Paint and Body 1962 Impala - Bodywork

I suspect this was a flipped vehicle. There are several little metal patches on it that I believed were quick repairs for rotted areas. Then mud everywhere without caring about leaving metal exposed.

Probably was found ten or fifteen years ago as a "barn find", bought cheap and sold for a nice profit. The 409 is what really tips this one over into being one of those vehicles that a not quite a chop shop would spend a month or so "restoring".

I'll be working the passenger fender tonight hopefully.

Tonight's progress.

I wanted to get the passenger fender tonight, all I needed to do was to see how the bodylines lined up with the door and quarter, then pull it off and work on the panel.....

I thought the passenger side looked easy after the problems with the driver's side. I was wrong.

There's a few issues that need to be addressed before pulling the panels off. Matching up the bodylines and edges being the primary ones.

TG and I have decided that we will get the quarters to match the doors, so they're after the work on the door.

First issue to work on was that the bodyline along the bottom of the door and rocker didn't match, it is now. The picture doesn't relay how far out it was from the rocker, probably at least an eighth of an inch through most of it. So I had to beat the hell out of the lower door with a bfh and a chunk of wood. It took LOTS of hits to convince it to be in the right place. It's not just beating it to death, you have to beat it STRAIGHT! Do this with a chunk of 2x4 and a sledge hammer sometime, it makes typing an update challenging!

Now the bottom of the door matches the rocker...the bottom of the fender matches the rocker. Win, right?

Not exactly, the top of the fender is taller than the door. Yet the fender is lower in the middle than the door and the bodylines are a bit smaller in distance on the fender. This is good though. the fender curve in the center of the fender needs to be brought outboard. Not overly difficult to fix, but that would take too much time tonight. That'll be worked on Thursday night.

Tonight I also did the initial blocking of the driver's door and re primered it. It blocked out really nicely. My bodywork wasn't bad at all. I got it back in a high build primer tonight. There were a couple spots that I cut through on. I can live with that. The front edge wasn't quite flat enough on the lower portion
and below the lock cylinder needed some adjustment, truthfully I forgot to fix the dents there because TG was talking to me during bodywork. He knows not to do this anymore.

The point is that the driver's door is now straight. Yay! I forgot to take a picture in primer, sorry. It looks grey and straight now.

Not much done with the Impala this week. TG's wife had back surgery on tuesday (two vertebrae fused) and wanted to take the time taking care of her.

I think I'll be back after it monday.

So, not tonight. TG says wednesday night for sure.

I'll post something worth seeing then.

I did paint the rear bumper of my son's '09 mustang, and it's red. The clear coat was delaminating so i stripped it, repaired the various gouges, primered it and painted it. He seems pleased.

Well, I got out there finally.

I did the first blocking of the fender. It blocked out wonderfully.

I blocked it with 180 since TG wants me to use up the rest of a direct to metal primer he has. It tends to block like a rock.

I did the final primering with a high build primer though. Came out pretty good.

I'm going back out there tonight, I'm not positive what I'll be working on. He brought in a Nissan Rogue though that needs a new fender, hood and bumper. So I got a feeling I might be working on Japanese sht tonight.

Last night I get out to TG's shop, fully expecting to be painting the jambs of the new hood and fender for the little japanese suv.

I got there and no new parts? He has to get them this morning, the dealership had to get the parts out of OKC.

Oh well, i get to work on the Impala then. TG had worked on the fender where it was low in the middle and I helped to fit it back to the car.

TG pisses and moans a bit about the difficulty of fitting the fender on because of the metal splash shield. Admittedly, it is a pita. I'm thinking that it doesn't need to be there while the car isn't moving, take the SOB out, right?

TG doesn't think like I do....

He complained about how can I expect him to put the fender on without scratching the paint i'll put on it.

So, after me gently explaining to him that he must be fckin' kidding me, I realize this fella will fck up my paint job in the effort of taking fifteen minutes less in the rebuild.

This car keeps getting to be less incredible and less incredible by the moment.

Ok, I've got to make lemonade....

I'm going to jamb the door openings and door jambs with the doors mounted on the car just so the hinge bolts are smoothly covered. Then I'll jamb the fenders, and we'll put them on the car.

I will finish the bodywork on the passenger's fender on the car. "Don't weep for me Argentina" keeps running through my head. (If you know the reference, you know the reference).

Anywho, got the passenger door pulled off and I will get the bodywork done on it. It is now the "standard" part for the sides of the vehicle. We will make the fenders and quarters match them.

The jamb of the passenger's door needs to be stripped, so I took off all of the attaching seals, bolts, etc... It appears the PR had done the exact same thing to this jamb as the other side. I figured I would get it stripped and in epoxy last night, but TG didn't have anymore sand for my blaster. I shared with him that they still sell fifty pound bags at the same store he bought it from before. He said, "Ok, tomorrow"..... I swear to God I'm going to go insane.

So, trying to do something constructive, I turned the door over and figured i'd get after the outside. It's very ugly along the bottom. I'm not too shocked there, I beat the living hell out of it to get the bodyline to match up to the rocker panel.

I hammered down the few outies and started to strip off the primer so I could pull the low areas out.

This is when I found out TG had not ordered any new studs for his spitznagel gun.....Ok......He shows me his new to him dent puller similar to the one I used on my blue car's hood. Similar, just fourty years older. He got it at an auction for cheap, cheap, cheap.

What the hell, I'm willing to give it a go. We get it all hooked up and TG tries to zap it to the door. No joy. I look at it. The electrode is completely shot, to be expected with a well used part. I ask TG if he has a new electrode for it......

What did I accomplish then? What a fine question. Not much.

Luckily, today we will have a heat index of 112. I'll have a chance to work on the japanese car and the impala. I'll be out there till probably about 7:00 tonight and then I'll need to pick up my son who returns from camp tonight.

I'll post an update tonight if I haven't sweat my fingers clean off of my hands during the day.

I'm still working on the Rogue. Though I'm almost done, I just sprayed the second coat of base.

I ended up working on it mostly today. Though I did just finish the metalwork and most of the bodywork on the door. I'll finish blocking the mud and primer it before I go home tonight.

I'm finding that when TG says,"We", he means,"You". Like, "we need to get the bodywork finished on the Rogue so we can get it primer means,"you need to finish the bodywork and primer the Rogue".

Then he handed me a stack of twenties and I said,"Ok".

I may have been a whore in a previous life......

For whom it may concern, door in primer with one before metal and bodywork.

The primer I'm using is roughly $300 per gallon, of course there's hardener and reducer costs as well. Adds up to about the same per sprayable.

Labor costs are what eat you up. For stripping and repairing that panel in a normal shop that's charging a fair amount, that part alone would be in the $500-$600 alone.

Then there's the paint charges.....

Expensive crap.

You guys that don't do this for a living amaze me. I couldn't afford to pay someone else to do this.

Kudos to you guys that do this at home, ask me for help anytime. I'll do what I can to assist.