A Quick De-rust and Small Respray

Over the past couple of years, the Vogue has been developing a small crease of rust where two body seams meet along the front behind the bumper bar. I have been trying to match the paint for the car but the original colour codes are unreadable due to paint drips. I have also had it for over 4 years now.

So given that the rust was becoming visible I set aside some time over the weekend to burr it out using my dremel and a miniature wire wheel, rust convert it (I actually did that stuff during the week at night), prime it, seam seal it, prime it again, then two base coats and two clear coats.

Where did I get the paint? I used supercheap auto's colour cards to get the closest match among 72,000 colours and they mixed me up an aerosol can.

I masked up 5-10mm either side of the seam as I didn't want to spray the whole lower front and the result is good - not perfect but good. You have to be looking for it.

The Vogue, missing bumper and grill, ready for clear coat. I hate overspray.

All in time to drive it to work today.

Respray Finished

The Vogue is back home.
It arrived home on the 40th anniversary of humankind landing on the moon (20th July 1969).

No trim, no rubber, no glass, no interior, no lights.
Now to order all the rubbers.

After 7 weeks away and not being started, it burst to life on the first turn of the Engine. I'm going to miss that exhaust note...

The colour is hard to photograph. It changes depending on what angle you look at it. It's a light to medium metallic blue. I LOVE it!

Top Coat Going On

Not a great photo but it shows that the roof is pretty much done.

Why just the roof? Well we changed our minds - now it's going to be a two-tone.

Lower colour goes on next week...

Nearly ready for Top Coat

I visited Brett (spray painter) today and discussed the colour for the Vogue. Most likely we will stay with the original "Moonstone" but we are just checking out possibilities.
I took a quick photo while I was there. It's all in primer now.

The Vogue is almost ready for Primer

Brett (Old Auto Classics Restoration) sent me some photos for the blog.
They are just about ready to prime the main part of the body.
He mentioned that on removing a lot of the paint they discovered a few "secrets".

No Car For a While

Well the Vogue made it OK down to Moorabbin.
Old Auto Classics Restoration Co. are stripping back and repainting the Vogue. It's going to be pretty much the original colour due to there being an increased cost if I changed it.
Over the next 8 weeks I have to chase down a complete set of window rubbers, boot and bonnet seals and where to get upholstery fabric.
There's other stuff to do too. I'll try to document it as I go.

First the Restoration

A lot has happened since I wrote that first entry and I'll try to document it in the next few weeks. I got off to an excessively complex start. I'll try not to get too carried away with details again.
The most important thing at this stage is that the Vogue paint job is in very poor shape. The thing that attracted me to the car 11 years ago is now its undoing.
The bonnet, roof and boot lid have all crazy-cracked (of course you can't see it in the photo).
I got the price of a complete respray down a bit by having me remove and reinstall all the metal trim. Above is a before shot.

Now with all the trim removed. I will remove the black fresh-air inlet and fuel filler down at the painter's place. I'm glad I decided to do this myself, even though it took pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday. This way I get to restore all the chrome work before it is reinstalled.
Unfortunately they are not ready for the car until 30th May so here it sits with masking tape keeping out the rain out from all the holes where the trim clips have been drilled out.











What a way to reduce drag. Now you see it...













Now you don't.