I have had my Victoria since 1968 with lots of rebuilds. When I did my last upgrades in 2013 I painted it with black epoxy primer. I was expecting a semi-gloss, but it was really flat and hard to clean. I had planned to just paint it semi-gloss, but after I stripped the chrome and sanded it, I decided I might as well put a little more work into it and go base/clear. Last summer I had two weeks vacation in July for the plant shut where I work. It was pretty warm and I have my air compressor up in the roof trusses where it is warmer yet. My compressor seized on the second clear coat.
I was able to polish up the compressor crank and hone the rod and get the compressor running. Then I sanded the car out with 1000 grit and another paint day. It came out better. I always have rouble with dust, so it was sand down to 2000 and buff. This is the fun part doing the re***embly. I used some vinyl die to match up the Galaxie buckets with the 57 Ford rear seat. The wheels are 17 x 8 Torque Thrusts.
The engine was running pretty good and I wanted to baseline it at Toronto Motorsports Park before the season ended, so my son and myself got to the track around October 10th. The car has a 3.08 open 57 Ford 9" rear, soone tire would go up in smoke. The Victoria ran a respectable 14.1 @99.7 mph, but then started to slow down. A 67 Plymouth lined up against it and blew something on the starting line, so my son ran a by run. When he came back around he said something had hit the car. The 11 second Plymouth was trying out his new nitrous system and blew the pinion yoke off. So a piece of the yoke hit my fender. I can fix it or leave it for talking purposes. LOL
On the way home from the track the car was missing. It turned out to be a burned plug wire that got up against a header pipe. Now that it is running right I put it into the back of my garage for winter hibernation. I have a 3:70 posi third member and slicks for it for next spring. Currently the car has a Turbo 350, 3 speed with a shift kit. For Christmas my son gave me a B&M higher stall convertor for my 700R4 transmission. They have an nostalgia drag series(ONDR) in Ontario. It would be nice to get it to one of there local events in 2015. I'm looking forward to spring. The best ever run before was 13.89 @103 back in the '70's when it had a dual quad 428 CJ, same 3.08's and L60x15's.
Once you go black, you never go back. Also applies to car paint... Looking really good and at the track too... beyond awesome. I'm putting a 4.10 posi under my '59 and going to have a set of slicks mounted up as well.
The car was originally black with a salmon/white cloth/vinyl interior. About the radiused wheel wells...Around 1968 a friend bought a set of magnesium Torque Thrusts with M&H piecrust slicks. They came off a top fuel car from Lockport New York. I bought them from him around 1969. The g***er look was in, so I radiused the wheel wells to fit them on the Victoria. They were 5 1/2" bolt circle and I had to use adapters. The rear openings didn't match the front fenders, so I cut the back off two sets of front fenders and ****ed them. A shop molded them in and painted the car for me around 1970. Another guy swapped me a set of brand new Mickey Thompson J70x 15's for the slicks. The flares started to rust out, so I made a mold of the fronts and made a set of fibergl*** flares the next time I redid the car black with flames. I smashed the front of the car up in 78 and painted it red and white around 1979. Ten x fifteen Cragar types fit nice at the back.. When I redid the car in '92 I bought a set of rear quarters patch panels at a flea market for $40. The Pro street look was in versus g***ers, so I put the stock quarters on and wrapped the edge around some bar stock where it is close to the tire to allow maximum tire width. When I redid the car a couple of years back I checked out the gl*** flares again with a set of 18's and decided to stick with the stock wheel openings. The old Torque Thrusts bolted onto my '29. I guess I'm stuck on black. My '96 Impala SS is black and my 78 Malibu is black. It is relatively easy to paint for an amateur, but takes lots of prep work before and sanding/polishing after.
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