Re: Larry's 1951 Club Sedan Project

Posted by Larry51 On 2013/2/9 6:56:32
Body painted at last!

I think of this as the most gratifying bit of progress so far. Sure is a good feeling to see the car looking 'half-decent' after nearly ten years of it being in its underwear (so to speak). It's a bit like the caterpillar finally turning into a butterfly.

The next event that I think will be equally satisfying will be when the 288 eventually comes back to life after more than 40 years silent. Hopefully that is some time in the not too distant future.

I finished the actual spray-painting of the main body shell a few weeks ago. Then sprayed the front guards, spats (wheel covers) and trunk lid etc (- which had not been refitted to the shell since restoring them). Should have posted but in the meantime I had my PC fail (slowly over a few weeks). The motherboard went belly up so now have replaced it.

There are around ten coats (-four colour, six clear). I used acrylic after much consideration. It was difficult trying to decide between acrylic and 2-pak. Car was colour sanded with 1200, 1500 and finally 2000.

The entire car was machine buffed a couple of weeks later after spraying, when paint had hardened. (Prefer to wait, even though it takes more time to buff. Personal opinion is that I can achieve better gloss by doing that). Buffed the guards / trunk lid etc while off the car then fitted them. There is still another full machine buffing to be done before it is hand-buffed to get the best finish I possibly can.

Couldn't resist placing the grille in position as well as the Packard script!

Despite having the newly chromed bumpers and overriders all ready to fit, I'll leave them off until the engine / gearbox etc are fitted.

Now it's the mechanicals to be getting on with.


A few views of the Matador Maroon Metallic
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This photo tends to give the best rendition of the colour . . .
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Nice to have the P-A-C-K-A-R-D script on
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