Time to finally update it for the last 6 months. When the car was painted the painter touched up a spot on the front of the hood and the trunk lid and the paint didn't atomize that well. So the spots that were touched up stood out like a sore thumb. So back in Feb, I took the car back to him to resand the hood and trunk lid and to repaint. They came out really well but it slowed progress again.
Once the car was back and cut and buffed. I got the drip rails all cleaned up and spent a weekend polishing them. It's a messy job that's not a lot of fun, but they came out pretty good. Not perfect, but I'm happy. I also go the door handles on. I had to buy a new repo passenger side handle because my original one had a crack in the linkage.
Then I painted the rollbar with Summit's Epoxy Chassis paint in satin black. It came out good, but it was a pain to paint the top of the bars. So I ended up using a brush just to get paint on those areas and then went back over it with paint from the gun to blend it in. Obviously I should have painted the roll bar before I ever took it to the painter... another lesson learned. Instead I had to be completely paranoid when masking the car. The only over spray ended on the floor boards. I had put plastic down in the interior, but once I was in the car and trying to maneuver around the rollbar all it did was tear the plastic away. No big deal since no one will see the floorboards. I also seam sealed all the various seams. It probably wasn't needed since I already have bedliner in the interior, but I figure it can't hurt.
Anyway, the big news is that my rims and tires showed up. I ended up ordering tires from Driver's Inc as well and had them delivered together. I can't show the front because I pulled the front suspension in preparation for someday putting the engine in the car from below, but I at least put the rear tires on just for some pictures. For these pictures I just put the rotor in place and didn't worry about installing the rear calipers. I'll take more pictures later with the calipers installed. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I went with a polished outer with a matte black powder coated center. The tires are BFG KDWs (new tread pattern) and are 335/30/18 in the rear and 275/35/18 for the front. The car still sits up too high in the rear (this is with the coilovers all the way at the bottom). I'm hoping once the car gets some weight in it that it will sit lower, otherwise I'm going to have to get some shorter coilovers.
Finally the other major thing I got done was I painted the metal dash frame, steering column, upper and lower grilles. I painted them with black base coat and clear coat with a flattener added. The came out OK, but I think they are a little too glossy. I might have to shoot them again with more flattener added. Noticed the repaired area of the upper grille.
I think that's about it for now. Thanks everybody for all the positive comments.
Travis
72 Cuda
