The "66 El Camino that I finally own" Thread
Discussion
I said:
If (and it's a big IF) I can get the roof panel to come out as well, I'll be pretty happy.
It was always going to be a big IF...However before tackling that, I refitted and sealed the a-pillar trims and started fitting the new clips for the stainless trim "screen molding"
A little before and after comparison, just to prove that progress has definitely been made even if it feels glacial at times..
At this point there was no further avoiding the elephant in the room, it was time to paint the roof.
Not feeling particularly confident about this after my previous issues with paint.
I would say my current standard of painting is very hit and miss - I've had some lovely finishes straight out of the gun and some that could at best be described as very disappointing!
Unfortunately my lack of experience means that I still don't really know what makes the difference between a good day and a bad day, which isn't ideal!
All I could do was take my time and take as many precautions I could.
Firstly a fresh coat of primer plus guide coat
This was subsequently flatted back until I was happy with it and then kept covered until I was ready to paint
Applied plastic sheeting to most surfaces in the garage and a fly screen on the open door.
Paint process:-
- Roof wiped repeatedly with expensive panel wipe with silicon remover.
- Firstly, a light dust coat of paint applied and left to tack - the theory being if any contamination remains this layer has insufficient depth for surface tension to form fish eyes around problem areas, then subsequent coats are going onto fresh, hopefully uncontaminated paint...
- Second, a slightly heavier coat to ensure good coverage all over, again left to tack
- Finally a third, heavier coat again, sufficient wetness to form a nice smooth outer surface, hopefully needing minimal rectification / flatting.
Coats one and two went on as hoped and the finish looked quite good after the second coat. Coat three is where it all went wrong.
For some reason (that I've not got to the bottom of) for the first time ever, my compressor struggled to keep up with running the gun and my mask on coat three. I knew as soon as I started spraying that the paint wasn't coming out of the gun as I would like and I had to tweak the settings to get it to flow better. However after a few passes the low pressure alarm went off on my air-fed mask, not what you want to hear when spraying 2K...
Held my breath and waited for the compressor to catch up, which it did fairly quickly. Checked for kinked hoses but nothing obvious.
Carried on spraying but unfortunately the scene was set for the rest of that coat of paint - poor coverage followed by a low pressure alarm. Nothing I could adjust made any difference and of course I couldn't get into any sort of rhythm painting either.
After a very stressful few minutes I had got all the paint out of the gun and onto the roof, so made my escape from the garage, feeling very frustrated. Left it all to sit, cleaned the gun etc.
Finally ventured back into the garage half an hour or so later, once the fumes had cleared, just to see how bad it was.
Not. Good. At. All.
I'll be as positive as I can - there were no runs and no dead flies stuck in the paint, so that's something! The orange peel was pretty bad though. Worse, there were plenty of fish eyes, again.
Took a couple of pictures before I closed the garage door and walked away. If anything they don't really show how bad the finish is...
And closer...
Very f
king disafkingppointing doesn't even begin to fking cover it...leglessAlex said:
Ah dude, that must be hugely irritating.
Yes, just a bit!Took a few weeks off working on anything, had hols with the missus and then went to a little Mustang meet up in Belgium with a mate and helped set a world record! I was pleased to see that at least one of the cars there had slightly worse paint than the Elk!!
Once home, I reluctantly headed back into the garage to see how best to proceed.
Sanding is of course the answer, the question being do I potentially waste time trying to salvage the paint or just flat it back and have another go?
Decided to invest the time to try to salvage it, since I felt there is plenty of paint on there, plus no guarantee that the next coat would go on any better! Plus it has got a bit cool for painting in the garage now.
I mixed up a tiny batch of paint and blobbed in the worst of the fish eyes and let that harden slightly before de-nibbing them fairly roughly, just enough to get the blobs mostly flush.
Then I hit the entire roof with 1000 grade wet and a sanding block. The worst of the orange peel sanded out reasonably quickly as did the remaining blobs of paint which were probably still slightly softer than the rest of the roof anyway.
Work in progress, still plenty of issues...
As the roof slowly turned a nice even shade of matt, it showed up more problem areas and fish eyes that I had missed, so they received further touch ups at that point, before I continued to sand.
Once I was reasonably happy, I progressed through 1600 grade up to 3000 and 5000 (although in honesty I couldn't tell much difference between those two). Many hours passed, my beard became a little more grey and my shoulder muscles a little more defined!
Eventually I was sick of sanding and had gone as far as I dare go, having removed the majority of flaws without breaking through to primer anywhere!
Time to hit it with the DA then, first pass.
I think it'll be ok.
Don't get me wrong, under the unforgiving glare of the strip lights, it does need more work. Several more passes with the polisher to start.
Even then that will leave a few small fish eyes that I have missed, and a section in the middle of the roof that still has a subtle orange peel effect to it compared to the edges. There are also some sanding marks that may need to be revisited with finer grade wet and dry at some point as I think they are a little deep to polish out.
However, subject to no disasters with the polisher over the next few days, I think I can call the roof done for now. Maybe when the rest of the bodywork is done and pristine
, and I am more confident with the spraygun 
, I'll give it another, better, coat of paint...For now though, I will start reassembly.
I think I've commented elsewhere in this thread that I've always like the Elk (and used to own a Monaro!)....anyway, you know how you sometimes just get lost in browsing for-sale sites, well, that was me this afternoon. I always thought I wanted a '67, but I'm now busy hunting down the back of the sofa for any bits of small change:
How nice is that? Is that the colour you're going for OP?
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1148615
How nice is that? Is that the colour you're going for OP?
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1148615
Very nice! 
I think as a '68 (if it is the original colour) that'll be Butternut Yellow rather than Lemonwood, an extremely similar colour though.
Butternut superseded Lemonwood in '67 and also just happens to be the original colour on my '67 Camaro, before it was resprayed 15 (yes fifteen) times per DVLA!
I may well put the Camaro back to original when it gets done...
I think as a '68 (if it is the original colour) that'll be Butternut Yellow rather than Lemonwood, an extremely similar colour though.
Butternut superseded Lemonwood in '67 and also just happens to be the original colour on my '67 Camaro, before it was resprayed 15 (yes fifteen) times per DVLA!
I may well put the Camaro back to original when it gets done...
CAPP0 said:
I think I've commented elsewhere in this thread that I've always like the Elk (and used to own a Monaro!)....anyway, you know how you sometimes just get lost in browsing for-sale sites, well, that was me this afternoon. I always thought I wanted a '67, but I'm now busy hunting down the back of the sofa for any bits of small change:
How nice is that? Is that the colour you're going for OP?
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1148615
Oh thats lovely, I would love an Elk, have also looked into Maloo as a modern RHD version but prefer the ElkHow nice is that? Is that the colour you're going for OP?
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1148615
That doesnt SEEM offensively expensive looking at the condition
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Yes, that's what I thought? Would need a good coat of looking at first, and, what, £2.5k to ship it? It was at the sort of value to make me think "hmmm" for more than a few minutes.My trouble is, I buy things, then want more things, but never want to sell things. And on that basis I very much already have too many vehicles and I am totally out of space. One of my cars was restored some years ago and has become a complete tart of a garage queen, it only comes out on nice days, it only comes out when I've got enough time to extract it from the garage, and it never gets taken anywhere where I might have to leave it to get dinged. On that basis, it's almost certainly done less than 1000 miles in the past 5 years, and hasn't been out at all since early LAST summer (2018). I should sell it, but....
CAPP0 said:
Yes, that's what I thought? Would need a good coat of looking at first, and, what, £2.5k to ship it? It was at the sort of value to make me think "hmmm" for more than a few minutes...
Isn’t the car/truck in Surrey? Surrey address on the listing and the car is parked on the left side of the road.
Speed addicted said:
CAPP0 said:
Yes, that's what I thought? Would need a good coat of looking at first, and, what, £2.5k to ship it? It was at the sort of value to make me think "hmmm" for more than a few minutes...
Isn’t the car/truck in Surrey? Surrey address on the listing and the car is parked on the left side of the road.
Damn, that makes inspection and purchase so much easier. And I live in Kent. And I'm already going to Surrey on Saturday.
But I mustn't. Must I.
CAPP0 said:
Sorry, you're right - I was looking at a few at the weekend and most of them were still in the USA, I overlooked that.
Damn, that makes inspection and purchase so much easier. And I live in Kent. And I'm already going to Surrey on Saturday.
But I mustn't. Must I.
Well you could have a look....Damn, that makes inspection and purchase so much easier. And I live in Kent. And I'm already going to Surrey on Saturday.
But I mustn't. Must I.
Speed addicted said:
CAPP0 said:
Sorry, you're right - I was looking at a few at the weekend and most of them were still in the USA, I overlooked that.
Damn, that makes inspection and purchase so much easier. And I live in Kent. And I'm already going to Surrey on Saturday.
But I mustn't. Must I.
Well you could have a look....Damn, that makes inspection and purchase so much easier. And I live in Kent. And I'm already going to Surrey on Saturday.
But I mustn't. Must I.
Escort3500 said:
Speed addicted said:
CAPP0 said:
Sorry, you're right - I was looking at a few at the weekend and most of them were still in the USA, I overlooked that.
Damn, that makes inspection and purchase so much easier. And I live in Kent. And I'm already going to Surrey on Saturday.
But I mustn't. Must I.
Well you could have a look....Damn, that makes inspection and purchase so much easier. And I live in Kent. And I'm already going to Surrey on Saturday.
But I mustn't. Must I.
CAPP0 said:
Is that the colour you're going for OP?
Paint flatting and polishing continues, I've settled on a combination of wet and dry grit, pads and compounds for wet sanding and polishing, which seems to be working for me, giving a better result slightly faster whilst leaving fewer sanding marks
I've also started refitting trim removed for paint - whilst trying to make sure I do so in the right order, not least to make life as easy as possible, but also there are some things that simply must be done before others - e.g. refit the trim to the rear of the roof, as pictured above, before refitting the headlining, since the fixings are only accessible whilst the headliner is dropped!
Of course whilst the trim is off the car is the ideal time to give it a really good clean and polish, removing old paint, bed liner and window sealant that has been over-sprayed, smeared and dripped onto it over the last 53 years.
The associated trim fixings and seals also need attention, like the seals that go between the rear roof trim and the cab. Needless to say the original rubber had seen better days, so time was spent finding a strip of rubber of appropriate thickness from which to cut some new seals. No need for them to be pretty in this application, I just cut the rubber around the washers with a pair of scissors and then punched the hole in the middle.
All in all it means that refitting one piece of trim which physically takes about two minutes, actually took about two hours!
Satisfying to see that some pieces came up really well, with minimal marks / pitting and an excellent shine
The upper sections however, had clearly never been removed previously for paint (of which it has had plenty during its life in California) due to the need to drop the headliner for access. As a result, they have come into contact with more than one carelessly wielded sanding disc over the years and no amount of polishing will rectify these.
Used ones do appear in better condition (in the US) from time to time, so will keep my eyes open for a bargain, but not the highest priority at the moment...
Well I didn't go and look at the one above at the weekend, not least because it's a private sale and I'm simply not able to proceed currently for various reasons so I didn't want to bug the seller.
However on the way through the Blackwall Tunnel this morning, my commute was significantly brightened up by the sight of a Elk about 4 cars in front of me. Sadly due to solid white lineage I wasn't able to pass it or get much closer and he carried on towards the A12 whereas I took the Poplar exit.
Similar colour again to 99t's and the one for sale. Must be an omen! Although today's had the wood side trims (yuk) and although I'm not really up to speed on the various models, I think it was a slightly later one.
However on the way through the Blackwall Tunnel this morning, my commute was significantly brightened up by the sight of a Elk about 4 cars in front of me. Sadly due to solid white lineage I wasn't able to pass it or get much closer and he carried on towards the A12 whereas I took the Poplar exit.
Similar colour again to 99t's and the one for sale. Must be an omen! Although today's had the wood side trims (yuk) and although I'm not really up to speed on the various models, I think it was a slightly later one.
Reassembly continues.
After a bit of a faff, I managed to refit the original headlining. Although not perfect I elected to keep it as the fit and finish is probably better than reproduction ones available - I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with the quality of the replacement trim parts I have purchased at considerable expense, but more about that in a bit...
The headlining was pretty grubby, so gave it a wipe over with a barely damp magic sponge. I left it a bit late to take a picture, but hopefully the before and after should still be obvious.
Quite pleased with the results and it matches the seats and door trims colour now - before I thought it was several shades of beige darker!
Time to fill one of the big holes at the front of the cabin (windscreen can wait for another day). The dash panel has been rubbed down and painted a while ago. Time to refit the instruments, switches, trim, glovebox and ashtray to it before refitting (much easier than trying to fit them once the main panel is in the car even though it makes it heavier to man-handle).
Little details first - glovebox door buffers (original ones hard, painted and fifty percent missing)
Replaced with nice soft rubber
Replacement upper trim - well no question it was needed...
The replacement piece certainly looked the part and was well made with really high quality "proper" chrome plating, rock hard and no marking this with your fingers like some plastic chrome.
BUT... the switches for the ignition switch, lights and wipers and the cigarette lighter have a specific fit through both the metal dash and the outer trim. This requires all four holes to line up EXACTLY.
Unfortunately when the light and wiper switches were aligned, the holes for the ignition switch and lighter were about 5mm offset from the holes in the metal dash, and vice versa. No way would it all go together without fettling.
Since I couldn't easily adjust the trim piece due to the specific shapes moulded in it to locate each item, I instead had to take a dremel to my lovely painted dash panel and elongate two of the holes. It won't be visible of course but feels like a bodge and just shouldn't be necessary. Grrrrr!
Anyway, rant over, it finally all slotted together
Thankfully, the other trim piece, glovebox lock and door and ashtray all slotted back together quite easily
And finally the refurbed instrument cluster
Next up, refit to the car, work out where all the wires go
and fit and connect the radio and heater control panel...
After a bit of a faff, I managed to refit the original headlining. Although not perfect I elected to keep it as the fit and finish is probably better than reproduction ones available - I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with the quality of the replacement trim parts I have purchased at considerable expense, but more about that in a bit...
The headlining was pretty grubby, so gave it a wipe over with a barely damp magic sponge. I left it a bit late to take a picture, but hopefully the before and after should still be obvious.
Quite pleased with the results and it matches the seats and door trims colour now - before I thought it was several shades of beige darker!
Time to fill one of the big holes at the front of the cabin (windscreen can wait for another day). The dash panel has been rubbed down and painted a while ago. Time to refit the instruments, switches, trim, glovebox and ashtray to it before refitting (much easier than trying to fit them once the main panel is in the car even though it makes it heavier to man-handle).
Little details first - glovebox door buffers (original ones hard, painted and fifty percent missing)
Replaced with nice soft rubber
Replacement upper trim - well no question it was needed...
The replacement piece certainly looked the part and was well made with really high quality "proper" chrome plating, rock hard and no marking this with your fingers like some plastic chrome.
BUT... the switches for the ignition switch, lights and wipers and the cigarette lighter have a specific fit through both the metal dash and the outer trim. This requires all four holes to line up EXACTLY.
Unfortunately when the light and wiper switches were aligned, the holes for the ignition switch and lighter were about 5mm offset from the holes in the metal dash, and vice versa. No way would it all go together without fettling.
Since I couldn't easily adjust the trim piece due to the specific shapes moulded in it to locate each item, I instead had to take a dremel to my lovely painted dash panel and elongate two of the holes. It won't be visible of course but feels like a bodge and just shouldn't be necessary. Grrrrr!
Anyway, rant over, it finally all slotted together
Thankfully, the other trim piece, glovebox lock and door and ashtray all slotted back together quite easily
And finally the refurbed instrument cluster
Next up, refit to the car, work out where all the wires go
and fit and connect the radio and heater control panel...Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff