The Resurgence of Ruby

Looking forward to seeing her back on the road.

Is that a 67-68 Cougar peeking out of the garage?

autoarcheologist wrote:

Looking forward to seeing her back on the road.

Is that a 67-68 Cougar peeking out of the garage?

1968, 95K one owner as my wife's Mom bought it new. Need to work out the details of the title as she has passed and her Dad can't locate the original title . Unfortunately, it sat in a different garage for 16.5 years and the top of the fuel tank rusted away. I've had it for about two years, and haven't done much with it yet....

Still, what a great story, and a one family car. I'm sure with a little work it could be a runner again, I've saved much worse.

I almost inherited a 68 Mustang GT convertible in high school, but of course it didn't work out. But I was happy to have the '74 Valiant, at least I had transportation!

As soon as my t56 is in my 94 wagon, she'll be getting a new stainless tank and the carb tumbled

As I pulled this thread up for reference on sound deadening for another thread, I'll throw out a quick update.

I swapped back in the 9C1 cluster as my boy had swapped it out to put in his new car (it sat on the workbench for two months and I claimed it), Replaced the front wheel bearings as they were getting pretty noisy, and some other general maint items.

Trying to figure out which color spray paint prior to WF as I will NOT have the t-56 done in time (haven't started and working on my bathroom still).

Leaning toward olive drab with the Flying Tigers shark mouth on the side or something WWII throwback kinda look for fun.

Also thinking trying to buy a single stage red and try spraying it myself...

My vote is for the WWII theme.

Buy single stage olive drab and spray.

Check out the Earlex 3500 HVLP spray turbine you can get various size brass spray tips for it for automotive paints and lagrer tips for plastic dip. Jeff

Battleship Gray with big white numbers....

I'm thinking: USS RUBY CC69

I thought about making a turret for the roof with a plastic laundry bucket and some schedule 40, lol

Jeff when I bought my compressor it came with a classic spray gun (not HVLP), so I'd most likely use that


this is a little too big of a mouth and well beyond my painting abilities...

Took a little bit to notice the turret on the rear side of the van, I was thinking of a tank turret on the top! One of those could be mounted to the roof rack and taken off when going for a drive over 5 mph!

Naval Camouflage

Well I wnt in a different direction and no pics until Friday so I can surprise everyone.

For Robert and everyone else that will critique the 30 foot paint job. Bite me. I'm pissed off about how it went down (literally, how the paint went down). The body prep was rough and I I only had 150 grit so there are lots of scratches showing. It was windy and 88 degrees so it was hot and breezy which caused the paint to not go on right...... I did a much better job on Grimace and in less time.

It took 4 days to get the old paint off the hood as it was so bad I had to strip it clean and it still looks like ass as I didn't have time to skim and smooth it. At one point I made a command decision to change the primary color and the paint I got was shooting out like textured stuff despite what the labels said. I gave up and went back to the first color, but now the A-pillar is sort of textured as I simply have run out of time to fix it all.......It's a mad scramble between now and Friday to put it all back together again. It is what it is at this point. I hope I have time to at least clean the rims....

That said it looks GREAT from 25 feet away, lol

Idea for new Flamingo award. "Best paint from at least 25ft.away."

Don't want to be accused of inventing categories where I'm the sure winner, lol

Can we at least see some pics?

I would NEVER critique your work (to your face )
It will be fine... no matter HOW bad it is.....

stewzer55 wrote:

Can we at least see some pics?

Tomorrow night I'm sure some pictures will surface...

Superior Finish wrote:

I would NEVER critique your work (to your face )
It will be fine... no matter HOW bad it is.....

The Great Chalkboard of 2011 proves that.

Ive had the same frustrations on some paint projects.... lets see the photos. Jeff

Okay here we go:

Looks sharp, it's amazing what paint will do for a car

Its got that Celebrity Eurosport vibe to it. I dig it!

It started out as you can see in the first pic all red, but I really wanted to do a two tone and was thinking a white stripe or something. On my Home Depot run, I saw this satin brushed nickel and bought a can to test with. Once I sprayed a little on the back corner where the clear was gone, I thought It'd look better on top (like a Santa Fe locomotive). Also I didn't want to go below the cladding, as that paint was good, however, the rear bumper was burnt. The black popped into my head as Iwouldn't have to worry about the black section of the rear cover. Also I thought of the 80s Hurst Olds too.

I also was going to do the belt line both sliver and red, but that was way too much taping and waiting, so red was it. I did also think of red on the crossbars, but it wouldn't tie in with the rest of the red.

Only later did I realize I ripped off the A-team van color scheme as my daughter was watching Myth Buster A-team episode.

So I guess I need red rims, a push bar and a couple of fog lights lol

Also the black sets off the stainless trim on the bottom

Pretty slick!! Just in time for your yearly Daytona track pic too

brokecello wrote:

Pretty slick!!  Just in time for your yearly Daytona track pic too

Only reason I did it, lol.

Sprocket wrote:

It started out as you can see in the first pic all red, but I really wanted to do a two tone and was thinking a white stripe or something.   On my Home Depot run, I saw this satin brushed nickel and bought a can to test with.  Once I sprayed a little on the back corner where the clear was gone, I thought It'd look better on top (like a Santa Fe locomotive).     Also I didn't want to go below the cladding, as that paint was good, however, the rear bumper was burnt.   The black popped into my head as Iwouldn't have to worry about the black section of the rear cover.   Also I thought of the 80s Hurst Olds too.

I also was going to do the belt line both sliver and red, but that was way too much taping and waiting,  so red was it.   I did also think of red on the crossbars, but it wouldn't tie in with the rest of the red.

Only later did I realize I ripped off the A-team van color scheme as my daughter was watching Myth Buster A-team episode.

So I guess I need red rims, a push bar and a couple of fog lights lol

Hurst Olds was my second thought...lol

Looks great in the pics!! Nice work!

looks good sorry I missed seeing it in person. jeff

Well perhaps the new owner Greg will carry on this thread. She just left, had this one longer than any of the others. Bought 12/31/2007 sold 8/25/2017....almost 10 years.

Greg is a local INC member and has been wanting a wagon, so anxious to see what he does with it.
Gave him a whole cargo bay of spare parts with it too that I really didn't need, made him a smoking deal on it too, as code enforcement was on me for having a car in the driveway that wasn't registered.

Mind you there are still 7 vehicles in the driveway....

Sprocket wrote:

Gave him a whole cargo bay of spare parts.

= I got rid of a lot of crap

Crap,trash,treasure...All the same on this forum.

Car is being parted out .

Pausing again for another fallen wagon...Cue the taps...

Still looks good. Nice work.

Update: The engine/trans was put into another caprice wagon that had better paint and was sold. One of my other INC buddies now has the shell and want's to do something with it after he sells his beast 94 SS with a 396 LT1 and a 250 shot Nitrous system...

Still hope for her

To be continued...

Does Matt still want way too much money for that Impala? lol

RedandBlack wrote:

Does Matt still want way too much money for that Impala? lol

I think he has it priced pretty fairly, but not everyone is looking for a race car

Ruby has been rescued from a side yard by a Mia INC member who also bought the white wagon from me so they are now reunited! She has an LT1 sitting in her engine bay, but not installed. We will see what happens now as he also has Ray's LS swapped wagon... He's cornering the market!

She changed hands once again and is still in the community. A well known person in the community known for T-shirts has rescued her and plans to cut the roof off and make an El Camino out of it as it's got alot of rust in the D pillars.

you brought this old thread up and gave me a chance to see it.... saddest part is seeing the 68 cougar being used as a shelf. I just got my 68 cougar all mechanically worked out and now im on the cosmetics. First time on the road since about 1993.

She arrived to her new owner this week and she is in very bad shape. Roof is rotted in multiple areas and the third row is a large lake. I bought the LT1 that was in it and the defrost free rear hatch. Will get the rest of the glass once we get the saws out, lol.

Shame that people get a hold of these cars just to let them rot away. Makes the ones that are left and taken care of that much nicer I suppose.

Man this old wagon gets around. Now it belongs to me and is sitting at work. Have a title that is still in that Matt fellas name. The car has rot issues so it will be scavenged and sent to the crusher.

What a difference a decade makes. 5 years of complete neglect and changing owners 5 times didn't help.








This photo shows just how good that dye used on the carpet is. Still looks great. That sound deadener stuff is still holding strong. Sucks because I'm cutting the floors out and that stuff is in the way, lol.

well, the book closed on this one....Billy said it was hauled off to the crusher this morning...sad wagon noises.

Don't be too sad. Quite a few pieces from her are going to live on as part of my wagon. I even pulled those front seats that are from Jade. Cleaned and installed them already. Some sheet metal parts, glass, chrome trim on bottoms of doors and wheel opening moldings.

Sprocket wrote:

well, the book closed on this one....Billy said it was hauled off to the crusher this morning...sad wagon noises.

RIP Ruby