1969 Plymouth Barracuda Restoration Thread

Small update. I purchased two 3/16" random orbital sanders. One 6" and one 3" for those tighter areas.
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Almost finished with the interior side of the trunk lid. Still have some shiny metal to go over. Otherwise the metal has a tight uniform scratch pattern. Monday I'll be ordering my paint supplies from SPI.

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Christmas in April.....SPI supplies arrived today, and in record time. Spoke with a gentleman named Andy, very curtious and professional. Haven't opened the boxes yet, most likely will after dinner. I'm curious to see two paint chip samples I asked Andy to place with the order.

Edit: Opened the boxes after dinner. I must say that was one great packing job, no cutting corners there. Very impressed! Andy provided the paint chip samples and they are the perfect color for my paint job vision.

Two last prep items to do on the trunk lid and I'll be spraying epoxy either Friday or Saturday.

Thanks for all the help up to this point fellas.
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texasking said:
That trunk is almost too pretty to prime.
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Thank you tex. It's the least I can do to show my appreciation and go that extra mile for those of you who have helped me up to this point. The helpful advice here warrants me doing everything I can to have a quality paint job. It's also your reward for helping me get there.

What I did to the trunk lid and what I'll do to the rest of the body panel is strip the existing paint, condition the existing metal, and finally da the metal with a 3/16"random orbit and 80 grit. What amazes me about the metal so far is, that's 52 year old metal and it looks like it rolled off the assembly line 2 days ago. Imho, it's in great condition.

I finally have settle on the paint colors for the car. The main body with be a metallic gold. The side panels will be SPI white, and the accents strip will be SPI orange. I'm basically doing the same graphics I had on the car originally.

Here's the gold color, Not the brand of paint I'll be using but, the color is what I'm after.

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Hello gents, I've been quite lately but working towards the painting goal.
Weather is not cooperating so, last week I fabricated a painters rack. Today was going to be the best day to finally get the epoxy primer on the trunk lid. Temps of 79 with humidity of 72. Tonight's temp will be 61 but, the garage should stay around 70/72.

I'm very pleased with the results and I owe it to you guys for the guidance up to this point. Thank you very much. It means a lot to me.

Painters rack with prepped trunk lid
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Unreduced epoxy primer
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Now on to my next question which is filler and sanding related. I epoxied primed yesterday and was planning to start filler work on Wednesday to give the panel two days of cure time. I will be using 3M Platinum filler. Once the filler is placed, I was planning on using 40 grit to knocked down the high material, then switch to 80 grit.

Block out the panel with 80 grit and reapply epoxy primer over the 80 grit blocked scratches? Repeat that step if necessary.

Am I on the right track?
 
I usually do it all with 80 grit. If you wait just the right amount of time the filler is still just a little soft and the 80 takes it right down (have a wire brush to clean the paper occasionally)
 
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I agree. 80 grit should be all you need unless there is a deep pit somewhere that I am not seeing.
Remember when block sanding to let the paper do the cutting and not to press real hard on the sanding block. Pressing hard can flex the panel slightly and defeat your attempt to get it straight.

Firm pressure is fine but the tendency is to press harder when the sandpaper quits cutting.
 
'68 Coronet R/T said:
I agree. 80 grit should be all you need unless there is a deep pit somewhere that I am not seeing.
Remember when block sanding to let the paper do the cutting and not to press real hard on the sanding block. Pressing hard can flex the panel slightly and defeat your attempt to get it straight.

Firm pressure is fine but the tendency is to press harder when the sandpaper quits cutting.
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Especially on lids. They can cave in between the bracing with pressure if you don’t feel like you are wasting paper you are not changing it out enough.
 
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'68 Coronet R/T said:
I agree. 80 grit should be all you need unless there is a deep pit somewhere that I am not seeing.
Remember when block sanding to let the paper do the cutting and not to press real hard on the sanding block. Pressing hard can flex the panel slightly and defeat your attempt to get it straight.

Firm pressure is fine but the tendency is to press harder when the sandpaper quits cutting.
Click to expand...

Good advice there. I will pay attention to that.
 
JimKueneman said:
I usually do it all with 80 grit. If you wait just the right amount of time the filler is still just a little soft and the 80 takes it right down (have a wire brush to clean the paper occasionally)
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Okay that good to hear because I didn't purchase any 40 grit yet. Purchased another box of Sun Might 80 grit last week.
 
Here's another question I was thinking about today. What is the better bond, chemical or mechanical? The reason I ask is, my plan was to get all the body panels complete one at a time ( epoxy primer and filler using the chemical bond process) minus the 2k primer. Re-assemble the car and then spray 2k. Obviously if I do that I will have to use a mechanical bond for the 2k. Would I be better off to get each panel into 2k using a chemical bond, then block sand the car when it's re-assembled?
 
MJM said:
Here's another question I was thinking about today. What is the better bond, chemical or mechanical? The reason I ask is, my plan was to get all the body panels complete one at a time ( epoxy primer and filler using the chemical bond process) minus the 2k primer. Re-assemble the car and then spray 2k. Obviously if I do that I will have to use a mechanical bond for the 2k. Would I be better off to get each panel into 2k using a chemical bond, then block sand the car when it's re-assembled?
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Chemical. If you are really trying to get it flat my money is on way more coats than you are currently planning :). My typical process is epoxy, filler block, sand to metal, epoxy filler, sand to metal.... repeat until happy. I would have 2 coats of epoxy as the final layer (after the filler is finally done) then continue with your plan. When assembled sand it with 320 on more time and a sealer coat of reduced epoxy then the 2k with a chemical bond to the epoxy. But I am anal.
 
Guide coat is your best friend during the above process.

I normally shoot two coats of black epoxy primer to start. Then lightly block sand it. This will show your problem areas as the lows will stay shiny while the sanded parts will be dull.

At this point evaluate the panel to determine how much filler work it's going to take. If the entire panel has issues, polyester primer may be a better option.

Whether you use poly or 2k build primer the guide coat will help you to get the surface right with the least amount of sanding.
 
Small update, filler work is complete, I believe. I haven't acquired the sensitivity with my bare hands yet to feel slight highs & lows so, I've been placing a paper towel between my hand and the body panel. This has helped me out a lot. Here is the trunk lid ready for another round of epoxy as soon as the weather corporates.

By looking at the panel and the shiny spots, I'm assuming those are high spots, yet I can't feel them, and using a steel straight edge from every angle, it's not showing high.

Would I be correct to assume that with the next application of epoxy primer, the areas around the shiny metal will build up to at least the height of the shiny metal, or should I be using a skim coat of filler in the areas around the shiny metal? You can also see some filler work poking thru after sanding the epoxy on the left side of the lid, about towards the center.

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Knowing if the epoxy will fill enough comes with experience. At the end of the day if you can see it then I would have doubts it is enough with just epoxy. It has to be almost perfect to make it perfect with a few mills.
 
As 68 said above guide coat is your best friend. I use 3M dry guide coat. I can’t imagine trying to get something straight without it.

Don
 
Bought some 3M guide coat last Friday but, doesn't the epoxy primer act as a guide coat from shiny to dull?
 
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