hawk-rod....... the cleanup

[eldubb440]

I figured I will start the thread......

Hawk and I agreed to leave a few minor issues and final buff/detail until after his trip..... with Carlisle fast approaching he dropped the RR off a couple weeks ago. I wasn't happy with a spot on the roof and knew it would require a re-paint (my bad).... Some brake fluid dribbled down the shock tower peeling the clearcoat (Hawk's bad... lol).... and the underside of the hood was pretty rough with pits and minor dents, which at the time, we decided to get paint on it and address it in detail at a later date....... he picked it up yesterday after a series of all-nighters

 

[eldubb440]

I broke the roof paint at the body line on the quarter...... I had a good feeling I could pull this off 100% with a little finesse. Anything short of 100% would have been unacceptable....... I'm pretty good under pressure, 100% undetectable.....

 

[eldubb440]

overall, the car was pretty nice, requiring only minor sanding before the buff...... it had been cut and buffed prior to assembly and held up very well.......... working up close to the stripes on the hood was a little tedious

 

[eldubb440]

even let the wife take a rip....... she loved it!

 

[Budnicks]

Loooooking gooood

 

[Homstead]

Man that is one sweet RR! Great job!

 

[super-bee_ski]

Congratulations on such a great job!
Good lucking car.

 

[mmissile]

Nice. As long as the color matches....it's not that difficult to break at character-lines. I did that on 4 new Caddy limos a night for GM, back in the late 80's.

 

[eldubb440]

Nice. As long as the color matches....it's not that difficult to break at character-lines. I did that on 4 new Caddy limos a night for GM, back in the late 80's.

car is done base/clear, no color was needed near the body line....... If I needed color there, I don't think I would have attempted it; but not due to color match.

I sanded about 1/4 inch below the line with 1000 grit, folded the edge of my tape over on itself, so as not to have an adhesive edge creating a "hard" line; then masked right up to the body line with the folded edge. This allowed for the clear to fall just over the body line creating about a 1/8 inch area of overspray under the body line...... then i sanded the overspray line with 1200 and 2000 right back up into the point and buffed it out....... like I said, anything short of perfection would have been unacceptable. It is undetectable to both the eye and touch......

I didn't want this to come off as "taking a short cut" in any way, or leave the perception of a compromised job. Hawk already has his decals on the quarters, and the paint on the quarters is pretty much perfect, I just couldn't see painting the whole back of the car if it could be avoided...... I skilfully rolled the dice and came up a winner

 

[kiwigtx]

Nice work there @eldubb440 ....some great skill shown on Hawk's Runner.

 

[eldubb440]

notice in this pic there is a green piece of tape running along the body line, this is the folded piece....... it just so happens to match the car so it is a little hard to see...... the issue was on the sail panel, I kept color away from the tape line

 

[eldubb440]

and this is obviously after clear is applied, I pulled the folded tape off to reveal my "soft" paint line........ it took about an hour and a half on each side to sand and buff it to perfection

 

[eldubb440]

I used the same "soft line" technique where the 1/4s meet the dutchman, and where the top of the 1/4 wraps into the door jamb

 

[kiwigtx]

I used the same "soft line" technique where the 1/4s meet the dutchman, and where the top of the 1/4 wraps into the door jamb

We call it "soft-edging" down here, but its the same thing. My painter did a lot of that on my GTX. Necessary because we have 2-pack on the hard to buff parts - under hood, rear panel, front air valance, inside trunk & doors etc, and lacquer finish with a clear coat on the outer parts. It means the car needs a good cut and polish every year or two, but it really does make a difference in the overall finished look.
It is a risky technique, but pays off if the right guy does the work.

 

[HawkRod]

Haha, I guess I should add to "my own" thread!

So for those of you who may not remember or might not have been part of the forums when I restored my car: I restored it to drive across country. I did all the work myself except the bodywork and paint. I knew that I didn't have time OR skill to do that. Of course, there are SO MANY nightmare body shop stories where people damn near lose their cars, get shoddy work done, etc.

Mark (eldubb440) came recommended through this forum, but I have to be honest and say I was worried when I dropped it off for the major bodywork it needed AND it had to be done in time for me to finish it and drive it across country. I shouldn't have been, as Mark delivered on the results many of you have seen, either through pictures or in person.

The hard line end date required a few short cuts. As Mark said, we agreed to leave those go and come back and clean up any major road rash that the car got during the trip. I am happy to say that the car fared very well, but we still had a few spots Mark mentioned above.

As always, top notch work! Now I am ready for Carlisle!!!

P.S. It shows a man's character when he truly stands behind his work. A small bubble appeared on the seam of my quarter panel. Mark was sick about it, and he did that work to fix it without even a remote grumble (at least to me), to make it the way it was supposed to be. THAT's service! Would I use him again for another car (or more touch ups)? Damn straight I would...

 

[HawkRod]

By the way, now it is MY turn to have to do some work. My master cylinder needs cleanup from the spill, and so do a couple of other spots. Time to get to work myself now!

 

[eldubb440]

thank you for the kind words, Hawk. Your car is a perfect example of planning, management, and teamwork; most of which fell on you.

For those who haven't seen the car in person, Hawk did a first class job in every aspect of putting this car together..... I absolutely love the A/C and fuel injection mods, when I ever get to mine, that will probably be the direction I'm headed........

 

[eldubb440]

you guys need to throw the wife a few likes, I don't want her to start bitchin

 

[HawkRod]

you guys need to throw the wife a few likes, I don't want her to start bitchin

I tried to make her happy when I slid across my seat and put on some tunes in the car...







...unfortunately she soon booted me out so she could get pictures!!!

 

[eldubb440]

she knows how to drive a stick......... the only thing keeping her from stealing it was not being able to reach the pedals