78 Malibu Paint

[bryes]

My life has been pretty crazy lately with projects and other thing. Most of my time lately has been spent helping my uncle paint his '78 Malibu (454, pretty quick) recently. He taught me to paint my Camaro back in the 90s, so I owe him!

As can be seen below, the car was pretty straight but did have some rust issues being in Ohio for the last couple decades. We have most stripped to bare metal now:

[bryes]

The above picture you can see the quarter cut out because of rust.

Below is the door, both sides are similar. I made some pieces for the bottom and have them welded in now.  The car is going to be a driver, so no concourse restoration here .

[bryes]

It's a bad picture but the quarter here was replaced, they cut another out of a car and welded it in. No replacing the entire panel like in the shows that I've seen, and that's the way it will stay.

We hope to have it finished in the next few weeks, so I'll add more as we progress. This rust repair is time consuming and we still have to prep a lot of the detail areas. He wants it clear coated black, I'm trying to convince him to go white or flat black! Don't think I'll win that one, so we'll have our hands full.

If we stick to our plan, I'll be spraying it with urethane, probably summit brand which I think is Kirker.  We're going with epoxy primer then 2k, then epoxy sealer and probably single stage black then clear. I'd rather do base/clear but we'll see.

[daveismissing]

go to hotroddors.com and read up on SPI polyur. Didn't think Kirkers had many fans...

[bryes]

Yeah I suggested spi and even offered to donate my epoxy primer to no avail!    Guess we found the only kirker fan? .he's used it and likes it and is on a tight budget.

[motorhead]

I wonder who makes Eastwood's single stage paints... worked well for me in the past.

[bryes]

There seems to be divergent opinions on who makes Eastwood paint, most seem to say it's kirker though.

[larrym]

I used a Nason's single stage last go it's pretty tough just wish I had used an epoxy primer.

[bryes]

We might have used nason if they had local distributor. we're definitely going to use epoxy. Paint is just crazy expensive these days . dp 40 is supposedly 400 for two gallons, kirker epoxy is 100.

[bryes]

Still mired in rust repair but much is done now. Here is a door hinge area before and after .

[bryes]

Here is the half of the door bottom I made. It's welded in now but I'll have to post pics later.. Also the roof cut out and welded back in, I spent most of today on it and the rest grinding.  Quarter repair tomorrow.

[good2win22]

More power to you!  Looks good! 

[bryes]

Thanks!

Here is the quarter cutout, the repair  panel and it welded in place. I think the front side posts. are the final areas that need rust repair so well get to those soon.

[TURBOPOWERED68]

i likes

[TexasT]

A little explanation please. I'm no body man by any stretch so bear with me. That piece in your gloved hand, it is bought or fabbed? When you weld it in you just make tack welds at opposite ends and skip around until you have the panel "stitched" in? If I make my own patch is there a rule of thumb to know what sheet metal to use? I think I can buy a patch panel but maybe it is better to get sheet and make my own. Not real sure. It is on a 70 gs lower fender.
Welder, are you using 75/25 mix? .023 wire?
Thanks for the advice.