1952-59 Ford my 4.6 dohc powered 57 Custom, aka, doing it the easy way

wow, 10 months since the last post on this thread. This thread made it all the way back to page 18!
After spending most of the year on house projects, I finally got back to my '57 to get a few things done that I'd been putting off too long. I'm in process of stripping the roof back down to bare metal all the way around the edges.
Back about 8 years ago when I initially stripped the roof and prepped it for epoxy primer and seam sealer at the driprails, I treated the whole roof with a zinc phosphate etch as I had done the entire car. However, when I jitterbugged the coating left by the phosphate off in preperation for the epoxy primer, I decided to leave the coating inside the drip rails as an extra protection prior to epoxy primer and subsequent seam sealer. That was a really bad decision, as the coating caused an adhesion problem with the primer in places and I was starting to get bubbling around the drip rail.
I had intended to do the repair/repaint last summer when my wife decided to buy the new house..........ah, the best laid plans, as the saying goes.
My old garage where I initially painted the car had a very low roof. I had to take the tires off to lower the car enough that I could paint it without having to duck below some roof trusses, lol. I have also put a new twin cylinder pump on my compressor to eliminate the problems I had when I repainted the car (except the roof) in '16. Really looking forward to the roof repaint with a tall ceiling and plenty of walk around room.

 

Flake it =)

 

Too glitzy for my tastes, but I have thought about 2 toning it. That probably won't happen either, but if it did, it would be a tan like my interior. I just really like the way the car looks as it is. I don't know why, but I have never liked metalflake on anything

 

I think your car is awsome like it is. But i do like flake. Dont know If i'd do it either.

 

It looks too good to change it in my opinion.

 

Maybe a lighter color gray in a pearl. Not too flashy, make people look for it.

 

Do the top in ford color called Star fire it was a 70-80=- color black with a silver metallic in it. hard to tell in these photos but my 59 in 1981 was shot with it and was very tastfull

 

A darker grey, almost black, is something to think about. Thanks for the sugestion.
Update: after some really cold days and contending with 5 dogs and a blown down fence for a few days, I finally got back to it yesterday. It took me forever it seemed to get all of the seam sealer out of all the nooks and crannies in the drip rail. It is now thoroughly cleaned out, the roof edges are down to bare metal for a few inches on the front and sides, the rest of the paint/clearcoat has been block sanded with 240 grit, the outer edge of the driprail has been stripped as well. I had more paint buildup on that top edge of the driprail than I liked, so it got stripped. This time I'll be more careful with the primers. It sure builds up easily on edges as those who paint know.
After much thought, I went ahead and gave the bare metal a zinc phosphate etch just to make sure. This time I'll be making sure I have thoroughly removed the coating before I epoxy prime the bare metal. As I mentioned previously, that was the mistake I made the first time, leaving that coating in the drip rail as an added protection, or so I thought it would be. Final prep will be tommorrow, and the epoxy primer will go on Monday. After drying overnight, I'll be resealing the gutter with 3M panel bond instead of seam sealer. (as recommended by the 3M rep who is a friend.) After the gutter is to my liking, I'll apply a coating of glaze to make up for the now removed paint, then a coat of high build primer, a lot of blocking, then the base and clear. I'm not going to use a sealer as such, but the high build primer I use can be mixed as a sealer, so I may do that to insure the panel bond doesn't bleed thru.
I'm old, I'm slow.....hopefully in a few weeks it'll be done. Then I'll move on to other projects. I do need to address a problem with the hood's paint, so that may be next.

 

The 3M panel bond is a lot easier to apply than seam sealers. Something I should have done with my car.

 

update: yes, the panel bond was much easier to get done than seam sealer. The only problem I had was forcing it into the top lip and getting it to stay when I tried to smooth it out. It would flash over fairly quickly, and when you dragged the troweling tool (my finger, lol) to smooth it out it would want to pull out of the lip. Finally got it done working a foot or so at a time. It sands surprisingly easy, so getting a smooth finish is no problem. I've had the roof in primer now for a week letting it cure. The temps here are suppose to be mid 70's on Friday, so that's my target date for getting it finish painted.
I should be well ahead of my target date of early March (9th?) for the Fort Worth Goodguys show. Anyone here planning on attending?
I'll get some pics posted soon. I have a few with the roof in light grey.......definetly made up my mind not to two-tone it!