A few years ago I reconnected with an old friend from back in the mid 70's when we were teenagers. While I stayed in the home town my buddy Waldo headed west and was now living in Crowsnest Pass. Both gear heads back in the early days and not much has changed. I was deep into 64 Dodges and Plymouths back then while Waldo was messing with a 57 Chevy and eventually ended up with a couple of 68 GTX's.
Fast forward to modern times Waldo has been working on a 66 Coronet in his spare time for about the last 4 years. He had the Coronet to the point of it being in primer, roughly blocked and trimmed out in white. The final stages of body and paint is where it was held up. Over the years Waldo has also collected a pretty good assortment of Moparts and when he heard that I was looking for a 440 block to build for my 64 he gladly came through with a virgin 1970 block for me. With one good turn deserving another, I volunteered to help him finish the Coronet, which leads me to this Subject! The picture below is the Coronet waiting for me.
About the end of June I headed up to the Crowsnest and Waldo and I got at the Coronet. In a couple of long days we got all the panels and gaps in line, the existing primer blocked, taped up and rolled into Waldo's Hillbilly Paint Booth. That was the other thing about this job. The plan was to do this job right at his home and in a home made paint booth. With me having done numerous jobs similar to this over the years and most recently my 64 Max Wedge car this was the plan. Waldo happened to have an old tent frame that was 24 X 16 so that is what he started with. He wrapped it with a 30 X 150 tarp, boarded in the ends, had a potent fan on one end to exit fumes and installed a half dozen house furnace filters on the opposite end. An old house door and frame completed the Hillbilly Paint booth. The picture below is the Coronet
in the Hillbilly booth ready for primer. At this stage we didn't worry about sealing it up tight, and a good thing because when the sun would hit the tarp it was instant heat wave!
Pretty much a full gallon of primer went on and in a matter of a few hours the primer was ready to sand, thanks to the near 100F heat under the tarp.
After many hours on the 3M board the Coronet was blocked from front to back, nice and straight. At this point I was done stage 1 of the project and headed back home. Final sanding and painting was in the plan to happen before fall of this year. Here's a picture of the Coronet with the primer blocking complete.
Stage 2. On August 15 I jumped on the Harley and headed back to Crowsnest to complete the Coronet paint job. Waldo who is also an avid Harley rider jumped on his 03 Electra Glide (which is fast, cammed all to hell and with Thunder Header exhaust) and headed east, meeting me half way, that being the Alberta/Sask border. We hooked up and headed back to Crowsnest and it was game on with the Coronet! Aug 16. First up was to get the bottom of the hood shot in primer, sanded and painted. The picture below is the hood with fresh Sikkens white applied. Notice the 64 through the hillbilly paint booth window. That's his back yard ornament. True Mopar man!
Aug 17. With the hood left to dry overnight it was flipped over and I went right back to painting. The top of the hood was sprayed, the trunk lid and the Hemi hood scoop. The 64 outside made a good hood holder in the sun once it was dry enough to move. Temperatures in the hillbilly paint booth were again in the 90's and it didn't take long to set. The amazing thing about this was that once we closed the booth walk in door up, took a vac and sucked up any flys and stuff before spraying, everything was turning out dust and insect free!
The 17th was a hot day but a check of weather was that the 18 was a cold front and rain rolling in. Needless to say, we had to give it hell and by late afternoon the Coronet was in the hillbilly paint booth and I was waiting for clouds to block the sun. At one point it was 106F!
Thanks for periodic clouds over the next couple of hours and with the sun setting over the mountain I was able to get the Coronet sprayed. The window that was cut into the west side of the hillbilly paint booth was a mistake. The sun beaming through made it next to impossible to see due to the brightness and of course the overspray in the air. I had my man air compressor and it was a lifesaver. I have to admit though, the window was blocked often, with Waldo and his buddies peering in the whole time! He should have built bleechers..
The job turned out great overall, no sags, runs, bugs, dust, nothing. The Hillbilly booth worked fabulous! I'd attach some more pictures but I'm at max amount, will try to add a few more once this is posted. The day following the paint job was cool, that was the 18th, some morning showers, although we had time between them to get the Coronet back around the front and into his garage. At that point I gave Waldo a crash course on colour sanding and polishing and that's gonna be his job prior to assembly. Friday Aug 19 I headed back home on the Harley and I have heard that the Coronet is coming along nicely.
I have to say that this was a pretty fun project. A hell of a lot of work, lots of fun and laughs all the while. The one not so funny thing was that in the corner of the yard Waldo has a shed which sits on skids, and a bloody skunk who was claiming the hollow underneath as his home for the winter. That little bugger at one point had his arse pointed at us anf tail fanned when we surprized him, and Waldo was within range.. Had that happened, I would have jumped on the Harley and headed for the prairies...
This is what hot rodding is all about, enjoying the hobby and helping each other along the way.
Will see if I can attach some more pics to this once it's posted.
Enjoy!
Fast forward to modern times Waldo has been working on a 66 Coronet in his spare time for about the last 4 years. He had the Coronet to the point of it being in primer, roughly blocked and trimmed out in white. The final stages of body and paint is where it was held up. Over the years Waldo has also collected a pretty good assortment of Moparts and when he heard that I was looking for a 440 block to build for my 64 he gladly came through with a virgin 1970 block for me. With one good turn deserving another, I volunteered to help him finish the Coronet, which leads me to this Subject! The picture below is the Coronet waiting for me.
About the end of June I headed up to the Crowsnest and Waldo and I got at the Coronet. In a couple of long days we got all the panels and gaps in line, the existing primer blocked, taped up and rolled into Waldo's Hillbilly Paint Booth. That was the other thing about this job. The plan was to do this job right at his home and in a home made paint booth. With me having done numerous jobs similar to this over the years and most recently my 64 Max Wedge car this was the plan. Waldo happened to have an old tent frame that was 24 X 16 so that is what he started with. He wrapped it with a 30 X 150 tarp, boarded in the ends, had a potent fan on one end to exit fumes and installed a half dozen house furnace filters on the opposite end. An old house door and frame completed the Hillbilly Paint booth. The picture below is the Coronet
in the Hillbilly booth ready for primer. At this stage we didn't worry about sealing it up tight, and a good thing because when the sun would hit the tarp it was instant heat wave!
Pretty much a full gallon of primer went on and in a matter of a few hours the primer was ready to sand, thanks to the near 100F heat under the tarp.
After many hours on the 3M board the Coronet was blocked from front to back, nice and straight. At this point I was done stage 1 of the project and headed back home. Final sanding and painting was in the plan to happen before fall of this year. Here's a picture of the Coronet with the primer blocking complete.
Stage 2. On August 15 I jumped on the Harley and headed back to Crowsnest to complete the Coronet paint job. Waldo who is also an avid Harley rider jumped on his 03 Electra Glide (which is fast, cammed all to hell and with Thunder Header exhaust) and headed east, meeting me half way, that being the Alberta/Sask border. We hooked up and headed back to Crowsnest and it was game on with the Coronet! Aug 16. First up was to get the bottom of the hood shot in primer, sanded and painted. The picture below is the hood with fresh Sikkens white applied. Notice the 64 through the hillbilly paint booth window. That's his back yard ornament. True Mopar man!
Aug 17. With the hood left to dry overnight it was flipped over and I went right back to painting. The top of the hood was sprayed, the trunk lid and the Hemi hood scoop. The 64 outside made a good hood holder in the sun once it was dry enough to move. Temperatures in the hillbilly paint booth were again in the 90's and it didn't take long to set. The amazing thing about this was that once we closed the booth walk in door up, took a vac and sucked up any flys and stuff before spraying, everything was turning out dust and insect free!
The 17th was a hot day but a check of weather was that the 18 was a cold front and rain rolling in. Needless to say, we had to give it hell and by late afternoon the Coronet was in the hillbilly paint booth and I was waiting for clouds to block the sun. At one point it was 106F!
Thanks for periodic clouds over the next couple of hours and with the sun setting over the mountain I was able to get the Coronet sprayed. The window that was cut into the west side of the hillbilly paint booth was a mistake. The sun beaming through made it next to impossible to see due to the brightness and of course the overspray in the air. I had my man air compressor and it was a lifesaver. I have to admit though, the window was blocked often, with Waldo and his buddies peering in the whole time! He should have built bleechers..
The job turned out great overall, no sags, runs, bugs, dust, nothing. The Hillbilly booth worked fabulous! I'd attach some more pictures but I'm at max amount, will try to add a few more once this is posted. The day following the paint job was cool, that was the 18th, some morning showers, although we had time between them to get the Coronet back around the front and into his garage. At that point I gave Waldo a crash course on colour sanding and polishing and that's gonna be his job prior to assembly. Friday Aug 19 I headed back home on the Harley and I have heard that the Coronet is coming along nicely.
I have to say that this was a pretty fun project. A hell of a lot of work, lots of fun and laughs all the while. The one not so funny thing was that in the corner of the yard Waldo has a shed which sits on skids, and a bloody skunk who was claiming the hollow underneath as his home for the winter. That little bugger at one point had his arse pointed at us anf tail fanned when we surprized him, and Waldo was within range.. Had that happened, I would have jumped on the Harley and headed for the prairies...
This is what hot rodding is all about, enjoying the hobby and helping each other along the way.
Will see if I can attach some more pics to this once it's posted.
Enjoy!
Looking nice!
