Plus ,due to the sculpting of the body panels,it would be easy to mask off a two or three tone paint job.
It is my first time doing a full restoration on a classic car but I am a ASE certified master tech so I do work on cars for a living. Most of this classic stuff is new to me but a car is a car pretty much.
I'm doing a two tone. I actually just bought all the paint and bodywork supplies. Holy shit paint is expensive ! I did buy high end paint but damn $670 a gallon . well I'm not doing all this work to put cheap paint on so oh well only money. I've stopped keeping track of how much I'm putting into it at this point lol
colors are very close to this pic . Interior will be as close to the same colors as I can get . won't be 57 Buick original interior but will be 50's style.
Do you have some kind of manual that shows where everything goes or are you going off memory? I'm trying to piece together a Caballero wagon and am hoping to find exploded view diagrams.
Since I'll be painting soon and don't want water messing up my expensive ass paint I built a manifold / water trap with some copper pipes. I know I didn't have to make the horizontal parts as long as I did but I bought the pipe in 10' sticks so was trying to work it out so I used it all. Close to 80' total. Put ball valves on the down pipes to drain water. Also added a devilbliss 3 stage filter / desiccant dryer to use when painting. I never soldered copper before this but it was easy and it works great no leaks. I ran it for a while with a sander and did get water out all the downpipes. Still got a good amount of water in the first little filter but compressor was running pretty hard working the sander and I didn't notice any water getting to the tool so it should do good for painting especially after running through the new dryer. I'll get a new hose for painting too.
Irrigation system to keep the dust down!I remember my neighbor painting a Cutlass Supreme who hosed down his garage floor before shooting the copper paint.Came out great with no dust in the finish!
Beautiful car. Love the progress, but I think you will need to flip these calipers or you will have a heck of a time bleeding the front brakes.
Yes I know about the calipers. I didn't leave it on just wanted to test fit it and just grabbed closest one. Haven't posed in a while still plugging along on the body work. Its almost all done now. My family car Taurus SHO blew a turbo so had to take some time off the Buick for a bit. I ordered all the weather striping , chanel runs , window seals every rubber part on the car that wasn't cheap. Was hoping to be painting by now but got pushed back a bit when falimly car died. Bit more sanding and shaping then I'll primer it again block sand final time then finally paint time !
Just incase you don't have the manuals there is a complete manual that a person can down load sections for free. https://www.teambuick.com/reference/library/57_chassis/index.php
No. I replaced everything with the suspension. Really I'm replacing or rebuilding pretty much every part on the car.
Over the years I have installed two. They are fine but I have been told that the American harness is better. I just bought one for my Pontiac . As far as I an concerned I hate the wiring of a car too tedious.
Finished all the body work. Got it all apart and its paint time ! Here's a sneak peak 1st coat going on.
Looks good, did you apply the paint yourself? Your shop is losing the fresh and shiny new appearance and getting the "lived in" look. Congratulations.
I did some of the body and paint. I have a friend that's a paint and body guy that helping out. I've done body and paint some before but I don't think I have the skill and experience to do the kind of quality I want and I don't want to take any chances with $680 a gallon paint.
I've done both too, actually had both as professions in my youth (not at the same time). Seems like a really good painter and a really good mechanic are usually not the same guy. Different sort of brain activity or something. Sort of like the difference between men and women, they just don't think and react the same, haha.
Your wife must be starting to show some interest now that it's getting color. That usually completely changes their attitude. ... or has she been on board the whole time?
My wife is fine with me doing it but she has no interest in cars herself. Since I am a mechanic working on cars for a living kinda takes all the fun out of it. I don't really enjoy it too much anymore. I told her at the start I'm only gonna do this once so I'm going to spend a lot to make sure its all right the first time cause I won't want to work on it for a while after I'm done ! So she really couldn't care less about what I'm doing out in the shop lol . Building this hasn't been too bad cause I work on brand new cars at work so at least this is something different but it is still a challenge sometimes to come home from working on cars all day and work on mine . It is awesome to see it with some color on it now though the body work has been a long road to get to this point.
The Jalopy Journal
