need your opinion please..

[stangman16]

I have my '66 in the backyard for my EFI conversion, which is about 80% or so complete, and I hope to have it done by the end of this year. My problem is the car needs paint really badly, focusing on areas: quarters, p/s door, and decklid has a dent. The thing is I NEED to have the cowl vent fixed and the radiator support changed. Just those two are preventing me from going out there and starting on sanding... I know it costs alot to have a shop do the cowl.

I have no welder/no welding experience... might be able to find someone with a welder & experience... but I need to tackle the cowl vent and that radiator support first before I paint the car.

my question, since I cannot have the car in the garage, it has to stay outside, should it be fine to start working on the bodywork outside, and when done just spray w/primer and cheap paint to prevent rust? (working on it in sections, of coarse)

Do you think it would be smart to remove the front windshield, and start drilling out the 140 or so spot welds and cut out the cowl and try and have a friend patch in the patch pieces? (with the car in the backyard) I'm not sure how level the car is, but it's atop of wood blocks so I could easily get underneath the car for fuel system routing. And when I'm done for the day just cover up the car w/ a tarp?

any knowledge on this would be helpful... I need to do something, dont have much money, and I need to get the EFI finished and the car painted.

 

[jikelly]

Well I have done the body work outside. Doing spot repairs, only what I could get done and covered with rattle can sandable primer from AutoZone, before the sun went down. That worked fine, but since I didn't top coat it, had no garage, and I was driving the car, rain or shine everyday, the repairs developed rust under the primer. Granted that took about 6 months to happen in some areas.

So yes you can do it that way. Outside, in spots. I guess you'll be fine as long as you top coat it. Now that said on my car when I got a garage I pulled her in and sanded everything off. I was glad I did too because rust was working away under that primer.

I liked that I could do a large area of the car at once with no worries about trying to get it covered before the sun went down. Of course I left the car bare until I got all the body work (read bondoing) done. Then I coated her with primer, then I wet sanded that to get it all smooth as a baby's wrinkled butt. Then I finally sprayed the color and clear.

It was fun only took me like a year to do. Actually the meter is still running cuz I ain't finished quite yet. Hope to be done by January. My posts on it are somewhere on the forum. You can see my bad workmenship at http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/jikelly/paint pictures.htm

Good Luck!!

 

[stangman16]

That looks real good man! What color of blue did you use?

I hope to do sections at a time with the spraycan primer and paint (to keep moisture off the primer), and if I could learn to weld and just replace the rear quarters that would save tons of sanding and prep work. But I definitely have to do the cowl vents and the radiator support. I'm still researching on the welder though.. But the thing is I would probably only spend 3-4 hours a night during the week and full day Saturday working on it. I think it's going to be a pain to paint each section after I'm finished w/it.

Well I have done the body work outside. Doing spot repairs, only what I could get done and covered with rattle can sandable primer from AutoZone, before the sun went down. That worked fine, but since I didn't top coat it, had no garage, and I was driving the car, rain or shine everyday, the repairs developed rust under the primer. Granted that took about 6 months to happen in some areas.

So yes you can do it that way. Outside, in spots. I guess you'll be fine as long as you top coat it. Now that said on my car when I got a garage I pulled her in and sanded everything off. I was glad I did too because rust was working away under that primer.

I liked that I could do a large area of the car at once with no worries about trying to get it covered before the sun went down. Of course I left the car bare until I got all the body work (read bondoing) done. Then I coated her with primer, then I wet sanded that to get it all smooth as a baby's wrinkled butt. Then I finally sprayed the color and clear.

It was fun only took me like a year to do. Actually the meter is still running cuz I ain't finished quite yet. Hope to be done by January. My posts on it are somewhere on the forum. You can see my bad workmenship at http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/jikelly/paint pictures.htm

Good Luck!!

 

[jikelly]

It's really not that difficult to paint it in sections, but you have to be careful considering at some point either you will have to remove it before the final color goes on, leave it under the final color coat, or leave it as the final color coat.

It is a lot of prep work (sanding) that goes into a paint job. I spent weeks on just my drivers rear quarter panel sanding, bondoing where I messed up, sanding again till I was happy, then sanding again after the primer was on before I did the color coat.

My color is code 3K, Blue Glow. It's not exactly the same color as the original. I think it's actually a lot closer to the C5 corvette's electron blue.

Oh don't try to save money on sandpaper. You will use a lot of the good stuff, I used 3M 120, 300, 400, 600, 1200, 1500, and 2000 grit, but believe me the good stuff works a lot better than the cheap stuff at removing material faster, and works a lot longer.

 

[stangman16]

hmm... I remember how long it took to spray it the first time, and my dad did almost all of the sanding. I'm figuring this time, since the previous was a temp paint job, I will learn to weld since I have to do the cowl vents, and just replace the quarter panels to cut time off from sanding them. I'm sure I need to anyhow, plus new outer wheelhouse pieces. I remember the quarters took the longest to shape correctly. I also took a look at a how-to article on quarter panel replacement off the mustangmonthly site and it doesn't seem too bad... just time consuming.

Do you know anything about welders? I just need something for the cowl vents, quarter panels, wheelhouses and radiator support. Something to plug into the regular wall socket, and not the washer/dryer connections.

I've taken a step back and looked at this situation, I would save about $2500-4000 in labor alone replacing the parts above by myself. Add in learning to weld and having fun - I think that is priceless!

I figure I'll get the radiator support and replace that first (after practicing welding) and then repair cowl vent before attempting the quarter panels.

Did you paint your engine compartment before the rest of the car? Mine needs it badly, so since I've got to take off the fenders to get to the cowl, might as well repaint the whole front of the car - engine compartment and underneath where the fenders go.

 

[jikelly]

I'm afraid I know nothing about welding or welders. I was too chicken to try welding new panels on my car. It is the proper way to do a rust hole repair though, and I'm sure I'll be paying for using the fiberglass patching in a few years.

Of course welding doesn't get you totally out of doing the bondo film sanding forever thing, but it is stronger, and the repair will last a lot longer, forever if done right.

Yeah, by doing the work myself I saved at least 3000 dollars. The time I've put in though makes it plain why a good paint job costs so much, and how someone can pay 10,000 for a show finish.

I haven't done the engine bay yet. I want to put in a new shortblock this summer and I will repaint it while the motor's out. I'm thinking of doing it the same color as the body, but I'm not looking the smooth the firewall or anything crazy like that.