show car assy-help needed

[Garagebound1]

I'm building a kit car and am in the final assy. stages. I have everything painted and powdercoated and it seems like every time I touch it, I'm marring something. Specificly installing front (Heidts tubular mustang 2) suspension. I'm trying to install springs. I used a spring compressor (marred spring finish) I used a nylon pad on floor jack and now have chips in paint.
How does Chip Foose do it? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[skipnay]

Rags are your friends on everything. Double them up or fold them numerous times.

 

[Smokenarrow]

Painters tape on all of the finished edges and heavy paper on the lengths will keep the paint better than with no protection at all.

Sacrificial rags like Skipnay said above

And take your time. If you get in a rush or try to hurry to get something finished before the night is over or whatever, you are sure to screw up something. Happens to me every time. Take the extra few seconds to secure, mask off, do whatever it takes to keep it clean.

And you need some luck too..

 

[TerryH]

Rags are your friends on everything. Double them up or fold them numerous times.

This ^^^ Tons of shop towels or other clean rags are the ticket. The bottom line is it's super tough to get one put together without having to touch up or spot in something. Foose just doesn't show us those places.

 

[ZRX61]

As well as the tape, paper & rags: Rubber. Drop by the tire store & grab a bunch of old tubes. Cut up as needed.

 

[unslow1]

I even used regular blankets from the house putting the 57 together. Wrap and tape over everything. I use HF composite ratchets too. Usually I try to wear shorts with no zippers. Like mentioned before cut up rags and towels and tape them around parts. I did this car this spring and wrapped it in yoga mats and moving blankets.

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

I own a restoration shop now, but I started my career building show cars for the ISCA circuit. My experiences are that when we assemble a vehicle, we just keep touch-up paint handy to make repairs as we go. With that said, if you are experiencing chips, then you have a MIL thickness issue. Too thick of paint chips very easily. Thin paint & substrates do not. This probably comes as bad news too late, so just touch up as you go. Color-sanding & rubbing paint after a touch-up makes the damage all but disappear.

 

[Cyberbear]

The simple answer is that you need to be more careful and think ahead about the results of your actions. When we built our show cars we seldom had any blemishes to take care of, in fact our biggest problem was what others did to our show cars, and we always put crowd control ropes and stanchions around our displayed cars far enough away that the crowd couldn't touch our cars.

 

[firestartergli]

I used tons of rags, micro fibre towels, and tape. Most of these have been suggested. I take far better care of cars that don't belong to me, My cars are all cool, but only a couple are actually nice haha.

 

[koondog]

While I don't have anything that I would consider to be show quality, I found when doing a kit car and restoring a couple others that patience and clean moving blankets helped a lot.

 

[countryroad82]

I own a restoration shop now, but I started my career building show cars for the ISCA circuit. My experiences are that when we assemble a vehicle, we just keep touch-up paint handy to make repairs as we go. With that said, if you are experiencing chips, then you have a MIL thickness issue. Too thick of paint chips very easily. Thin paint & substrates do not. This probably comes as bad news too late, so just touch up as you go. Color-sanding & rubbing paint after a touch-up makes the damage all but disappear.

I used to work at a Corvette restoration shop, that is what we would do, heck that's what I do today lol. I was also thinking possible thickness issues or maybe adhesion problems with it chipping and marring so easy. Something also to do OP is to look at the overall picture. This is something I tell a lot of people when they see all the itty bitty flaws on their ride. Sure you may have a scuff on your coil spring. Yeah it happens. But when your at a show how many people REALLY know what they're looking at? Heck most judges don't know what they're looking at. Unless you are going to competivly show the car there's not going to be many people that will notice. As for the overall look, looks great as an overal package doesn't it?

 

[matt01073]

Our shop used to restore quite a few early mustangs , One idea we used for body panel assy, because ford used star washers on there body bolts which will tear up paint was to punch a hole in milk jug caps and use them as washers , then once the panel is fit and where you want it remove one bolt at a time and remove the cap then you can tighten that bolt one time and not have to have the paint chewed up several times while adjusting that panel . We also used a stack of rags and or chunks of foam rubber on lift pads and jacks/ jack stands to protect when lifting

 

[toplessHO]

assemble,mark all parts and shims etc,then remove and paint or powercoat,re assemble.
Powdercoat tends to chip,Ive gone back to using good old rustoelum satin black with a hardner for chassis parts.

 

[stage20]

rust oleum satin black is my favorite color. it has just the right sheen but not glossy. looks better than the charcoaled look of flat after its been in the sun or has wear.

 

[goneflyin2002]

Masking tape is your friend.

Word of warning though, don't leave it on more than a week or so. It will cause grief!

I have over 30 guys in my restoration shop, and even with the most careful procedures, yes you do get some chips and marks now and again.

Pretty hard to compress a coil spring without making some marks, but you can minimize it by using some gasket paper or scraps of leather to line the shoes of the compressor. Of course you have to be careful that nothing slips!

Soon as you unwrap chrome, with clean hands (even a little dirt on your hands or bench will scratch new chrome), tape it up. Use good quality low tack tape. Never slide a chromed part across any surface/table (even a padded one) without the part being fully covered in masking tape.

Set up a specific part of one of your benches with soft vinyl on top to handle all your fine assembly jobs- dash, guages, etc.

Someone was right when they said material thickness of the paint affects its resistance from damage. Thin is good.

We use a lot of upholstery vinyl scrap on doorsills and doorjams during assembly- prevents feet scuffing, airhose rubs, trouble light cord rubbing, etc.

Pretty much need to spend some money on some protection materials- good quality fender covers, new rags (not clean used- they have bits of metal sometimes), good tape, not cheap and lots of scraps of foam and upholstery materials to protect your new finishes.

And after you're all done, a polish job is necessary.

 

[whyNick?]

20 years ago I worked as a helper monkey in a shop that restored classic cars. We put masking tape on fasteners, panel edges, and anything that could be easily marred. We also taped up our tools to protect stuff. Moving blankets, fender covers, and rags padded larger surfaces. We had some nylon inserts that fit into sockets and wrenches to protect painted fasteners. You couldn't put a lot of torque on them and they wore out pretty quickly but they worked well.

 

[ScottsGT]

Cardboard between rags also helps. Slow down, it's not a race unless you are on Discovery/Velocity/History channel.

 

[justanengineer]

I usually tape the edges of panels, use non-marring tools whenever possible, and a bit of care. Sure, you'll scratch or chip a few spots during reassembly, just touch it up. If youre having quite a few issues like others mentioned I'd suspect you have paint issues, automotive paint is pretty durable so if it seems wrong ask yourself how long it will last on the road. If the answer is not long, strip it and repaint.

 

[Garagebound1]

You guys mentioned paint thickness, does spray bomb instead of sprayed w/paint gun make a difference? I've sprayed a couple of small brackets that are out of sight/view with spray can paint and it seemed to chip easier than I would have thought it should.

 

[NUTTSGT]

There are times I use a flat rubber saddle on my floor jack. Then I put a piece of carpet on top of that for suspension work.

 

[Garagebound1]

I bought polyurethane pads for my jack and jackstands and I put blue masking tape on edges of frame and control arms. I'm going to more heavily pad stuff. Thought I was good until I started fishing braided stainless cooling and fuel lines thru frame. I figured it would get dinged from use but wanted it nice on completion. I appreciate all the help and suggestions.

 

[justanengineer]

You guys mentioned paint thickness, does spray bomb instead of sprayed w/paint gun make a difference? I've sprayed a couple of small brackets that are out of sight/view with spray can paint and it seemed to chip easier than I would have thought it should.

Rattle can paint usually needs quite a bit of curing time and heat. Most of the time what looks/feels dry is only on the surface, if left alone I've seen it take weeks to cure to any decent hardness and in the meantime its brittle on top and soft underneath. Normally I either put a heat lamp on it for a few hours or if its July-August I'll let the part sit out in the sun for a full day AFTER its dried to the touch before reassembly.

 

[rsanter]

I use moving blankets to protect the engine bay when installing an engine

Bob