That's a sharp engine compartment. What color are you using for the engine? The Fusick red engine paint is really red. I sprayed some Chrysler industrial red that was slightly more subdued/orange-ish (not the Chrysler engine orange) that I preferred a bit better. Some of the '69 H/O guys are using a custom mix that appears more brown. I tried to pursue the original R-M / Acme paint codes that are in the PIM, haven't had any luck there either.

I found this link of what is tagged as a "survivor", but hard to tell if it's ever been resprayed: http://www.vaultcars.com/1968-oldsmobile

 

Joe: Can I drop the Silver Bullet off at your house when you have "nothing to do"? She needs freshening up for the Zone Show!!! Laughing! Getting new Monroe shocks/w/springs installed in the morning to get rid of the "movement in my butt" that I don't like, on the road. Hope it doesn't cause too high of a profile. The Zone Show coming up pretty quick. Regards.
Aron

 

Still hacking around on the Hurst.

Well well well. Look what fan clutch was on my H/O. It is really nice shape, but I cannot for the life of me remember where I got it from. Will be pulling it off the Hurst to go on the W30. The Hurst has always run very cool - never above the 1/4 mark on the gauge, and since the W30 does not have gauges, want to do everything I can to keep it cool. Will keep an eye out for the correct OS clutch for the 68.

Resprayed the motor tonight, and found that trans clamp to crossmember fastener I was looking for in my inventory purely by accident in looking for a couple of things for the Hurst. Also noticed the choke pull off hose in the Hurst's carb has a double (?) white stripe. Anyone seen this before?

Lastly, a pic of Chris's 69 H/O air cleaner top he has for sale on eBay. Thing looks great!

 

The 68 is looking better with the respray Joe. I am definitely coming to see the cars when I am coming thru TX again in June. I totally forgot when I was coming thru in Jan. :-(

 

Just let me know when you're coming through. The bell drums worked out great.

 

Still messing with the Hurst, but today I got pics from the painter on the w-30's dash and cowl paint. He used the lower steering column dash cover (the one held in by two screws) that was in excellent original finish condition as a guide to get the correct "saddle" texture as 70Post calls it along with the correct gloss. The cowl area looks a little too shiny in comparison, but it should be the same as the undercar color. I'll check it out on Monday - body drop day.

 

You do know that the upper cowl area is resprayed by hand @ the factory after the body color is applied to cover body color? The upper cowl is flatter than the Ecoat that is on the floors.

Greg

 

Is there any where we can find the spec on the dash and cowl paint gloss levels? I ask because my body guy thinks they are to be the same...

Sean

 

They are NOT the same The dash has a sand type rough finish for anti glare,I doubt that you will be able to find any info on it but I could be wrong. It is hard to find anyone to make the correct interior colors.I had to send pieces to the paint manufacturer to get correct formulas to do the Gold interior on my 69.

Greg

 

just wondering joe when are they going to apply the body sealer to the cowling seams, looks like they painted it before applying the sealer????.

 

Greg, the upper dash and cowl area were painted after the body color was applied - it's all masked off. The color also is different than what was sprayed on the floor - I'll get some better pics on Monday.

 

Sean, see if your lower steering column cover is still in good condition. It will be a good guide for your paint guy to get an approximation of what the finish texture should be.

 

Will look at it on Monday - thanks for the tip.

 

This was a topic of discussion between me and my body guy. At first I was going to do it like original and then he talked me into making a very thin layer under the paint. On mine you can not even tell there is any there. I am glad we did it like this. It is not original but it looks much better to me.

 

I can see that,your missing my point.The upper cowl and fire wall are a much flatter black.

Greg

 

Guess you missed reading in post 1026 that I wrote the cowl looks too shiny to me.

 

I guess I thought you said it was suppose to be like the underside or floor color which would be incorrect. My mistake.

Greg

 

Actually did some work at the painter's place. (3 hours)

Today the body shell was mated to the frame.

Began by first carefully checking out the finishes on the cowling, dash, and lower rear window areas. Thankfully, Brian's pics he had sent me were snapped right after he had shot the matte black - they dried much flatter than they looked. Brian had also finished wet sanding the body and the guy is an artisan. Don't think the pics will accurately portray how flawless and swirl free the finish is. Best of all, I was worried about the paint looking too "thick" with the clear soft or cloudy - no problem.

Installed the firewall pad, heater and Evap cases. I made sure to hook that blower motor ground up now. Had the wrong finish evap case speed nuts, but looked around Brian's shop and we found something that will work.

Ran into an issue at body drop. The very front body mount bolts are longer than the other 4, but the "correct" ILT kit has them all the same length. I stole the core support boots to use since they are longer. Now I have to find two core support boots. Everything else went smoothly. Next will be wet sanding the doors and hanging them.

 

Nice, coming together nicely..

 

Funny - Your paint just CHANGED COLOR!! In the other light where your latest pics were taken it looks a lot more like I figured Astro Blue would look.

Lookin' good!!

 

looks nice!!

 

Thanks! I haven't updated this thread in a while since I am still waiting on the painter to finish up. Patience is getting thin now.

 

A thing of beauty. Very nice work Joe!

 

Joe, When I restored my 70 442 convertible about 20 years ago the car spent 3 years in the body shop. The person doing the restoration was a friend from school, and he would only work on my car when he was in the right mood. After the first 6 months I named him Rembrandt and the name stuck. I use to threaten on a weekly basis to pull the car. I'm glad I didn't as the finished product was amazing. The first show I took it to it received awards for best paint, best in show, and crowd favorite. Too bad the person who bought it stuffed it into a telephone pole doing 50 mph. I went to see the car after it was wrecked and the engine was pushed through the firewall.

 

Fortune Cookie says "HEADRESTS in your near future"

 

Ali, will see you tomorrow. Looks like it will dry out in the AM. Good, fun group of people here.

 

Back to work (2 hours)

Had a great time at the Zone show last weekend, and then enjoyed a short trip to New York City with some good friends. If you can, go see the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. It is extremely well done.

Received - via priority express - my headrests back from 70Post. He successfully repaired the piping separation that was occurring on the RH unit, and refinished the original material. The plastic sheilds on the undersides of the rests were in excellent condition and required no further work. Glad they came out so well since good used parts with original fabric are very hard to find and the repos are not even close.

Began cleaning and refinishing the correct wheel bezels. I had the incorrect 73-84(?) pieces that came with the car, and was able to get 23 excellent used units to add to the two I had in my parts inventory. Soaked them in a 50/50 mix of Purple Power and water, the used a light tension small wire brush to remove all the caked on dirt and brake dust from the backsides of the pieces. Clear rinsed them all again, and then lightly sanded the fronts with 150 and 400. Then began polishing them on the buffing wheel with white compound. So far, got 15 done, 7 still not buffed, and three that were not acceptable after the polishing and will require more sanding. Should finish this task up tomorrow.

Also, paint shop called and the doors are hung on the car. Fenders will be installed and the W stripe masking completed on Monday.

I was beginning to worry, but I will be at the Nationals. Might require some all nighters though.

 

looking good joe looks like u and eric my make the nationals. myself I am having trouble to find someone in my area to do my paint and body work I my have to look farther than close by for a good shop. keep up the good work.

 

Thanks Ray. I'm sure you have thought of this - why not paint it yourself? It seems to me you have the skill, space and equipment.

 

thanks for the vote of confidence joe but no paint booth and I don't know a lot about paint just priming, sanding and sheet metal, I have done some small jobs in the pass but this is to big a job for me to do. wish I lived close to the big city.

 

Finished the trim pieces (2 hours)

Had to go through the resanding/buffing process on 7 rings in total. Will be worth it when mounted up with the refinished wheels and trim rings and new center caps

 

Trip to painter, and a little work on a test SSII (1 hour)

Went out to the painter's to start the stripe application process. Decided to first mock up what the stripes will look like in masking tape. Thanks to a lot of help here, had some pretty good info on widths and placements. Think the stripes mocked up are right, but 442 numerals are about 3/8 too high on the RH side (see pic) due to the fender having been replaced. The LH looks great. Striping detail is not complete in pic - upper stripe needs to be radiused, emblems loose, etc - just a guide before final setting.

Also put together a wheel using a correct trim ring, polished bezels, and a Repro center cap. The wheels were powdercoated and looked too shiny and darker than they should be. I experimented with scuffing the surface with a purple scotchbrite pad, and to me it got the color looking like some good pics I have received of excellent examples of the color of OE survivor and refinished wheels. Going to sleep on it and look at it in the sunlight tomorrow before deciding whether to leave or refinish.

 

Wheel pic. Photos being loaded from IPad, but upload feature can only handle one Ipad photo per post. Trim ring is not fully pushed in.

 

A more complete view of preliminary stripe mock up.

 

just remember about an 1/8" between 4 and 4 and 1/4" between 4 and 2. Looks like you have the space.

 

Joe u can make yourself a templet of the l h original fender to use on the rh hand replacement fender just punch holes as i did to line things up

 

That is something I noticed just recently. I was looking at my trunk lid and thought someone who worked on the car before must have messed up doing the placment of the holes in the metal repair, as the "2" was not spaced the same as the "4"s. I looked at the fenders and even the grille and noticed the "2"s are separated by a greater amount than the "4"s. They must hace spaced them in accordance as how we say "4 4" together and slightly pause before the "2". If you note, on the glove box, the "4"s are attached, with only the "2" separate. Cool.

 

Your eyes respond to the average distance between the characters taken over their entire height. Since the second 4 slopes away from the first 4 at its top, it needs to be closer to the first 4 in order not to look too far away. Conversely, the second 4 and the 2 both have large vertical surfaces, so they need a little space between them.


Look at the letters LL vs. HH. The Hs appear closer together than the Ls even though they all have the same spacing.

 

Thanks for all the tips. Have figured out RH numerals only need to come down 1/4" to be right in the fat middle of the average distance from numbers to top stripe of original paint cars.

 

I'm not sure the stripe or piercing location was that consistent from the factory. At just a quarter inch, you might want to let it be, if originality is your only concern. But if perfection is your concern ....