Build Thread '83 T-top Coupe - Cliff Notes Edition

It's lunchtime, I've got one on. I have to wait till a little later to get the driver's side done. Got to leave the clamps on there till the glue dries a bit. It doesn't look very sexy yet, but at least it's disinfected and flat!



I'm also including a picture of my nice new dew wipes. Aren't they pretty?

I got the other one glued and stapled down. I want to paint them tomorrow, I'll have to see how the customer work goes first. So, here's the driver's door.

Well crap! I thought I would bring the carpet pieces to the shop with me today to see how they will look on the door panels.

They're about 1/2" too tall......crap........

Guess I'll have to get my sew back on. Bastards.

That, or just loose the bottom stripe on the vinyl.

I think that little strip is kind of needed, especially with me painting the strips the accent grey.

I said screw it and ordered a correct size set. Doggone '86 and before have a carpet height between 4.5" and 5".

I'm trying not to spend on these little $40 things. This is one of those to spend on.

Sid note. I would like your opinions on this topic.

I was thinking of painting my deck lid GLX emblem the same green in it's center as the hood GLX green.

Speaking of the next thing. I decided to do something a little different with the door panels. I got them painted black and cleared with the half an eggshell clearcoat.

Here's what's different. I'll paint the mouldings the trim grey in the morning and clear them with a glossy clearcoat.

Picture as of now.

a91what said:

Sorry Dave could you explain again how you're keeping the paint that you're spraying on all these panels from chipping or peeling

Click to expand...

Sure Steve.

Here's the basis of the interior pieces. They are plastic. Even the cloth is plastic thread woven into a fabric sheet.

So, like any plastic i might deal with at work normally (primarily plastic bumper covers, mirrors, door handles, etc...), I score the plastics via sandpaper, scotchbrite, or gritted foam pads. This allows for the mechanical adhesion of the products we use at work. Plus it opens more surface for the following.

In addition to the mechanical adhesion provided by the above mentioned scoring, plastics require an adhesion promoter to cause a chemical adhesion as well (the adhesion promoter kind of "melts" the plastic surface for a short period of time allowing the top coatings to bond to it (mixing with its upper layers, if you will). A somewhat "permanent" bond, assuming application is done properly.

So, i have paint bonded to a plastic substrate, right? Paint hardens and can be brittle because automotive paint hardens very solid to keep out the elements. What about this problem? Enter the wonderful world of flex additives.

Flex additives give the "brittle" paint the ability to be flexed, or reshaped beyond the original shape of it's catalization. Essentially making the plastic flexible beyond it's normal limits on it's own chemical base. This allows the paint a bonded material (the flex additive) that will stretch without fracturing.

The sealer coat and the clearcoats that i'm using are "flexed", meaning they have the flex additives in them prior to mixing for application.

All that said, i hope the sht sticks!

Getting started.

Ok, the mouldings are shot. I two toned the upper one with kona blue. The mouldings are glossy. I'll get a picture use in the sun in just a little bit when it's done baking. This picture is with me shining my "sun" light on it so you can see the blue.

It doesn't really bling in the sun like the fenders or the other panels, which is ok. I wanted subtle. I'll get the dew wipe on today and the carpet whenever it shows up. I can finally go onto the next thing, mirrors and glass trim.

Ah Jeez.....I got the new dew wipes on the door panels, plus the little ring for the lock rod. They both have chrome on them. The chrome looks sooooo good against the black. I'm thinking i'm going to look into that chrome transfer tape i mentioned a while back. That kona blue may just be a good base for chrome. I think i'll keep the grey in the upper moulding middle though. To top it off, i didn't get a picture of the new dew wipes on the panels. Boy they're nice though. The old ones literally fell apart in my hands as i was taking them off. I did mention i went ahead and ordered the new carpet from LMR right? I'll just get a new picture posted when they're complete.

The door panels really screwed with my completion fixation, so i had to do something else too.

I wanted to go to the mirrors and window trim, but the trim is chromed. For you that know the fun of sanding chrome, i decided to delay those parts till next week. So, what did i do? Taillights!

So, I started with the left taillight that i already had disassembled earlier. If you remember, it had a small 2" crack in it. I used super glue to repair the crack.
I blocked out the excess super glue and sanded the lense down with 400 grit sandpaper.
Then i clearcoated it.
Here it is with the right side. I also sanded and cleaned the housing and painted the black on it. I will spray that "chrome in a can" stuff in the silver reflective area on monday (thanks @Mustang5L5 ). I will also mask off the lense and respray the black, it was chipped and gouged. Plus the black needs to be more of an eggshell finish. Doesn't that look awesome?!
This got me cocky with the time i had left in the day and i tore down the right side. It was in great condition compared to the left except the butyl tape sealing that lense was dried out. While this may sound bad, and sure made for a dirtier interior, it was a breeze to clean up! Butyl is a wonderfully sticky mess when it's still pliable. BTW, notice the red plastic stick to the left of the lense? That's what i used to separate the lense from the housing.
I sanded, cleaned and cleared it.
I also cleaned and prepped the housing (no picture, second verse, same as the first).
Here is the right lense with the left. These easier things can be so satisfying.
As I said, I'll get the silver on monday. Then I'll put new butyl tape in there (the clips are in great condition, btw). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I can get all I want for free.

The lenses look beautiful! I needed this victory. I thought that whole Kona blue thing would turn out better on the door vinyl than it did. Oh well. I'll have btchin taillights!

My latest mod, sure it's not that exciting. It is paid for though.
It'll be applied to the taillights monday.

A little light reading today (and tomorrow, and the next day, and so on.....)

Oh good Lord! I'm getting to have a problem that has normally been reserved for stangnetters more anal than me.

I had a light bulb click on in my brain as i've been going through the electrical manual.....what i'm trying to say is.......I........might........just.......enjoy......this ......partofthebuild......There, I've said it now!:zombie: I think i'm about to lose control about the wiring, and i think I like it.

Not that Scott visits us anymore, but @RacEoHolic330 pops to mind about people with the above mentioned sickness.

Here's the major problem with this. After pulling the instrument cluster I discovered the PO wanted things electrical that were beyond factory. Meaning there is bonus wiring there to figure out.

Like an interesting puzzle, it just takes time to discover what needs to be removed and replaced (OMG! It's like Obamacare! Not that bad.....), that's for you Mikey .

It's weird, and Mike might understand this with his monster, I want to "understand" what those wires do. Plus i have that engine bay coming up and it's exciting rat colony that i'm sure sharpened their little fckin teeth on all of those underhood wires.

I'm lost guysI'm lost....

Now, I'm afraid i might fix everything....ah jeez!

But understand what i'm saying here! I'll know what these wires do and what each connector means! A lot of those wires are old......they could be replaced! It's a deep, deep hole.....

So I used my new silver paint this morning on the housings. Here's a before and after photos showing how it brightened it up. Keep in mind this is with the bulb shining up through the back of the housing, I would assume the difference will be even more pronounced when the bulb is inside the housing.

I did get the black trim painted on the lenses as well.
Here's a picture of the masking
and then of the completed project with the housings finished up as well.

Before and after

The mirrors are cleaning up nicely. I thought I might have to replace the mirror part of the assembly because I thought the corrosion got behind the mirror. I needed to use a razor blade to scrape off some of the corrosion, but it's real nice underneath.

Here's something I'm doing with my mirror's cables. I'm spraying the crap out of the back with brake cleaner. The idea is to remove any old lube that may be in those spring guides so I can hose it down with some fresh lithium lube. Another not much done picture of the back after cleaning out the dirt and using the brake cleaner. Tell me if y'all think this is a good idea or not.The mirror sure does move smoothly now.

The mirror covers? Where are they?

Right here, I painted them this afternoon. The finish is the same as the interior (half an eggshell). They're still wet in this picture. They're a little orange peely, I shot them with my mini jet paint guns (itty bitty version of my full size guns). The guns are in a desperate need of cleaning, and in fact are soaking in an acid bath over night. I will live with the orange peel here, not on the main panels though.

I included a second picture with my sun lamp shining on one of them so you can see they're the accent grey.