58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[JTR70]

That's how we do it out here in the country Bruce; Runnin' Barefoot, shitting outside and painting our cars there too. Actually when we go to final paint it will be in a booth for sure but since it was only the seal coat it was much less hassle just to shoot it out front. Thanks for putting this back into the proper perspective as this body is now over-restored. I crossed that line sometime back; couldn't help myself though. Yes, With this being my Dad's old car the pressure has been on to get as close to flawless as I could however I still didn't quite make it to my original expectations. a good bit of relief came last time my Dad was here as I was trying to point out a few of the subtle rollers in the reflection I was obsessing over. He looked at it and sort of growled under his breath "awe, that's enough, its enough" and gave me a look like I was crazy. That was the confirmation I needed at that point to be satisfied enough to let it go. I suppose no matter how old you get we all still wish to please our parents and seek their approval either consciously or subconsciously and this is certainly an example of that. I think the point you where making Bruce is all this extra fuss would make no financial sense in billed shop time for any additional yield. I could not agree more as 90% of the guys who will eventually see this car finished won't spot any critical difference with another "shiny" car. But, I'll "see it" and since its only more in time to me and not money I've been at liberty to follow it a lot further than a budgeted paying customer could ever justify. I'm mostly sharing this as a record of what it took for me to get here. As you know we all have a tendency to easily forget just how much work went into a certain thing as the years roll by. Let me know, I'll be happy to come by and sawzall that roof off your coupe to get you started off right. Thanks again for all the great words of support on this Bruce!

Thanks Jonesy, I couldn't be using anything more low-tech. Just a couple of rubber squeegees and even a paint stick or two on 600 grit paper to get around a few of the turns. Justin

[Phil Planck]

Beautiful work Justin. On a scale of 1 to 10 your work is a 10 and mine is pushing it to be a 2.

[bbspdstr]

I've been at liberty to follow it a lot further than a budgeted paying customer could ever justify. I'm mostly sharing this as a record of what it took for me to get here. As you know we all have a tendency to easily forget just how much work went into a certain thing as the years roll by. Let me know, I'll be happy to come by and sawzall that roof off your coupe to get you started off right. >snip<

Thanks Jonesy, I couldn't be using anything more low-tech. Just a couple of rubber squeegees and even a paint stick or two on 600 grit paper to get around a few of the turns. Justin

It is all about personal goals and personal satisfaction. I have always believed restoration is a 'want' and not a 'need.' You could have bought two new Kia (hoping that's the plural of Kia) for the value of your time in paint prep and those would have air, side crash protection, rear camera and lane change reminders and Wifi...and get ya from here-to-there just fine quietly and without needed to shift a long-throw A monkey-motion lever. But that has not been your goal and you have assembled here others crazy enough to think the same way. May it never end.

I was going to jump in about using a somewhat straight, somewhat flexible, somewhat hard and somewhat soft paint stick for final sanding as that's my favorite...and to me, those are free and can still be used for stirring paint! Prepping for a base metallic, bare minimum for sanding (even 'old school') is 500 grit but 600 is preferred. I'll do 400 to speed up the process and then finish that with 600. We used to use 800 grit on lacquer before polishing...now there are 4000 grit papers. (I'd just save the cardboard behind a writing paper tablet to duplicate that grit, but it gets soggy real fast.)

Another way an old-timer showed me was to take the fine grit half-sheets and to cut the corners round as to not scratch and then fold a stack in thirds and palm sand with that, placing a worn sheet in the back until they are all used....soapy water, a new sponge and a rubber squeegee and clean towel and you can about get all around a car and speed things up.

Justin, you are a great teacher because you have been a good learner and your threads have been A+ presentations...but no, my sunroof clip on my A was enough work to do 'correctly' (as Golde did it, I think) and not into any further chopping and time spent, thank you. I am OK driving my wife's VW EOS with the 'transformer'-like hard top down when I get that urge.

-Bruce

[DG58INNM]

Justin, wonderful to see your A coupe getting so close. As others have said, the work is fantastic. This car is going to be perfect. Far better than Porsche ever made it!

And for the comments from Bruce and Jonesy, one of our local guys had his Signal red C coupe done at Maaco. We all told him he was crazy. But it is a damned nice paint job! Apparently the Maaco guys really enjoyed getting to do something special, and put a lot of effort into it. Cost was about 2800 bucks. I don't know that a guy could by the materials for that any more.

Anyway, in spite of my infrequent posts, I'm still following your (and others) efforts with rapt attention, and learning daily.

Thanks,
DG

PS: I spray outdoors too. Desert is good for that, if a calm day. Guys in wetter parts of the world wouldn't understand how clean and insect free it can be.

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

Just read the last 3 pages of your thread. Your dad I guarantee is as proud of you and your work as he can be.Its actually for him more than that, as he has all the history to look back on a car that with those gaps will be a joy to look at in the finish coat.

I looked again for a full 30 seconds at the door to front fender and rocker panel, its really something else that attention to detail.

I wonder if your dad smiles a bit when he remembers the day he picked that up from the scrap yard?

Super thread the best one on any Porsche forum site ever !

Roy

[merbesfield]

Justin, your car in sealer looks great. I know exactly what you mean about trying to please the old man. Never ends. Keep up the great work.

[JTR70]

Thank you Phil, I've seen how much effort you've put into your steel work and I have no doubt you'll be just a obsessive as I am once you move into the bodywork phase.

I appreciate you saying that very much Bruce! I've learned along the way from all of you as well. Just learned to cut the corners round as not to scratch during fine finishing. Excellent idea, that one will go into the old memory rolodex for sure. Thanks for that tip! yes, the paint sticks work really nice and as you said;(the thicker ones BTW) not too hard yet not too soft. I tried using my lexan board a while back but its too unforgiving for this final stage and ended up putting saw marks across a gap if I wasn't careful. That's when I switched to a paint stick. I always thought the rule was you didn't go past 400 before paint as anything finer didn't provide enough bite. My buddy here says 600 fine and is better for metallic base as there is lesser risk of track mark patterns in the flake; Always learning. I think for 4000 grit you just turn a piece of 400 over right? Thanks again Bruce! BTW: those VW hardtops are a mechanical marvel!

Thanks a lot David! I have heard of several guys taking their classic cars to Maaco , preprepped of course with very satisfactory end results. Can't vouch for the quality of the actual paint being used though.

Very kind of you to say Roy and I Thank you! Your posts are always so encouraging and of course greatly appreciated!

Thank you Mark!

9/13/15

More final sealer prepwork.

A good session spent slowly opening the edges back up to make room for paint thickness.Now that its all one uniform color it was easier to spot a few irregularities in the line that I over looked. the gap narrowed a bit too much as it approached and wrapped around the gutter and A-pillar. Had to slowly and carefully carve it out one swipe at a time.

Trickiest part was shaping the turn around the pillar all the while not taking off too much and creating more work for myself. I'd already screwed this up several times before.

With the right side set I moved over to the left to both open it up and match it to the other side.

Here's another low-tech tool for the job. Just a bondo spreader stuck into the gap for one tedious swipe at a time. The paper is not wrapped all the way around at this stage. I only want to be cutting one surface at a time which is now just the door side of the gap.

Eventually my fingers got tired of holding onto that so I began long boarding the left side to break it up a bit. A little closer to final paint. Thanks for looking and thanks again you guys!!
Justin

[bbspdstr]

Bob Laepple, a friend with a Speedster who was originally known as the owner of "Brunhilda"....a glorious gray primered tatty Speedster, driven all the time, used MAACO.
One dawn or dusk, I forget which, Bob was driving to (of from) his work on a twisty back road and a deer ran in front of him. He swerved but managed to get a small dent from the deer's rump anyway...but the real damage was when the 356 slid into an embankment and became kinked.
Finally, it became time to really fix the old gal and put her into a color after decades of the variegated grays.
Dale Erdman straightened the car and did the rust and other bodywork. Now a restorer, he had been a painter for the MAACO in Allentown, PA and still had an 'in' there....so that's where the equivalent of Speedster Red was sprayed, and over 10 years out, it still looks great.

Prices for quality paint and ingredients (hardeners and solvents, etc)and all the preliminary primers, highbuild filler primers, sealers and the like can now approach $3k. It wasn't long ago that the whole 'paintjob' was $3k. It's amazing when compared to my first Speedster's painting.....$30 for the gallon of silver Dulux and another $30 for the local neighborhood shop to spray it for me.
Sometimes it's a blurry line between what ya get and what ya pay.

[JTR70]

A very Blurry line these days Bruce, especially concerning anything to do with automotive finishes. We haven't even touched on the harsh expense of 3M polishing compounds.


9/19/15

Front and rear lids in sealer and remounted for final blocking.

Completed the last major sealing hurdle before the final finish.

Ready to block sand. Lid is fully latch with rubber buffers reinstalled as they help to hold the corners level with the body.

Same treatment for the hood as I had to reinstall the seal to get the hood level and back in the sweet spot with the body. Again more tedious and time consuming prepwork but I can't cut corners now.

Hood back on safely for the last go around.

Pretty tricky installing and removing the hood by yourself without damaging it or the cowl but I've work out a pretty good system these past years.

began taking it down with my paint stick wrapped in 600 grit.

its all leveling out nice.

Some orange peel and spots yet to finish but it was a good start. I was just glad to get these last panels sealed so I can finish up here.

At sessions end I made an initial pass over the hood. Before I let it sit over night I like to open the hood back up and wipe as much water out of the seal and trough as I can. I'll then prop it open with a rag like I have here to let any residual moisture I missed have a better shot at evaporating instead of holding it in there against the pressure of a closed lid. Pooling water just scares me to death with these cars!
More blocking to come...

Thanks for looking! Justin

[JTR70]

9/22/15

Final block sanding complete.

Final body block sanding completed this evening.

After all these years I can finally put all my long sanding boards of various shapes and sizes to rest on this body. Doesn't seem real after all these years as this "to do" chore has always been a constant in my life but I'm more than ready to move onto the next chapter.

Again all the heavy lift sanding is done but I need to blow the body apart one more time to sand all the jambs and inner surfaces touch up the spots where I sanded through, remask, then get this thing in silver.
Thanks for watching! Justin

[roy mawbey]

So much work but what a super result. Getting close!!!

Roy

[gkw]

It was a big hill but it turned out really good.
Thanks for posting. Gordon

[merbesfield]

Looks amazing.

[Impi]

Justin i have been following this thread from the beginning and have only the utmost admiration for what you are doing here. Thanks for sharing this
Armand

[JTR70]

Armand, Thank you very much for that thoughtful message. I greatly appreciate your kind words of support!

Thanks Mark, You've got to get your car to this stage soon too!

Thank you Gordon! I'm still trying to get over the embarrassment of you leaving me in the dust with the completion of your project. BTW: I hope you're getting her out and enjoying her on occasion.

So close Roy, that I really have to fight myself to keep from cutting corners just so I can see it in paint.
Thanks very much once again you guys, its always appreciated! Justin

9/24/15
Decklid prepped and ready. Hood in process.

All the final sanding and masking on the engine cover complete.

I debated long and hard on both this lid and the hood as to wheather I was going to preserve my previous "final paint job" or just reshoot it as a whole. I came to the conclusion that it would be far less trouble and pain just to have Rick reshoot it all. Still concerned with paint thickness, I'm going to have him just dust the underside with base and 1 maybe 2 wet coats of clear on the undersides.

With the decklid done I reluctantly began blocking the underside of the hood.

Again back to paint thickness concerns and gumming works I removed the latch and soaked it in lacquer thinner to remove the paint. I want this mechanism only dusted in a light coat to reduce chipping. I had it zinced years ago as an additional rust barrier.

Bolts were removed one at a time (so I didn't lose the adjustment) and also removed of paint. This also allowed me to sand the area around it level as well.

I felt bad about this redo but the more I worked on it the more things I found to correct. I had unwittingly cracked the paint here a while back as I beat this edge up to meet the cowl at level to reduce the need for filler.

Should have it about ready by tomorrow. One thing I have learned through all of this (and hopefully won't repeat)is that it simply doesn't pay to do things out of sequence. I was so desperate to get some aspect of this body into final paint that I really just created more work for myself and in the end those efforts turned out to be nothing but a big harry-assed waste of time. So I would just recommend not painting anything for the "final time" until ALL the bodywork is set and finished. Don't be a fool like me.
Thanks for looking! Justin