Thread: 1965 Fairlane build

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A slight bit more progress, got the hood and trunk lid blocked out and low spots addressed. Will need a couple more coats of high build later this week as well as some of the few remaining bare parts. The doors and fenders look like they will get by with wetsanding only.











I did have some help with sanding.





One front fender left to sand, and then I'll spray another couple coats on the hood and trunk lid.


My nephew Chris did some prep work while I continued wet sanding, the rear tires were removed so we can trim a bit more inside the bottom edges of the wheel opening. We had a set of "painting grade" wheels and tires, but had to open up the bolt holes to accomodate the 5/8" studs. Also had to unbolt the bottom of the coilover shocks to get the rear tires off. Forgot how large those beasts were














The roll cage and chassis has been IHRA/NHRA inspected (to 7.50 I believe...), and we don't want any more paint on it that would interfere with weld inspections, so Chris masked off all the roll cage, and then he and Brad (the owner) cut and fit the padding to get it ready for the upholsterer. Here's the official "treasure map" to locate all the pieces.











I had sprayed another couple coats of slick sand yesterday on the trunk lid as I still wasn't happy with it, and it turned out pretty nice this time. Started masking off the holes and front sides of the body panels, getting ready to spray some red on the back sides.

Got some painting done, White sealer, Viper red base, and a couple coats of clear. Will let this sit for a few days and then get it prepped for spraying the outside.




















Part of the job done by the frame builder was to cut out the opening for the new, larger, aluminum radiator. This was done with a plasma cutter, and still needed to be cleaned up a bit to straighten the edges. Here Chris is trying his hand at giving the opening in the core support some nice straight edges and radiused corners.











While he was tackling that as well as blocking the bare body to find low spots, I got a couple coats of white sealer on the loose body panels. It's an extra step, but I normally wet sand between this and the red base, as it prevents any stray dust nibs from appearing as little white dots when you wet sand and buff any imperfections later.











After the sealer and guide coat was sprayed, I started fixing some dents while Chris continued sanding.

This was about a 3 to 4 inch diameter bondo repair on the roof. Chris had sanded it out, so I got out the dent puller to try it's magic.











A little clean up afterwards with the hammer/dolly, and then a bit of sanding brings it right around......











We had a couple of "issues" left in the drip rail, namely a couple of scattered pin holes in the bottom that I thought I could fill with the mig. The first three went well. The last one, not so much. Here I thought I was done with this stuff!






These holes were not visible prior to welding the pin hole in the bottom, but once the blue heat travelled up the side it appeared to stop there along the center in a jagged pattern. The trusty ice pick told the tale. I had a "practice" piece left over from my drip rail fabrication, so it came in handy. The damaged area was trimmed out, a replacement cut, and some shrinking done on the Lancaster to match the original.











All dressed up.....











........and back to where I thought I was two hours ago.....!

Got the hood wet sanded and test fit the Griffin radiator.......











In addition to getting some more wet sanding done, (hoping to spray more red tomorrow) we had noticed a patch of lead in the B-pillar on the passenger side. Used the torch to melt it out, only to reveal a nice hole punched in. Judging from the direction the striking object must have travelled, it appears the door was not installed at the time. Looks like it had to be damaged and repaired at the factory??

















I've been told this was likely a "suspended" spot welder that was overzealously swung out of the car at the factory?

More painting done, basecoat:





Cleared:











Here's some progress on the body. H/K epoxy primer and then Slick Sand high build.








My nephew's contribution to the interior, +20HP so he says...





Full paint cans taped to the floor to help keep the air hoses out of the masking paper.

The car is blocked out, ready for the white sealer.





Do these tires make my rear end look big?





Here's the sealer painted. Even though I am using the 3M PPS on the paint gun, it was still a bit tight last time in painting the rocker panels. So we raised the car even higher in the air, and made use of some walk boards to get to all of the roof. Painted the roof first, and then moved the walk boards and finished the car.








I took these last two pictures as teaser shots for Brad (the owner). He had talked about painting the roof white, but this is as close as it gets. The Viper red is just too bright to have a white roof also.











One more dose of wet sanding and it should be ready for red paint.











Just to back up and offer some explaination here, I normally use a white sealer under the Viper red just to give it some more punch. The downside to this is if you were to get any dust nibs in the white that may not get noticed until after the red goes on, when the imperfections get buffed out you have a good chance of little white specs showing up in the bright red paint as the red gets rubbed off the white painted dust nib. This is why I usually do separate processes, wet sanding the white in between painting the red. One thing I noticed while spraying the white sealer was that it is a pain to get inside and paint the dashboard with the roll cage in the way. It was also a pain to get the underside of the rockers sprayed (let's use some jackstands) which made it fun to get to the roof (and now walkboards). Now all of this was fine for a sealer coat that was getting wetsanded anyhow, but I could just see me dragging an air hose across the door sill or opening at the quarter while trying to climb inside to paint the dash. Likewise, using walkboards on final paint, and having to move them between coats, was just an invitation for more debris in the paint. The early Fairlanes were known for having a chrome divider along the bottom of the sail panel, so I thought to use this as my saving grace, a break point to divide the paint job up into separate sprays. (like I need to drag this along further.... ) But in the interest of a better job, that's what we'll do. Here's the masking for painting the roof, dash, and front cowl. The car was placed back on the ground for easier access to the roof. Once the red has set up, we'll mask those areas, revert back to jack stands for access to the lower rockers, and spray again. Fun, fun.


White sealer wet sanded and masked:








Basecoat:








Cleared:

After waiting on my paint supplier a couple weeks (someone used up all his red tint!), here's more progress:


Base:







Cleared:







We'll let it set a few days before starting to wet sand and buff. We've got one rack of parts to spray Hot Rod black still.


Here is the car unmasked.











Nephew Chris has started to reassemble some of the components, and has been touching up some of the black paint on the roll bar and tubs. We had our upholstery guy stop by a couple evenings last week to get the headliner knocked out. That goes in before windows, and I want the windows in before w/s & buffing so I don't sling too much inside.










Tree freshener has lost some of it's kick, but it's still hanging in there......(+20 hp)