Progress Thread Bessee's Build - 1988 LX Hatchback

[Fordfreak93]

I've been restoring a 1988 LX Hatchback and I wanted to share some progress pics. I picked the car up in Cherryville, NC for only $2700. I was a good haggler and he already had a few in him and I walked away with a solid car. It turned out to be a two owner car that was originally purchased in a neighboring town, Bessemer City, and had lived there almost it's whole life. That's why I named her Bessee. She has 112k original miles and has been registered every year for the past 30 years. The original paint code is 3R, medium shadow blue, and I wanted to keep her that color. She was rough and dirty and had been living on a farm, but I knew she was ready for a new life.

Here's what she looked like when I brought her home:

 

[Fordfreak93]

I wasn't going to paint this car since I'm already building a 1993 Reef Blue Coupe, but before I could stop myself I stripped her down and started sanding. I kind of wanted to practice anyways, since I don't have a lot of experience with bodywork and I want my coupe to come out really nice. What pushed me over the edge was my boss telling me I could use the shop after hours and keep my car there while I did the bodywork. So it began...

 

[Mustang5L5]

Nice work. Pretty sure I'm following your build on IG

 

[General karthief]

Better pics of what your drinking!
Cause @Davedacarpainter

 

[Fordfreak93]

Nice work. Pretty sure I'm following your build on IG

Thanks man! I saw your car getting a bunch of likes yesterday, so clean!

 

[Fordfreak93]

This is the point where a quick paint job snowballed into a full blown restoration. I can never leave things alone and my dumb brain always says, hey you've gone this far, why not go just a little bit further!? I wanted to pull the glass and scrape the seam sealer and paint the jambs and do all the extra crap to make this car really nice. I also wanted to do a GT wing conversion. It was definitely a lot of extra work that I immediately regretted, lol. So I pulled the glass...

Mocking up GT wing. I had to drill a couple holes and fill a lot more.

 

[Fordfreak93]

The bumpers were badly faded, pitted, warped, the usual 30 year old issues. I had a pile of quarter windows to choose from, but they all had issues with the flat black part that looked like streaks. I knew that would drive me crazy. I decided to invest in new bumper covers and new quarter windows to save me a little time and hassle. I drove down to NPD and picked up the bumpers and I caught a good sale at LMR and got the quarter windows.

 

[Fordfreak93]

I never really liked the way defrost glass looks with tint and I figured now is the time to swap it. I pulled the rear glass out of a roller car I have that was in good shape. I might regret not having rear defrost, but I doubt it. My commute is short and my heat works(for now), just don't look back, lol.

 

[Fordfreak93]

The hatch needed a ton of work after removing the LX spoiler and it had quite a bit of surface rust on the top. I should have found a GT hatch to use or even one that was a little more straight, but I'm stubborn. I was learning a lot though, I had never really blocked, mixed mud, guide coated or any of that before this. So it was quite an adventure. I converted the rust with eastwood stuff and I filled the weld holes a little before the primer.

 

[Fordfreak93]

I got the hatch, hood and spoiler ready for primer and we sprayed them first. It was encouraging to see them a different color after rubbing and sanding and prepping for hours. They came out great and I guide coated them, ready to block.

 

[BlakeusMaximus]

Can’t wait until I paint my car. It’ll be a little while though.

 

[Fordfreak93]

I'll keep rolling through this, I don't like talking in the past. And I have way better pics to share, lol. We sprayed the car in primer next and it really helped my psyche. I was so sick of sanding already and had a long ways to go. Seeing it in primer gave me a lot of motivation to keep going. I started guide coating and blocking next...

 

[Fordfreak93]

More filling, guide coating, blocking and sanding...

 

[General karthief]

Lots of work, and when you think your just about done, you sand some more.
good job. Keep it up

 

[Fordfreak93]

I was offered an OEM set of 98 cobra wheels and I couldn't say no. I thought the dark gray would go well with the medium blue. I know they aren't very original but they were cheap and I'll run them for now. They are growing on me...

 

[95BlueStallion]

Why arent you doing all this work to your reef car instead? Just curious.

 

[Fordfreak93]

Why arent you doing all this work to your reef car instead? Just curious.

Because I have issues, lol. I don't know, I felt burnt out and a little lost with the whole project. I was in over my head and didn't really have a clear vision for the reef car. I was starting to buy parts that I would end up selling a month later so I decided to take a break. After working at a restoration shop for the past 6 months I have learned a ton and have a lot of new ideas and motivation. The blue car helped me gain the experience I needed to make my reef car turn out even nicer than it would have before. I'll be updating that thread again soon. I "finished" this car a few months ago, just now sharing the pics.

 

[Fordfreak93]

I'll keep on trucking, we're finally to the good part, PAINT! There is nothing quite as dramatic as rolling a primer car into the booth and then rolling out a wet and sexy paint job the next morning. We started with the hood, bumpers, hatch and spoiler. A sealer was put on first, then color and then clear. He fogged out the glass in the booth so I couldn't see. The suspense was killing me! It was well worth the wait...

Sealer

Laying down the color

And finally that sexy clear

 

[Fordfreak93]

I pulled the spoiler into the sun for the first time and almost had to change my pants. So much flake!!! I didn't really see a test panel before I shot anything, I just trusted our paint rep when he said he could add flake. I was really happy with the color and how nice it laid down. This is the first car I've ever painted, so it felt like Christmas morning. All of that stupid sanding was finally paying off!

 

[95BlueStallion]

Man that looks good. Where are the rest of the pics?