What did you do to your C-body today....

More work on my door panels. I painted them today as you can see by my shoes. BTW, those are restaurant shoes. Slip resistant, not expensive and they last a long time . I'm due for another pair.

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Base coat white with a pearl top coat. Lacquer paint with a flex agent from Kolor Korrect-Your Source For Classic Car Paint Not cheap!!!

I had to buy a paint shaker. Harbor Freight has a decent one that's not too expensive. Used one of those Harbor Freight purple spray guns too!

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The wrinkles appeared after painting, so I'm really hoping that they will go away as the paint dries more.

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Wrinkles. I wouldn't have anticipated that. Now I will give a lot of thought to options and methods for painting panels before I do it.
I definitely appreciate you sharing that with us. You have certainly saved a lot of people a lot of heart ache.
Again, thank you.
 
I was going to drive the Imperial yesterday. I dropped a socket on the floor and watched it roll under the fuel tank. Surprise! Kneeling down, I find I've got a leaking pinion seal or a pumpkin gasket. A nice little puddle under the third member, smiling at me. So, no drive until I can get under it and figure it out. Oh, yay.
 
Wrinkles. I wouldn't have anticipated that. Now I will give a lot of thought to options and methods for painting panels before I do it.
I definitely appreciate you sharing that with us. You have certainly saved a lot of people a lot of heart ache.
Again, thank you.
I wasn't expecting that either. I've used SEM paint before with no issues like that, but this paint is lacquer and I think the vinyl soaked up the thinner and reacted like that.

So, first thing this morning, I checked the panels and most of the wrinkles are gone. I think it will get even better as the paint dries and the solvents continue to evaporate. It's supposed to be nice today, so they might get placed in the sun.

Thinking about it, I would have done a lighter first coat. It's been decades since I sprayed lacquer. Those panels had a lot of discoloring, so I had to put down a lot of white first, then the pearl was just three light coats. That might not have made any difference though.

One other thing worth noting.... I could spray SEM cans a whole lot cheaper. I wanted this to match and it's a white pearl rather than a straight color, so SEM wasn't a choice.

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More paintwork yesterday and today.

The front and back seat in my 300L didn't match. I think the front seats had been recovered some considerable time before the back seat. Either the front was wrong to begin with or the front seat had yellowed with age. Either way, once you saw it, you couldn't unsee it.

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They are pretty close now. Front seat was painted and the rear seat wasn't.

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I removed my seats in June to have them redone by a man here in Fresno. So, this past week, I finally started on the carpet removal.

First I replaced my HVAC control; unfortunately, to no avail, it still doesn't work.

But, the carpet is all out, and the lack of rust blessed my soul!

You can see in the fourth picture I had a missing body plug. There was another gone from the rear section too. I replaced those today. Tomorrow, I will, hopefully, start putting in the deadening pad and then the carpet.

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I removed my seats in June to have them redone by a man here in Fresno. So, this past week, I finally started on the carpet removal.

First I replaced my HVAC control; unfortunately, to no avail, it still doesn't work.

But, the carpet is all out, and the lack of rust blessed my soul!

You can see in the fourth picture I had a missing body plug. There was another gone from the rear section too. I replaced those today. Tomorrow, I will, hopefully, start putting in the deadening pad and then the carpet.

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Use an old soldering iron to make holes for seat belts and seats.
 
Nothing exciting, got the side glass down. Getting ready to install it, finding the hardware, thinking through cleaning up the tracks and operators.
 
Finally got my interior done in the 300L. This has been a bit of a struggle for me... It seemed like everything that I touched needed much more than I figured on. I'd say I have 2 or 3 times more time in it than I figured.

The whole process kind of started last year with replacing the foam in the rear seat bottom and then got going again this summer. I replaced the foam in the bottoms of the front seats, new carpet, rebuilt the door panels with new board and painted, repainted the package tray and fixed the clips along with adding a new felt piece under it, the console got new carpet trim, repainted the plastic and fiberboard side pieces for the rear seat, and dyed the faded front seats to match the rear.

I also added a new rear speaker and wiring for the planned radio upgrade this winter and repaired some existing faults in the body wiring. The rear quarter window also got a new motor.

We had some really hot weather that slowed me up... and I had to play "responsible adult" again few times for my in-laws (long story). Both took more time away from working on the car.

I'm happy with the results. I told my wife to throat punch me if I ever get a another car with a white interior. The dog is never going for a ride in this car again...

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Finally got my interior done in the 300L. This has been a bit of a struggle for me... It seemed like everything that I touched needed much more than I figured on. I'd say I have 2 or 3 times more time in it than I figured.

The whole process kind of started last year with replacing the foam in the rear seat bottom and then got going again this summer. I replaced the foam in the bottoms of the front seats, new carpet, rebuilt the door panels with new board and painted, repainted the package tray and fixed the clips along with adding a new felt piece under it, the console got new carpet trim, repainted the plastic and fiberboard side pieces for the rear seat, and dyed the faded front seats to match the rear.

I also added a new rear speaker and wiring for the planned radio upgrade this winter and repaired some existing faults in the body wiring. The rear quarter window also got a new motor.

We had some really hot weather that slowed me up... and I had to play "responsible adult" again few times for my in-laws (long story). Both took more time away from working on the car.

I'm happy with the results. I told my wife to throat punch me if I ever get a another car with a white interior. The dog is never going for a ride in this car again...

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Good work!
Life always brings us unexpected things. The key is to do the next right thing!
 
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