January 2020
| The body is moved into the paint booth for final masking... |  |
| body, hood, trunk, headlight rings are readied... |  |
| all previously painted areas are masked... |  |
| and new filters in the booth! Yes, it is finally about to happen! |  |
| BRG again! You see, this car hasn't been green for around 30 years! |  |
| It looks fabulous, and this is just the beginning. |  |
| I think Randy is justifiably proud, and perhaps as glad to see the car painted as I am! |  |
| This is base/clear. A lot of wet sanding and buffing will make this finish smoother than the car would have been when new |  |
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| These are the first pass of wet sanding.... |  |
| ...with 1200 grit paper, to make the finish smooth as glass. |  |
| Sanding will continue, next with 1500, and finally 2000, before final buffing. |  |
| Not seen in these pics, there is a factory hardtop that is color-matched to the car. |  |
| Windshield frame, meet glass!Fitting the snake-like gasket to the glass was not hard, but took a few minutes and a couple of extra hands. My lovely wife assisted. As I used a plastic trim tool to lift the gasket over the edge of the glass, she asked me if this was the tool I always used for this job. "I don't know yet" I replied, "This is the first time I have done this job."Wish me luck. I have assisted with the fitting of the glass to the frame, and getting everything centered can be tricky. |  |
| After 3 aborted attempts, the windshield is installed. The 1/4" rope should be put in the gasket ending at the top of the windshield (not as shown in the picture above). The windshield is installed top first into the frame. Centering is critical, and the blue painters tape has alignment marks so we could get it centered. Stainless trim still has to be polished before it will be reinstalled. |  |
| Buffing begins. On the right you can see the wet-sanded paint, and on the left the rear apron where the paint has been buffed. |  |
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| Look at the reflections! |  |
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| January 23, 2020. You just gotta click these and look at the large pic! |  |
| January 23, 2020. |  |
| January 23, 2020. |  |
| January 23, 2020. You just gotta click these and look at the large pic! |  |
| January 23, 2020. |  |
| January 29, 2020. Reassembly has begun! |  |
| Side trim is arrow straight. This is often a giveaway on a car that has been fixed with perhaps less attention to detail. |  |
| The old hinges looked okay, that is, until the rest of the car looked too good for them. My budget is creeping with the addition of some new chrome bits where the originals were so-so. |  |
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| Panel gaps are fantastic |  |
| This could almost look like a factory assembly line photo... |  |