1968 Mustang Convertible Restore: December 10, 2010 More Paint Prep and the last Primer Coat

I had no idea that the prep work was so tedious. It has taken hours and hours to prep the car. After you think you have it right, you find imperfections that will show in the end. It does not help that Denise likes the car color to be black. Black takes so much extra time.

I spent time with the car each night this week and last. I hope we are closer. The car is being delivered to Plaza Ford on Monday to start the paint job. I am excited to have a few nights off while it is in their care. Jeff in the body shop is a great guy. He has a servants heart. Something that is rare anymore.

This is the temperature in the garage when I arrived Wed. night.

Thank God for my little friend. This brought the garage up to 70 degrees in about 15 minutes.

I started the evening by finding more spots that need attention before the final coat of primer

I also started on the prep on the rear of the car. The bumper guards were not going to come off easy. The screws were rusted...I know !.... and I can not heat them because of the gas tank.
Maybe we will paint around them.

The front valance was a mess. I banged out many of the dents while at Blair's but there are still big gouges that needed to be filled.

This fender will be the death of me. I spent another hour tiring to make the transition between the old and the new metal go away. It is close.

Another coat of mud before I call it a night

Now it is Thursday night and the majority of the night was spent prepping the door jams. They were a mess.

A lot of folks will not prime the jams especially if they are going to use the same color again. I wanted the jams smooth and I am also going to be shooting a black with a course silver metal flake. That should be in the jams too.

I know this area will be covered but there was some bare metal and I wanted it painted.

Now it is Friday and the help has arrived. Once again I have been saved by a friend from the past, Jeff Boswell was another one of those guys who loved cars when we were in school. The prep and prime steps are so important that I did not want to do them myself. Leo had recommended that I call Jeff because he had been painting cars since we were in school together. Jeff did not only possess the desire to help but a gift at painting cars. It figured that with the time we had and the conditions we were faced with, the best we could hope for would be to prep and prime the car in Brian's garage. Jeff was willing to help with the final primer step and I was blessed. The primer looks great and better still, I learned a lot to help get the best results from the effort.