Andrew, update please!!!
Yeah, Andrew. I just spent 30 minutes reading this saga and am stoked to see more progress.
Hey guys! I do have updatesā¦ was kinda waiting on having more pics to share but I can definitely do a partial update.
To pick up the story where I left off, in the process of fitting panels / quarter extensions, the shop discovered that the existing paint on the body would pretty much flake right off with a razor blade if they scraped it. This basically called into question everything that was done before, and there went any confidence that the existing paint job would be a serviceable base to paint over. So the reality was, weād have to take it down to bare metal and start over. Ugggh. I gave them the go ahead to begin stripping the back of the car to see what we were dealing with.
Once the quarters and trunk lid were exposed, they didnāt look too bad in terms of the metal, but it became apparent just how thick the car was with previous paint jobs and filler.
Iām no expert but to me this looks like at least: factory red primer / factory paint, second prime & paint, third prime & paint, and finally fourth prime & paint I had done in 2012 / 2014 - with various amounts of bondo in between. There will be more pics forthcoming of what else was discovered after this, but I donāt have them yet.
So. Given how much work was left to do to get the car all the way stripped, straightened out, and repainted, and given the $ rate of the shop, and given how meticulous and time-consuming their working style is, it was going to cost well over $10k the way things were going. So I made the decision to stop there, pull the car out of the shop, and made arrangements with a friend of a coworker to finish the car. The shop was very cool and understanding about it, so luckily there was no drama in getting the car back.
Car retrieved 1/24/17 . Crates in the truck are WCCC shipments that had to go to PDX, might as well kill two birds with one stone. Thanks to Richard (āMistressā on here) for piloting the tuck and helping out.
Scott B. (CougarCJ) scoping it out:
Closeup of patched area on RH quarter. You can tell the fit / contour wasnāt great. The reproduction patch panel was used here, and I remember the guy who patched it (2011) wasnāt really a fan of that repro piece.
Rear window patch panel. Iām not sure why the shop welded the seam on the top side, itās not supposed to be done this way. Will be corrected. At least the fit with the trunk lid is way better than before.
So, after this, we took the car up to the new guy. A little about him: heās not an official shop or business, just a passionate hobbyist with a real paint booth at his house, who has been painting cars for himself and friends for years. He seems to have a good grasp of the right materials to use and the right way to prep a car for paint and all that good stuff, and Iāve seen some of his work. Iām pretty confident that he can deliver good bodywork and a nice paint job in a reasonable amount of time, without completely destroying my finances. All along, Iāve never been going for show car perfection, I just want it to be nice and consistent and shiny.
Hereās the same night, when we dropped it off:
And then hereās 11 days later, almost completely stripped:
There were issues with some of the wheel arches being crunched, and they had been re-sculpted with bondo. The truth comes out when you go down to the metal.
You can also see above that there had been a crease down the RH side of the car, which had then been pulled back out. No idea when that was, but again, it was my grandparentsā daily driver long before I was alive.
In this shot, you can see a pretty sizable dent on the nose of the hood. I had no idea that was there, it was just filled over.
So this is the most recent time I saw the car, but plan on going back in the next couple weeks. He took pictures through the stripping process and Iāll share those highlights when I get them from him. There was an amazing amount of bondo everywhere, and he said the way the paint sanded off was really weird, unlike anything heād seen before. Clearly something was very wrong with the 2012 / 2014 paint work, and most of the car was never stripped all the way down until now.
As of the last few weeks, he tells me heās got the metal work about done and is almost ready to prime / seal the car. Looking forward to seeing it, will take some pics.
And in case youāre wondering, I am planning on saving the vinyl top, so thatās staying in place and Iām hoping it can be re glued back down at the bottom after the new paint is done. It seems a shame to rip it off since itās a new, expensive premium top. I do have some doubts about the quality of the roof surface prep and paint adhesion after seeing what happened to the rest of the body, but I suppose the roof could always be redone separately down the road if it comes to that. Iām thinking itāll be okay for a while.
Thatās the update for now! ETA for getting the car back is June, but at the rate heās going it may be even earlier. Then I hope to work my butt off on it, get it togther and enjoy it this summer, maybe even bring it to the Cascade show in August if all goes well. Needless to say it feels ridiculous to start over on the body & paint at this point, and itās super frustrating, but at the same time Iām pretty excited that things are going in the right direction now and that I might actually be done with it this year. I canāt even fathom the idea of it being finished and beautiful, and being able to drive around in it.
Andrew. Looks like you made a good choice in direction.
Agreed. Itās not even my car and I kind of bummed about your experience with the previous paint guy. Glad to hear itās actually moving forward with a more satisfactory result.
Wow, I havenāt updated in a while. Almost a year! Not a whole heck of a lot to report, but progress has been made. The body guy working on it is just a hobbyist, and can only do a couple hours of work at a time, here and there. So definitely not a quick turnaround. But his attention to detail is good, and Iām optimistic that the results will be nice. Have been up there to visit it several times throughout the process. Neither of us anticipated how many issues there would be underneath the layers of old paint jobs and bondo. I donāt envy all the work heās had to do. But Iām glad to report that weāre nearly there. These pictures are from a couple weeks ago, the last time I went to check progress. This is the second to last coat of 2K primer, and he just needs to work a couple of the body lines that arenāt quite right yet. Next time I go up there, weāre going to go to the paint shop to buy the paint.
Speaking of paint, he uses PPG stuff. He normally uses the cheaper Omni line on his stuff and seems to think itās perfectly good. Or I can step up to the Deltron line, which costs more than 2X as much but it supposed to hold up better over time and maybe flow better. Anyone have experience with these? Leaning towards using the Deltron, but I donāt want to waste money for no reason.
Anyway, the big goal is to finally finish this project in 2018. Would love to finish in time for the carās 50th birthday in June, but weāll see how things go!
I am going to require it be done for the 2019 Calendar for sure!
I donāt have too much experience with PPG stuff other than their 2K filler primer that I used under the House of Kolor on the Hero.
What I can say is this: Paint is the very first thing that people will notice about ANY car. I was torn between the middle of the road products and stepping up to the highest end materials at the time. 15 years later after I painted the Hero, and it being my first paint job, Iām glad I stepped up to the high end stuff. It really made a rookie look like I knew what I was doing.
I did the same thing when painting my wifeās convertible. It was only the second car Iāve painted. People at shows and cruise nights look at me like I have three heads when I tell them I painted it myself. Then their first question is "Where is your shop? and wanting to get on my schedule.
Imagine the results youāll get with a PROFESSIONAL squirting good materials on your snowball. Besides, look how long youāve waited to get to this step. How long before you think before youāre at this point again the next time? Or is it only me who is already planning the next rebuild before finishing the current one?
Stick with the Deltron, you will be glad you did. It is a better quality paint with much richer color and it lasts the test of time. Be sure and use the DX 57 actuator in it and if youāre going to use a sealer use the white DP 48LF reduced as the sealer. I was partial to the 2055 clear but they have discontinued that and now Iām using the 2021. Auto body shops get about a 50% discount on their paints, you should try to buy it through someone local that you know.
I used Deltron Wimbledon white on my 67 GTA 13 years ago and it still looks great, pops in the sun. Compared to other paints Iāve used Deltron went on very uniformly and covered some oopses I didnāt see until spraying.
Finally.
Those of you who have been following this build for a while know (at least to an extent) what a struggle Iāve had with the body and paint, ever since the first ill-fated paint job in 2012 through 2014 (was it really that long ago?). Itās been one of the most frustrating, draining, expensive, discouraging things Iāve ever dealt with, but I knew giving up was not an option. Yesterday I finally got to see my Cougar all shiny, fresh and white again. It looks awesome. Itās not absolute perfection, and a couple little areas will need attention, but I didnāt expect perfection, and Iām very happy with how it came out. Itās waaaaaaaaaaaay better than the previous paint job.
I ended up going for the Deltron, as painful as the extra cost was, and he laid down 4 coats of color and 3 coats of clear. The lower dash was done with the same paint, but with a flattener so it has a more correct satin finish. He then went over the exterior, doing a pretty extensive cut and buff, getting things pretty darn flat and glassy.
It should be coming back to the shop next week, and I canāt wait to start bolting shiny stuff to it. Iām relieved to be done with this chapter, and excited for what comes next!
The painter took a lot of pictures throughout the process, which heās going to put on a memory stick for me, so Iāll post the more interesting ones when I get them. I think youāll all be surprised at how much work it ended up being, I know we were!
That really is like glass, looks great!
All those frustrations should be melting away about now. The paint on that car looks great. Whoever did it did a real good job for you and Iām sure he is well up to the task of some little repairs. The cut and buff is really nice. Seems like this paint job went off pretty quick too. Looking forward to see the assembly process .
Looking good Andrew! Congrats on getting this far. As the years go on, you wonāt regret doing the body/paint work the āright wayā, which takes time & good materials: no way around it.
Looks great Andrew. Glad you are still on it. In the home stretch now.
Very, very nice, congrats!
Awesome! Need to schedule a WCCC rebuild party now. See if we can get that puppy back on the road sooner rather than later 
M.
Looks great Andrew!
Fantastic, Andrew, it really looks great. (Iām hoping youāll be pinstriping, too, but thatās just me.)
Thanks all! Itās great to have it back finally and Iāve been randomly putting things together, trying to do something every night after work, and on Saturdays. I donāt really have a planned approach, I just walk up to the car, stare at it for a bit, and think of what to do next. Having the car and myself at WCCC is a huge luxury because A) itās a place to work on it with all the tools I could need, and maybe even more importantly B) all the parts I could possibly need are just a few footsteps away. I feel very lucky to have this luxury.
So before I update on things Iāve done, hereās a cautionary tale. Donāt be like me. Donāt restore your car in the wrong order. Which is to say, donāt detail your engine bay, under dash area, underbody, trunk, etc. and then have the car painted. No matter how conscientious you think your painter is with masking, there will be dust and overspray in all kinds of places you donāt want it. All you want to give a painter is an empty shell.
Obviously it wasnāt my intention to do things in this order, but I had already done a lot of work before it became clear to me that the first paint job wasnāt gonna cut it. So, now Iām dealing with the frustration of trying to clean paint off of wiring harnesses and other parts, and there will be some items Iāll have to remove and re-spray again. Kinda frustrating.
My engine bay is a mess (and this is after some preliminary blowing out with an air hose and wiping a couple things):
I might have to try to wash out the engine bay, I donāt think I can get everything by hand.
Overspray on my nice new premium hood hinges:
Since I had him redo the lower dash paint, a lot of stuff here got hit. I was hoping heād do a better masking job, and tried to make it very clear that I didnāt want overspray where it shouldnāt be. But, it happened. Not terrible but still pretty frustrating and will be a pain to deal with. The lower column black plastic wasnāt covered up at all, not were my pedals that I had redone:
Really thorough masking job here. He could have just taken the 2 screws out for the parking brake bracket, but nah.
I know most of this stuff will be out of sight, and maybe most people wouldnāt care, but it does bother me. Iāll never get all of it off the wiring under the dash that got hit, but Iām going to try to go to town with some solvent and a rag and try to get the worst of it. Just sucks to have to do this extra work when I already have so many more important tasks to complete on this car.
ANYWAY, on to the fun stuff. When I get frustrated about issues like the above, I just start bolting on shiny things, and I start to feel better. The first thing I did when I got the car back was to put the taillights back in, and to put together my trunk lock assembly. I saved my original lock cylinder, but replaced the backing plate with a good used one (mine had the little tab broken where the cover plate rests), then got the repro chrome cover plate and decal. Cleaned up the hardware and my original gasket and installed. (There is a repro gasket but we were out of stock at the time, and my old one still seemed serviceable). I was dumb at first and forgot that the conical sleeves slide on from inside the trunk, after you put the lock into the trunk lid. Then after I got it installed, I realized I couldnāt get the latch in. So, more trial and error than expected, but got it in. Luckily the taillights were ready to go, since I had already restored them (see earlier in this thread).
I also stuck my license plate holder back on. This is one item that I chose not to try to restore or repaint. Itās in pretty good original shape, why mess with it? I did previously put on new rubber bumpers though.
Then one of the next things I did was to stick down the insulation in the interior. Mostly because the box containing it was bulky and constantly getting in my way on the shelf.
My ignition switch is one of the things that got some overspray on it, so I took it out and cleaned it up. This was pretty easy since I just ran the face of it across a wire wheel, giving it that shiny brushed look. I went ahead and got this kit for the lower dash chrome bezels and knobs, and installed the ring for the ignition switch. Hereās a comparison between my original one and the new one.
Installed. The special tool is a must for doing this.
Then, I couldnāt resist putting more shiny stuff on. Maybe itās still too soon for emblems, but itās just so satisfying. Hereās the Mercury emblem on the trunk lid. What I learned putting this on is to gently file out the holes with a tiny round file (to remove excess paint materials) and to snap the tiny barrel clips into the holes first, before sliding the emblem in. Donāt put the clips directly onto the emblem studs before installing, it wonāt work that way.
Also put my rear plate on, to give the car its identity back and further motivate me. Being that this is a family heirloom car, the plate is kinda special and meaningful to me. I was looking into getting them restored, but I decided to just leave the original patina for now. Partly because I didnāt want to wait months for them, partly because I have more important things to spend money on, and partly because I think keeping them original gives it that irreplaceable authenticity. Maybe later on down the road Iāll want them to look fresh and new, but for now theyāre just going to go back on as is, with a little wax to freshen them up.
Then, more shiny. I did the quarter panel Cougar emblems and the reflectors. I actually found that the āeconomyā reflectors are nicer quality, in terms of the chrome and overall fit and finish, than the āpremiumā ones with the FoMoCo logo. Thatās another bonus of being here at WCCC, I can take parts off the shelf and compare them, and use whichever I prefer. So in most cases I would prefer to use more correct stuff with the proper markings, but this time I felt that the other option was better. Bonus that the gaskets and hardware are included.
Iām not crazy about how these things attach to the body; they use those dinky little nuts that cut their own threads into the emblem studs. It makes it kind of a one-time-use item, because if you take the nuts off and put them back on too many times, the studs will get worn down and the nuts wonāt grab anymore. If I had thought it through a little more, I probably would have used a die to cut real threads onto the studs and used real nuts. Anyway, theyāre on. The Cougar script emblems originally came with covered, rounded āacornā style nuts, to protect hands or items in the trunk, but the new ones are just plain, so there are still pointy studs poking through. Iām going to try to find rubber vacuum caps that will fit over, or maybe try to find some good original nuts. For the reflectors, I did get the repro rubber caps.
Finally, the most recent thing I did was to assemble my quarter glass. I had previously gotten my brackets rechromed, and I just bought the restored stainless frames to compliment them. Luckily my rubber surrounds were in good shape on both of these, so I just cleaned and left those alone. Will have to improvise on other pieces, stay tuned for that. But here are a couple shiny shots before assembly:
Iām very glad I bagged & tagged the tiny screws for these. Here are some things I learned doing this little project:
- Tape up all the shiny restored surfaces before you start manhandling things into place (luckily I had the forethought to do this)
- Rethread all the little holes, as well as the screws, before you even try to assemble. They are 8-32 NC.
- Lubricate the channels / rubber before pressing things together. I just used some glass cleaner, worked fine.
Here they are all assembled, with new seals installed. Also lube these with glass cleaner or similar to slide them in place. Keep in mind that the smooth part of the seal faces inward, and the āgroovedā side faces out, for the door glass to fit into. I almost put them in the wrong way. Sorry these arenāt very exciting, Iām going to leave the tape on until I get these installed in the car.
Also donāt forget the little screw at the bottom of the seals.
Well, that pretty much brings this up to speed! Not sure how much Iām gonna get done before the WCCC Open House (3 weeks away) but Iāll just keep plugging away the best I can!