Rocker Panel Replacement...And Beyond

[electricalan]

Very Very nice. Thats going to be a killer rig,and looks like its got a nice home to live in with good company.I would kill to have your shop,you are a fortunate one.

[petew]

Thank you, it is a retirement dream fulfilled and I enjoy it . Like most everyone else I did my time changing transmissions in the snow but was a lot younger then.

[RICH MUISE]

Everything is looking great...looks like your saving a '57 the right way. Keep us posted.

[petew]

The latest project has been the steering wheel. I took a carbide tree and opened up all of the cracks down to the metal core and then filled them with pc-7 epoxy. Took three days for the stuff to dry completely but it didn't sag or shrink so I was happy with that. Some sanding and high build primer and I was ready for paint.
I wanted to repaint in gloss black but also wanted  clear on top of that for shine , smooth texture and protection. Didn't know what I was going to use and wanted to be sure that the color and the clear were compatible. While in my local Auto Zone I found the Rustoleum pictured below and figured that was the ticket. Well I'm here to tell you this is nice paint. Take a look at the shine on the wheel after the clear went on. The picture is about one hour after the last coat.  Very impressive paint, dried fast coated and laid down beautifully . Don't think I could have done better if I had gunned it with urethane .

[BWhitmore]

WOW!  Beautiful Job.

[RICH MUISE]

Fantastic. I think Rustoleum has improved their products 1000% in the last few years. For decades I wouldn't touch Rustolem for anything, now, like you, I'm impressed with alot of the newer things I've tried. Funny you mentioned the pc-7 epoxy. I was just looking at that product this afternoon while I was waiting for an order to be filled.

[petew]

Beautiful day here today @ 60 degrees so I decided to get a little painting done . Radiator support and inner fenders, using my favorite paint Eastwood chassis black original formula.

[RICH MUISE]

Looking good. What's that painting rig you got there?...is that an airless?

[petew]

It's a turbine set up, the turbine gives the gun warm , dry oil free air. I've painted a couple of cars with it and it does a super job.

[Jeff Norwell]

Just killer work Pete.as others have said, Top Shelf!.

[petew]

It's getting exciting now Jeff, the body shop expects to paint the car next week . They did a "spray out card" for me and I have started picking interior colors. Spent part of today working on things like my taillight and parking light reflectors , blasting and painting. Used this reflective paint from Eastwood, the picture does not do it justice , pretty good stuff.

[RICH MUISE]

Those colors are going to look awesome together. Good choice.

[petew]

The car will be 1957 code V flame red and code E colonial white. The material shown will be for the seat inserts and door panel inserts it is from a 1959 Ford Fairlane. The rest of the seats and door panels will be a creamy white vinyl to match the colonial white on the car.

[petew]

Taking advantage of the warm weather, turned the wheels from green to red and cleaned up the hubcaps.

[petew]

Time to bore you guys with a few more pictures. Did the headlight assemblies and gauge cluster today . There was about 2 lbs of undercoat on the back side of each headlight bucket but the paint underneath was still in pretty nice .