Month: July 2019

Clear coat applied. Maybe early next week start color sanding and buffing. Hope to bring her home late next week, about Aug 2.

Blue pinstripe masked over the blue paint

Body sprayed with Ford Sterling Gray metallic, over the main stripes, pinstripes, tape and everything.

First reveal as the masking is all pulled back…

And the fully exposed hood. Everything is going to be wetsanded and cleared, so that reflection of the overhead lights is going to be crisp and perfect.

I love the colors, the stripes and the pin stripes. Very happy with my choices, and its still going to get a LOT better… Stay Tuned!

The Boss is getting its color. Not sure what the base is (should be primer, but its shiny?), but the center section of the body and the entire hood and trunk lid are painted with the main stripe color… Ford TN Silver Gray metallic.

Remember those Tangent Lights I got for cheap, but they were kinda fogged? A builder on the F5 forum found some replacement lights (Blazer UW3682) that looked like they would work, and they were only $20 on ebay. Worth a shot, and they showed up today.

Except for a very few small items, they are exactly the same. So far I’m in $70 for a $250 set of lights.

Since I had LEDs in my old lights, I removed the lights from the bracket and removed the LEDs. After tearing all the lights down, there was onr tiny thing I could see different between them… The clip that holds the fog light lamp in place was made with a different bend. This is a tiny difference that makes no difference.

I also stripped the new lights and removed it’s bulbs. I decided to partially assemble and compare the blue lights. When I installed the blue LEDs, they were very tight in the housing opening. My thinking was that it might pull the bulb out of the housing upon removal and leave the LED in the housing. A little bit of work with a 31/64 drill bit fixed that right up. This comparison was an eye-opener

Reassembled all the parts and put the old lights in the Spares Box, just in case I need them or some parts in the future. I’ll get the wiring done tomorrow morning and post a pic of the LEDs in the new housings with nice clear lenses.

Awesome.

Emailed with the bodyshop today… confirmed and settled on the final paint colors.

It may not be for everyone, but this car isnt for everyone. Its for me, and I love this color scheme. I believe its being painted this week.

I’ve deleted my last 3 entries to this blog. They were all about getting the car painted, being excited, wanting to see my car.

Here’s the gist of it. I dropped off the body of The Boss in Feb of 2018. They told me it would take 6-9 months. I left them alone for 9 months.

After 9 months, I started calling and emailing with no response. Finally, in Feb 2019, I got a call that my body was coming into the shop. My guess is that this means it had been sitting outside for the last year with zero work done on it.

In April 2019, I took the gocart down because I was on vacation. They have been hired to do the bodywork and paint, but also to mount the body on the chassis and mount the windshield. They were also hired to drill the passenger roll bar holes and a defroster hole in the dash. I was told at that time, it would be done in 4-6 weeks. I saw the car, body work was being done. It was still in red gel-coat, no primer. They were block sanding, trimming and setting gaps.

Middle of May, I reached out to see how it was going. They said it was in 1st primer and was outside ‘gassing out’ in the sunshine. Said it will sit outside for about a week, come back in, get block sanded and re-primered, then outside for another week, then blocked once more, then ready for paint. I figured Yes Haw, 2 weeks to paint. There was no further contact until June 11 when they said they were still 2 weeks from painting any color.

On June 20, this shop posted a pic on their FB page that looked like my car. Same base color, same stripe layout. I asked several times if that was my car. Never got a response. I wanted to believe it was, but it was earlier than they said and NOTHING has happened earlier than planned, much less on time.

Several unanswered emails later, I finally asked if it would be ready for my next vacation, last week of July. Answered back on July 5 that that was the plan, and that the car was going to be “trimmed out” next week (July 8-12). I asked on July 10 what “trimming out” means… I thought it was installing trim… Door and hood handles, seals, bumpers, etc. No. It means painting the inside of the panels such as doors, hood, trunk, which is done before painting the outside of the body.

So my car still does not have paint on it. They hope to deliver in about 2.5 weeks.

I deleted 3 posts about all this because I counted my eggs before hatching.

I’ll publish back in a few weeks and let ya know what’s going on or if they send me any pictures. I don’t really believe it will be done on time.

Thanks for sticking with me.