Am I crazy for doing this on a 65 Barracuda ?

[Kemper]

I love the approach you're taking on this. Its's exactly what i have been doing for years now on several cars. doing it this way lets you enjoy the car and not worry nearly as much as having a super restored perfect paint car you are afraid to drive because of a rock chip or a door ding. Ill be doing the same thing soon on my white barracuda having gotten all the mechanical stuff back in order after being off the road for many many years, tackling the rust and finish issues. I'll be watching this thread for sure!View attachment 1716444364View attachment 1716444365

Thanks. Love your car. I have 3 66 cudas around here in various conditions.
I really like working with this satin for several reasons as I said. I also like being able to put the car back togeher as I go.That may not be a big deal to some but I have enough other projects around .

 

[Dartnut]

Well, my hat's off to you for all of the work you have done.
In my opinion, those $16,000 paint jobs are highly over rated.
By doing it your way, you get a good driver and will enjoy the car more overall.
And it won't break the bank!
Some people may scowl at the work and call it a waste of time and money, but I for one are thrilled about the fact of keeping it simple and enjoying the car.
And the people that criticize your work or your car, are usually people that don't realize budget builds.
I've had more fun with the cars that I've owned and driven over the years that weren't perfect or shiny!
All I do now is make the car safe, reliable, and good driving.
In the past I did a '71 Duster that was very nice and painted shiny with a rebuilt drivetrain and interior, the works.
I never had much fun with that car, with worrying about the weather and rock chips, and storing it in the winter.
I ended up selling it and building cars that were more realistic for my tastes...
Good on ya!

 

[FISHYPETE]

I’m following as you go. I restored my 66 S yrs ago, my first car. Is it a coincidence that I recently retired having the same profession as you

 

[jeff alder]

Well, my hat's off to you for all of the work you have done.
In my opinion, those $16,000 paint jobs are highly over rated.
By doing it your way, you get a good driver and will enjoy the car more overall.
And it won't break the bank!
Some people may scowl at the work and call it a waste of time and money, but I for one are thrilled about the fact of keeping it simple and enjoying the car.
And the people that criticize your work or your car, are usually people that don't realize budget builds.
I've had more fun with the cars that I've owned and driven over the years that weren't perfect or shiny!
All I do now is make the car safe, reliable, and good driving.
In the past I did a '71 Duster that was very nice and painted shiny with a rebuilt drivetrain and interior, the works.
I never had much fun with that car, with worrying about the weather and rock chips, and storing it in the winter.
I ended up selling it and building cars that were more realistic for my tastes...
Good on ya!

Nothing more true was ever written.

 

[Dartnut]

Nothing more true was ever written.

Thank you.
Most people don't get it with a driver budget build.
And that goes for all makes and models in the car/truck world, not just Mopars...

 

[jeff alder]

Thank you.
Most people don't get it with a driver budget build.
And that goes for all makes and models in the car/truck world, not just Mopars...

Only we know how much is in our budget for our cars. An improvement is an improvement. Kemper isn't trying to break the record for the largest gain on an early A at Mecum. He is doing what he knows how to do with his budget and I imagine maybe recently retired and just needs something to do. The photos he has posted are clearly a marked improvement whether it is Satin paint or Ditzler Lacquer. (LOL yep I'm an old painter). He can drive them as he goes which is another nice plus compared to a 3 to 5 year complete overhaul. He and I got off to a rough start, but I can identify with what he is doing. He also has a good backup stash of cars he can drive even if he does take one down for a bit.

 

[Kemper]

Thanks guys . I retired from being self-employed a couple of years ago . Work was very lucrative and I was able to put enough money back that I'm not worried about finances. I was very poor early in life and struggled at times to pay the bills but kept buying these cars when I found them at a good price. I guess I want " value " for my time and effort. I do like the show cars too though but don't want the liability involved in keeping them in that condition.

I'm waiting on some new door lock gaskets I ordered. They were cheap and my handle gaskets are in good shape after cleaning the paint off that someone sprayed on them in the past . I'll Armor All the door panels and stick them and the cranks and armrests back on with just a little clean up after I install the locks . That will get this stuff out of the car and be easier to remove the rear panel and get in there and treat the rust. I don't have to wait on anything to continue on with this kind of build and I like that. A person can go a different route on that if they wish.

I also installed the sill plates and pillar seals after just a little clean up. I can do more on them when I do the interior. it's just different in a lot of ways. If I'm mising something I get it and put it on the car as I go. Easy to pop off if I want to later on . My parking lights were too cracked up and I ordered some from ebay. Guy sent the wrong set and I'm going through the process of getting that taken care off. It won't be a problem getting my money back and it will automatically be put back in my account as soon as the tracking number shows they were delivered back to him .

Guy admitted that he sent the wrong ones but getting the one's I originally ordered may be a chore. Which is a story in itself .

 

[jeff alder]

PM sent on the parking lights

 

[Kemper]

PM sent on the parking lights

Thanks.

 

[Kemper]

Door lock gaskets arrived so I put them in . I sprayed some rust reformer inside bottom of doors . I had previously painted the bottoms of the doors . You don't see them but with this type of build it's pretty easy to just sand ,grab the paint and hit it as you go . One of my door locks had a corrosion issue on the hole that the rod goes in and the other rod was rusted off at the tip. I have all this stuff on other doors but I just put it together as well as the door panels and everything else . I'm staying focused on the exterior and I will be taking panels back off anyway .

I did Armor All the panels and they are in good enough condition that I can restore them when I do the inside . The clips that hold the locks in were in good condition but rusty, they were hard to get off but I sanded the area that makes contact with the door and put a little lubbricant on them. They went on better that way and will be easier to get back off.

I also removed the trim from the top of the quarters. There is one nut accesible from the trunk and they are clipped everywhere else. It's good and solid under the trim (I'm just doing one side at a time ) and glad I caught it in time before it became a more serious problem . I'll post a pic of how I removed the trim by using 2 putty knifes and a pry bar. It's tempting to grab that trim and start yanking when you get it started but don't do it. Slide those knives in and up to both sides of the clip , put pry bar under knife and pop it loose and move to the next one. Be careful and don't pry to where you might hit that window if something comes loose. Do not stick that pry bar under the trim and dent it by pulling. Pic is from other side for reference.

Also removed rubber bumper guards from body. Spray a little penetrant on mounting bolt and screws from inside the trunk. Give the phillips scredriver a good wack after placing it on the screw and they will come right out without any damage. Most of you reading this are probably smarter than me but on the off chance anyone is dumber , I hope to be of some help. That's all I got for today.

 

[Kemper]

Good morning. Have you hugged your Mopar lately ?
I got the front doors treated on the inside and put everything back on them. I removed the rear " door " panel and and checked out that area. I found a lot of dirt in there from 60 years and there is a channel in there about as wide as your finger at the exterior sheet metal.That was full of dirt and it felt damp. If I remember correctly this area drains down into to the rocker and from there out the bottom of the car. I don't think enough water ever gets in there under " normal " conditions. Area is solid yet cause I caught it in time and will sand a bit , vacumm out and spray rust reformer.

On the wheel opening I have some issues but not as bad as I was expecting. I didn't get a before pic of the first area I'll show here, but the rust there was was pooching out the stainless trim about a quarter inch. It wasn't pushing it loose but rather twisting it . I took a screwdriver and beat all the rust out that was causing this to happen . Once that was out , a few taps on the sheet metal and molding went right back in place. Metal that the molding screws to was good and solid yet . I am not removing this molding and I know that seems odd but I am not going to be in the position of repeatedly holding this molding up to make sure I have my contours correct. It only will be correct when the screws are tightened anyway. I want a perfect looking area where this trim hits the body with that hairline " crack " not filled in.

Once everthing that was loose was removed and I could get any more to come off when beating with a hammer and screwdriver , I took a punch around the perimeter of the hole and made a bowl effect as done on the antenna holes . Don't beat the area in with a hammer as it will cause a dent requiring more filler.I then sprayed rust reformer in this area from the outside and inside. This is easily accesible from the backside . I will now sand this on the outside and apply the mesh and filler as done earlier. There will only be a small amout of filler and this mesh will keep any filler from pushing into the back side where you would have to mess with it to get a good job in there . With the inside area treated with rust reformer and just a small area of fiberglass back there it will be easy to go over with a good caulk like Dynaflex230 that is paintable and a little undercoat on it should seal it up fine. Here is where I'm at on this area and I will show the other areas of this quarter.

Here are the other 2 areas on this opening and I will use the same method to reair them . Again, the metal is solid where the molding attaches and is also solid at the outer perimeter of the 2nd hole below. There will be very little filler in this opening overall by doing it this way and there will not be filler tapered out thin that could cause a problem.

 

[Kemper]

Good evening. I wasn't going to do an update but felt I did enough since yesterday to do so.
I treated all areas of this quarter inside and out with rust reformer , punched perimeters of shallow " bowls " and sanded off rust reformer overspray from areas. This is important because the mesh resin sticks very well to metal and car paint . You may get by without this step but it is easy to sand off.

I was now ready for resin and fiberglass cloth. Cut the cloth larger than you think you may need because whe you brush that resin over it you don't want it getting away from your tapered edges in the hole. This resin really bites into paint and metal and is not too esy to sand off. So don't go smearing it out too much. Don't worry about how it looks at this point. Just get the mesh where it needs to be .

Then sand the mesh and resin off everywhere out side the bowl. I'm calling it a bowl because we no longer have a hole. This now ready for bondo. Very important- make sure that if there is a bubble in that mesh pooching outward towards you that you take a razor knife and cut slits in it as needed . This will make it to where you have some " flaps " hanging in there loose, but it doesn't matter. Thes flaps will easily push in when you apply the bondo. If you don't do this you will have a thin layer of bondo because that bubble didn't push in.
When applying materials do not worry about that crack where the molding hits the body getting filled up. Just get your material where you need it . You can see in this pic where the gap is wider down close to the rocker. Doesn't matter, leave it, it's factory and we don't want filler down there. Undernath area in third pic show an area that I fixed but didn't worry about the other areas that weren't damaged. The factory has some spot welding and waves there and that is okay because we ain't putting any more bondo in this than neccesary. I will spot that area and paint it.

I sanded the filler with rough paer first ( anything rough is fine ) and the sanded with a medium paper so areas are pretty darn smooth and ready for a little glazing/spot putty. Note: always cut that crack with a razor knife before removing tape . You can remove and replace this tape as often as you wish while working on this. it only takes second to retape so if hesitate to check your work as you go. Do not let that tape roll around into that inside lip . You need that metal molding edge to run your razor knife against. After you spot putty you'll do a final clean up in that crack.

I have most of the quarter spot puttied and sanded and will go over again checking for any areas that need a little more attention.
There really isn't as much bondo here as it looks and it isn't really tapered out. It really bites into that resin film , which bit into the paint, and it looks like more than it is. Thanks for looking.

 

[Kemper]

Got out this morning and spot puttied the repaired areas and respotted the entire quarter . Dry sanded with 220 paper just lightly pressing . Felt a few spots and spooted and sanded them in. Quarter feels very smooth and can feel nothing that needs attention. Took a razor knife and got my molding line looking good. ( see pic ) This shouldn't fill with paint but easy to clean out if it does. Have car partially masked before the sun sets on it for a couple hours. Made sure masking tape rolled the edge of moulding now.

I'm only going partially into the trunk area at this time. I will do this quarter, then the other and then remove trunk lid and do it and the center area of car. I'm not doing anything as far as removing the weatherstrip but am going up to it when doing the quarters. I will probably replace it but if it's keeping the water out , good enough for now . Around this area in the trunk the factory let lead drip down in a few places . I'm not too concerned about getting this area smooth but in bottom corner lead was allowing water to pool. While it didn't seem to hurt the area I don't want it holding water as that will/has effected the lid. I didn't want to bondo or fill that little area in with spot putty, so I just filled it in with a little Dynaflex230 caulking.

In the gas cap cavity the seal around the fillier tube was shedding . I removed the 3 screws , sanded this area and with a little spot putty on my finger I went around it then sanded it. Made sure the outer lip is smooth . Some paint on that seal should be helpful in keeping it from shedding. Sinse the screws are out I'll push em in a piece of cardboard and shoot the heads with what I have laying aound here. I've been using Krylon Dual primer/paint Hammered steel I believe is the finish. Lots of different stuff will work and if you have the screws out might as well .

 

[harrisonm]

Well, you did ask. I do not like satin paint on cars. I think it is what people do when they don’t want to do good body work and they don’t really care what it looks like. I think it would be a big mistake to paint your car with satin paint.

 

[Kemper]

Well, you did ask. I do not like satin paint on cars. I think it is what people do when they don’t want to do good body work and they don’t really care what it looks like. I think it would be a big mistake to paint your car with satin paint.

I'm going with satin for a variety of reasons. I like satin for this type of project. I think it looks good and goes good with a vintage car. Doing this type af project with satin allows you to do this car in this order and gloss would give you many problems unless you had a different plan of attack.
Of course , like I said, you could mask and spray gloss for a final coat if you wish . If you think I am not doing good body work and don't care what it looks like you are mistaken. This is an alternative to having your car sit around and deteriate or spend 10's of thousands.

What would be your plan of attack for a person that doesn't want or can't afford to spend a lot of money to preserve their car and how much do you think they would have to spend to preserve it in your opinion ?

 

[Woody500]

These hoods are usually a problem because the factory didn't prime or paint the area of the front lip. I would clean out best I could and pour some rust converter in there with the hood uoside down. Turn upright,squish it around and drain and do the same with primer. This car I had to patch an area that rusted out but treated my other one before it rusted through -

View attachment 1716440263View attachment 1716440264

I hsve a 65 Barracuda.
I poured ospho rust converter in seams of the 3 trunk lids I have & turned them for a while to get in all of them.
Also inside & bottom of doors, under rear fender spears always rusty, under top door trim.
Had hood off & notsure if I did it. Have three hoods. Did other parts too.
Then poured Hirsch Miracle paint to seal it.
Did bottom of car before painting with Hirsch Miracle Paint, a older , maybe first brand made , of the really stinky Rust Encapsuator paint. Then painted per instructions, before totally dried. It dries hard & slick & unsandable then.

 

[Woody500]

Well, you did ask. I do not like satin paint on cars. I think it is what people do when they don’t want to do good body work and they don’t really care what it looks like. I think it would be a big mistake to paint your car with satin paint.

Mine will be flat black. They look good.
You can use Flat Clear over any color you want.

 

[mygasser]

Mine will be flat black. They look good.
You can use Flat Clear over any color you want.

and by the same token, if you have done good bodywork and later decide you do want it shiny you can (gloss) clearcoat the flat finish

 

[Kemper]

This was a very bad looking car as can be seen in the previous pics . On one issue- this is only going to be a cost of maybe several hundred dollars. Maybe a couple more to replace the parts I was missing. You can do 3 of these cars for the cost of one rechromed bumper out in the marketplace .

Anyway I got several coats on the quarter and am very happy with it. If I weren't it's no big deal to sand and/or spot any imperfection and blend it in. If planning on shooting the entire car after this work is done, you wouldn't even have to worry about blending anything in. The last pic shows a door pillar that I previously painted when I did the door. I seen a little bit I didn't like in the the top ledge of the door and respotted it , sanded and repainted that area . I had a little red dust get in there when I shot the door top and with the overspray getting through the crack I had a little red dust that wouldn't was off easily . I just lightle sanded that pillar and reshot it while doing the quarter.
This paint binds very well over itself . Gloss would not work on this type of project except as final coat if you wanted that.

I dunno, it looks pretty darn good to me-

 

[Woody500]

Took off rear bumper. PITA but I got it off. Those threads sticking out about 3/4 take a beating over 60 years. Someone may have a better method but I used 6 point sockets to reduce the chance of stripping off the heads of the bolts and the nuts. I sprayed WD 40 on the threads.

They loosened fairly easy but would get hard to turn to the point of " Don't keep going " and I would turn them back in and took some rough sandpaper around the threads and resprayed with WD 40. I could see the rust I loosened washing the rust off. I then would turn out some more but stop when getting to that really hard part . I then repeated this procedure as needed which was 4 times on a couple of them.

In my younger years I would have gotten a longer bar and turned them till something happened. What would have happened would not be nice.

A little heat helps a whole lot. Not just to loosen nut on thread, but waving flame over thread burns rust off. Burns rust & makes sparks so be ready.
Oil(Kroil very good but strong oder & smoke.) I use seafoam, the one with the long tube you don't need, is more like the original that seems changed now. Much better than PB Blaster, the worst on the market.
New Seafoam spray head sucks, so I use a WD-40 folding spout , but you have to shorten stem of valve(compare with WD can & shorten Small amount.) Then it fits.
Then lightly heat nut & oil, let cool, & repeat several times.
This method I learned when working on 50 year old Military Tanks, when I worked at Ropkey Armor Museum.

 

[Kemper]

A little heat helps a whole lot. Not just to loosen nut on thread, but waving flame over thread burns rust off. Burns rust & makes sparks so be ready.
Oil(Kroil very good but strong oder & smoke.) I use seafoam, the one with the long tube you don't need, is more like the original that seems changed now. Much better than PB Blaster, the worst on the market.
New Seafoam spray head sucks, so I use a WD-40 folding spout , but you have to shorten stem of valve(compare with WD can & shorten Small amount.) Then it fits.
Then lightly heat nut & oil, let cool, & repeat several times.
This method I learned when working on 50 year old Military Tanks, when I worked at Ropkey Armor Museum.

Yeah, the only thing I had was WD40. I'll try something different next time. Got it off okay but was a pain. I have to loosen the bumper bolts on my front bumper to install some washers to bring it out a little. There is no adjustment where it is bolted to the car. The bumper bolts are in square holes as I'm sure you know. I don't want to get them spinning. Bumper was hit hard at one time and I beat out a dent . It was the 2nd best in my inventory and doesn't look bad.

 

[Kemper]

Some call it satin,some call it matte -​

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[Woody500]

Well, you did ask. I do not like satin paint on cars. I think it is what people do when they don’t want to do good body work and they don’t really care what it looks like. I think it would be a big mistake to paint your car with satin paint.

Not being a pro body man,(but quite capable) I can only repeat what I've heard or been told.
Satin paint needs as much , or more prep as glossy, because the imperfections will show More Easily under flat, matte, or satin. So apparently Not True!
Do Research, instead of opinion.
I've also seen new Harleys with flat paint.

 

[Kemper]

I think some people hear the word " Bondo " and feel all repairs using bondo are of the same quality. Bondo repairs , like " professional " repairs are not all the same. I've done some bondo repairs in my younger years that I certainly would not be proud of today .

 

[Kemper]

Kinda slacking off today , but got a lot done the past several days. Went to Menards and picked up some supplies I needed. To seal the back side of these areas that I repaired I'm using a 3 part system ( sounds professional, don't it ) -- rust reformer-Dynaflex230 black caulk ( paintable ) and spray undercoat. I'll just work the caulk in with my hand to make sure it goes where needed and no more build up than neccesary . A little spray of undercoat should be good.

I straightened out the stainless molding for the top of the quarter without kinking it. I sprayed the rusty clips with WD40 ( forgot to pick up something better ) I will need to straighten a couple of these clips and do something about the seals on each clip. They look to be a little foam-like seal that is/was easy to squish when installing the molding. I'll probably have to make some new ones . I'm going to make sure these clips slide in the molding . Some are kinda rusty and will free up . I'll clean the rust off the bottom of the molding and clean it up before installing.
Someone had this off before and weren't too kind to it or to the tailight seal. I'll probably use some of the same material that I'll use for the clip seals. Probably that weatherstrip you pit around a door jamb to seal an old door on a house. I'll stick it to the tailight before I re-install it . I'll be pulling it back off to change lenses when I see what I got or need . It's been hot in the upper floor of my shop and I ain't going up there digging around . But for now...." In the car or on the car " . Not much in the car now .