1969 Road Runner facelift

[tallhair]

Dave your post reminds me of another awhile back now and i quote
"Thought this was kind of a neat pic......So, to the guys doing your own blocking/sanding, just when it feels the bones in your hands are about to break and someone drove a railroad spike in your elbows...Keep sanding!! and then sand some more..

It pays off:"
And this is the picture he showed to give us the inspiration, i don't know if this helps you with it or not, but its meant to help you go on knowing your time is getting closer! Your work is showing, and it does look great.

View attachment 113133

Thanks Ron.

Nice wall art you got there Prop

 

[Basket case]

It was one of those days... Work my azz off, lay on my back in the sanding dust... Arms are just hanging of me. And it doesn't look much different in a picture.

maybe not in the pic, but when you're standing there proud as a peacock, and someone says"hey mister, beautiful car! who did the work?" you can say "I did!":notworthy:

 

[northerndave]

oops, wrong color..

My surfacing primer, I guess when it says "dark gray, they really mean damn near black.

Well, there's a lot of surfacing primer on there so it's going to have to dry until tomorrow.

 

[Gpuller]

Looks damn good from here! Keep up the good work.

 

[Ron 73]

Looks great Dave! I used a "dark gray" primer and sealer on my 73 before i painted it and when i sprayed it, my wife walked in and her mouth dropped, she thought i changed my mind and was painting it black! I don't know about the stuff you used but mine when it first went on was just as shiny black as you could imagine, i remember thinking they got the cans mixed up with labels or something lol, it soon started to dry to a dull still black color though..

 

[northerndave]

Yeah I just went out and checked it, it's flattening out and curing nice. It will sand really nice tomorrow with the blocks and long boards.

These are big cars, and you figure that out when you hand sand the whole damn car a few times lol!

 

[roadrunnerman]

Everything looks nice and smooth.

 

[northerndave]

Well thanks, not quite there yet but the blocks will level things a little more tomorrow.


Cup of coffee in the morning, put the dust mask on and giver hell.

 

[BigBlock61]

Just got done reading this entire thread. Can't wait for the tin chicken to be painted.:happy1::happy1:

This was like reading a really great novel and now I want to see who done it. Also I can say I learned a whole lot from reading this thread. but now I have a craving for barbecue!

Keep up the good work Dave.

 

[hunt2elk]

Looks good Dave. No doubt in my mind that it will be on the road and wearing a fresh coat of T7 for Mopars in the Park.

 

[northerndave]

Thanks, I'm doing my best to make it there. I guess I slept in a little this morning, 7:30!

We took inventory of parts yesterday and I see that I need a couple of road runner door emblems, I need an antenna, some orange engine paint, some cast gray high temp, under hood wire harness clips, windshield and gasket, strongly considering fuel tank, some 1/4" fender bolts, trunk floor plugs, choke actuator, exhaust manifold gaskets, 3M windshield weld spray, vinyl roof adhesive... then of course my paint/clear.



That's just to get me on the road without feeling too "joe dirt"

I should look at new door panels, I want different wheels/tires, windshield washer pump/tank, new wire harness for under hood/headlights... My under dash items to correct voltage drop to gauges/tach...

I dont think it ever ends.

 

[northerndave]

Well I started with the drivers side fender top because I knew it would be an easy panel and I wanted to get a feel for the poly primer with the block before I moved on to something more challenging.

Then onto the passenger (hammer rash) fender.

Here's one of my tricks to keep my paper fresh, as it loads I give a light swipe with a scuff pad across the paper to clean it off.

For those that haven't done it, this is the sort of thing we are straightening out with surfacing primer and sanding blocks. See I have a low area here.

I will work the entire panel (the entire viewed surface) evenly down until I have leveled everything to low spots like this. If it's a more drastic low spot I will just hit it with a light glaze coat of very light 2K body filler. If you try to level an entire panel to too low of a low spot you will expose patches of bare metal, which is actually kind of normal on some panels but you kind of get a feel for what's going to straighten out and what might need a little skim coat of filler.

Here's the same low spot almost gone..

and now it's gone.

Here's a little ding that I didn't catch before priming, this is an example of "too deep" I'll need to hit this with a little bit of glazing filler.

I'll be damned, a nice straight fender top.

Now for some ugliness, this is the most challenging body area on this whole car, my hammer rash fender, straightened the best I could and skim coated, block sanded (rough) with 80 grit and primed HEAVY with polyester primer. This is what te first few strokes with the board look like, UGLY!

Yeah, just like with body filler, this polyester primer can have a skin on it that clogs your paper fast. Once you get that skin off, it sands nice and clean.

I'll be damned, she's coming around. Maybe we can save this old fender after all.

The key to good blocking is (for me anyways) go slow. I mean your finishing strokes on a panel might be like careful and precise strokes of a file, slow and true, very controlled, just lightly shaving the surface.

That don't look like much for "a day's work" but my arms certainly think it was something.

I'm really happy with how it's going, she's blocking out really nice. I'm about half way around the car.

I sure wish I had more to report, it was a lot of work, 3 days straight and it doesn't look like much.

If I ever get a door ding.... I might behave like this guy.

 

[roadrunnerman]

Dave, You'd never be able to tell that was the same fender with what you started with. Everything else is looking great. You deserve a well earned break.

 

[Gpuller]

Are you using some sort of guide coat Dave? I always block with it, makes life easier, it does for me anyway.

 

[northerndave]

My polyester primer has a built in guide coat.

 

[Budnicks]

looking great...

 

[northerndave]

I got around the driver's quarter tonight.

Door and fender tomorrow.

 

[Propwash]

Gonna ship ya a 55 gallon drum Dave....

 

[SGTPaul]

Looks great Dave!!! Thanks for the sanding pointers.

 

[northerndave]

Gonna ship ya a 55 gallon drum Dave....


View attachment 114070

Got anything for the shoulder and the fingers/wrist? lol!

I was a production painter for too many years, swinging a paint gun for 8 or more hours a day. And I've wrecked a lotta toys at high rates of speed, bikes, wheelers, snowmobiles etc. Didn't do anything nice for my right shoulder which is pretty important when swinging a quart gun over the hood or roof of a car..... God it hurts just thinking about it lol!

A friend stopped by the shop last night and was excited to hear I was going to go to mopars in the park. Then when he finally understood that I mean to drive this car down there, he thought I was nuts lol!!