Grimace - a tale of the rattle can

I bought Big Red (PO name for the car) back in Sept 09, drove it home and parked it in the driveway until Jan 10 when Ruby's AC compressor starting shooting sparks out of it. It had good tires, AC worked and it ran fine with no leaks, but needed (and still does) new shocks.

PO owner was a handygirl with white paint being her paint of choice evidenced by EVERY interior and exterior piece of sheet metal and plastic.






Fast forward to July fourth weekend and I decide that no way I'm going to WF10 in such a POS. I work over the holiday weekend and get the Radio Flyer going, test drive it around town on half a tank of gas, and head for NY. In the next 7 months I rack up about 9000 miles on it, while Big Red sits in my driveway. I half heartedly try to sell it off, but it's rough and no one wants it. I wind up selling the Radio Flyer to my neighbor as I have to move one of the cars out of here and start driving this one.

About 3 weeks ago I'm in Home Depot and see various colors of satin other than black and the wheels start turning. I find this purplish color seems to match the hue of the original paint fairly well so there won't be a big contrast against the door jambs, etc as I don't have time to go full out before Daytona.

I consult our rattle can hero, Bill 'The Verb' Crovo and get the skinny on rapid surface prep etc.

Of course I go stupid and get the pneumatic orbital out with 120 grit and just destroy my hood with it...
Primer shows the damage, so I go with a Makita palm sander and 220 and that works alot better. I make a test patch with it



I try out my scallop idea but ran out of time before Daytona (had ALL the stuff with me too).

The following weekend I really get busy (one week left) and realize that I have LOTS of work to do. The AC decides to take a crap at this point too, but I don't care I wanna see a purple car in my driveway.

I get busy and make good progress by Sunday eve. I paint in the dying light and it POURS rain about 3 hours later but the paint is dry already (love that spray paint!).




It's now Monday (three days to go) and I have other commitments and nothing gets done until Tues eve!
I finish painting the tailgate and have to reshoot the driver's quarter panel as I missed a bunch in the low light Sunday.

Thursday night now and I go to put on the Crager's. Boy they look good!


I get the front on, the old wheels over on Ruby then I go to bolt up the rears......



Crap they don't fit. I'm pissed. Go get the other rims, diggin around in the garage for the IMPY 17s as I NEED tires for this ride....
30 minutes of fitzin' later I go to put the wheels back on Ruby and guess what? With car up they look the same.
Yaaay, but I've lost over an hour now. I get them back on, but they are TIGHT on the right hand side.
Corner faster than 10mph and they rub

Thursday night is prep night, get everything together. I still have to put the cladding back on that the PO knocked off...
I get to Daytona and hear a scraped going into a driveway. the plastic above the air dams is bent down 45 degrees, WTH?
I'm now at the hotel and working on this amongst the Cougar Den (well off to the side), but a few straggle over and take a peek.
I get that done and then spend about an hour getting the cladding back on the door. I finish that and the cladding hits when you open the door (still have to fix it).

Shortly after I go upstairs and Chris calls. I'm wiped, it's 7PM and I've been up since 5 working and driving.
We go down and Chris snaps some pics of me getting the purple overspray off the hinges.

Robert shows up the hood ornament goes on and that's it.....



More to follow

lol, those tires have lots of tread for Florida. I am always amazed at the tires people drive on there...

Yeah, people are crazy.

*whistles innocently*

You've inspired me. I'm chalkboarding my entire wagon over summer break.

Stingroo wrote:

Yeah, people are crazy.

*whistles innocently*

You've inspired me. I'm chalkboarding my entire wagon over summer break.

That would cure your clear coat problem....

Indeed it would.

Only thing is what to do about the D pillar rust. I assume I can't bondo that. lol

I think its great...love how you took something that was pretty rough and had fun with it Crovo gave good instructions I see you got your fly away panels on for the final Daytona shot!

Love that hood ornament too!!

When I saw the title of the thread I was sure Crovo had written it......

Your wagon came out cool! Is your arm sore from shaking cans?

That's what the kids are for Mike!

Stingroo wrote:

Indeed it would.

Only thing is what to do about the D pillar rust. I assume I can't bondo that. lol

You CAN bondo anything. Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD! (But I probably would)

The car looks great, Sprocket, how did you avoid the dreaded tiger stripes??

Crovo's super secret training program, I assume.

I'm registering for that course in the summer.

Stingroo wrote:

Crovo's super secret training program, I assume.

I'm registering for that course in the summer.

It's called "Tagging 101".

I already took that. Ask the people who clean the dumpsters at my elementary school.

Shhhh.

This is Advanced Aerosol Applications 350.

Stingroo wrote:

I already took that. Ask the people who clean the dumpsters at my elementary school.

Shhhh.

This is Advanced Aerosol Applications 350.

Ahh so you're getting your Master's. Way to go!

It never hurts to have a backup plan. LOL

Ray, you should do the whole hood and the tailgate in chalkboard, and the rest of the car in satin black! That would be hot.

ChevyChugg wrote:

Ray, you should do the whole hood and the tailgate in chalkboard, and the rest of the car in satin black! That would be hot.

Yep, HOT, especially in Florida.

I have amazing A/C

(Sorry Sprocket! lol)

Gutsy, dude. If you ever pull off the scallops, you will have to share those pics.

More of a when on the scallops. Watch this space in a couple of weeks (got lot's of non car stuff coming up)...

Dave, I did get some tiger stripes on the hood and roof in front of the Vista. Mostly due to the fact that the wind picked up to about 10-15 late in the spray fest and the hood I didn't shoot all at one time. The sides are good, except for a few sags/runs, but 600 grit and a quick respray will fix those. especially b4 I do the scallops.

I have a good friend who paints $80K show bikes and was talking to him today, so the stripes should be better than the whole car, lol.

Trust me it's a 30ft paint job and it photographs well, but considering the condition of the rest of the car's cosmetics, it's a step up.,

Not sure about the inside yet, but thinking a tiger stripe headliner to really pimp it out, lol.

jayoldschool wrote:

lol, those tires have lots of tread for Florida. I am always amazed at the tires people drive on there...

It was those or the stock rims with rotten sidewalls and '04 date code on the tires (but they still had lots of tread )

That was the side with more tread too, the other side was slick! Those tires have about 35K on them.

So..its Grimace now. LOL!

You have made your teacher proud.

Now go forth and continue on the scalloped path...

toomanytoyz wrote:

You have made your teacher proud.

Now go forth and continue on the scalloped path...

Don't forget - you'll have an incoming student soon.

Paint the hood green and call it Barney

buickestate wrote:

Paint the hood green and call it Barney

Especially if you could get ahold of Nick's hood with the axe in it.

Jon