[roger1]

Got some base sprayed today but running out of time so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to spray clear.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

That car is looking beautiful.
I'm interested in your aint booth' setup. Any photos of that?

I have no idea where that raspberry emoji came from. I don't even know how to do that!
Excellent work on the home engineered paint booth.

[roger1]

Ready to spray the clear in the morning.

[MUSLCAH]

Roger....do you have a sunlight ? ....When a sunlight is shown on a panel...it will highlight any primer or undercoat that doesn’t have color coverage. It’s hard to tell if you have coverage with out one.

Don’t need any surprises when the sun / daylight hits a finished panel.......

[roger1]

I don't have a sun light. I do have a few pretty good LED flashlights though. The seem to work real well for checking for swirl marks when I'm polishing. I did use one for checking my coverage on that base I sprayed yesterday. What sun light do you use? I've seen some can get a bit expensive.

[roger1]

Today:









A couple of hours later:









It went well. It was in the low 50s and I was using SPI Normal activator.

I now have a firm appointment on the 4th of December to take the car to the paintless dent removal shop and have him correct the low spots in the hood he said he could take care of. Between now and then I plan to cut and buff the doors (taking more care this time) , reassemble the door hardware and have the tire balance checked.

[MUSLCAH]

I use this 3M Sun light...had it for years..

Great for color matching...and getting the right size metallic in colors

And checking for coverage .....it’s bailed me out many times...when I thought I had enough coats on.....and had to keep spraying color.

[roger1]

Some things accomplished:
I took the wheels and tires off and down to a tire shop and had them re-balanced. Also checked the front wheel bearings and decided each side could take one more notch of tightening without being too tight. Got the doors color-sanded and all polished out. (I took extreme care doing it this time and taped the edges of the doors before using my wool bonnet buffing wheel.) Installed the rocker moldings.

I took the car on a 15 mile test drive today and it feels much better. I didn't detect any shimmy feeling at all. Took it up to 80 and didn't notice any wheel vibrations at all.
I'm now feeling like the transmission shifting is fine and that I don't need to re-adjust the TV cable. Everything I felt before was because of the amount of lash in the rear before getting that fixed.

Tomorrow, I'll take the car down to the paintless dent removal shop. I'll drop it off first thing in the morning. It should be ready to pick up before the end of the day.

Snapped some photos after my test drive:

[will slow gto]

Looks incredible Roger. Glad the re-balance cleared up your shimmy.

[Shiny]

That is a truly impressive accomplishment.

Wow

[dataway]

Yep, there are hardly enough superlatives to describe the quality and speed of your work.
Your like "that kid" in math class that makes us all look bad

Wishing you many happy years driving it.

[Greg Reid]

You are a talented individual, no doubt about it. Beautiful job.

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

You are a talented individual, no doubt about it. Beautiful job.

Originally Posted by Shiny

That is a truly impressive accomplishment.
Wow

Originally Posted by dataway

Yep, there are hardly enough superlatives to describe the quality and speed of your work.
Your like "that kid" in math class that makes us all look bad
Wishing you many happy years driving it.

Thank you gentlemen!!

So I took the car down to the paintless dent removal place this morning and picked up late this afternoon. The owner who did the work gave me similar comments as you guys have. Like I'm kind of a wizard or something. But he showed me some the cars he's working on and I felt like he was the wizard! He says he's been doing this for 30 years. Oh my gosh did I take the car to the right place. He took care of those 3 low spots perfectly. I'm happy with how it reflects now.

[dataway]

I've watched some of the videos, amazing what they can do.

And yes you are a wizard or something

[Bruce Meyer]

Very nice. You have got the hood, fenders and front bumper lined up way better than the factory ever did. Ive never seen a 68/69 lined up that nice.

[Andretti]

Wow, you've accomplished so much. She's beautiful!

https://imgur.com/a/QwQveeu

[keith k]

Originally Posted by Bruce Meyer

Very nice. You have got the hood, fenders and front bumper lined up way better than the factory ever did. Ive never seen a 68/69 lined up that nice.

Yep ... Roger's looks the way they did in the re-touched advertisement photos, but not in real life. Beautiful.

[Skidmark]

What's next Roger? Anymore cars on your bucket list to restore? It's been a pleasure following you on your GTO restoration thanks for sharing. I learned so much from your experiences. Take care.

[roger1]

I know I went dark on you guys here with my GTO at 99% complete but I'm sure you all know how disrupting a move can be!

Here's a photo of the GTO just before heading out from Texas to it's new home in Colorado. This was on February 1st. The 26ft Uhaul is loaded to the hilt! I'd bet it was overweight too. I hired movers to load it on Texas end and again when getting to Colorado to get it unloaded. My brother drove behind with our loaded SUV pulling my utility trailer loaded with our riding mower and anything else I could fit on it. We unexpectedly ran into snow on the second day of the trip. The weather report lied to us! It got a bit hairy and there were a lot of cars and trucks in the ditch along the way. It was slow going but we made it OK. The GTO sure got dirty though! After getting everything unloaded I rented a car and my brother and I drove back to Texas. He headed home and my wife and I started preparing for the second trip and final load to go up with.



The second trip was with a smaller Uhaul truck towing my El Camino. My wife followed behind driving my BMW. The house was empty and went on the market the next day.



My wife and I arrived at the new house on February 13th and have been getting settled in since. A lot of work but we are having a blast!

I can't wait to start making my new workshop my own. I'm thinking of having a mezzanine or loft built in the back. Getting the house the way we want it both inside and out takes priority though. Maybe I can start making plans for my workshop by summer. I'd like to get to the 100% complete mark with the GTO as well.





The heated floor is just amazing. It stays at 67-68 degrees in there 24 hours a day through the winter and surprisingly, doesn't cost that much since it's natural gas that heats the system. What's also nice is that the shop floor has a drain so the cars can be washed inside during winter. The floor was leveled with precision too as no water is left standing. The house also has an attached 3-car garage so only my GTO and El Camino will be living in the workshop.

I just got my new license plates for the GTO yesterday. It was pretty easy to get registered. I did have to drive it down to the local Sheriff's office for a VIN inspection first. No problem though. Also, you can see in the photo that I have put up a bunch of shelving so I could unload all my boxes of shop supplies. Probably temporary though. I also got my air compressor hooked up.





So I guess I'll sell that nice set of 1969 Texas plates that I bought for the car. I haven't even looked into whether Colorado allows the use of YOM plates yet. If they do, I'll start watching ebay to see if I can find a NOS set.

Getting my El Camino registered made me somewhat nervous. Colorado requires emission inspections for all cars 1976 and newer if you live in certain areas. Turns out our new property is right on the line of an exempted area. And I mean right on the line. If my property had been another 100ft or so to the south, the inspection would have been required! My El Camino would not pass that since it's an '83 and I put a '96 LT1 engine in the car. Luckily, when I was at the DMV their database showed my address as exempt and all went fine.





I've only driven the GTO twice. Once around the neighborhood just to make everything still seemed good before venturing out to the Sheriff's department for the VIN check. It seems to run and drive well but I need to drive it a lot more before getting confident enough to take it longer distances. I still haven't had an opportunity to go through all the procedures for programming the Edelbrock injection system. However, the engine seems to be running just as it should at this point. Things to finish on the car are just minor items. Charging the A/C system and installing the tubing for the windshield washer are a couple of them.

Originally Posted by dataway

I've watched some of the videos, amazing what they can do.
And yes you are a wizard or something

Originally Posted by Bruce Meyer

Very nice. You have got the hood, fenders and front bumper lined up way better than the factory ever did. Ive never seen a 68/69 lined up that nice.

Originally Posted by keith k

Yep ... Roger's looks the way they did in the re-touched advertisement photos, but not in real life. Beautiful.

I can't thank you guys enough for those nice compliments!

Originally Posted by Andretti

Wow, you've accomplished so much. She's beautiful!
https://imgur.com/a/QwQveeu

Thanks and very cool how you did that transformation!

Originally Posted by Skidmark

What's next Roger? Anymore cars on your bucket list to restore? It's been a pleasure following you on your GTO restoration thanks for sharing. I learned so much from your experiences. Take care.

Thanks!
I have had several people ask me that question. I really don't know at this point. I hope to think I have another restoration left in me. I do feel like just getting my new workshop the way I want it to be will be a long-term project in itself. After its done, I will start thinking about what comes next. Maybe a '65 to '67 Corvette convertible. That's kind of been in the back of my mind some. I wouldn't want a matching numbers car though. I'd enjoy it making it a mild restomod like what I've done with the GTO and it's almost sacrilegious to modify a matching numbers Corvette.

[Shiny]

Always amazing and inspirational to see your posts!

Glad your move is going well. That's definitely stressful, but can also feel like an adventure when you are motivated!

I alluded to our similar situation a few months back. We finally settled on a house in Windsor and will be moving from our temporary rental house this summer.

I suspect that shop building will generate admiration beyond my own. How fun for you! I'm excited to gain a more modest 3-car garage once again for the first time in over 15 years.

How did that U-Haul trailer work? Do you think it, along with my LeMans, would be too heavy to haul behind a 1/2-ton pickup with ~7000 lb tow rating? It handles our 4000 lb camper OK, but the camper has electric brakes and those trailers look heavy.

Mike