[north]

Finally bought the bullet and decided to paint my 69 bonne convertible.

Strange paint situation. I bought the car from the second owner, car was built and lived in Los Angeles until he retired and moved to Oregon interior (grants pass).

Car was originally expresso but it was painted limelight green early in its life. When they painted it they went to the trouble of removing all the moldings, trim etc including bumpers and stripping everything to bare metal but they left the door and trunk jams as well as the front and rear bumper inserts brown!

Many years later it was switched to a late model red, this time with a quick mask and shoot job so the brown parts stayed brown!

I'd love to understand that logic

[north]

I was torn between expresso and perhaps black or midnight green. Since my firebird is midnight I decided to stick to the original color.

On a positive note the stripping process has confirmed that there is zero rust or rust repair, and the only body work at all was from a slight graze probably from rubbing on a garage door on the left quarter

[north]

Factory black paint between the tail lamps like on early production Gto's

[north]

Multicolored!

[north]

btw the quality of workmanship on this car from the factory is something else. I noticed when I bought the car that the right front blowout molding was missing (molding that caps the fender where the bumper is), i always assumed it fell off but with the fender off I noticed that two holes in the fender that the molding guide pins go into were not fully punched out by the press, so they just left the molding off!

also the drivers quarter did not line up properly where it connects to the trunk floor drop down extension, most of the spot welds were never made and at the very front (at the bottom rear of the wheel opening) you can pass three fingers into the gap. At the back behind the bumper all the spot welds are missing, again an open gap, if this car had been in the salt belt that quarter would have rotted in the very first winter.

[David Brown]

Are the other 3 bumper closeouts there? Maybe at some point it was in an accident and the fender replaced. On the 70 and probably 69, I think the bumber closeouts were for Bonneville only, so a fender off a Catalina or Executive or an new replacement fender would have just the dimples and would not be drilled out. An accident might also explain some of the other things you noticed.

[north]

Fender sure looks original, you can even see the upper clip that they put on at the line is still there to recieve the screw that holds the top of the molding. it's just that one of the two punch outs wasn't hit quite enough.

As for the quarter it's clearly original and never hit, you can see that the missing spot welds were never made, I guess they didn't weld in the floor extension right and when it came time to install the quarter things didn't fit quite right and they decided to keep the line moving.

I had a 69 GTO convertible in the 80's built in Fremont and it had similar issues. The bracing behing the back seat (convertible) was misaligned and you could see that someone took a sledge hammer to make it fit (this was factory because all the damage marks were under the factory primer and red overspray. It had a similar problem with the fire wall brace that supports the steering column.

Stay away from California built cars I guess! Too many hippies and druggies back then!

[einstein]

It was the 60s, man! I'm debating whether to cut the factory welds on some floor bracing and reset it all on my 69 Firebird Sprint convertible now that it's on the rotisserie. One side has gaps 1/2", then the metal mutilated to reach the rockers and some half-fast welding. Other side is perfect. I should post photos.

[north]

There is a reason why our highways are infested with Japanese cars. As a fellow Fbird sprint convertible owner I'd love to see and hear more about it.

[Dave R]

Yeah, the fit and finish wasn't always perfect but at least the cars had soul. I used to enjoy going to the Pontiac dealer to check out the cars. The thought of going to a Japanese car lot excites me about as much as having leftovers for dinner on a Friday.

[scld1354]

Originally Posted by north

btw the quality of workmanship on this car from the factory is something else.

The "a" in "Grand Prix" that is on the quarter of our 67 was put on upside down. We haven't touched it so it's still that way...

[north]

We are getting there, car was finally painted last week, into assembly and tweaking etc.
The back looks sharp, nos tail light lenses and detailed original bezels always freshen things.

Sorry again for what are probably again upside down photos. I'm downloading direct from my iPhone so I can't rotate them.

[north]

The front end looked fine with the crappy old red paint but now it looks kind of dull, I think I'll pull the nose this winter and detail the grills, especially the grey areas that are heavily faded out.

[north]

Another of the (probably upside down) nose. Took me three years to find a nice original nosepiece. The original one was crumpling away like a leper.

[north]

I'm eager to see it with all the trim and the plastic off the new white top.

[muscle_collector]

beautiful expresso brown is like vedero green when it is fresh it is beautiful.

[rexs73gto]

Was it easier to paint with it on the ceiling????? HA HA!!!! Paint looks great.

[north]

I'm now using a 5S and it allows you to edit photos but even if I rotate and save them they still show up inverted when I post them.

[north]

Got her home

[north]

Another shot