And So It Begins.... 1970 340 Cuda Restoration

[loco340cuda]

Thanks 70chall440. 

I checked Rodger Gibson's Restoration and he has the orginasol paint for $90 a quart.  I just need to figure out if I care that much about having the correct paint on the tail panel. I think I would be happy with something that was close.  The body shop said they could spray it hot rod black (semi gloss) so I'm thinking that might be close enough (thoughts?).  I have heard the orginasol was hard to take care of (keep clean).  Can anyone here on the board confirm or deny that with the orginasol?

Alan, what tail panel paint do you use for your restorations on 70/71 Cuda's?

[rUNCHARGER]

Organisol had some texture to it and had metallic in it. I don't think it would be hard at all for an experienced painter to mix a splash of metallic into some semi gloss black and shoot it on a bit dry to give it some texture. The Cuda tailpanel is a nice narrow area too so it shouldn't be a problem.

Sheldon

[70chall440]

Guess it depends on what you want. As for it being hard to take care of (the original) I can't say that I know about that; all of the cars I have ever had they came with it were generally too degraded to require maintenance. If I were you, I would do some internet research and look at various panels until something speaks to you. That said, I don't think it would be hard for a professional painter to give you a finish that resembled the original and complimented your car. I am not into "factory" correct or original for the most part, I like a car to have some personality and like custom touches, but my name isn't on this title so my opinion is just that.

[anlauto]

Thanks 70chall440. 



Alan, what tail panel paint do you use for your restorations on 70/71 Cuda's?

I use flat black sprayed from a distance to give it a slight texture....

[ShelbyDogg]

For the argent type paint I use the stuff from Rustoleum, available at Lowes.  This is a pic of the light and the dark is behind it.  It closely matches my friend's original 70 convertible Grand Coupe's tail panel.

[70chall440]

That works! 

[sadil340]

I'm the "original passenger" of my car. So I've been around it since it was new. When I restored it the body shop manager was a Mopar guy so he knew what to use for the tail panel. It looks identical to the original Organasol. If you want to know how he achieved it let me know and I'll give him a call.

[loco340cuda]

I'm the "original passenger" of my car. So I've been around it since it was new. When I restored it the body shop manager was a Mopar guy so he knew what to use for the tail panel. It looks identical to the original Organasol. If you want to know how he achieved it let me know and I'll give him a call.

Sadil340, thanks so much for the offer.  If you would do that it would be much appreciated!  I'm sure others on here would be interested to know as well.

[TelisSE440]

For the argent type paint I use the stuff from Rustoleum, available at Lowes.  This is a pic of the light and the dark is behind it.  It closely matches my friend's original 70 convertible Grand Coupe's tail panel.

Does it feel textured when you touch it? I wanna use one on my front Challenger SE grill

[ShelbyDogg]

Yes it does. The new argent in a can for around $5.

[loco340cuda]

I got my dash apart and sent the dash frame out to the sandblaster this week.  What have you guys done for paint on the dash frame?  I know on the plastic parts I have seen people use SEM Trim Black and that seems to look nice but I'm not sure on the dash frame itself if I should use the same paint or something different.  I'm not looking for something OE correct just something that looks somewhat close to the way it came from the factory.

-Thanks

[TelisSE440]

I have used SEM trim black for the dash itself, I think it's one of the closest paints to match the black factory paint...

[340challconvert]

For the argent type paint I use the stuff from Rustoleum, available at Lowes.  This is a pic of the light and the dark is behind it.  It closely matches my friend's original 70 convertible Grand Coupe's tail panel.

.   

Good tip on the argent paint for challenger grills

[loco340cuda]

I have been tearing down my rallye gauges to get them ready to restore.  I have decided to go the Performance Car Graphics route and use the decals.  Well I received the decals today and the holes in the decals that are supposed to go around where the rivets (or screws) that hold the metal bezel to the rest of the gauge assembly are are huge (see attached picture).  I am going to use PCG's mounting screws and the hole is about 3x the diameter of the head of the mounting screws.  I'm afraid if I use these decals it will be obvious that there are decals on the gauge faces.

Has anyone else used these decals before?  Where the holes that big? 

[loco340cuda]

Okay guys, a little update on the restoration......

Gauges:

I have decided to go ahead and use the decals for my gauge restoration.  From a cost point of view it is the most economical way and with so much needed for this car I need to pick and choose my battles on what I am going to spend more money on.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed the gauges turn out decent.  I plan on working on them tomorrow so I will post some before and after picts when I get done.

Body Work and Paint:

Well the body shop finally started on the car late last week.  Things were delayed due to they were moving to a new facility and did not want to tear into the car and then have to move it.  Progress so far......  they have sanded down the outside of the car (qtr's, roof, etc.).  They have replaced the trunk pan, cut off the rusted lower qtr's and replaced one side.  The inner qtr on the passenger side was swiss cheese at the bottom so they had to order some sheet metal to replace it.  Once the metal shows up they will finish up the passenger side lower qtr.  They are doing final body work on the doors as these were mostly done by the other shop.  The front end (grille area) is a little more of a problem child.  There are issues with the header panel (lower part) where it meets the fenders as well as where the driver fender meets the front valence.  I see the cost of the body work getting run up to clean up these issues.    It is what it is, hold on wallet!   The interesting part is that I just read Edison1970's post from a week or so ago and it looked like he has this same issue with the header panel to fender fitment issues, nice job Edison on fixing that!

Here are a few pictures of the car at the body shop.  I forgot to take one with the new trunk panel installed.  I'll try to take one of those next time.