Now Complete Restoration / Pulling my 1969 'Bee down for strip and paint

[66FBCharger]

What a beautiful job you are doing!
I don't know if I missed it or not, did you do anything with the coupe window assemblies?
John

[birdsandbees]

Thanks!

They have been rechromed, but I still have to redo the "hinge", polish the glass and reassembly the rechromed latches , etc and install to car.

The glass "hinge" uses the same "slide" seal that the door glass to vent frame does, so a good place to use my repops and their slider pins and my OEM's will get used on the vent frame so they slide correctly.

[green69rt]

Thanks!

They have been rechromed, but I still have to redo the "hinge", polish the glass and reassembly the rechromed latches , etc and install to car.

The glass "hinge" uses the same "slide" seal that the door glass to vent frame does, so a good place to use my repops and their slider pins and my OEM's will get used on the vent frame so they slide correctly.

I either got this tip from you or else where, spray those "slide" seals with Armour All". It has silicone in it. Let it dry thoroughly.  Made mine work really good.

[birdsandbees]

Fender has been hand sanded of "nibs" and George now wet sanding with 3000 infusion paper.

Ken wet sanding a few spots by hand that he doesn't like on the roof before he lets George (the shop owner) loose with the orbital and 2000 then 3000 infusion paper.

Both guys in action. They've been a "cut and polish" team for almost 2 decades. Ken has actually moved on to another shop in the past year, he came in just to do my car!

George on the roof, you can see the passenger side hasn't been done yet. It's showing Ken's hand sanded spots still.

Ken polishing the fender and a long way to go to get around the car from there. Just above the wheel well done so far here.

George on the passenger side of roof with 3000.

Gonna be gorgeous.

Roof in 3000 only, hasn't been polished yet.

[birdsandbees]

Therapy is having a great time at the health spa. I know a few gals that would enjoy the same service..

https://youtu.be/wf1WtihA5XU

https://youtu.be/zVBVnl3npJY

https://youtu.be/GGfqJbcK7oc

[hemi-hampton]

Curious, Did they sand all the orange peel off or leave some on? LEON.

[birdsandbees]

There's no real orange peel on the car Leon, some runs down low where the clear dribble out corners or blobbed on lower flanges. Some dirt nibs and some poc mark/pin holes where the clear didn't flow out completely in the center of the roof. Remember the car was painted with 4 full coats of blue and then cleared. That clear coat was completely infused / sanded out before they put two more full coats of klear on the car. George figures when done buffing there'll be about 1.25 coats of the clear left for any further "touch up" work. Both guys REALLY happy I actually took 2 years to get it back to them for this stage as it's sanding and buffing out perfectly for them.

[hemi-hampton]

Are they done rubbing it yet? LEON.

[birdsandbees]

Not sure where they're at and the wife's kept me too busy to check. As noted Ken works for another facility now (after 18 years with George) and was sneaking in on Saturdays just to do my car. George is doing all the other stuff through the week. It'll have to be done this week, as I leave for 2 weeks the following week and the shop owner, George, leaves for a month of skidoo touring on the Gaspe Bay Pennisula.

[CDN72SE]

Hey Wayne, the Bee is looking great! Your mailbox is full, so I will ask you here. What vendor did you use for your Right Stuff brake lines? Not looking forward to the S&H changes, but just wondering who you used. Mine don't look too bad but then again they are 47 years old. Alan

[birdsandbees]

Thanks!

Pretty sure I bought them direct and it was fairly painless... I'll dig through my paperwork tonight.

[CDN72SE]

Thank you sir, don't want to make you dig though, I know how that can be.

[birdsandbees]

Ordered direct from rightstuff.com   It came UPS and I got lucky on their crown and anchor wheel for brokerage. They only charged me $10 and of course collected the HST on value.

[CDN72SE]

Thanks for the in for Wayne, much appreciated.

[birdsandbees]

Getting her hot towel therapy at the Spa.

All cut and buffed.

Looks like she came out nice.

Look at them hips.

Shinier than the top of my head.

Time for antenna mount and some trim.

Still clean, that was my biggest fear of all.

A few things yet to "touch up" and I pick Therapy up next week.

[Lennard]

Beautiful! 

[birdsandbees]

Thanks Lennard! Still lots to do..   

[birdsandbees]

Out of "house reno hell" I visited the Church of the Seventh Day Aviationist today, my workshop. I've had the tail panel under the heat output of the furnace for 4 weeks now baking.

Gave it another polish with MAAS before I install it this week when I get my car back.

Really happy with how it turned out after numerous hours of work.

Starting on my front grill now and taking reference pictures for OE history. This is a never touched OE center section I picked up from a guy in Belleville.

OE clip nut hardware.

Back of the grill is not painted, nor is the underside of the upper and lower flanges.

Black center, bare outer raised sections, black and argent on the underside of top "flange" .

Side view, showing polished (but still a ridged/extruded looking) front edge, argent, black, bare wide ribs, black center ribs.

[birdsandbees]

Top flange is a brushed/extruded looking finish and the black was obviously sprayed just holding a "mask" in place.

Drilling out the rivets on the mounting brackets.

Socket underneath and tapping out the rivets so I don't distort the aluminum casting holes by drilling right through.

Steel 1/8" diameter semi-tubular rivets.

All 4 brackets off for media blast and black paint. Both end brackets are the same, but the lower brackets appear to be bent left and right hand.

Brackets off, showing OE finish.

One heavy dent in the top flange being dollied out.

CAREFULLY bending the entire front flange on one side out a bit and straightening the little ribs at the same time. Remember, you only get ONE chance to break the ribs before you swear, so go slow!

[birdsandbees]

A few knicks and scratches on the top. Cleaned up keeping the same look with 60 paper on a block.

I'm not going to "de-anodize" the grill, as the OE paint is still nicely in place for a scuff and repaint. Going to make an attempt at cleaning up all the bare and polished areas without stripping any significant OE material.

Headlight eyebrows I got from someone else. Only one real dent to remove. Also another Ma Mopar design that makes no sense, as the eyebrow front edges are polished and the center section is semi polished and ridged.

Grinding a punch the correct shape to get in behind the dent, something to finish tomorrow.

[birdsandbees]

Well the Argent that was recommended for the grill, and I bought a year or so ago, is no where close. OE is a "dirty" grayish silver similar to '70's rallye wheels.

Test spray of 4 Argents or Aluminum that I have. Tremclad Aluminum looks close, but I know it never stops rubbing off on your hands. The Titanium Silver metalic is pretty close, but too much metal flake. Probably paint hunting tomorrow.

Restoring the top flange while trying to keep the ridged/extruded look. Probably hard for some to do, but all strokes have to be one direction only! 60 grit paper.

Top flange all done with one last long stroke, with 60 paper on the block.

I tried cleaning up the "show" face that is ridged with a wire brush to retain OE surfaces.

Power polished after the brush clean up and just can't make it shine. So it's either OE ridged and look like crap or on to sanding all the detail and nicks off.

Same deal as the tail panel, 60/150/320/400/800/1000/2000.

Top and bottom "show" faces sanded out to 2000.

[birdsandbees]

A quick hit on the power polisher (green on yellow wheel) on the left vs the sanded finish on the right.

Power polished with Green on the Yellow wheel and Rouge on the soft wheel. Lookin spiffy.

Quick scotchbrite clean up on the back side. Even with it on a rag I scratched my power polishing! Clean the back first!

Quick repolish and it's 1000 x better already than the one I took off the car. Still need to do the painting.

View of the polished face, and the simulated ridged/brushed finish upper flange.

Another view, hard to show the detail of how nice it's coming out. On to the eyebrows next, so that I'm doing paint on all three pieces at the same time.

[kent]

Beautiful attention to detail! 

[birdsandbees]

Thanks!   

[Birdflu]

Nice job!