Another "wonder why paying for a restoration costs so much". That's 4.5 hours of work cleaning, polishing, cleaning and painting and a spare L and M.
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Broke my 7UP Pop Machine today....(Superbird Restoration)
- Thread starter dadsbee
- Start date
Another "wonder why paying for a restoration costs so much". That's 4.5 hours of work cleaning, polishing, cleaning and painting and a spare L and M.
Another $225 on the insure company bill. And we wonder why Classic car insurance is so expensive 
or is this non-bill able work?
or is this non-bill able work?
Photon440
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't have thought the insurance company was planning to cover the restoration of areas that weren't damaged by the nasty 7-uP machine.
They don't even want to pay the actual costs to repair the damage. This month's fight... we'll see how it goes. We're only 15 grand apart! Appraiser thinks you can re and re door guts and fit a door in 7 hours. We have 39 into that alone.
Figure we're this far in, time to clean up and repaint the PLYMOUTH letters for the tail light panel. Chipped Exacto knife blade to scrape out the paint and Rouge compound and the dremel to polish the chrome.
Spray paint in the cup and a sharp toothpic to "paint" with. Dip and let the paint run off and flow out level in the letter.
Quick wipe of the chrome face for oops' spots.
Three letters done.
Yep, at 61 it's loop work.
4 more letters cleaned and the H bringing up the rear.
All 8 letters polished and then painted.
Might as well do the road runner as well. I polished it before Taladega in 2019, but it could use new paint.
runner... with the retainer ferrules removed.
What the correct retaining ferrules look like. They go into the trunk lid holes and then the road runner emblems are pushed into place.
Spray paint in the cup and a sharp toothpic to "paint" with. Dip and let the paint run off and flow out level in the letter.
Quick wipe of the chrome face for oops' spots.
Three letters done.
Yep, at 61 it's loop work.
4 more letters cleaned and the H bringing up the rear.
All 8 letters polished and then painted.
Might as well do the road runner as well. I polished it before Taladega in 2019, but it could use new paint.
runner... with the retainer ferrules removed.
What the correct retaining ferrules look like. They go into the trunk lid holes and then the road runner emblems are pushed into place.
Scrubbed with lacquer thinner and ready to spray with Black paint.
Painted and then rubbed across a sock with a 2x4 inside.
Sock takes the majority of the paint off the chrome face and then a bit of careful wiping to complete.
runner up next.
Script and letters all done. The letters took almost 4.5 hours. The scripts.. 10 minutes!
Polishing up the window trim removed from the lower front and rear glass.
I still stay 100LL AV gas is the best degreaser ever produced.. and cheaper than anything off the shelves. Soak the window regulators for 5 minutes and the old grease and goo flows off with very little help.
Quick brush and the old grease is gone.
Cranked the regulator around and cleaned everything.
All clean, springs, gear drive and bushings sprayed with Krown. Total, a 30 minute job tops. Just need some fresh grease when they go back into the doors.
Today I also cleaned up, or polished, every other loose part we removed from the car right down to the door handles and window cranks. Everything is done ready to put back onto the car when it's in final paint, so I can now get back on the rear axle I was building for the '64 Dodge!!
Painted and then rubbed across a sock with a 2x4 inside.
Sock takes the majority of the paint off the chrome face and then a bit of careful wiping to complete.
runner up next.
Script and letters all done. The letters took almost 4.5 hours. The scripts.. 10 minutes!
Polishing up the window trim removed from the lower front and rear glass.
I still stay 100LL AV gas is the best degreaser ever produced.. and cheaper than anything off the shelves. Soak the window regulators for 5 minutes and the old grease and goo flows off with very little help.
Quick brush and the old grease is gone.
Cranked the regulator around and cleaned everything.
All clean, springs, gear drive and bushings sprayed with Krown. Total, a 30 minute job tops. Just need some fresh grease when they go back into the doors.
Today I also cleaned up, or polished, every other loose part we removed from the car right down to the door handles and window cranks. Everything is done ready to put back onto the car when it's in final paint, so I can now get back on the rear axle I was building for the '64 Dodge!!
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I've found a couple that were tossed out on the lawn at our old house.
I had a job in Stockton Ca back in the 80's where every morning a guy had show up early to sweep the alley behind the business to get rid of the used syringes & soiled condoms before customers showed up....
You should be charging a fee for all the info you are putting here lol....jk jk
One old patch in front of the rear wheel that needs to be cut out and done properly, but other than that zero rust or damage on this side of the car.
So, this car has pretty much went from a semi-major repair to pretty much a full restoration.....? lol
Mission Creep... If it can be done quickly like this has been I don't see a problem with it... When it's five years later & the car is still off the road that's a problem..
Or something like mine that's been off the road for 25 years? AND the sad part is it's not a full restoration....
I can fully relate... I have two projects that I just cant seem to get any work completed... Stuff I can do is done... Stuff I can't do gets blown off by people who I've dropped everything to help with their projects.... Good news is I have two done cars... Bad news the people I foolishly depend on know I have two done cars so they don't see my other two cars as a particularly high priority..... But I do, I don't like unfinished projects weighing me down..
Pretty much the same way here....only I sold the 'nice' cars some time back and have done way too much work on other's cars over the years and now I'm in the middle of building another rear end for someone else when I should be working on my junk but, at least this guy has been paying so $$$ isn't a bad thing.
Now we're thinkin outside of the box!! Mounted to the table and ready for body work,
Looks pretty damn good, but we know from stripping it out and looking in the back, that there's a lot of "cheese" in the front!
Down back to the media blasting "cover all" building to reveal all the "stories"! About the same as any Bird nose I've seen that the owner was willing to share before paint!!
Nothing surprising, I knew this car was hit in the front left in the 70's.
The main reason I gave George and the Lads the "go ahead". After the Bee's metal replacement back some 6 years ago I knew that I was in good hands at Body By Biggs in Warminster Ontario, Canada! Hell, there's no 6 year waiting list to work on my wing car either !!!!
Drue's work in one afternoon. Down to just under the headlight opening repair to perform, that he fully braced before cutting out the damage. Note that he took the time to make damn sure that the nose screen bezel fits!
Looks pretty damn good, but we know from stripping it out and looking in the back, that there's a lot of "cheese" in the front!
Down back to the media blasting "cover all" building to reveal all the "stories"! About the same as any Bird nose I've seen that the owner was willing to share before paint!!
Nothing surprising, I knew this car was hit in the front left in the 70's.
The main reason I gave George and the Lads the "go ahead". After the Bee's metal replacement back some 6 years ago I knew that I was in good hands at Body By Biggs in Warminster Ontario, Canada! Hell, there's no 6 year waiting list to work on my wing car either !!!!
Drue's work in one afternoon. Down to just under the headlight opening repair to perform, that he fully braced before cutting out the damage. Note that he took the time to make damn sure that the nose screen bezel fits!
Just shows what the Picasso from the past was able to do with plastic filler... Your gonna have a better bird when this is in the rearview... Not that it wasn't nice before... But it had "stories"...
Like I said. I have NEVER seen a Bird nose that wasn't banged to **** prior to paint, from any owner that was willing to share pictures. Drue has been doing metal work for almost 40 years and does amazing work. He can barely walk as his body is so "tweaked", but glad he's got at least another few weeks left in him!
Good metal men are becoming few & far between... These days they want to bolt on new parts & charge a small fortune.... IMO if they are willing to repair bent metal that aught to be worth considerably more that bolting on new parts...
Photon440
Well-Known Member
I know you managed to get a good paint match, just wondered if you were using the same paint on the nose or were going to do it in lacquer like the original?
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