Paint and Body 1962 Impala - Bodywork

droopie85gt said:

I can't afford someone to do this...I'm thinking plastidip or the Duplicolor removable stuff. I figure I would do some minor work, dip it, and then if I won the lottery, peel it off and send the car for a real paint job. I just remember when I was 12 or 13 I help my brother sand a 69 Chevelle. We did it outside in the back yard...in the heat. I guess that's when I swore off bodywork!! I felt like I was standing on the end of this flame! More power to you Dave!

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I know what you mean Drew. Back in '77 when I started doing this stuff my job was to wet sand entire dodge vans in the sun.

But I was just a DA kid at the time and I thought it was great plus I was getting to work with my oldest brother.

Wait, I did something finally! Why is it that everything I touch these days comes to a grinding halt?

For now though......I stripped the passenger's door jamb tonight and got it into epoxy primer. It's just as fantastically ugly as the driver's door. Here's a few after stripping it with fiber wheels and my little sandblaster.
I had a really good talk with TG this evening as well. A type of "What the fck are we doing here" talk.

I'm bringing in a bodyman friend of mine to help get those wonderful quarters in the proper shape. I know what you're saying, isn't TG a bodyman?.......Yes.......Yes he freaking is.

Anywho. My friend will hopefully be helping out with this starting this Saturday. With Del (that's his name) involved, i might get to the final blocking stage within three weeks.

On a last and most pitiful note, I hit 55 today. Time slips away. I swear to you guys, i was 27 just the other day.

RaggedGT said:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dave

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I gotta admit Chris, your post kind of turned me on.

AND, thank you buddy.

90sickfox said:

Happy Birthday, Dave !!!

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Thanks Scott.

madmike1157 said:

Happy Birthday Dave.

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Thanks Mikey, how's that new house treating you?

karthief said:

I won't say happy birthday dave because after 50 they kinda suck.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE

Crap, I said it anyway.

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Thanks JR.

Tonight TG seam sealed the doors. Yay! This isn't with them finished. He did two layers, this layer he sanded smooth and then re seam sealed it. It looks very nice. I wish I would have took a picture of the finished work. Tomorrow night we'll get those thrown onto the car and my friend Del and TG will start the bodywork on the quarters.

I mentioned these at some big quarters, 7' 10" to be precise.

Still smaller than an old cadillac's almost ten feet.

I got started on the deck lid. I started with the initial blocking of it to see what needed fixing.

The first thing was to straighten the edges to the quarters. The edge was a bit wavy, but after tweaking them with a few pieces of wood and a smallish hammer, i got that straight.

I then stripped the epoxy primer from the areas needing bondo. It was fairly wavy, some areas I used the spitznagel gun to pull out the worst.

I didn't get a picture in mud simply because I didn't finish it yet. I'll finish that tomorrow night and get it in primer.

Getting a good start on things today!

My buddy Del is over on the other side beating away on the right quarter.

I'm working on an Explorer that TG brought in. Oh well, at least my bodywork days are over with the Impala. It's the painting life for me boys!:zombie:

Today I finished the bodywork on the right quarter that Del had worked on. He did most of it, but missed some of the little things. I got that fixed and primered the quarter and deck lid.

As a side note, TG had told me the owner had paid $35k for this car, he was incorrect. The owner said he had paid $95k. Holy sht! $95k with those bubbles in the paint.

Still, he might spend $25k on this refinish. So, for the car it is, it's a good deal.

I did something.

Maybe I should have said, I HAD to do something.

My friend that was doing the bodywork on the right quarter panel made it straight.....mostly.....AND he blessed me with approximately 10 billion pinholes to take care of.

So.....I started to work the left quarter......

All I did was to pull the dents in the welded area on top next to the decklid and mud it. This area was a bit of a challenge for me. I had to get it straight because I need to take the deck lid off to straighten the jambs.

It's not going to look like much, but, in my defense, the upper quarter has a curved bodyline between the strong lower bodyline and the upper trim next to the convertible top. It transitions from pronounced to smooth as it goes toward the rear of the quarter.

It took me three and a half stinking hours to make it straight!I just sprayed some rattle can etch primer on it to protect the metal.

Tomorrow night I'll be getting after the passenger door jamb and the jamb around the quarters/decklid area.

Another Saturday.

I think I might have a mild form of autism. I got out to the impala at about 10:30 and worked non stop till 7:30. I get so focused on what I'm doing that I couldn't vaguely tell you what time it is or how long I've been working on something.

The only thing I've learned to do beyond the task at hand is to stop and drink water (learned that the hard way a long time ago).

It was hot and I sweated like a pig, but, odd as it sounds, there's times during yesterday I was as close as I'll get to nirvana on this side of the mat. When I was blocking out the primer on the right quarter I was actually happy!

It wasn't till I was mixing the primer that I realized how tired I was.

Anyhow, what I got done on Saturday.

I worked the filler panel between the top and deck lid. It had a couple little dents that I pulled with the spitznagel gun. I then laid out a fairly thin coat of bondo across the panel. The trick to this part of the job was to smooth the jambs. In addition to filling the pitting that was cleaned of rust earlier on was to smooth the front corners where the quarters attach to the filler panel. I spent maybe two hours on this part of the job.

I also worked the top part of the left quarter and by the left taillight area (not completely, just the sht close to the decklid).

I spent another hour or two blocking out the right quarter that I had primered last time. It was pretty dang straight considering the length of the panel. I already mentioned the pinholes in the bodywork, I squeezed a thin coat of glaze into them after the initial blocking with 240 grit. There were just a couple areas left that needed to be straightened after that, you'll see that in the picture. You'll see two different colors of grey on the quarter, the darker grey is an etch type primer that i sprayed on the quarter, then I sprayed a couple more coats of a high build primer on top of that. That made for an interesting way to see how things blocked out.

I didn't get a picture of it all in primer, I was busy doing victory laps because I finally finished doing what I intended to get done yesterday. The right quarter does look sweet though.

As a final note, I want to buy a dent puller like I used on the hood of my blue car. I'm going to use my friends when I get my blue car home. Though I really want one, I'll check with my Snap-on dealer to see how much they want for theirs (I'm sure it'll be cheap).

karthief said:

Excellent! Abundant applause!
I noticed that you put something to hold the trunk (boot for those from the other side of the pond) hinge down, story time:
While using a half inch air gun taking off a rear bumper on a car in the old shop when I was a kid, they had done the same thing holding down the hinge but left a bolt in one of the holes, brace vibrated out, hinge popped up, bolt catapulted accross the shop, hit an 8 ft fluorescent light, exploding the tubes then lodged in a wall next to a door just as my grandmother ( she ran the place) walked through it! You could hear god say OH !
I swear nobody said a word till after lunch.

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Yeah JR, those are just pry bars. After having to push those down and slip the bar there I was thinking if one of those popped free while I was working in that area it would probably break my arm.