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Project Generation Gap Paint - Painted Pony, Part 3Finally wearing paint, our Ghost Gray Filly waves goodbye to the body shop From the June, 2011 issue of Modified Mustangs & Fords By Mark Houlahan
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Here’s our ’68 fastback, fresh... Here’s our ’68 fastback, fresh out of paint and ready for us to start assembling. We still need to give the clear a once over with 3,000-grit wet paper and then buff it to a show-ready finish. There’s nothing more satisfying than checking off a punch list on your project. Whether it’s something as basic as a tune-up or as involved as paint and body, it puts a smile on your face, and allows you to exhale and concentrate on the next phase of your project. Our particular list for our Generation Gap fastback project’s paint and body was an extensive one. The truth is, the more modifications you make at the paint and body phase, the more work you’ll have to do. We’ve been involved in many paint projects over the years and we have to say that this particular project was one of the most extensive projects we’ve ever undertaken. While the end result will be a unique and aggressive-looking classic Mustang, to put it bluntly, there’s not a stock body part on the whole car. Every major panel has either been modified with fiberglass, steel, or at the hands of a cutoff wheel, or just plain replaced with an aftermarket part (like our hood, trunk, and front fascia). Every one of those aftermarket parts or modifications equals more work. It’s one thing to bolt on a bunch of stock metal, smooth the car’s flanks, and shoot color; it’s a whole different story when making modifications like we have. That said, we’re happy to see the light at the end of the paint and body tunnel with our third and final installment on Generation Gap’s paint and bodywork. In our previous two installments (Mar. and Apr. ’11 issues), we shared some final modifications to our fastback, including ditching the stock cowl vents for some air extractors similar to what we fabricated for our upper quarter-panels, plus finalizing many of our panel gaps and getting the whole body into a coat of PPG K-38 high build primer so that we could move forward with final block sanding and sealing of the body surface. That’s where we pick up our paint and body finale this month. We’ll be working a few problem areas, filling any pinholes/scratches, wet sanding our K-38, and sealing the surface with PPG’s DP50LF primer sealer. Once the DP50LF has dried, we’ll spray our base color, allow it to dry, then tape the body for our stripes so that we can spray the stripe color and then clear the whole surface. Check out our last steps in the following photos and stay tuned as we plan to wrap up our project before the year is out.  When you have a metal-to-metal...  When you have a metal-to-metal gap, such as between a stock hood and fender, there’s little adjustment needed, as the stampings pretty much dictate the gap itself. In the case of our Flashback front fascia, the gap between the fascia and front fender had to be modified to fit the fascia. After fitting the fascia once before, Classic Creations of Central Florida’s Danny Gaydos felt the gap needed further work. Another thin coat of plastic body filler was applied and the fascia was secured to the fender.  Gaydos takes to the filler...  Gaydos takes to the filler with his board sander and 80-grit paper, blocking it down to the fender’s surface. Painters tape on the edge of the fender will prevent the filler from sticking, allowing the fascia to easily separate when we’re done.  Gaydos performed the same...  Gaydos performed the same steps on the left fender-to-fascia fitment as well. Once complete, the fascia was loosened and the seam carefully separated and the tape removed, leaving a very clean and sharp parting line that will bolt up and fit together like a factory stamped part.  No matter how many hours you...  No matter how many hours you put into your bodywork, you’re bound to find a spot or two that you missed. Whether it’s a pinhole in fiberglass, a deep sanding scratch, or other blemish, now is the time to find them and fix the issues. These three pinholes in our fiberglass are but a few of the fixes we needed to make before moving forward.  Next, Gaydos mixed up a small...  Next, Gaydos mixed up a small amount of filler and worked his way around the body; filling any blemishes we find and then sanding them away.  Remember, any low spot, gouge,...  Remember, any low spot, gouge, scratch, or pinhole will not be filled level by paint or the clear topcoat, leaving the problem exposed for all to see.  Our Mustangs Plus Shelby-style...  Our Mustangs Plus Shelby-style hood was originally designed to work with a stock ’67-’68 Shelby-style front fascia, which explains the gap at the ends of the hood’s leading edge.  Our Flashback fascia doesn’t...  Our Flashback fascia doesn’t mimic the Shelby setup, so we had to fiberglass the ends of the hood to create a matching parting line.  Once we had repaired all of...  Once we had repaired all of the blemishes and block sanded them down, the affected areas were spot primed with more K-38 high build primer.  [8] While the primer was drying,...  [8] While the primer was drying, we decided to tackle a few more line items on our punch list, including sealing the hole we made in the firewall for transmission clearance. Gaydos had a great tip when fitting sections of steel for patching an area; the use of a small handheld magnet helps to position the metal for welding.  Due to the width of the modular...  Due to the width of the modular engine, we’ll be routing our heat and A/C lines through the inner fender most likely, thus we opted to fill the firewall and smooth it over for a cleaner look. Here, the heater hose and blower motor openings have been filled, and all of the welds have been ground down.  A quick application of body...  A quick application of body filler, and a little sanding, and our firewall was looking pretty good. We’ve mentioned it before, but just to remind those following, we’ll be painting our engine compartment body color.  The modular engine’s Control...  The modular engine’s Control Pack wiring kit includes a drive-by-wire throttle pedal assembly, which will require some minor fabrication to fit into a classic Mustang or Ford vehicle.  Gaydos whipped up this simple...  Gaydos whipped up this simple angled bracket with two welded bolts and a welded nut to secure the pedal.  By the time we finished up...  By the time we finished up the firewall and gas pedal mods, the K-38 primer was dry and ready for final block sanding. We tackled the small detail areas with 240-grit wet paper wrapped around a 3M rubber sanding block, while Gaydos used the same paper in his long board sander for the major areas. Tag teaming the car helped us get the wet sanding done in short order.  After the final blocking with...  After the final blocking with 240-grit wet paper, the fastback is a hodgepodge of colors and layers. The final blocking can actually go all the way down to bare metal in some places, but that’s OK, as your goal is to make the body as straight as possible.  With the block sanding completed,...  With the block sanding completed, the fastback shell, fenders, fascia, and all loose parts being painted need to be washed with soap and water to remove any sanding dust and crud that has dried on the parts during wet sanding.  Once the parts have had ample...  Once the parts have had ample time to air dry, every surface needs to be wiped down with wax and grease remover and clean lint-free cloths. This final step ensures the surface is absolutely clean and dry and void of any contaminants. After wiping with the wax and grease remover, do not touch the surfaces with your hands, as skin oil will transfer and could cause paint lifting.  Since we replaced or modified...  Since we replaced or modified so much of our Mustang’s body, not to mention the unibody was media blasted, we had to apply fresh seam sealer in all critical seams before we sprayed our DP50LF primer sealer.  PPG’s DP series of epoxy primers...  PPG’s DP series of epoxy primers is available in six colors and can affect your final basecoat’s tint, so choose your primer carefully. Auto Body Color & Supply, which provided all of our paint materials for Generation Gap, suggested we stick with a light gray sealer, thus we used DP50LF. The DP50LF is mixed in a 2:1 ratio with DPLF catalyst. Here Gaydos lays down our epoxy primer sealer. The DP50LF acts as a final sealer for the body, and once dry, will be ready to be topcoated. You can find full mix info sheets for all of PPG’s products on its website at www.ppg.com/coatings/refinish.  Our basecoat is PPG’s Deltron...  Our basecoat is PPG’s Deltron 2000 series, more commonly known as DBC. We’re partial to using OE Ford colors on our projects for easy touch ups since any shop can mix the OE color. We’d planned to use Ford’s Dark Shadow Gray from the Mustang Cobra and Mach 1, but while discussing our project with Auto Body Color & Supply’s Brian Smith, he suggested tweaking the factory color a bit. We let Brian do what he does best, and he came up with his own color called Ghost Gray Pearl; essentially our original color with more metallic and some pearl in it. We can’t wait to lay it down on our fastback.  \Gaydos laid down three coats...  \Gaydos laid down three coats of our DBC base color with his Iwata HVLP spray gun, giving sufficient time between coats. One of the keys to laying down paint properly is having the paint gun at the proper distance from the panel and keeping it perpendicular to the panel as well. Being a metallic color, it’s also important to spray the panels as they will sit on the car.  Depending upon your painting...  Depending upon your painting conditions (force drying booth, high humidity, and so on), it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to almost 2 hours before you can safely tape off the painted surface for any striping, flames, or two-tone paint treatments. We’re painting the traditional Shelby Le Mans stripes, but stopping at the leading edge of the hood and decklid.  Our stripe color is a deep...  Our stripe color is a deep black metallic called Reaper Black, and Gaydos laid down three coats for our stripes. We’re also using the stripe color to black out our taillight panel (seen here on the first coat of black), as well as our Flashback fascia’s bolt-in brake cooling ducts.  With the Le Mans stripes and...  With the Le Mans stripes and taillight black out completed and given time to air dry, the masking paper and tape were carefully removed. The surface was cleaned once more before Gaydos mixed our PPG Concept DCU2021 urethane clear with the proper DT reducer and DCX hardener for our temperature conditions in a 4:1:1 ratio. Three medium wet coats of Concept clear will give us plenty of surface thickness to allow us to cut and buff the clear to a show-winning finish.
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