Black Betty Blacked Out

My brother had the Black Betty blacked out.

We're wondering about the woodgrain. We think it was hit pretty hard in the front. The fenders and front doors on both sides appear to have been replaced. The woodgrain doesn't match. Can it be replaced? Does it peel off easily?

In other news, I'm starting on removing the engine and transmission from the original The Betty. I need the transmission for my Fleetwood and I want to keep the engine around as a spare. This is the last step in the final demise of that car, unfortunately.

That looks MUCH better!

And yeah, with a heat gun, it comes off ok. But you'll need to do body work to remove all the pins that the clips attach to for the trim. And the door handle holes were fogged with tan paint before the clear was sprayed, so you'll need to paint it.

Orrrrrr, just leave it. 99 out of 100 people won't notice the difference in the "wood."

Looks good.

Looks awesome,hope its not too dark!

Flasheroo wrote:

Looks awesome,hope its not too dark!

It's 5% except for the front windows which are 15%. I have the same set up on my limo. I can see out of the front easily day or night. The back is okay during the day, but at night it's a little rough. In the case of the limo, the back window is too far back to be useful anyway so it doesn't matter.

Get the tint and sheen right and nobody will care if the pattern is off. Try clearcoating the lighter-colored woodgrain and see if that darkens it. Otherwise, take some 0000 steel wool and I think lacquer thinner (or maybe Isopropyl alcohol) and that will lighten up the darker wood (not my first choice but I've seen it done and it works).

I think the pattern is okay, but it's the tint and sheen that are off. The car would look cool all black, but that's not really the way nature intended it to be. It was built with wood.