Holy Crap!! The price of Paint.....

I bought a 1972 Dart Swinger as a way of getting closer with my youngest son. He has a mechanical mind and was excited. It cost us $500 bucks and a Mopar friend of mine said it was a steal. Having no practical experience with automobiles outside of changing my own oil or belts, it was a risky proposition. I've been a white-collar techy for almost 25 years (or as my plumber neighbor would say, a 'desk jockey'). My youngest son is a senior in high school and this is HIS graduation present. (His older brother wanted a laptop!).

I love cars as much as the next guy, especially the American muscle. The older brother of a childhood friend had a 69 Roadrunner. I still remember the rush taking a moonlight drive out to Lake Pleasant north of Phoenix (listening to 'Runnin' with the Devil'), and the rumble from the 383 as we rolled along.

So here we are, over 6 months later. Fits and starts is the best way to describe it. My son has put a huge effort into the prep. He wants to see results in the worst way, and make sure that we actually get the wholething done. The spray can blue is gone after many hours of hard work and we are ready to shoot the epoxy primer ($60 w activator from Summit Racing). Next we have a high build 2K urethane primer for the middle coats ($60 w activator). We chose a gloss Flame Red urethane ($110 a gallon w activator w a 20% coupon)for the finish. We plan to add clearcoat ($200 a gallon).

We're not purists. We realize the car would be a major investment as a resto, so our goal is having a daily driver. I want my son to have an experience about how cool it would be to have his own muscle car. We DO care that it should look nice, and we think when we finish that the majority of people will think so. I really think this post is generating a lot of great comment on the subject. Let's hear how some of you got to where you're at in your Mopar journey.