Razor blade surgeon

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1969GTS

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Wow. Just stripped, metal prepped masked (twice) and repainted my head light bezels. One word describes that job. TEDIOUS. Tomorrow I tackle the grill. The body shop called and I may have the dart back within a month so I have to get the trim done. I sure hope the grill is not as bad as that was. Cutting out all the lines with a razor blade is painstaking work. I often wondered why some darts had a solid black shape instead of a finned one. Now I know, Its a pain in the arse the way I did it.

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Might be a pain but the difference between a nice car and a sweet car is details like this. Great work!
 
it looks great. i have seen another post of a member doing his dash chrome with a chrome paint pen. that would save a lot of tapeing i think. you might want to search for it or maby he will see this. i dont remember who it was but his dash and chrome looked great to
 
Looks great. Probably looks better than OEM. Once the part is on the car no one will look at it as closely as you did while detailing. Mfgrs new that thus their less than perfect detailing.
There is another method also. Liquid mask can be brushed on. Vasoline works just as good but keep it cool or it will melt and run. Ladies lip gloss in little finger pots have color so you can see where it is or aint. You would apply it with a brush.
Once the paint has cured completely you wipe away the mask and still look better than factory. For me method is determined by job size or how intrecate the detail. Its all Mophun :)
 
The bezels look great & I'm sure the grille will too. But everybody is missing the really big news. The body shop CALLED HIM & said he should get the car within a month, not the other way around. If they called him, they must really be close to finishing with it. :cheers::cheers::cheers: Or maybe they just wanted to give you ample time to take out that second mortgage so that you'd be able to pay them. :-D
 
tyler_s18 said:
it looks great. i have seen another post of a member doing his dash chrome with a chrome paint pen. that would save a lot of tapeing i think. you might want to search for it or maby he will see this. i dont remember who it was but his dash and chrome looked great to
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Never heard of one but I'll look into it. Sounds cool.
 
I did mine this summer too. It started out as an experiment because I wanted to try and buy a better set that weren't as pitted and dented, then when I had about two hours of work in it I figured I better continue and make it as good as I could. I ended up doing the grill as well and it took a lot longer than I thought it was going to but I was pretty happy with the results. Here are some pictures of my process.

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Some 0000 steel wool then some polish on the chrome areas does wonders. Like lilvaliant said use a real sharp xacto blade and press the tape down tight into the raised areas. I think if I do another one I will make it a GTS style and only have the one silver stripe around the outside.
 
BigRichieO said:
I did mine this summer too. It started out as an experiment because I wanted to try and buy a better set that weren't as pitted and dented, then when I had about two hours of work in it I figured I better continue and make it as good as I could. I ended up doing the grill as well and it took a lot longer than I thought it was going to but I was pretty happy with the results. Here are some pictures of my process.

DSC04120.jpg


DSC04124.jpg


DSC04156.jpg


DSC04157.jpg


Some 0000 steel wool then some polish on the chrome areas does wonders. Like lilvaliant said use a real sharp xacto blade and press the tape down tight into the raised areas. I think if I do another one I will make it a GTS style and only have the one silver stripe around the outside.
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm Are you saying the GTS is supposed to not have the finns? If that is the case I just did mine wrong and wasted a ton of time. I hope not LOL
 
It's tedious, no doubt.........

But boy it's a GOOD feelin' to step back and admire the fruit of your labors when they're all done. :toothy10::toothy10::toothy10:
 
I woundn't say you have wasted your time because your bezels look great!! I also wouldn't say you have done anything incorrect. I have seen GTS's that have the one ring aound the outside and with the all the fins silver or chrome, but I think it is more common to have the single line on GTs' and GTSs', maybe someone that is more knowledgable about this can help me dig myself out of the hole I could be putting myself in?? I just wanted to help out and share what I did on mine. You're doing a great job, I would keep going with it!!=D>

Here is a link to a pretty good site with a ton of Dart pictures. I think the owner of the site hasn't updated it in years but I still like to go there for inspiration some times.


DODGE DART PICTURES AND JUNK

Heres the link to the home page or first page for that same site, is anyone here responsible for this site? If so pretty good site, I like it!

THE DODGE DART PAGE

I totally agree with PastorTom, even though mine are a little more dinged up than I have hoped for, when I was finished I was pretty pleased and proud of the work that I had done.
 
this is the message regarding what he used on his dash...

I used a pen. I got it at a hobbist shop called Michaels. The pen is made by Gilmers (the glue people). The pen has "PAINTERS" wrote on it in big letters. I used the color metallic silver argent.

i have not used it but it looks great and i will try it soon on my dash and front end
 
I wonder how those parts were painted at the factory. Did they use some kind of template? They must have had to paint hundereds of various parts per day.
 
Nice job and well worth the time to get them looking better then new again.
They look perfectly dun, I bet you can't wait to have you dart back.
Just one more month :cheers:
 
memike said:
Nice job and well worth the time to get them looking better then new again.
They look perfectly dun, I bet you can't wait to have you dart back.
Just one more month :cheers:
Click to expand...

I just have my grill to strip and paint. I'm getting excited for sure.
 
"Testors". The same people that made the glue for the model cars and also the paint. Look at your local hobby store and they should have em. Comes in gold, silver, chrome, and many others. Mask the out side portion off and paint the inside black then paint pen the small ribs. You'll like em. Looks good so far. I'll see if we can post a pic of my grill here in the shop on this computer. It's cold out so we're putting in floor pans in the 74 today. Turning out good.
 
Try at a hobby store specializing in R/C planes...
There is a liquid masking film by Bob Dively
Brush on trace with blade and peel off where the paint goes....
Works real well....
Dave
 
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