71 duster resto'mod "driver" project...
Thanx for all the comments, and for taking the time to check out my thread. I'm definitely looking forward to adding to the thread in the coming years, as well as exposing my sons projects as they eventually unfold...
I'm extremely happy with the way the car turned out, especially given I'd originally intended for a simple splash and dash paint job. Definitely not a show car as she still wears many of the scars of her past such as the weld repair marks on the passenger inner fender. As well, on the drivers fender, there is a spot that dips down a bit below the hood line. Also, the front of the doors are slightly lower than the fenders; however, not offensively so. Though I'm hoping I can get that lined up a bit better in the spring. There are also a few random spots where some dust embedded into the clear coat, but I think much of that will be easy to deal with and most, if not all of it may disappear once the car is polished. I believe the painter guy said he laid on 3 or 4 coats of clear; however, I can't remember exactly as I got stuck on his description of how he "clear coated the **bleep** out of it mang", combined with his accent lol......
On that note, perhaps a little side story is in order...... When the car went in for the repaint, there was apparently a paint mix up that I'll explain below, and beyond that. My paint guy had another painter at the shop he works at lay down the paint on the car, which is ultimately what led to the mishap....
Any way, the car goes in for the repaint and as shown in the pictures, my son and I help sand down the car..... Well, apparently, the paint supplier forgot to mix the colour tint into the pearl coat (however that process works)... So, due to the shop dynamics etc. that were going on there that day, my guy doesn't have time to spray the paint.... he gets the paint sent by the supplier, and gives it to this other guy that he's going to get to do that part for him and heads off to do what ever he was doing at the time..... So this newly designated painter guy loads up the paint he's been given and paints the car........ An unknown amount of time goes bye, and my intended painter guy comes back to check on the car and nearly ***bleeps*** his pants as he's now staring at a sparkling silver duster instead of a purple one lol.... But yes, long story short is that now the car wears a base purple coat, a midlayer purely pearl coat, and an overlay purple coat with 3 to 4 coats of clear. As well, due to the mishap with the paint, my painter guy wound up with copious amounts of paint left over and is going to give me all he has left over, as well as the hardener required to mix up all the touch up paint etc. I would ever need in the future, which is definitely a bonus :D:D:blob:
There are currently a few spots in the clear that have some runs that still need to be buffed out, so come spring the guy is going to come over and deal with those areas... once that is done, I'm going to get the car polished up by the head detailer at work.... Then I'll put on the white stripe package and get a proper appraisal for insurance purposes and hit the road full force, woot!!
In the future I plan on focusing on suspension and brake upgrades etc. and will likely head toward a more handling based set up with a 17" rim. Also thinking I may build up some form of stroked 340 with the block I acquired from my son... Thinking of going with fuel injection for that set up
Beyond all that, I did wind up getting a little bit of on the road video footage during the few weeks I had out on the road this year, so I did manage to whip up a little video.......... I really didn't have much footage to work with, but I did the best I could with what I had lol..... The bad news is, that due to my song choice in the video, it didn't get past the youtube filter, and they muted the audio.... the good news is, I was able to load the video onto the "dart dreams" fan page on facebook that I exposed earlier in the thread, so it is viewable there. I'm not sure if it'll work, but there is a link on facebook on the video page that says "embed video on any site on web with this code", so I'll copy paste that here, as well as insert the link to the video page via the "insert link" function on here. hope it works, and thanx again to all who've taken interest, great forum! :prayer:
The video was geared toward putting closure on the "dart dreams" venture as that project was eventually scrapped by the powers that be; however, as a result of our intentions, the intended recipient wound up receiving a different form of compensation.... any way, given that my car now wears many of that darts original parts, combined with the fact that over the years, I'd acquired so many parts that went into the project via the individuals involved in the tragedy, I felt that the exposure of my car on that fan page, along with a final closure note, would be the best way to wrap up that fan page... Oh, and there's also a little treat near the end of the video where I've added a "bonus feature" of the footage I had of my old srt4 going at it with the kenne bell supercharged srt8 challenger that is seen in the other "dart dreams" videos held within this thread.... :)
Any way, enough of my ramblings... here's the link that seems to work :newb:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150975407015543
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