1966 Valiant Signet Convertible Resto

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Dodgenut64 said:
Dude, badass. Im happy for you man. Your cars looking very nice. I had a heck of a time trying to get my trunk lid lined up enough not to rub the body, any good tips?
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My best advice is having two people, lots of tape, and someone that can fit inside the trunk to loosen and tighten the trunk bolts. Thats what we did. Makes it easier when you have a convertible too. I don't have the pictures but I was the one in the trunk with a flash light. LOL.
 
WOW! The car is really cool!
I know it's a lot of effort but the paint is fantastic after buffing.
That is one unique ride!
 
daves66valiant said:
My best advice is having two people, lots of tape, and someone that can fit inside the trunk to loosen and tighten the trunk bolts. Thats what we did. Makes it easier when you have a convertible too. I don't have the pictures but I was the one in the trunk with a flash light. LOL.
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Lol! I don`t trust any of my friends enough to close me in a trunk.
 
Dave, Looks great. Did you get rid of that ugly hat??? :toothy10:

The clips are really good.

What camshaft are you running?

Boomer.
 
You sure have the 66 valiant
looking and sounding like a top of the shelf A grade build:cheers: Congratulations Dave. Slick and smooth, and sounds great.
You have out dun yourself sir.:cheers:
 
memike said:
You sure have the 66 valiant
looking and sounding like a top of the shelf A grade build:cheers: Congratulations Dave. Slick and smooth, and sounds great.
You have out dun yourself sir.:cheers:
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Yep Mikey I'm happy I was able to help out with yours. I was so excited you got yourself a 66 Valiant. These little cars have so much character I love em.

Thanks for the complements. I just need to find a cool name for mine. =P~
 
hey dave....sweet car dude....i call mine the thunderbolt grease slapper...i hope your name is cooler than mine...
 
I am sorry to report that I will be taking a serious break from my car. I just can't handle working on it after what happened this past Wednesday. I was wetsanding on the car and noticed a chipped spot on the door and noticed it looked like it was peeling. Well some of you already know what happened. The whole side of the door looks like this now.

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I was heartbroken after all the work I've put into this car. Been bummed all weekend. Johnnydart cheered me up a little. I still can't believe the paint just peeled right off the car. Painter made a catastrophic mistake and now the car needs to be stripped back to bare metal in order for me to have any piece of mind at all. My painter knows he is fired as of today and I owe him nothing more than what I have given him thus far. He really owes me a partial refund since everything on the car is useless.

He did offer to strip the car back to bare metal and trailer it to whoever I plan to use as a new painter. We are still friends but the line is drawn and there is no going back. Should have seen this coming a year and a half ago but gave him the benefit. I now am much wiser and will not make the same mistake twice because I will either paint it myself or find some who is not a junior chemistry student who happens to paint cars.

I'll probably take a few months off from the car while I search for a reputable painter and study up on painting myself.

Maybe this is a good time to work on the 68 dart a little to get my mind of the valiant.

We'll see how it goes and I'll update when something good happens.

Dave
 
Dave, if you feel the need to step away from it, by all means do so. Sometimes, it is the healthiest thing you can do for yourself. Hang in there.
 
i am absolutely blown away as i have never seen anything like that before. was it a lack of compatability between paints? i am glad however that u showed this as to advise everyone to be careful. this is a great build and your setbacks are going to make u appreciate the end result even more.
 
Dave, I'm sorry to hear of this. Definitely take a break from it. That's my philosophy when it comes to car projects. If I get frustrated and don't step away, end up doing stupid things. After you've had a bit of time to reflect, you can find another painter to do it right.

Personally, I wouldn't let the old painter touch it with a ten foot pole.
 
DAVE,, very sorry to learn of this situation,,but your not the first one this has happened too,,from the work i have seen you do,,if i were you,,ide consider painting it your self,, you can purchase a complete HVLP unit,,ive seen people with less attention to detail then you do a great job,,so im sure if you used one of those units,it would look EXELLENT,,, dont give up you have come way too far,,

im sure you wouldnt wanna hear all the crap that went wrong just freshing up my cuda ,,i should of gave up,,take a break DAVE you can DO IT,,
 
We chatted about this the other night, and I know I'm not just around the corner, but here is another example of my guy's paint work. I had the ralley hood done more than a year after the rest of the car, and B5 isn't that easy to match.
 
Very nice work. Hope I can find some one that can replicate that kind of work out here. I know there are tons of good painters in SoCal. It's just a matter of finding one and within my $$$ range.

I am taking the car to a media blaster in the next week or so to have it plastic bead blasted and epoxy primed. Once I get it back to the house I will start work on flattening and smoothing out the panels since I know how to do that myself. This experience has at least given me that much.

I will be teaching myself how to shoot my own 2k high build primers and epoxy primer to seal any body filler and touch up spots that go to bare metal. This way I know it will not be my fault as far as the prep and products used before basecoat. I might even learn how use the sprayable polyester primer which could save me alot of time since it is very sandable. They also make some high build epoxy primers too. I will be doing alot of research while I'm on my hiatus from the car.

If things go really well with shooting the primer I might decide to clean up my garage real nice and put vapor barrier around everything and shoot my own BC/CC. Or just take it to a rental booth. We'll see in the coming months how things pan out.

Thanks for all the encouragement guys.
 
Shouldn`t your painter be the one buying the next paint job? If nothing else, he should be the one taking the car back to metal and doing all of the bodywork.
 
Longgone said:
Shouldn`t your painter be the one buying the next paint job? If nothing else, he should be the one taking the car back to metal and doing all of the bodywork.
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He should be yes, but I plan on taking it to get blasted because I know they will do a better job than him stripping it. At least I know everywhere will be down to bare metal unlike the job he did the first time with the chemical stripper. He left a few spots way under the rocker panels and the inner fender areas that get covered by the fenders. These guys will clean and prep the car and shoot epoxy primer right after it is blasted. I am willing to pay the extra $$$ for knowing it is done right and I can use it as a perfect canvas to work from.

He will be around to help me with the bodywork filling, blocksanding, and final prep sanding before I give it to someone else to paint. He will also be providing his truck, trailer and gas expenses to take it to the blasting shop and the painter I chose. Maybe, he will also be helping with the wetsanding and buffing of the car that way I get some labor out of him that he would otherwise owe me as a refund. I can do this myself, which is why I'll probably ask for 5 coats of clear so I have plenty of room to cut down super smooth and flat without cutting through the usual 3 coats of clear. We'll see on that one. Not only that, he will be doing it the way I want it done as far as technique and cleanliness. No questions asked...........period. He's an amateur at best and I have read, read, read, read, read and read up on how paint should be done throughout this whole process and the whole weekend too. I have more respect for the cleanliness, tech sheets, surface prep and strict adherence to the process that he does. This makes me a much better person to oversee everything, especially since it will be at my house instead of his dirty shop. Mind you I will be doing some serious cleaning of my garage when the time comes. Plus I am much more knowledgeable about the questions I need to ask of the next guy and warning signs.

Everything will come out in the wash as a valuable lesson learned and a new experience in doing much of the work myself which has value regardless of how much money I have to spend to get it right. The day you see a big asssssss burnout and a beautiful car will be the day I'll never forget. That is what I look forward to.

Long-winded ranting and OFF. Thanks

Stay tuned guys it will happen.
 
DAVE i know you will do an out standing job,,,,just wondering if you will remove the drive train ?? or wraqp it up good and tight,, good luck,,
 
One last suggestion. IF there is a possibility you won't be painting the car, then leave it in bare metal so the painter can work it up using matched primer and paint. My guy won't guaranty his work if someone brings him a car in primer....for probably the reason you're doing yours a second time.

It's your car. Do what you feel best. But I wouldn't run the risk a second time
 
68 Sedan said:
One last suggestion. IF there is a possibility you won't be painting the car, then leave it in bare metal so the painter can work it up using matched primer and paint. My guy won't guaranty his work if someone brings him a car in primer....for probably the reason you're doing yours a second time.

It's your car. Do what you feel best. But I wouldn't run the risk a second time
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Good suggestion. The way I see it at this point is I'm going to be running the risk either way. Like they always say...IF YOU WANT IT DONE RIGHT YOU GOTTA DO IT YOURSELF.

I totally agree with you about using properly matched products, following tech sheets and strictly adhering to the proper steps in the process of good bodywork and prep. All of which were mickey-moused with my previous painter.

I'm the one who really cares about the car and I don't want to get burned a second time. I also don't have a ton more money to throw back into this thing. What I do have is extra time and patience to do it right. All I want is a "pro" to thoroughly check my work before laying down some sick BC/CC. Hopefully it will be someone that will be willing to guide me throught the proper steps and use products he would plan on using if he were to do all the bodywork.

My goal is to do as much of the work as possible and I know a painter will not guaranty the paint with me doing all the bodywork. But.......I will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the bodywork that I do will be very meticulous and any products I use will be 100% compatible with PPG deltron paint. Plus I get the added pride in the work I did even if it does not come out 100% perfect.

We'll see....maybe I'll be able to find another painter before the car goes to the media blaster and I can get his recommendation and price quote based what parts I do myself versus him doing everything from bare metal up.

Until then back to more reading about paint and body :glasses9:
 
Yep. I gotta find a new painter first. what was I thinking.
 
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