Thx Ted

Since I do other stuff (in addition to car stuff) in what spare time I have, it's been really good to get back to other somewhat neglected aspects of
life and work on the car when I want to for a few hours here and there. Actually makes me appreciate the car more.

Sometimes I still walk into the shop, flip the lights on, and there is a part of me that can't hardly believe it's mine.
Maybe a few of you know what I'm talking about and understand how that feels. Hard to describe. I've probably said that before on this thread
but it's still a thing.

With it up on the hoist now and it being much easier to put the lower body at eye level, alot of defects down there that were
well hidden by the color are easier to see and repair.

Baby steps have been the norm for awhile now, but I think I should be moving on from exterior, and prepping and coating the new metal on the underbody
in a couple weeks, I'm thinking sometime early December. I'm just doing black epoxy, black single stage and undercoat/nothing fancy, so that shouldn't be horribly time consuming.

I've been known to sit in my garage, and stare at the Road Runner, and remember that is was once a real POS, and left for dead at my Grandparents farm for many, many years. I still have zero regrets about taking that project on.

Sems Hot Rod black is great for underneath. Holds up very well. Regular trim black spray bomb matches if you ever need a small touch up.
Doug
https://www.nationaltoolwarehouse.c...7mcnIggMVZ0t_AB0mnQzVEAQYAiABEgJetPD_BwE

Thanks Doug, I really like that SEM product and used it on the hood awhile back.
Managed a textured, faked organasol type of a look by messing with the air pressure.

I don't have very much of the SEM left, but do have a bunch of spi epoxy and Summit house brand single stage black, so eventually that's what it will get.
Need to seam seal and undercoat as well.

Prep is ongoing, but small bits of time, an hour here and an hour there.

I took alot of time off over the holiday but am back to it and It's almost ready to start coatings/sealers.

Had a productive couple days.

Final prep and spi epoxy Saturday, went back Sunday, seam sealed everything I could, then Summit Hot Rod black.

Nice to not be stressed about little errors here and there. Hosed on few coats of summit hot rod black.

It's shiny in the pics b/c it's wet, and will dry flat (to match the front inner fenders) done a few years ago).

I'll let this cure for awhile then will undercoat it sort of factory-style/plan to shoot for alot cleaner-than-original look with a little less build thickness.

High performance racing undercoat. It's ugly but serves it's purpose and should look near OE once it ages a little.

What a mess to spray, but so much better and faster once I figured out a reducer.

I don't intend to pamper the underside of this thing, I still don't own a trailer and it will be driven on all kinds of roads, so this is what I need.

The trailer part should probably change at some point.

Suffered a pretty hard personal loss that will keep me busy for probably well over a year, progress on the car is slower but still happening.

I previously painted the fuel tank in the 90s, I used a spray can material which held up surprisingly well (rust o leum professional).
I stripped it and used the same thing this time for refinish but as a basecoat, then the next day laid a couple coats of budget clear on top (finish one FC720),
and we will see how that works out.

Got the tank and custom fuel sender installed. DMT pad and grommet. I still had most of the asbestos stock pad intact and had preserved it all this time...time for an upgrade.
Former Moparts member dbdartman did the fabrication work on the fuel sender for me, decades ago. He's still out there on social media.

I'm polishing the trim as I go.

Not trying to create a national show winner, otherwise I'd send it all out somewhere, the felt cone on the die grinder with jewlers rouge and mother's mag wheel polish is fine with me.

The door handles are some NOS Mopar dodge truck pieces with the passenger car mechanisms swapped on.
I picked up another pair for the next project....now they're quality repops and only about $30 for the truck versions.

Lesson: never throw away working A or B body door handles because they aren't pretty anymore.
Swap the mechanisms on to a shiny new pair of cheap Dodge Truck door handles for half the price of repop A/B body parts.
Even A/B body handles with wrecked chrome are worth a couple bucks to someone who knows this, as long as the mechanisms are still good.

Found a MUCH nicer trunk finish panel from a Sport Satellite, for a fair price and grabbed that as well. Pounded a dent out, and refinished it.
The two GTX panels I already had were both roached as they all eventually do when exposed to any weather, they'll probably become wall art or something.

Painted the side marker housings, interior upper quarter panels, and upper grille support.

First time I have had a trunk seal on this car since the late 90s.

I know it's not necessary to have a million clothespins on the trunk seal if you follow the directions,
but I didn't want to follow the directions! I wanted a second and third chance to position it instead of only one chance.
They aren't used as clamps, they hold it in position and allow you to cut it to length and apply the adhesive a little at a time
instead of all at once.

The belt molding ("arm burner" trim at the top of the door) clips aren't really fun to work with, stuff doesn't line up perfectly and has to be forced into place but not so much that anything is damaged.
There's this fear you're gonna drop one inside the quarter panel, and there it will forever live until the next poor sap cuts the quarter off
to restore the car for the third time 50 years from now. Luckily that didn't happen.

Detail on the trunk finish panel refinish.

started off with a "new" (much less pitted than what I had) replacement from a sport satellite, stripped it, "liquid masked" the shiny areas and applied epoxy,
then the black, then masked the black off with 2" tape, applied the textured silver, pulled the tape, solvent wiped the shiny areas, then applied the
red with a brush.

This is probably the third or fourth time I've refinished these things in decades of ownership so I had a plan together, but the first time starting with a pretty nice part,
first time using epoxy and lucking into a very close to correct textured silver. Also probably the best overall outcome.

I tried to buy more of the textured silver, it really had the "close to original" look I wanted, but it had been obsoleted.
That's when I mail ordered a spare can and paid a little extra to just have it. I might try to dig up some more of it.
I'm most likely going to do the grille in the same textured silver. It really looks the part but I'm pretty sure it is a slightly lighter shade than stock which is fine with me.

De-rusted the bumper brackets in the dip tank, welded on a couple MIA weld nuts, painted epoxy/summit single stage black/my go-to underbody coating.

The long pins work with a ratchet strap to help me install the part solo. Doesn't work 100% on the bumper because a pinch weld interferes, but helps get it
about 80% in place.

The OE bumper fit the car really poorly, it fought me 30 years ago, and this reproduction rear bumper fought me quite a bit harder, and it took several tries to find the magic shim combination
to fit acceptably well. That and some of the trim did not want to do what I needed it to do. Have to admit a few parts on this thing did kick my butt for a minute.
I'll probably still try to round up another solid OE bumper just to have in the corner in case of future need.

It all looks great , it takes time to do it right ..

Current situation. I saved the original tail light lenses with sanding/polishing.

The reproduction bezels have the problems that everyone says/they don't fit exactly right.
But they do look like they belong there, and I found them at a discount so I can't complain much.

The GTX emblem is the one that's been on the car as long as I've owned it, and might be original... it's not perfect but fine for now. The plymouth emblem is from a swap meet.
I spent some time cleaning and refinishing those. Pretty easy project to paint and solvent wipe the face.

That looks great Rich!!!

Just showing the improvement made. I'd lived with the pitted mess since the '80s.

Little parts are in the dip tank for de-rusting.

I can move on to other stuff and come back to these later when hopefully most of the rust will be gone.

thanks Chip!

Thank you. It sure does. I am enjoying the process and taking breaks to avoid burnout.

Really looking good with trim on it Rich. Be proud of the work you have accomplished. Looks amazing.