My 68 Charger - A Work In Progress

[Richard Cranium]

Thanks! I know you're the 68 Charger God so I appreciate your input!

I'm not imputting you. No offense, you're not my type.

 

[The Rebel]

I'm not imputting you. No offense, you're not my type.

 

[The Rebel]

Well was a wet & rainy weekend. Affixed my air cleaner sticker from PCG as well as a steering coupler clip I got off eBay from this guy https://www.ebay.com/itm/301425382906.

Tomorrow my power steering return hose & air cleaner hose come in from Mega Parts.

 

[The Rebel]

Got home from work this evening ate dinner & installed my return house & air cleaner hose. Took a while to get the hose off. Had to slit it around the upper tube to get it off so I could drain the reservoir.

Refilled it with Royal Purple MaxEZ Power Steering fluid and took it out for a drive. Nice & clean & no more leaks!

 

[The Rebel]

Been a while since I posted any new work. About a month ago I was losing all power & determined my issues was the bulkhead engine harness on the firewall side. https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/complete-loss-power-help-needed.153534/

I ended up replacing the entire bulkhead as well as a few connectors I got from Mega Parts and I'm back in business! I replaced all of the female connectors, which I noticed had blue paint on them. Any ideas as to why they were like this?

Finally the heat broke & was out driving all weekend.

 

[showard]

Nice "sparkie" work! Electronics always confuses me.

 

[daytona kid]

, which I noticed had blue paint on them. Any ideas as to why they were like this?
View attachment 623882

might be some kind of dielectric paste, helps protect from corrosion

 

[The Rebel]

Well been a while since I've done any work on my car. Decided to tackle the paint chips. Went to a local autobody paint shop. They used a camera to match the paint & learned that my car was painted with lacquer paint, as when he cleaned off the hood his towel was red. I got a bottle with a brush.

Anyhow got home, taped off the chip & then surrounded with newspaper & used pre-paint prep to remove wax & grease. Used 400 grit to clean the chips. Began with a few coats with self etching primer, then switched over to primer & slowly filled it with primer to fill in the chip. Removed the newspaper & then the tape to harden in the sun. Next weekend I'll re-tape around the primer, sand with 1000 grit & begin to apply the paint.

I practiced with the brush but I can't seem to layer up the paint with out leaving brush marks. Takes forever to paint, dry, sand/buff & then repaint. I've decided to apply my color matched paint as a spray as I'm better at that.

 

[The Rebel]

Now that the primer has cured since Sunday, tonight I wet sanded with 1000 grit to smooth everything out to be even with the existing paint.

 

[The Rebel]

Thursday night picked up my paint. Guy at the shop said to apply 3 coats of paint, 3 coats of clear, then compound & buff. No wax for 90 days.

 

[The Rebel]

Today I taped off the chips & applied 2 coats of paint.

Removed tape after everything dried & wet sanded with 1000 grit to remove the tape lines as well as leveling the paint off with the surface. Cleaned it all off with a damp terrycloth towel & dried it off. Then hit with 2 more coats of paint to blend everything in.

After that dried I applied a base coat of clear. Once that dried I applied 2 more coats of clear. Next weekend I'll apply compound.

I'm very happy with my results. One thing I learned it to not tape off the chips when I go to paint as I then have wet sand the tape lines out. Tomorrow I plan to start on the drivers side now that I have a better idea on what I'm doing.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Damn fine job!

 

[The Rebel]

Long & HOT (90*) day today, sanded, cleaned, primed, painted & clear coated. Even cut the grass while the last coat of paint was drying...ugh!

After everything was done went out with the wife for a drink & some chips & salsa! Gonna sleep good tonight...zzzzz Next weekend compounding & buffing.

 

[showard]

Great job! Sounds like you'r mastering you'r "wax on, wax off" technic.

 

[The Rebel]

Yea, can't wait till I see the final results after compounding this weekend.

Great job! Sounds like you'r mastering you'r "wax on, wax off" technic.

 

[The Rebel]

Busy weekend! Yesterday was pouring rain on & off all day so I worked in my small garage. Lighting isn't all that great but I did the best I could compounding & buffing the entire car. I began doing it by hand but decided that I wasn't getting enough pressure to really compound into the clear hard enough, so I went to my orbital waxer/polisher, was SO much easier! By the time I was done 2hrs later I was soaked due to all of the humidity & water I drank!

Today the weather was better, overcast & some sun poking out. Was still humid, UGH! Was able to back the car out to get a better look at yesterdays work. I could see that I had orange peal to contend with. One question I had was should I have wet sanded my final coat of paint & then applied the clear and then wet sanded the clear as well?

Soaked my 1500 grit sand paper & wet sanded the entire car in sections. Also re-compounded the sections again. After cleaning/buffing I could see some areas that needed to be wet sand & compound again so I did.

In the end I am very pleased with my work. I can see some areas that might need another wet sand/compound but decided that if I did more I could risk overdoing it, so I quit while I was ahead and not run the risk of making a huge mistake! In a couple of weeks I'll polish & wax the car after everything has had a chance to harden further. With these temps my garage is like an oven.

 

[Billccm]

For the time and money investment you have excellent results.

 

[Car Nut]

Turned out awesome!

 

[showard]

Looks like a new paint. Lots of work but it was worth it.

 

[The Rebel]

Thanks guys! Man am I sore. Got a good upper body workout this weekend. Gotta love Tylenol!