1963 Dodge Dart 270 Convertible for the Wife

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Another long, long day of sanding and primer..... The trunk was still really bad and the hood had a few low spots.... So I just went crazy on it.... While filler was setting or high build drying I started to 320 wet sand the body. Got most of one side done. Also finished up the area where the alternator sets. It was beat to crap in there but a lot of slapper work and a little filler she looks 100% better.... I had a dream of shooting color tomorrow.... I am not there after wrestling with that trunk....

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Sigh, when Kaelyn was helping me carry in the hood this evening I saw a dent in it that I never noticed before.... I am several work days way from being ready to shoot color at a minimum :(. This one is testing my patience but I will win.....
 
Jim Kueneman said:
Sigh, when Kaelyn was helping me carry in the hood this evening I saw a dent in it that I never noticed before.... I am several work days way from being ready to shoot color at a minimum :(. This one is testing my patience but I will win.....
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Better now than later. After a couple of drinks it will disappear. Sorry I couldn't help it. :D
 
Ok the struggle is real.... balancing work at home against the call of the garage........ Took my breaks to do some quick 10 minute jobs in the garage and ended up making a huge difference in being "done"....

The damn dent..... Break one: mix some filler and spread it. Lunch: 80 grit shape it and mix epoxy for induction. Break 2 spray epoxy so it can sit 4 hours in the sun. After work shot 2 coats of high build ready to block and we will see if we are done!

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I give up on that trunk.... I sanded the crap out of it today and when I hit metal I slapped (and I mean slapped it LOW) it low and kept sanding until I was spent.... Sprayed it with 2 coats of epoxy and this weekend I am going to skim coat it ALL with filler and shape it flat..... The hood is now perfectly flat and ready for the final blocking.... Body is fully blocked with 320 grit... once I get the hood and trunk to that point it is time to spray one coat of reduced epoxy, sand it with 500 and she is ready for paint! What a LONG, LONG, LONG battle this old girl has been...... but when done it will be worth it.... I hope.... the wife has found restoring them is not as fun as she was hoping and I am basically alone in the garage.... She likes the shows so when done she will enjoy it.
 
Jim Kueneman said:
I give up on that trunk.... I sanded the crap out of it today and when I hit metal I slapped (and I mean slapped it LOW) it low and kept sanding until I was spent.... Sprayed it with 2 coats of epoxy and this weekend I am going to skim coat it ALL with filler and shape it flat..... The hood is now perfectly flat and ready for the final blocking.... Body is fully blocked with 320 grit... once I get the hood and trunk to that point it is time to spray one coat of reduced epoxy, sand it with 500 and she is ready for paint! What a LONG, LONG, LONG battle this old girl has been...... but when done it will be worth it.... I hope.... the wife has found restoring them is not as fun as she was hoping and I am basically alone in the garage.... She likes the shows so when done she will enjoy it.
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Love your work and little jealous of property and resources, I should show you my trunk lid lol
 
Here is 2.5 hours of my life I'll never get back... but the trunk is flat....

I ran of out 3M Platinum so I had to use up the rest of the Platinum Plus I had....

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Blocking Round 1

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Blocking Round 2

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Forgot to show blocking round 3 but it is now flat!!!!!!!!!

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Looks good, I put about 1 gallon on my trunk.. looks like you have about half that !
 
Thank goodness..... never want to do that again... thought it was never gonna end but she looks good.... Also masked straight lines on the hood bulge and sanded it in so it should be nice with a coat of primer over it.

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Mocked it all up..... looks great... Sprayed on a coat of thinned epoxy for a sealer coat and went for it! 2-3 coats of Motobase L1 dark turquoise and 1 coat of Universal Clear... There are things to still fix and work on so I will touch it up tomorrow and shoot the final coat of clear... then start working on getting the panels ready for the same treatment!

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You are almost to the finish line!
 
:thumbsup: Beautiful color. I bet it would be easy to tiger stripe it if you aren't careful. Darker metallic colors like that sure look nice when done.
 
JDMopar said:
:thumbsup: Beautiful color. I bet it would be easy to tiger stripe it if you aren't careful. Darker metallic colors like that sure look nice when done.
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Been scared to death of this paint job.... first time doing metallic..... I love the way the Motobase goes down... As long as I get complete coverage (likely 3 coats to ensure coverage then 2 more light ones to make it uniform)....
 
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So after a great day yesterday today the wind started at 8am and has not let up... to much dirt in the air to paint anything. I just spent the (short) day getting it ready for a good day.... She is all 500 wet sanded, the trunk is on and aligned (needed a tow strap to pull the rear lip back to get a good alignment to the quarters at the bottom of the trunk) but for all the work I did on that trunk I think it fits amazing. The only thing that is not great is the back gap. Since this is a dark color I am going to live with it...
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A coat of reduced epoxy primer and get it out of the sun so it is still ready for chemical adhesion in the morning.... 4-5 coats of turquoise at 6:30 am on tap in the morning!!!!!

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Ok started early and ended early. There is a storm coming in tomorrow and the wind kicked up after 11 but before it was dead silent and perfect... The temperatures were at the same time and just depended on if the panel was in the sun. Waited till the coldest was 55 then started.

Was setting up before the sun came up and spent over an hour just cleaning and cleaning and cleaning again... Then shot the body and the panels that where off with Motobase base turquoise... Three coats for now to make sure it is covered well..

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Shot 2 coat of clear on the areas that I can't get to with all the panels on then reassembled and set the gaps. That is about when the wind picked up so the paint is covered in dust but it is just laying there. I got virtually no dust in the paint during the super calm of the morning.. Buttoned it up. There are 2 flaws that I missed... trying to decide if I just wear the scar proud or try to fix then (and screw things up more....). Sunday will be another day break effort to get the final 2 coats of color on, concentrating on getting it down nice, and 3 coat of Universal Clear!

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