Looks amazing! I'm ready to see it rolled outside and you starting to put it all back together!

Thanks Chip, me too buddy.

Right now the car sits sideways or a little diagonal relative to the service door, I've opened the service door all the way and have been pretty happy with how it looks on that one side,
but it hasn't been completely outdoors in 3 years now. Just to take a good look at it outdoors would be helpful.

Seems like I'll be picking away at the little things for awhile to come, but want to make it roller again after the larger bumps and chunks are removed from the roof,
and temporarily re-install the dash and wiring to get it operable again, so I can pull it outside when needed. I had to roll the dash most of the way out to paint the A pillars.

The dash needs a little work and I'm sure I'll end up pulling it and re-doing everything behind it, after I reposition the car in a better spot to roll the car in and out.

It'll be nice to make that happen and have one open bay back, to use for other things or just the additional open space.

as good as it looks inside now, i'll bet it will be STUPENDOUS out in the daylight !

Correction complete.......Time to put a few things back on, get it rolling again, move everything in the shop back where it belongs and clean up a bit.

Another short Fakebook video. Volume up!

Not much of an update, but maybe better than nothing.

Got the wheels and tires back on, temporarily bolted the dash and steering column back on, intend to get it moving under it's own power again just for movement in and out of the shop. Sorted out wiring and got it to crank/have ignition and oil pressure. Just need to rig a temporary fuel system since the tank is on the shelf.

All the while, started struggling with the humid weather and especially with a couple errors that are 100% my fault.

As is normal in auto body, there is more than one way to repair the problems....one carries more risk of failure and is less work than the other, creating a bunch of overthinking nonsense that I can't stand. It got bad enough that I reached out to a FB group for support
and I got some great responses (only like two horrible ones/easily rebuffed and ignored). The situation is very common for a rookie
to have to redo things a little.

The bad spots actually don't bother me at all right now b/c I'm so pleased with the overall look and outcome of the job.

However I'm pretty sure 5 years from now they will totally piss me off, and might lead to not maintaining the exterior at all again/my previous horrible attitude (it's a failing). When I say "to hell with it", I'm usually serious.

If that happens I'll end up right back here, right back where I started and that is not the goal, those days are over, so I need to do a few repairs and set myself up for the future.

I've got to admit the mental game of this stuff is no joke, I never thought this would be a problem but when the car came out better than
expected I started considering future standards rather than today's standards, and really got stuck for a minute.

How it currently sits, with the questionable areas edited out.

Hate to get back into it, but have to….No way will I want to tear it down later to repair
Something I could have taken care of now.

Edit: I don't quite understand see how this qualifies as "big tire"??? But whatever.

I like the look of something taller/larger on a bigger car like this, and am not a serious racer anyway so the tire size based stuff can just be whatever it is I guess.

Have you decided on a side stripe color for it yet, or is that still a ways off?

'68 type stripe is still debatable, need to see the car complete to really know.....

but the samples arrived from PCG and black reflective is the clear winner. If I decide to do it, that's the one.

From my perspective it is still awesome , top to bottom . I understand you know where these deficiencies are & only you . Back when we did my car there were a few of those , but none have rose up that should have been fixed at the time . Only ones I have added through the years that really bother me . Just thinking what you have gone through to this point you have come a long way . I say if it really bothers you fix it . otherwise give it a few days to really think about diving in again . Man that is an awesome color & shine on that car . Gary

Thank you.

It really did turn out better than anticipated, which is leading me down the questionable path of raising my standards....

Most folks I've showed the problem spots to agreed at the thought of repairing them now, rather than waiting....
A mistake here and there is acceptable for an amateur, but these seemed to really jump out visually and seemed to step over some sort of a line.

I'm perfectly OK with beating it up while enjoying it and feel That is bound to happen.

I may not race very often but the car is meant to look it's best with plenty of melted rubber on the quarters

Remediation is in process.......It's good to feel like I can take my time again, ain't no way it's going to be really driven this year anyway.

in my fabrication and machinist world, it seems every time i start a new project, i feel i need to improve the finished product from the last time.
you are doing this in your paint world as well.
keep up the desire to improve.
as great as it is now, i can't wait to see the improvements !

So....what was the problem?

I'd seen a few show vehicles that had the quarter extensions seam sealed, I liked the look and had some aspirations, but when I attempted it on a humid day
I very quickly learned the meaning of "moisture cure product". The seam sealer set up in about 15 seconds, before I could even pull the tape it'd started going off, and I couldn't tool it smooth.
It came out lumpy and ugly looking. I botched that pretty bad.

Lack of experience said it would probably be okay, maybe.
The most idiotic Negative self-talk ever said "don't worry, something else on the job will be far worse than that, and it won't really matter in the grand scheme of things"
So I did base and clear.

Later I got close to being finished with correction and realized....The Negative Idiot is totally wrong, and I never should have let it go.

As great as it might feel to conquer an obvious personality/judgement flaw through hard work, the next question was.....what's the best repair for this one area and how do I talk myself into it?

High quality seam sealer ain't coming off without a fight.
I had to go back down to bare metal in those areas and repair it.

Blending silver metallic base is no joke for an amateur, even when you use the exact same batch of paint it's a bit of a guessing game.
Fortunately I'd bought a mini gun years ago which helped keep the blend small, I'd studied extensively on YouTube and the forums where I lurk, but some trial and error was needed
to get the air pressure where it needed to be. Eventually I stopped looking at the gauge and had to do it by sight and sound.

The blend came out well, the repair as a whole isn't perfect in microscopic detail but is plenty good enough for me, and a huge improvement over the mess I started with/created.

Needless to say I'll not make that mistake again (along with many other undocumented errors, already fixed, and so stupid they were not even worth talking about).

Every day is a school day.

Snuck a break line under the windshield trim.

Reproduction quarters absolutely do not match factory quarter extensions.....I did not get this anywhere near perfect
but had to put some effort in to even get them to this point.

Alot of folks will chop an original quarter ahead of where the extension bolts on, and splice a new one on, ahead of it, to
retain the excellent fit of OEM quarter extensions..

Mine was a little rusty there and I didn't want to deal with any bad metal at all, I wanted all traces of it cut off and replaced.
No regrets and no rust.

I'm not competing in the concours d'elegance so this should work. I'm way happier with it than previously.

(Almost) like it never happened.

Has as about the same amount of dust as before, but since I shot it mid-day it has alot fewer insects to deal with than previously.

Correction in progress (again).

Back to slow, methodical, trance-like, "put on some music and go with it" kind of work that I enjoy a little more.

I've learned a few tricks and can get through it much faster than previously.
Most of the tricks are old hat, but fairly new to me.

I do love to paint, but it stresses me out something fierce.
I should probably keep doing it and conquer that.

Thanks for reading my drivel......All for now...

Nice save , I know the internal demons were working double time on this . I agree it is far better now . Man I bet you can really paint well . Imagine painting something that did not require this extensive of a job . You the man . Gary

Thank you Gary.

I'm OK, this is only my third ever complete job, so I'm far from an authority on the topic.

Looking very nice so far !!
polishing takes some patience for sure, cant rush any of the steps. the more time you put in the better it looks. In the end this is your car so its always worth the time you put in.

Thanks Tony.

As long as I can refine the clear to the point it was before I started the repair, I'll be good with that.

It's kind of crazy how much clear there is on it now, but it's what I needed to do to make sure I had enough material to work with.