Cleaning up the SWB - paint here we come!

[tfiv]

Glad to see you are back on it Kenik.

The neighbors will love the fumes. So will your wife!

Be sure and cover everything really well. My mom's ten speed still has harvest gold overspray on it from a MGB I painted in her garage 20 years ago.

[kenikh]

Hey K, what did you do with those chromies that were on her?

The Fuchs are the wheels I got rid of to add the chromies! You'd be amazed the mayhem you can deliver on 4.5" wheels and 165 Vredesteins!

[kenikh]

Glad to see you are back on it Kenik.

The neighbors will love the fumes. So will your wife!

Be sure and cover everything really well. My mom's ten speed still has harvest gold overspray on it from a MGB I painted in her garage 20 years ago.

You bet - in my first failed attempt at painting this car (bad gun), I basically hermetically sealed the garage with 3 mil poly. No paint smell in the house AND our bedroom is over the garage! I've got it covered.

You guys making the drive to Monterey this year?

[kenikh]

BTW, no real updates tonight. Lots of details handled, but nothing picture worthy. Spent most of my time looking for minutia and fixing with spot putty and sand paper. This bad boy is going to be smoooooooth...

The primer dog will be hunting by this weekend! With any luck, I'll be done masking tomorrow night.

[kenikh]

Kenik, I would consider that just a BIT more than a "cleanup".

I am a master of understatement...it is a bit tongue in cheek as this project started as clean up. Then I found rust in the window sills, had to hack and weld, from there decided to clean up the rust pinholes in the doors, which lead to closing up the holes left from the '68S decos. Next thing you know, the car is apart and by then, you might as well spray the whole damned thing.

I may not have invened the slippery slope, but I think I am close to perfecting it. Ask me about the '69S sometime. How does a broken valve spring result in a rotisserie restoration? I can answer that.

[John Fusco]

The Fuchs are the wheels I got rid of to add the chromies! You'd be amazed the mayhem you can deliver on 4.5" wheels and 165 Vredesteins!

HA! That's why I'm looking

[304065]

Looks good Kenik! Just a few more hours until you get it to this stage. . . .

[kenikh]

Looks good Kenik! Just a few more hours until you get it to this stage. . . .

I won't be getting to that stage for a LONG time, at least on this car. The goal is to get the SWB back on the road so I have something to drive, then dig into the '69S. That car will hopefully be in the above stage sooner than later.

John, is that what your car looks like right now? It has been a LONG road, eh?

[304065]

Kenik, that strategy makes sense. . . in order to maintain momentum with your projects it is helpful to hear the flat-six bark and remember how much fun these cars are. In my own case, with the race car resting comfortably in cosmoline and the '66 slowly working its way back, the sounds and smells are a distant but vivid memory.

I am in "big cardboard box" mode inasmuch as every few days I either send or receive a big cardboard box. Gauges are being restored. Chrome is . . .being rechromed. Bruce Stone did the pedal cluster. Magnesium manifolds are being COPPER plated as a base for Cadmium (the acid used to activate the metal for cad plating will destroy the magnesium, so you plate with copper first). All rubber and brightwork has arrived, a mix of Stoddard, Pelican and International Mercantile. Electronics (lights, ignition box) have arrived.

Next step on the car is to flip it upside down for Schutz then get it into final paint. That is about two solid weeks of work, then it should be ready.

Sorry for the hijack but you are exactly right- it takes a LONG time! I like your approach, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good-- every restoration does not have to be a bare metal approach particularly if you are starting with a good car in the first place.

[kenikh]

Very well put...I love the quote "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good". I let this concept get away from me for a while.

No longer.