Flaked, Scalloped, and Candied the Galaxie Roof!

Well, first off, I need to thank Hiboy32 (Jeff) for all of his help and hard work this past weekend. He did an awesome job and donated some of the supplies - Thanks a bunch, Jeff!

For quite a while now, Jeff and I have been talking about spraying some metalflake on the roof of my Galaxie. We tossed around a bunch of different ideas - different colors, scallop layouts, etc. Jeff talked to Tuck about our upcoming roof project and brought some more ideas to me. Candy red over silver flake was decided upon and a date was set.

To make this project happen we needed to gather up materials, find a place to spray it, and make sure we had the roof prepped prior to "go time".

In steps another good friend, Jim J. He donated partial quarts of House of Kolor silver sealer, silver base, and candy red. He also set us up with the rest of the House of Kolor products that we needed. Thanks a ton, Jim!

A couple weeks ago I was talking to a friend (Joe W.) that I haven't known for too long, that also has a Galaxie. Joe happens to be an autobody guy, just as Jeff is. I was telling him about the roof project and he offered up the booth at the shop he works at. He works at a pretty big shop, so we were really surprised that we'd be able to use it. Joe reassured us it would be no problem. Well, this takes us to Saturday. Joe helped out the whole weekend and was great company during all of the waiting to dry times. Thanks alot, Joe!

My dad also came down from Sioux City, IA, to help us on Sunday. Any chance I can get him to come down and help with car and house stuff, I do. I don't see him too often, so it was great to have him down here to help, give ideas and advice, and tell stories. He's also been doing autobody work for about 30 years. Thanks, Dad!

I'll start off with Saturday morning.
We finished blocking the roof with 400 (I think), taped it off, and wiped it down.


First couple coats to go down were sealer. It actually had silver metallic in it. Something most of us had never seen in a sealer.


Next was 2 or 3 coats of silver base. After a couple passes down the center of the roof, there were a couple little areas that started to lift/wrinkle. Not good. So, we cranked up the heat in the booth, waited about 25-30 min., and the lifted areas were almost completely gone. We figured we didn't give the sealer enough time to set up. The areas that lifted were little spot prime areas that I had done the night before, after filling in some small dents. Jeff ran over the couple spots with 1000 grit, tacked it, and started spraying the silver base again. This time, it looked great (thank God)!


Next up was the silver flake. We used the House of Kolor Intercoat Pearl/Flake Karrier (clear) to spray the flake. The tech sheet said to use 12 tablespoons of flake per mixed quart of clear. Jeff put in approx. 3 tablespoons and it looked like enough. He sprayed the first coat and it seemed a bit light on flake.


So, for the next coat (from what I recall) we had approx. 10 tablespoons of flake in the mixed quart of clear. This pass looked great and we ended up with 3 coats of flake. After that, Jeff layed down 5 coats of clear to "bury" the flake.




Malcolm

 

That was plenty for Saturday and we needed the clear to cure enough for us to wet sand it.
Sunday morning we started off with wet sanding. We used 600 grit for this sanding. There were four of us working at it and it took a while, but smoothed out really well.


After cleaning all of the residue off, it was time to lay out the scallops. This is something that I/we hadn't decided on 100%. I had drawn up a few ideas on AutoCAD and we all (there were about 6 guys there, at this point) picked the same one as our favorite. Hot-rod Roadster (Gary) also had some good input with scallop layout. Thanks, man.


My dad and Joe started taking some measurements on the roof.


After discussing the layout, my dad started taping out the scallops. Joe and I assisted him.


Jeff (Hiboy32) tackled the C-pillars.


Joe did most of the masking inside the scallops - like I mentioned, he was a huge help to us throughout the weekend. We then masked off the car again.

 

Now it was time to shoot the Candy Red.

Jeff had never shot flake or candy on a car before, so he was a bit nervous going into this. He had talked to a few guys about how to go about everything and had a good idea of what he needed to do.
Well, the way everything turned out, you will see that Jeff did an awesome job! He could of fooled all of us, because it sure looked like he'd done this before. The candy ended up nice and even across the whole roof.
First coat:


Second or Third: (We ended up with 3 coats of the Candy Red)


Jeff's a funny guy:


We gave the candy some time (30-45 min?) to set up and started to carefully pull up the tape from the scallops. It was quite nerve-wracking.
We then cleaned up a few areas where the tape had left residue behind and touched up a couple other small things.
Jeff sprayed 3 more coats of clear over everything.

 

A couple more shots:




We left the car in the shop overnight. It was another long day and we were all ready to go home.
Today, I picked the car up at noon at got the first look at it in the sun. WOW! It looks awesome! It's hard to capture, in a photo, what it really looks like in person.
We are going to wait at least a week to wet sand and polish/buff it.
I'm not a very good photographer, but here are a few more shots outside.
The rest of the car is kinda dirty and the trim is off until we sand/polish, so please ignore that.
Enjoy!














I tried to show some of the flake sparkling through the candy in these pics:






I'm going to try to get some better over-all pics later this week when the weather and streets are better.


Well, there it is. I'm ecstatic about how it turned out and appreciate everyone's help more than I can put into words.

Thanks a bunch guys - I owe ya, big time!

Malcolm

 

that is killer, i think this could be a tech week entry

 

damn dude!!! AWESOME!!!



..but ya shoulda strecthed it out over a period of 3 months with an update for each piece of tape you laid out!


looks awesome dude!

 

thanks for posting this Malcolm, What fun. It is sooo cool that so many people did so much to get this done, says alot about WHO you are Malcolm. Now hurry up with the pictures already.

Jeff

 

Damn, looks like a work of art! Great job!

 

Saweeet! Lookin good man!

 

goddamn, that looks AWESOME!

giv'n me ideas man!

 

Alright, Jeffrey. Finally done!

You may need to step in and correct some of the details that I don't have quite right....

 

That's beautiful Malcolm.

 

Sweet job dude! .... got a 55 roof you can practice on!

 

looks excellent! thanks for documenting it.

- Joe

 

Ha!

The roof looks great!!

 

Accent stripes? I like accent stripes.Way to go guys.
I cant tell you how much better things are now that their home.

 

Thanks for getting those outside pics . I have been waiting very impatiently. I kept cheking every couple of minutes.


perfect timing on tech week, huh?

Jeff

 

Accent stripes - as in pinstriping - scallop outline? We discussed that, also. Came up with a few different color ideas and I need to get ahold of our local, kick-ass pinstriper, Jim Curan (sp?). Definitely something I want to do!

I'm glad you have your nuts back, they were starting to smell funny sitting in my truck.

 

Yeah, I've thought about turning this into a Tech Week thread...
What'dya think?

 

cool. that car was killer aready. i was all over it at the hamb drags.

 

Outstanding, really nice job guys. I knew you Jeff and Joe could pull it off, but it was so cool to see your Dad here helping out. Gary

 

Absa-freekin-lutely LICKABLE

Now Im seeing the body in Satin Silver pearl
With a Polacko-esque aluminium-colored vinyl interior.

But they may take slightly longer than a weekend.

 

I had a little doubt on my part, but I also thought it was the coolest that Malcolm sr. was there helping out.
I am honored to be a part of all the fun.
Jeff

 

Super cool roof, on a super cool car! The only thing I would have done is 'flaked and candied the wheels to match!...although I always do things over the top.

 

I love those cars and that paint looks goddamn great. Wow. I want to lick it.

 

You are on to somethig there, he has something planned on the wheels.

 

Man that looks great,congrats.Can't wait to see it in person. Nice shooting there Jeff ! Later Rob

 

thats just gorgeous

 

excellent work dude!

 

I'll hopefully have the wheels within a week, or so. I'll post some more pics when I get 'em on....


Thanks for the compliments, guys!

Malcolm