(Coming Soon....)

The restoration of a beautiful

History

Project
    At first I did not even intend to participate in the W.I.S.E. program. Then, when I decided to sign up, I had planned to learn to play the bag pipes. Fortunately for me, and anyone who would have had to endure THAT learning process, I changed my mind. It was after I had expressed some interest in the car that my father suggested that restoring it might make a good project, especially since he would finance it! That's when I made my decision, and swore to myself that this would be a project that I would finish. The next step in the W.I.S.E. process was to find a mentor. This was an especially difficult decision for me, but in the end I asked my high school calculus teacher, Mr. Devanney. He knew just as little, if not less, than me about painting cars. That was fine though, since the project did not require him to know anything, except for how to guide me through and to be sure that I kept working. Mr. Devanney claims to have learned as much about patience and finishing projects as I learned about painting.
    Now that I had the permission, budget, and mentor, my next step was to figure out what to do. Fortunately for me, my parents knew Mr. Howell. Mr. Howell is a professional, and really knows about painting. I went to him, and he suggested I use PPG paints. He explained why, and how they would work well for my fiberglass bodied car, as well as my inexperience. I went out and purchased the paints, as well as a new spray gun. Then began the REAL work.

Step One
    The car was sitting in the basement of our house, looking pretty sorry without a hood and bad paint on the rest of the body. I could see that it was going to be a lot of work, but the final picture I saw in my minds eye put me to work. Since the car has a fiberglass body, sandblasting was out of the question. I proceeded to tape off all of the windows and trim to protect them while I was working. I then began the looooong process of stripping all the paint by hand. I did resort to using a chemical stripper at times, but still, the entire car had to be sanded carefully by hand in order to start with a fresh fiberglass base.

After the car was stripped down to the base fiberglass I washed it many times to be sure that the stripper was completely out of the fiberglass. If there had been any extra chemicals left in the tiniest crevice or crack or indent, the paint would have been destroyed from the bottom up. So after a good three washings with the power washer, I was ready to seal off the car and clean up the room. Since I was NOT in an expensive painting booth, I had to make due with what I could find. That was my basement. Most owners take their cars to shops who have ventilated clean rooms. Not me. I BUILT my own. Pictures coming soon.
 

Pictures

I had a little fun with this one!

Finished and on the lawn

Front View

Side View