Optimus Prime - The '68 Coupe

gregski · Jan 24, 2011

final preparations

finally final preparations, seal off the work area, mop the floor to keep the dust from flying up, one last final wipe down with a tack cloth, and we're ready for show time, I tell ya this baby is soo clean you could ... well, spray paint it

gregski · Jan 25, 2011

frist coat of primer - and you thought this day would never come

here are some action shots of the wet first coat of primer, all I can say is the best day to shoot primer in the winter is yesterday or tomorrow if you catch my drift, I tell ya the day before was glorious so I spent it buying the materials and driving around town like a pin head, the day of was border line too cold for shooting epoxy below 60 degreeish and the following day was warm again, go figure - I know, cry me a river is what all of you folks with the white powder on the grown are thinking

mysavioreigns · Jan 25, 2011

Man that is coming along very nicely.

gregski · Jan 25, 2011

Ta Da - well so far anyways...

here are some pictures of the primed rear end, I think I took these like a week later, I love the way it turned out, it looks so much better and more importantly it seals and protects the car way better than rattle cans would, (as far as pictures I am learning sometimes natural light is your friend sometimes your enemy, and shadows are better than bright sun light)

65ShelbyClone · Jan 25, 2011

It's definitely coming along. I'll be following along as I have much of the same kind of body work to do to my '68(filling trim holes, stripping crud, and painting).

It's the weirdest thing, I can think of four '65-68 Mustangs that have been painted that same dark blue at some point. Your '68 is one, my '68 is two, the '65 I had is three, and a '67 belonging to someone I used to know is four. The '67, my old '65, and my current '68 got a coat of the same metallic red in there too. Figure that one out...because I can't.

gregski · Jan 25, 2011

65ShelbyClone said:
It's the weirdest thing, I can think of four '65-68 Mustangs that have been painted that same dark blue at some point.

You know what, that blue when wet after a good wipe down looks really, really good in some places still even after all these years, I thought so, and others who have seen it wet thought so too.

gregski · Jan 25, 2011

Mr. Kelly was right!

My high school biology teacher used to say "There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over" well Mr. Kelly was right, or Gene in this case I should say, though his quote wasn't as profound, "...don't cheese out now!".

With those words reverberating in my head I decided to grow a pair and remove the rear quarter extensions. Better late than never right? All that stood between me and them being off, were 3 bolts on the inside of the trunk and 1 phillips screw on the bottom on the outside.

Removing them allows us to examine the Amazing Goop that was used to plug up the trim holes, not bad actually, you can see how it rolled up like some toothpaste, but it's held on solid. I will shoot those when I spray the doors.

Question though, the back side seems like it has a groove for a rubber gasket, I wonder if mine are missing that piece and weather it's worth getting for the reassembly I would think so?

horseballz · Jan 26, 2011

Gregski,
In case you didn't see 'em, you've got a couple of PM's.
Gene

Red5oh · Jan 26, 2011

Yep that goop is 40 years old and still working... good stuff huh!

I dont know if I would put new gasket material on them when you assemble them. You will need to do this at time of final assy post actual painting. The most important thing is sealing of the mounting nuts so you dont pass any water into the trunk.

I still have that set of non-trim extensions if you want them...

Oh, and good job. I just wasnt able to post up all my pics here, so that was the birth of my cardomain site.

jcode68 · Jan 26, 2011

You are doing good work there and looking forward to seeing the updates as you progress along. The extensions do have a rubber gasket and you can get them at any of the mustang part suppliers for fairly cheap. They will help seal the weather out and prevent paint chipping when you reassemble.

gregski · Jan 27, 2011

HALFTIME

Phase 1 - The Rusted Roof - COMPLETED

Phase 2 - The Trunk and Rear End - COMPLETED

Intermission: So you gotta ask, what's up with that stupid "Optimus Prime" title? Who's Optimus Prime? Well some of you may be too young to remember, other's too old, but to the rest of us Miami Vice, The A Team, and ... [wait for it] ... Transformer watching 80's generation, Optimus Prime was one bad @ss dude! He was an 18 wheeler semi truck that could change to a robot, yeah you heard me. LOL Those of you who know what I'm talking about give this post a bump, those of you who may have owned Optimus, two bumps, LOL

i like this picture of Optimus because he's all dirty looking kinda like my car started out not to mention he's blue and needs a paint job, I think his real color is red

gregski · Jan 29, 2011

Phase 3 - The Doors and Door Jams

Ladies and Gentlemen, from a suburb garage in California... The Doors!

65ShelbyClone · Jan 29, 2011

Whatever you do, don't use abrasives on the textured interior metal or it will knock down the texture. You probably already know that, though.

gregski · Jan 29, 2011

Textured Door Interior

65ShelbyClone said:
Whatever you do, don't use abrasives on the textured interior metal or it will knock down the texture. You probably already know that, though.

Actually sir no I didn't know that and I appreciate the tip very much. Though like a true amateur I thought what better way to get inside those grooves and crevices than with a wire wheel. Damn it! Though I only took it to one side, but you know what it cleaned it up pretty good and did not knock down the texture, go figure. So now I'm perplexed.

gregski · Jan 29, 2011

Anatomy of the Mustang Door

well here we go some more boring detail that must be done, all of you thinking, come on man really you're gonna show us every little part, those of you thinking that, ask yourself what happens when you forget to put the "little" spark plugs back in - nothing!

removing the armrest pads, that's not a screw driver it's a socket on the end, I thought it would have been a phillips screw but nope

65ShelbyClone · Jan 29, 2011

gregski said:
Actually sir no I didn't know that and I appreciate the tip very much. Though like a true amateur I thought what better way to get inside those grooves and crevices than with a wire wheel. Damn it! Though I only took it to one side, but you know what it cleaned it up pretty good and did not knock down the texture, go figure. So now I'm perplexed.

Fortunately a wire wheel is one of the more benign abrasives you could have used. Usually people hit the panels with a sanding block and wonder why it looks like crud after the paint goes on.

Paint stripper might work alright. It's more expensive, but "graffiti remover" in an aerosol can is more convenient IMO than the brush-on "aircraft remover" or similar. I hate handling methylene chloride, but it works so well...

68stang351 · Jan 29, 2011

65ShelbyClone said:
It's definitely coming along. I'll be following along as I have much of the same kind of body work to do to my '68(filling trim holes, stripping crud, and painting).

It's the weirdest thing, I can think of four '65-68 Mustangs that have been painted that same dark blue at some point. Your '68 is one, my '68 is two, the '65 I had is three, and a '67 belonging to someone I used to know is four. The '67, my old '65, and my current '68 got a coat of the same metallic red in there too. Figure that one out...because I can't.

Ha! No way!

My 68 was originally Meadowlark Yellow, then someone painted it blue like that, then it was repainted a metallic dark red.

Hell, in the front part of the door jambs you can see all 3 colors!

other_shoe · Jan 29, 2011

68stang351 said:
Hell, in the front part of the door jambs you can see all 3 colors!

I've got a few spots like that on mine. It started out lime gold, then was painted resale red, and I had it painted highland green. My paint and body guy was supposed to strip it and primer, but I was lucky to get it back at all. Ironically, I'm better off with a deep chip to the lime gold than a light chip to the red which really calls attention to itself.

Glad to see Greg doing things the right way.

gregski · Jan 29, 2011

other_shoe said:
I've got a few spots like that on mine. It started out lime gold, then was painted resale red, and I had it painted highland green...

"resale red" I love that, LOL, hey guys remember this post where I talk about sanding the doors from white only to end up back with white doors

http://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/827419-i-once-sanded-4-layers-off-white-door-till-white.html

Red5oh · Jan 29, 2011

I must be color blind or crazy (probably the last one) the ONLY acceptable color for any car of mine is red... no others accepted. For every car I have ever owned (and I stopped counting at 25) they have had red on them in some way or another...

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