!

[wallace18]

Where do you get that stuff? I need to get some for my GTM.

[wrp]

Love the Sills, I have the Dr. Ruth Sills but I like the full length of these

[kraftee]

Hey Tom. The mesh came from a company called Custom Car Grills. www.customcargrills.com. How much do you need as I have some left over that you are welcome to.