Paint Help

[Grand Marquis GT]

ouch, sorry to hear bout that mang

[86GmLsCoupe]

Thanks, I'm fine now though. Here are the pics, and there are sort of a lot. All the trim is back on except for around the driver's window. The whole car still needs swirl mark remover and glaze and there's spots of overspray I want to clean some more. There is Por15 under every inch of the wheel well trim, and other spots under the trim where I know rust is likely. The pics also show the spot where the guy welded in new metal into the driver rear rocker and trunk lid (3 pieces). All Metal filler and Rage were used on the patches and in some minor dents. I opted not to get all the dents out (with filler) so when it gets redone down the line I can have the people rework the metal (pull, dolly & hammer, ect). I still have to Por15 the rocker and trunk lid patches from the inside. I also found another rust spot in the trunk seam which will get cleaned out and Por15'd for now. The inside was just fully vacuumed,shampooed, and Scotch Guarded. It's only a few more good days of work away from being done.

Some tips/tricks I figured while doing this are:
1. Go-Jo cleans trim parts (wheel well, rocker, ect) very well and rinses clean with water.
2. The Lysol floor cleaner works well for inside cleaning and doesn't remove white letters (brake & hood handle and headlights) or silver trim paint on dash panel.
3. Using a wet/dry shop vac after shampooing helps the car dry much faster and extracts a lot more dirt.

[Nathan in MI]

Looks beautiful! Love that color!

[86GmLsCoupe]

Thanks a lot. Saw the pics you had of your three cars all clean and they look great. It's tough keeping up with more than one car. The Grand Am on the right is my other car, the one that decided not to start (for 2 weeks) 2 days into me stripping the Grand Marquis . Ended up using Dad's truck instead.

[LTDMan83]

Looks Damn Good!

Nice and shiny,just like a Box should be.

[zwack88]

Damn that guy should have stitch welded those panels totally up plus it doesn't look like he used any weld through primer or corrision protection on the back of those patches. I hope that doesn't come back to bite you in the ass.

[1987cp]

Damn that guy should have stitch welded those panels totally up plus it doesn't look like he used any weld through primer or corrision protection on the back of those patches. I hope that doesn't come back to bite you in the ass.

Isn't that the usual way, but-welding the panels with a continuous bead? That pic looks like a spot-welded lap joint, which would have to be treated to large amounts of filler to hide the ridge on the outside.

[86GmLsCoupe]

The patches need to get degreased, etched and the Por15'd. There's no way I'd just leave them like that, I despise rust. I have no welding experience or real know-how, which is why I didn't even attempt to fix this myself. I do know that there is a very little space between the patch and the rest of the quarter on the inside (on the outer perimeter on the seam), but the patch is on there solid. I also drilled 4 holes into the patch for the new rivets for the molding clips so I could see there is a slight coat of filler on the patch, but it is not golbbed on there. For the patch the, guy used All Metal (supposed to be highly water/corrosion resistant), Rage on top of that, and then the epoxy primer . All in all, theres no waves, noticeable distortion, or pinholes in the patch, and when you bang on it you can still hear metal so I'm happy.

[zwack88]

Isn't that the usual way, but-welding the panels with a continuous bead? That pic looks like a spot-welded lap joint, which would have to be treated to large amounts of filler to hide the ridge on the outside.

Yeah but you have to put a tack in one spot, then go to another and etc. Just so you keep it cool and dont warp it, he started out right he just needed to finish it.

Good to hear you are por 15ing the back of the panel.

[1987cp]

Yeah but you have to put a tack in one spot, then go to another and etc. Just so you keep it cool and dont warp it, he started out right he just needed to finish it.

True, but I still didn't know overlapping patch panels were considered an acceptable way to fix things. Even if it's flanged it'll still take a large quantity of body solder to achieve a smooth appearance.

[86GmLsCoupe]

Yes, definitely going to Por15 it, then probably Fusor seam seal on top of that, then Por15 again, then maybe some undercoating like the trunk was. From the way the patch looks, it's bent slightly (flanged?) where it overlaps on the inside, so the main patch (whatever is exposed to the exterior) is flush or fairly close. Zwack, from what you said I'm thinking you mean he should have kept spot welding, moving around to keep things cool until he had a continuous weld around the patch?

[LTDMan83]

True, but I still didn't know overlapping patch panels were considered an acceptable way to fix things.

You would be surprised at what some body shops consider "an acceptable way to fix things".That's the only thing with not doing your own bodywork,you never know exactly which part(s) of someones else's work might come back to bite you in the ass later on.I've seen beautiful,$5000 paint jobs completely ruined by bad Filler Work and Rust Repair jobs.

[zwack88]

Zwack, from what you said I'm thinking you mean he should have kept spot welding, moving around to keep things cool until he had a continuous weld around the patch?

Exactly. I mean there is a 67 camaro in the shop right now that had the quarter put on like that. It held up fine over the years. I'm not dogging it or anything it isn't techniquely the best way to do it.

[P72Ford]

You would be surprised at what some body shops consider "an acceptable way to fix things".That's the only thing with not doing your own bodywork,you never know exactly which part(s) of someones else's work might come back to bite you in the ass later on.I've seen beautiful,$5000 paint jobs completely ruined by bad Filler Work and Rust Repair jobs.

Thats what happens when Julius Cheeser works on your car.


The '86 coupe looks fine though. Looks shiny.

I know some of the work that I did on my car would probably be considered "unacceptable". There was no rust repair, but the drivers lower rear quarter was severely mangled (someone backed over something and hooked it on the quarter; then pulled away). The passenger quarter was buckled at the d pillar. Someone backed up with the drivers door open. I pulled the quarter straight (with my Dads rollback flatbed and a frame machine clamp). The rest got mashed in and cheesed up. Been 4 years, still no issues. The only place you can tell there was damage was the drivers door. Still some carnage, but looks solid from 20 ft. Its a driver, and if I wanted to fix it right, believe me, I would.


Come to think of it, I'd really like to iron it out and paint in white...

[86GmLsCoupe]

Yea, the idea for the work wasn't to cherry the car out or anything, I left most of the dents in, and it cost no where near $5,000. Though the paint supplies alone were an easy $600. I just need something to hold me over maybe ten years and keep the car from rotting out in the meanwhile, something at least wax worthy. I also didn't expect the rocker to have a big hole in it like that, but I never did anything like this before. I have learned things with this car always snowball on me, so I always expect more problems. When I can, I'm going to have the car fully restored and they can rip that patch right off .