Week #115
Every Air Grabber door that I have owned (for some reason I have come across a few of these over the years) has been painted black underneath. I have, in turn, always assumed that they all were black underneath for the same reasons that other hidden areas were black. I had told the painter to leave the underside of my scoop door unpainted and I would handle the black paint. Well, you're never too smart to learn something new. While calling around to find the correct black to use here I was told by a VERY prominent Mopar restorer that he had only seen these undersides painted body color! It seems that if the car, we're talking '70 RR here, had the performance hood paint then the entire door was painted black. If the car did not have this hood paint option then the entire door was body color... I did not know that. I had plenty of blue paint left from painting the overspray at the bottom of the car so I took care of the underside of the scoop door this weekend.
Some other items that needed painting were the backs of the side marker housings. I have removed several sets of these from original cars and they all were painted the same. The rears of the marker housings were not painted body color but retain their manufacturers greenish primer color. My theory on these are that the lens-less housings, with the mounting brackets attached to the rear, were painted separetly and mounted to the car on the assembly line long after the car is painted. The brackets that are visible from inside the trunk are never painted yet have some body colored paint on the inside of the bracket that makes it through the holes where the lens mount. Anyhoo, this pale green primer color is not the kind of color code you can just ask for at the local paint place. I had an NOS housing with a beautiful coat of this primer on it so I was going to try to match it up.
The automotive paint store I go to does not have many chips or references earlier than about 1985. I found an almost perfect match in a late '80s interior vynal paint. It was unbelievable how close the chip was to the sample I had. They sold me a pint of the "paint right out of the can" color and all was good. I used an airbrush and quickly painted the backs of all 4 sidemarker housings. The color was right on. These should look as much like a factory installation as I can make them.
Before I take the car off the rotisserie I wanted to install the brake and fuel lines as this would be a much easier job with the underside right in front of me. The Fine Lines reproductions come with a large radius bend (for shipping) that has to be un-bent by hand. The vapor return line and the brake line was no problem but the 3/8 fuel line was a bit tougher. Luckily Jon, my neighbor, was over to help hold while I bent. The 3/8 line also did not fit correctly as shipped. I had to make some major adjustments to both the front and the back portions in order for all the clips and mounting points to line up. The return line and brake line fit fairly well and needed very little bending.
Now that some official re-assembly has started there will be countless brackets, bolts and sub-assemblies that will need refinishing before being installed. These brake and fuel lines are a perfect example. There are a couple of brackets and bolts that have been bagged and waiting their turn to be returned to the car. The time had come to try the home shop plating system that I got from Eastwood. I won't even get into the process here but I will tell you that it works great. After a good beadblasting, the parts seemed to collect a good covering of plating quickly... 5-10 minutes in the solution. I experimented with a couple of different ways of cleaning the gray residue off the finished part to get the look I wanted. Polishing with the supplied polish was not the answer. What worked best in my view was a good "sanding" with a red ScotchBrite pad. After doing this, the part looked just like parts I have seen come back from a pro plateing shop. I just hope it is a durable covering.
Over the next week I will be tapping up and planning out the undercoating for the wheelwells. My painter pointed me in the right direction on what product to use. He even is letting me use his applicator. I will hopefully be getting this done by next weekend and will have the outcome for you.