Sorry, that really jumped out at me and if you were to find another body man now would be the time. Keep on truckin' and I do appreciate all the work you put into saving this and the 77.
It's customary to sand the whole car to bare steel before smearing mud and the car appears untouched. Even if he's stripping as he goes it would be real easy to get lazy and fill over dirty steel. I'd say running it through a TRUSTED media blaster first would have been a good investment.
Agreed. Whole car or at least complete panels should be stripped before anything else. I would expect the fenders and doors to be off at this point. Post more pics. It doesn't look good at this point.
I'll be talking to him this morning!!! I've seen 2 finished cars of his and they looked great. One was a 64 impala that he painted a few years ago and the other is a VW that he painted last week. He assured me that each panel is being sanded down to metal FIRST then bondo. He sent me pics that I didn't want public and the roof and fender and quarter are sanded exactly like he said. I actually don't want the doors off, it wasn't a breeze getting the doors lined up in the first place and I doubt he could fit them properly. All the fenders are coming off for final bondo and sanding BEFORE paint. Thanks for looking out fellas!!
body guy just wrote me: The area where there's actually bondo is grinded before the actual bondo is put on. Bondo will definitely not stick to rust or if it's not grind it with at least 80 grit sandpaper. 80 grit sandpaper or is enough to take out the rust for sure . Well I guess it would technically dry but then you could peel off with your fingers
Fenders will come off for sure but it's easier doing Body work on those with them on the car. So we are using the angle grinder with a 36 grit disc to grind rust off . This is our procedure for this type of work. Is this ok or did you want to get it blasted because by the end of today we are going to be deep into it. A lot of my friends and customers are car people so if there is any of your friends that you want to ask about the procedure I'm using now is probably the time. After the body work is done I am going to sand the car down with the 40 grit sandpaper to knock off the rest of the rest then I'm going to Lay an etching primer after that a fill primer. After that we block sand . How does all that sound?
Cool build,lot's of work for sure.Just so you know,if you do not neutralize that rust after blasting/grinding with a product like Ospho (phosphoric acid) it will come back to haunt you..big time. Just trying to help. Keep up yhr good work.Love those Willy's coupes!
I use a phosphoric acid tile cleaner I get at home depot. Works great to neutralize rust. I dilute it with water and then use a scoth brite pad to scrub the panel. Let it sit for ten or so minutes, then wash the panel off thoroughly with normal water. Turns the rust black and then you know its dead.
I truly value all of the opinions about my car: I found some ding a ling on craigslist to come to house to do bodywork on my race truck years ago. I paid him $1500 and the truck still has straight panels with no cracking 10 years later. If I were spending $30K while letting it sit in some high dollar paint shop for 3 years I would expect to do the "extras" but we all have to remember, this is a race car! I will be setting tools on the front bumper, resting the hood on asphalt and beating the crap out of this car as much as I can!! I hope it never happens but who knows, I may pile this car into a guard rail someday at 150 mph!
I tried and I can't do candy paint in any color! No red, blue, orange, yellow or silver. I really like the stock willys colors with the gold colored interior and trunk. Not sure which color but it'll be simple and factory, ugly or not it's not going to be typical gasser!
I need to get my hands on about 44 factory bolts to bolt fenders to my car. I'd like to not use hardware store bolts, any ideas?
There's a place down here (San Diego) called Topeco that has tons of old bolts, screws, trim clips, etc.....maybe there's a place like that up there too? Their specialty is interior trim clips and fasteners, but you never know till you try with them. Only downside is you can't call about anything, you have to bring a sample in for them to match up. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I like the factory paint idea. I am going back to the factory mint-blue paint on my ford gasser too. I honestly am prob just going to spray some cheap single stage paint on mine. It is also going to be primarily a track car and I honestly dont want super super shiny paint or having to constantly worry about chipping and blah blah blah. Thats no fun to me. I like a dull, almost flat look personally. I think it looks better like that once you get lettering done on the car.
Factory color 1940 Willys Defender Blue would look awesome with gold flake interior and gold leaf lettering. It's a darker blue thats on the wheels of this 40 pickup:
Check out repro bolt kits that restoration guys use. For example complete front sheetmetal bolt sets are available for 55 - 57 Chevys. These would all have the correct bolt head style and markings for 55 - 57 Chevy front fenders, inner fenders, radiator support, etc. Course, the bolt thread and length would have to be checked out, to see if they are the right size that you need.
seriously bro, your painter does stuff WEIRD. but whatever works right!? now lets get that thing in some color!
He's not doing it the way I would choose but I'm going to stay out of his way and see how this plays out. I kinda dig the dude! At least he's not taking three months to do bodywork, not over charging and I do see bare metal under his bondo. Two things I hate in life, coming up with a band name and choosing car color.
He's not bonding over rust, he's sanding an area and working on that area before he moves to next area.
Close to the same destructive reconstruction miracles as Sibley for real......it's that lunacy that made me put on the brakes to spectate in the first place. Lots to rubberneck for.....great stuff.
it looks a lot better than that rust river trout you started with, how do I find your other willys build?
This is the direction I'm heading and I think elgringo said it best: You are definitely on the right track. To can't get more period correct than that and if you get rock chips its no big deal. In this case the paint color is just the back ground for the sign painter to perform his magic which becomes the focal point of the car and let's you take in all of the little details without a in your face color. I think the important thing is that the paint color and lettering color work together and that the letter style is vintage like on the 3 window coupe. Then you have to decide what to put in the lettering. (name of the car or speed shop or sponsors etc). The yellow Reinaro willys with the black lettering is also an example of this style.
There are lots of Willys gassers in various shades of reds and blues (and black, yellow, antique white and green). Not a TON of gold ones. I'm not a gold guy usually, but for some reason gold strikes me as a good choice for this one. Not a bright yellow gold, but a darker antique gold like that '62 Chevy posted by Torkwrench would look great IMO.
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