Sandy's 63 Jetfire 4 spd manual

[graytoad]

wow, way too long since I last posted. I have been working on a number of niggling issues in the interior.
My sun visors had some bad stains from 50+ years of having a red cardboard document pocket clipped to it. Managed to clean off 95% of the staining. The stitching thread was rotting with age so I re-stitched them both. The headliner cleaned up really nice, there are a couple of small marks, but nothing major.
The armrest pads were cracked with age and the bottom bracket was chrome plated plastic from the factory. The chrome was worn off to the white plastic in spots. They are available but we are trying to keep this car original so we repainted with ‘chrome’ spray paint. Turned out very nice: not true chrome but looks much nicer. I have some correct original vinyl (from a 63 donor car) so I recovered the pads. All the doors chrome and stainless bits have all been polished too.
I also decided to replace the mirror in my rear-view as the bracketry was all so nice. I just used regular mirror, reattached it to the soft rubbery backing the factory piece was attached to and glued it back in. It will not be non glare but it cost me less than 3 bucks.
The rear seat bottom; the seams were split just above where the seat bottom meets the carpet. Both corners – the vinyl was really tight with shrinkage and the stitching had popped. The frame work has a rolled edge on the bottom but the top edge was rather sharp and turned outwards slightly. Stupid design so as the vinyl shrank the metal slit the vinyl and popped the stitches. (one side has a small 1/2″ slit, the other was nearly 2 inches long) I took a spare piece of vinyl and wrapped that sharp edge so it would not happen again, I also glued a patch of vinyl on the seat cover behind the slit in the vinyl and re-stitched the seam. I used a heat gun to give the vinyl flex as I stretched the cover back over that framework.

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[graytoad]

We also sanded and prepped the inside of the hood for painting. I sprayed the exposed metal and surface rusted area with rust encapsulator too, that product is what makes the exposed metal look black. I was surprised how the original paint was not adhered to the metal very well, lots of it just sanded right off with barely a stroke or two of the sandpaper. Poor prep before painting I am going to guess but it lasted 57 years. Steve then painted it using the paint gun: he has not had much experience using a paint gun but he is getting good at that.
Steve decided to break out an old restorers trick and recreated the hood liner using fiberglass ceiling tiles. By fitting the tiles with the seams under the hood braces – it is hard to tell that is what he used.
This car has very little rust, but I found some! I removed all the trim around all 4 wheel wells as well as the rocker mounding along the bottom of the car below the doors etc. The front drivers fender corner trim was completely packed with mud: no wonder fenders rot out here. This is the only corner that had a bunch of surface rust as a result of all that grit grinding the paint away. That mess all hides under the trim but I don’t want it to rust any further. So I prepped that, some flakes of paint were bubbled with rust so I scraped that away but the metal is still solid. I coated with rust encapsulator and since we had paint left after painting everything else: why not give it a shot too! I will touch up that little bit along the edge later after the car gets properly polished.
I banged out a bunch of dents in the passenger side rocker molding, wet sanded them with many finer and finer grits then polished them: turned out ok for my first try at that. The rest of the pieces just needed a good polishing. I did the one corner piece then took a comparative photo – very pleased how well they came back to life!

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[JimNoel]

Looks great Sandy! Lots of detail time but will really show nice when you are finished.

[graytoad]

I need to get back at posting here.
The front bumper, passenger side was bent slightly. Steve had dealt with tweaked bumpers before and was sure he could fix this ‘nearly new’. I was skeptical and worried he would make it worse. Trust in your husband Sandy! He jerry rigged a gadget using bar-stock, vice grips, a pry bar, a block of wood and some muscles and grunting. Great job Steve!

I had air brushed the cowl vent but was not happy with the results so I re-sanded it and Steve painted using our small paint gun. I planned to air brush the lower filler panel between the grill and bumper which was all prepped and masked ready to go but when he poured the remaining paint in to my air brush – it would not deliver the paint. Not having the time to figure out what the problem was (paint had the hardener in it) I poured the paint back in the small paint gun, added a bit more covering to protect things more and Steve did the job with the small gun again. Totally pleased with the results here too.

I had also spent many hours touching up the stone chips this car has. We have never owned a car so scarred that was not slated to be painted but I could not live with all those chips and gouges. My son said to fill the chips so they were slightly above the paint surface and they would buff down (hopefully) when he did the car. I could not believe the transformation in just ‘hiding’ those chips with an excellent color matched paint. Yes, in the right light it is ‘pimpled’ but so much nicer: couldn’t wait to see it all cut and polished!

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[macf85]

Nice job! Your car’s looking good and I like that license plate.

[graytoad]

We have been diligently working away on this car for the last year but all the while I have been waiting for the day that my son would take it away to bring out the best in the paint. Brandon has some amazing skills when it comes to paint restoration

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. . . . reminds me of our trip back from California just over a year ago (I purchased on August 19, 2019)

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No sooner we had it in his shop he set up a test patch to try a couple products to see which ones were the best choice for my 57 year old paint. I am giddy with excitement: I have been waiting a year for this to happen!

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We visited his shop part way through the process. Here he was all done polishing but needed to take a day off as his shoulder was bothering him: so it was not waxed yet – but it sure looks like it!

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One week later and over 20 hours of work in his spare time we picked her up to bring her home. Our eldest grandson Bronson steered it up onto the trailer (under winch power) and his younger brother Leyton coached from behind. They had also helped daddy with the car: both having a turn with the polisher (with dad’s guiding hands), loved removing the tape on the trim and helped polish off wax.

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[graytoad]

I am having some trouble posting on this forum. Can some one here explain why when I clicked on the ‘insert into content’ option on my photos – the photos did not insert? After clicking that command, the photo ‘file name’ appeared in the document above, everything seemed to be cool: however after posting – none of the photos inserted in the document where I wanted them.

[graytoad]

The hood and the tops of the fenders were repainted in the early 70’s due to a minor altercation with a truck and a guard rail. I am fairly sure the passenger side fender was replaced as the holes in that fender lip are way bigger than the other fenders and all have speed nuts on the back. Anyway, this is what cracked lacquer paint looks like with another paint job on top: deep cracks! Does not look near this bad in the natural light but under Brandon’s ‘commercial type LED light banks’ – it shows everything! This is the worst section. A super shiny crackled disaster! Any of you ‘blessed’ with this kind of crackling? The rest of the car is actually quite nice!

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[graytoad]

I still have lots to catch up in posting on this forum, however I must fast forward to today – BECAUSE . . . .

TODAY we finally picked up my engine from D&D Aluminum V8 in Michigan. It is just shy of one year since we dropped it off to Mark. He was booked ahead by a few months but we were travelling to Florida for the winter so he had plenty of time to get the engine done before we would be retuning to Canada at the end of April.

The intention was to swing back to Michigan within a few days of arriving home to pick up the engine: so the first week of May at the latest. Then Covid 19 changed all that and the border has been closed to non-essential driving. So this week we finally got exasperated enough to FLY to Florida, pick up our 99 Suburban (which we wanted to import anyway so we could drive that back and forth to Florida) then swing by Michigan and get the engine.

By the time we got it through the border (also exporting the Burb from the USA then importing it to Canada) and home 4+ hours later, then unloaded – I was a frazzled mess!

Downside: now we must Quarantine at our home – no visitors – no leaving our property for 14 days.
Upside: we have lots to keep us busy!

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[JimNoel]

Good deal! Might even be able to turn the key in 14 days? At least all the parts are in the same place….
Have fun!

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