It's time to come clean. I've been using this one picture for a couple of years now, because that's the last time it looked halfdecent. Here it is as it sits now.
I got it home from storage in town about two weeks ago. The paint went dull too fast, and you can see all the scuffs and scratches it took on the train. The tailight happened when the cover fell off in an auto carwash (Yeah, I know. Can it get any more embarasing?). The guy behind me at the wash decided to drive over it, then go pick it up.
That's why I need to go pick up those lights from Carmen, if I ever get a chance to drive up that way.
On with it, here she is in her current state. Too straight to throw away, too shabby to drive.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v613/oldraven/Tbird/?action=view¤t=TCintherough.flv
thats the same on in your sig? wow it looks like its been sitting for a long time
I can't see the video ( this dialup connection) but I'd bet yours still looks better than mine does right now. I do still have those tail lights for you...
It needs a good polish. It would look so much better. Still a nice car though.
dont give up on it looks better then my car does!!!
I've got some serious professional polish and what not for you. Seriously. PM me...
She's not that bad. A little bit of elbow grease, some time and a little bit of money and I'll bet she'll be as good as before if not better.
But it's obvious the car did have a rough trip, cause there are a few scratches and stuff. That's terrible, but I'm sure it'll be good as new once some good ol' TLC is applied :) .
Yeah, it'll be easy to clean up. That good ol' TLC that needs applying would be new paint. What's there can never cut it. Even if I buffed it out it'll still have all of the places that are down to primer from the train ride. I'll go with the same colour, but someone who knows what they're doing will be mixing and spraying this time.
Thanks for the encouragement guys. As you can tell, it has been sitting for two years and maybe has had ten klicks put on it that entire time. The longer something goes without being driven the harder it is to justify having it sit around.
Put the side trim back on and paint the hood scoops this time will ya? :hick: :D
Why, so mine can look exactly like everyone elses? Nay. ;) I never liked the bumper-car look of the side moulding, and the scoops will either be body coloured again or gloss black, to match the rest of the car. There's no point in colour co-ordinating my scoops with my dash, since no one sees both of them at the same time.
Here is one brand of many that I was thinking about.
Turtle Wax Color Cure Car Polish with Red ChipStick (http://"http://www.autobarn.net/turwaxcolcur2.html")
at $8.99 a bottle you would be amazed at what this will cover. Nothing compaired to a new paint job but the price is right.
Gloss black scoops would look nice actually...
I have an idea, check back in a second...
(http://musclecarspecs.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/01/gto_le_1024.jpg)
Do stripes like THAT ^^^ out of the TC scoops (hood only). That would look awesome and be cheap... :D
Still a nice car,and a great foundation to build upon.Get to it.
I thought about it the first time around, actually. There's a poll thread somewhere around here of a few two tone schemes I was looking at. I'm glad I didn't, though. After seing these cars striped I think it's veeeery cheezy. Stripes are for Mustangs. T-birds rise above all that malarky. :hick:
Thanks Jim. I plan to do something to polish it up a bit, but it can't put paint back where it needs to be, so it'll still need paint in the end.
Here's what the interior looks like, and sounds of it running. I know the trottle only blips, but these 2.3's always sound like they're roaring underhood. I thought it was much fiercer than it turned out to be.
And the door could use a grease. :hick:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v613/oldraven/Tbird/?action=view¤t=Inside.flv
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v613/oldraven/Tbird/?action=view¤t=Soundsfromtheoutside.flv
Nice. Well I paint cars, and i'll be certified in 18 months lol. That would be an honor. You just gotta move to the states lol.
Dude, it could be a lot worse. Overall it's still in pretty good shape. And who here has a car with factory paint that doesn't need re-doing?? Only a few very lucky people.
I've always wondered why red cars always lost their gloss so quickly. I always figured it had to do with the paint chemistry. Two years is awfully quick.
UV rays seem to attack red things worse than any other colour. It's not just paint - red plastic and fabric fades very bad in the sun too (as any of us with a porno red interior can verify). Even red ink fades faster than other colours - how many of those "I heart something" stickers have you seen where the heart completely faded away?
My porno red leather still looks good ;)
The plastic is all though :(
That's not factory paint either. I did a sloppy quick job when I needed to put some steel back where rust was, and the clear was chipping badly as well. Long story short, I didn't prep it right and the guy spraying it didn't add any hardner to the mix. These are things I didn't know at the time and really wish I had done more research before wasting $300 on Acrylic Enamel that had no enamel.
There is a really nice high gloss black 4-eye ('83-84 with the old dash) in town for sale right now. Skirt kit, HO and V8 5-spd with guages and halo's. The guy knew what he was doing when he put it together. Anyway, after looking at it with Ange, she's now saying "You know honey, your car would look pretty nice if it had better paint."
Preaching to the choir, my dear. It's funny, because she has never liked my T-bird but once she saw a clean one she started seeing the potential.
Funny how that works isn't it??