She's a keeper! 72 Plymouth

[RJS]

Hey Magnes,
I forgot you were doing a White interior too. Do you think a quart is enough for all the interior plastic and metal trim? Also what does it have on the can for a code. I plan to do the same thing in the next few weeks and want to follow along with you since you'll be done spraying by time I start. I have to change everything that is Black in my interior to complete the transformation into my first car.
Ron

 

[Magnes]

Hey Magnes,
I forgot you were doing a White interior too. Do you think a quart is enough for all the interior plastic and metal trim? Also what does it have on the can for a code. I plan to do the same thing in the next few weeks and want to follow along with you since you'll be done spraying by time I start. I have to change everything that is Black in my interior to complete the transformation into my first car.
Ron

I couldn't find anything online as far as an SEM code for the proper shade of white. What I did is: I took one of my new seat covers down to the local PPG auto paint supply shop and since they sell the SEM flexible paints, I was able to have them mix up the color that I needed and it is guaranteed to match my seats.

The last time I did this, I used less than a quart so I estimate that will be plenty. Being that the last time I did this I was shooting black, I can't say for sure though. I will be sure to let you know about the results. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can wash, clean, prep, and shoot them this week.

 

[Magnes]

I spent half the day working on the new stereo system. Pioneer 4 channel 760w amp, Kicker 6x9's, Kicker 5.25's. No headunit, just ipod or phone.

I installed the amp, hidden from plain sight and out of the way, upside down in the trunk area between the rear speakers. I bolted it to the bottom of the area where the package tray goes. Then I used some 1/2" spacers to mount the rear 6x9's to the underside of the package tray area as well. This way, once I install the new package tray cover, everything will be hidden and still appear quite stock.

I still have to install the front 5.25's in the kick panels but that will be easy.

As it is, even with only 2 speakers, it sounds really good. Running everything through the ipod or phone really makes it a simple install and allows us to keep the stock AM radio in place and powering only the dash speaker as a separate system.

If it's not raining tomorrow, I will begin spraying the SEM paint on my interior pieces. If all goes well, I could have the whole interior in and done by the end of the week.

Update... Well right after I wrote this I inadvertently cut the **** out of my left index finger. I mean hit the artery, blood squirting, took it all the way to the damn bone. Had to go get it sewed back together. Sucks. I should still be able to get 'er done but it's going to slow me down for a couple weeks at least. Exactly how much? I dunno.

 

[Magnes]

Well my hand has healed up good enough to continue work on the car. Still can't bend my finger at all, must have cut the nerves and stuff. Great...

Anyway, I got all the interior pieces shot with the SEM white. As it turned out, I didn't have enough paint so I had to go get another quart. Everything is about ready to go in. I'm going to start on the install today beginning with the carpet.

The 440 is built and ready to go in. Thank goodness. There's been enough delays already and I will be quite happy to see that thing stuffed under the hood once and for all.

It has the 906's and they've been ported, polished, and slightly milled down. They did a 3 angle valve job, new guides, everything, it was all gone through. It's got a full roller cam and lifter set up. I'm hoping those headers will work. We got good deals on all this stuff. Edelbrock intake. Probably going with an Edelbrock carb. I had him build it to run off pump gas. It's not going to be a drag racer but it's going to have plenty of power. It'll be a ton better than the little anemic 318 it was born with, haha

 

[73SwingerDart]

Lookin Good.
Sorry to hear about your finger

 

[Magnes]

Well, I am just about finished with the interior. A little touch up here and there. A couple missing screws but all in all it's in and done. I think it turned out quite cool looking.

The way I did those front speakers in the kick panels really made that look a lot better and they blend in a bit better than if I'd had just left the grill black.

 

[barnfind]

Looking sharp!

 

[RJS]

Magnes are the front door armrests aftermarket? I see the color difference a little but how is the grain.
My left one was bad but I bought a Black NOS one I plan to dye with the rest of the stuff.
The color match looks right on with the uppers, were the uppers dyed too or new Legendary.
Ron

 

[Magnes]

Magnes are the front door armrests aftermarket? I see the color difference a little but how is the grain.
My left one was bad but I bought a Black NOS one I plan to dye with the rest of the stuff.
The color match looks right on with the uppers, were the uppers dyed too or new Legendary.
Ron

Nope, they are original and they do actually match when you see them in person. I went over everything with the SEM "dye". I'm guessing it looks like a different shade in those pics because of the lighting and the different angle from the surrounding pieces. I dunno. They do look right in person though.

The uppers are original to the car but yes, I did re-dye them back to white in order to make sure everything matches.

Many of the original hard plastic pieces for this car were really chalky since they were white originally. So I had to swap out almost every hard plastic piece in the car and use green pieces from my parts car or left over black pieces from my last car and dye them white as well.

I used all the different SEM prep stuff before shooting the dye. It was a bit of a chore. Just when you think you have it all done, you remember another piece that will need to be shot.

 

[RJS]

Meant no disrespect on the armrests and I understand what your saying on the angle.
I mostly wanted to know because I heard the repro. one's are off in grain.
All my stuff is in excellent shape but is Black so this color change will happen in a couple of weeks I hope!!!
Ron

 

[dgraver]

This looks fantastic, nice work!

 

[plumgtx]

awesome magnes, looking good. how did you strip the paint off the interior metal trim pieces? is it better to do this with media blasting or some type of paint thinner? I dont want to hurt the grain with media if i dont have too

 

[Magnes]

awesome magnes, looking good. how did you strip the paint off the interior metal trim pieces? is it better to do this with media blasting or some type of paint thinner? I dont want to hurt the grain with media if i dont have too

To be perfectly honest, I did NOT strip the paint of the interior metal pieces. The original pieces for this car had surface rust bleeding through under the original white paint so I did not use those pieces. Instead, I used the green pieces from my parts car which had no surface rust under the paint, and since the original paint was in good condition I did not find it necessary to blast or strip them all the way down to the metal.

Basically all I did was: Wash all the parts down several times with soap and water and I scrubbed them with a "red scotch bright" pad leftover from the body work. I let the parts dry. The next day I wiped the metal parts down with grease and wax remover, let them dry. Then I shot them with the SEM paint.

The rest of the plastic interior pieces and vinyl interior pieces were handled in a similar fashion. Several washings and scrubbings with soap, water, and a red scotch brite pad followed by the use of the appropriate SEM prep spray treatment before the paint went on. There are a couple different SEM adhesion promoters available from SEM. One for vinyl and the other for plastics.

I hope that helps.

Meant no disrespect on the armrests and I understand what your saying on the angle.
I mostly wanted to know because I heard the repro. one's are off in grain.
All my stuff is in excellent shape but is Black so this color change will happen in a couple of weeks I hope!!!
Ron

No disrespect taken Ron. The lighting was bad and in the pic it DOES look like they don't match. I will shoot better pics when the whole car is finished.

 

[plumgtx]

yes it does thanks, i have a few pieces that have some slight rust so i figured they would need media blasting thats why i ask. I also have some that are rusted out so i bought replacement pieces for those

 

[Ron 73]

Magnes, I have no idea how i missed all this but that may be one of the fastest work, to us looking but i do know just how tedious they can be and you sir have done a great job! That is a beauty, and this is only the second time ive seen the newly AMD bumper but it sure adds class to one ride thats classy anyway, I hope you have a lot of fun with this and now ill finish reading it, i just had to say something, i have a 73 that i really like but these have that in your face front end that ya just cant pass up!!!

 

[Magnes]

Thank you very much Ron. I am able to do it all so quick because I am doing everything (other than the engine builds) myself, at home, in my garage, and I treat it as my full time job. Some days I may work up to 15-16 hours a day. It can be quite tedious, you have got that right, but the rewards are there. I want to just focus on Mopars from here on out but I have built some other cars as well over the last couple years. I also do a little flipping here and there to keep money coming in. All in all though, with the exception of a couple months spent building a 77 Ramcharger and moving from Mississippi to Texas, I was able to build 2 of these cars in about 1 year (real work time) and that's not too bad considering.

I am going to keep busting my tail to get as many of these cars back on the road as I can before I get too old to do it anymore. I built and sold the black one which paid for everything necessary to build the orange one... Which I am going to keep. Basically I have broken even with these 2 but ended up with a cool car and all I lost was some time. Hopefully next year I will continue to progress and I hope that the quality will only get better. I'm pretty proud so far but there is room for improvement. I appreciate kind comments such as yours, that helps a lot. I wish you all the best with your '73. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of those as well. Maybe next year...

 

[Magnes]

Alright, well here is a funny little update on this car...

For Christmas, my wife and I went to Las Vegas. The day after Christmas, I was in the Aria where we were staying and I sat down at a slot machine and started playing with a couple hundred bucks. I lost down to $11.80 and then I hit that machines biggest jackpot.

Well that was all fine and dandy, over $16,000 and I'm feeling pretty good. The next day we went to check out the cars and stuff at Count's Kustoms (from the TV show "Counting Cars") and afterwards we decided to go over to old Las Vegas and start playing at Binion's. I sit at the same type of machine and about $40 into it, the thing goes off and I win the 2nd biggest jackpot for that machine and all the ones hooked to it.

Another $2100!

Well shoot, I'm feeling pretty good so I go find the wife and tell her about my last win, she's playing some weird Willy Wonka game so I sit at the Willy Wonka game next to her and put in $20. About my 3rd or 4th tap of the button, the thing goes crazy, there little oompa loompas doing weird stuff and this happens...

Another $2000!

I quit gambling and after everything was said and done, I left Vegas with $20,000 cash in my pockets. Sure I will have to pay taxes out of that but the coolest thing is:

It completely paid for every penny that I put into this car. The whole thing. And that's how I'm looking at it... like I just got my damn dream car for free.

I couldn't be any happier. It was a great Christmas. I got the best present any Mopar guy could ask for. And I'm probably one of the very few people who have left Las Vegas with a smile on their face.

 

[sebring+]

WOW! FOR YOUR GREAT WORK AND THE JACKPOTS! That is really cool.
Your car is beautiful and your posts will help when I work on mine. I envy you for having the time to work on your car. I am sitting at northern end of suez canal soon to be on
A ship for 60 days. Had to leave my 72ssp again. Don't believe I will ever get it done.

 

[jprather]

man that is freakin gorgeous!! love the color!!

i gotta ask what do you do with the stainless trim you removed? got any of it left?

 

[Magnes]

Thanks for the compliments. I'm glad you like it.

To answer your question: I have almost every piece of original equipment for this car from all the original trim, to the original wheels, beauty rings, and center caps. The only things I do not have is: the original intake, carb, valve covers, and the rubber parts. I even saved the original seat covers (the driver's seat was the only one with a tear). Everything, including the lowly (still running and original build) 318 engine, 904 transmission, and even the exhaust will be stored in case I should ever want to put the car back to factory original. I am probably going to the extreme by keeping stuff like the exhaust and seat covers because they'll never be used but sure as ****, if I throw them away, I'll need to know something from them or match them exactly. Anyway, I just think it would be best to keep as much as possible. Just in case.