What happened?
Not much in the way of updates for a long time. So what happened? Well, quite honestly, a mix of ‘Facebook’ and ‘not much’. As Facebook groups took on a more bloggy role, I was posting to those rather than here but feel like I’m missing out on capturing the history of my car. It’s fun to read back some of the older posts here and remind myself of the work that went into building the car as well as seeing how I did something. So I’m resolved to post more here.
The last-ish posts were when I’d painted the car with PlastiDip. I loved that look and got way more compliments than were really deserved given the state of the car – no body work, bare interior. It did look very ‘off the track’ though, which is what was so attractive.
Water break with Upstate Cobra gang outing, June 20, 2020
A new found friend living locally is building a Daytona Coupe and when visiting him, I was somewhat humbled that he was doing bodywork when here was I, with 4 seasons of driving, still in a mainly unfinished car.
So, I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and get going. I don’t have the funds to get it professionally done right now, so multiple hours of YouTube videos and forum posts later, I started the strip down.
First off, remove all that PlastiDip. In hindsight I should have added more when I first did it, as it did not want to come off easily. Probably 10 hours of work to strip it off – a combination of rolling it off with my fingers and thumbs and using acetone to dissolve it. The major downside to this was that I wore off my fingerprints which made unlocking my phone really tedious.
Removing the PlastiDip
Next came the rollbar, something I’d not been looking forward to. It took a great deal of effort to install it and I was fully expecting similar issues getting it off. The problem was largely due to the dropped rear so the holes didn’t quite line up and I hadn’t adjusted them. An hour of tugging, hitting with BFH, pulling, swearing, and contemplation finally gave result.
Rollbar, trunk lid, and hood removed
Next, off with the wheels and start on those mold release seems!
Seats and belts out. Some good cleaning needed here before the sound proofing and carpet can go in!
With 80 grit paper, begin on the gel coat. This not to shape the body but to get it sufficiently roughed up that filler will adhere. I did take the time to get the mold release seems as close to the shape of the body (or more) that I could. This should ease the sanding later.
Currently a little further along than this with most of the body prepared. Some left to do including the hood and trunk lids. But a break for the Christmas period.
I also hooked up our old 65″ plasma TV and soundbar in the garage so that I could have some entertainment while working on the car. What should play first? “Ford vs Ferrari” obviously!
