I painted the entire bottom today and touched up a couple of spots that looked thin. I also painted the bottom of both engine splash shields---not pictured. It's been a good couple of days. Now The finish body work begins, I sure was getting tired of cutting, welding and grinding.

Yesterday was priming day! I have three small pieces I've yet to do and then I can start on the finish body work. If any one is reading this and is interested, it took one and a half quarts of PPG DP50 primer to do the entire car. It is also $80 per quart set (primer and catalyst). I used my TIP Tools HVLP turbine spray unit to do this and you can see there is very minimal overspray any where. I did put plastic sheeting on the floor since I knew I would be spraying downward on the doors, trunk, hood etc. I should also mention this system is very bad for your lungs. I have and used a fresh air supplied hood while spraying. I looked like a bio hazard worker but I can still breath and no worries of the big "C". I also wore surgeon's gloves to avoid skin oil while handling the doors and other small parts. I am happy with the outcome and progress IS being made.

Still doing little catch up jobs preparatory to painting. Cleaned up the seam sealed seams with a razor knife and lacquer thinner then decided to test fit the carpet and console. Looks pretty good. Next will be masking, de greasing and primer----I think, may have to do something under the dash.

Been working on a bunch of little things, none worthy of a picture. I started by putting the lift under the car and removing the front half of the rotisserie so I could work on the front panel. I needed to shrink the left side some in order for the bumper to fit without hitting the body. That's when I discovered that there is supposed to be nuts welded to the inside of the brackets. After scratching around for the correct size, I welded them in place. One of the bumperettes needed a slight grinding at the bottom to fit correctly and I figured it's better to do it before they go to the chroming shop. Made a list of all the needed screws and bolts needed to mount the tail light housing and the front and rear bumperettes. Placed the car back on the rotisserie and painted the rear seat(GGGG) area with POR-15, buffed the stainless rain gutter trim and masked it so I could seam seal all the seams on the body with tube type sealer instead of the brush on type. I also went this morning and bought the epoxy primer, I was thinking of getting a gallon just to have on hand but at $167 I settled for a quart and a pint of hardener. I'll have to see how far that goes. I'm intending to prime the entire car, top to bottom, inside and out.

This is the area that I have to patch. It is a lot of compound curves so I'm probably going to weld a little, heat with a torch, bend a little, weld a little etc. until it fits and is all welded. The little patch around the screw hole was the toughest. The finished job is shown above, like the other side, it's a little lumpy but body filler will take care of it. The filler won't be any thicker than 1/8 inch anywhere on the body. I also did some work on the front hood to see if I could get the depression out where someone tried to close the hood without releasing the prop. I was about 98% successful but didn't take any pictures. Maybe next time. I think the next step is to go all over the body to see where if any seam sealer is needed. I'm pretty sure I've got it all but now is the time to check. Once it's ready it's time to prime it and then the body smoothing starts. (And I hate sanding!) I also removed the plastic screw anchors that were used to fasten the top of the bumperette to the body. It was then I discovered that there is supposed to be a welded nut on the backside of the tail light opening. After figuring out how to do it, I welded a nut behind each opening. The Bianchina parts book shows a special standoff nut(bolt?) is used there. It's male on one end and female on the other and is used to attach the tail light housing. Have to talk to my favorite machinist tomorrow.

I tackled the other fender lip today. It came out okay but it has a few depressions that will be filled with filler after epoxy priming. I was going to use body lead but after thinking on it decided on body filler being as it's much lighter than lead. Since the car only has 16 1/2 horsepower every ounce saved helps. You can see in the second picture that I've already cut out the rot on the bottom of the fender, I'll make a patch and weld it in tomorrow. I was able to find, clean out and retap the mounting hole for the rear bumperette. It was held on with a wood screw into a plastic anchor, real classy repair. Some where along the line it was filled with Bondo and instead of finding and using it, the old wood screw trick was used. Getting closer to priming.