1980 Liquifire Project

[johnnycyclone]

Here's a grainy cell phone pic from tonight's activities. I finally got the hood, and windshield on. It still has an issue with the hood hitting the bumper but it's improved enough that I can move on. The only thing left to do now is to get some shocks on the ski's, re-tape the bumper stripe and secure the wiring going to the headlight. I'm going to try and get that done tomorrow and and then we will see about getting some quality pics outside in some good light. Also decided to see if it would fire up, pulled on the chord about 8 times and it came to life, so that's good. We will work on carb settings when we get more snow. 60 and sunny tomorrow, so probably not a good day for that.

[TOYMECH]

Looks MIGHTY fine!

[johnnycyclone]

Looks MIGHTY fine!

Thanks toymech. Here's a few pics of the finished product. I wrote up a long post thanking all those that contributed to the project, but it was one of those posts that didn't come back after the last outage. Here is a link to all of the pics if anyone wants to browse around. The quality of the pics isn't the best, I broke my camera last week, so I am using the one on my phone for now. Enjoy.

http://s1125.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 0Liquifire

[JDT]

What kind of black is that on the hood?

It looks so much richer or deeper than most.

Very very nice!!!

[johnnycyclone]

What kind of black is that on the hood?

It looks so much richer or deeper than most.

Very very nice!!!

It's just off the shelf PPG black, base coat/clear coat. What makes it look so black and deep is the work done after it's painted. I wet sanded it smooth with 1500 grit sandpaper, then I use a wool polishing wheel and 3M medium cut cleaner to remove the 1500 sanding scratches. Then I use a different wool polishing wheel and 3M fine cut cleaner to remove the scratches from the medium cut cleaner. The final step is to use the product below with a foam pad, this removes any remaining scratch, no matter how small in the clear coat, which give it a much deeper, blacker and rich looking black. If I just touch the hood you can see small scratches on the surface. It's just the lack of any scratches that makes it look that good.

[buckeyetrailfire]

You have done a GREAT job now can you come finish mine please

VERY NICE,

Mark

[JDT]

I just put your sled up as my new wallpaper.

My computer is very happy.

[Danzig]

have you tried the 3m products on original hoods for scratch removal ? I used wizards and it works very well.

[johnnycyclone]

Thanks Mark for the compliment, and I would love to help out on your sled, but you are a ways down on the list of those that have asked for help. We will see what we can do Honestly I'm a little burned out on wrenching on sleds right now and have shifted my work to finishing my garage, making a nicer area to work in.

Todd, I never thought about the wallpaper thing, it's to bad my camera broke, then the quality of the pics would be much better. I'm going to have to get me another one, and post better pics.

Terre

[johnnycyclone]

have you tried the 3m products on original hoods for scratch removal ? I used wizards and it works very well.

I have used it on most anything with paint, my truck, jet ski's which is actually gel coat, and I did an original hood on 82 Spitfire. Both the medium cut, and the fine cut cleaner are abrasives, so they work really good at removing scratches. But you have to be careful, not to be to aggressive, as you can cut right through the paint. It worked really good in all cases, but that's not to say there aren't other products that work just as well, or maybe better. It's what I started with 20 years ago, and have never needed to try anything different. I say if you have something that works, then stick with it.

[Danzig]

[wiseslider]

hi there, i see the grat work you have done on your hood. can you give me some insight into how you clean up the hood, repair the cracks etc. do you sandpaper it all down, then use bondo?, or fiberglass?, then wet sand nd primer paint. etc. just picked up to old 440 trailfires and want to restore them, they are running but hoods need restoration.

[snowkat79]

I know mine will not look near that clean when I am done! Very nice work! I like the invader heads on there.

[johnnycyclone]

wiseslider - I usually wet sand the hood using 220 grit, then repair any cracks with fiberglass. Once that is done I will fix any imperfections with bondo, or spot putty. I like to apply 3-4 heavy coats of primer, and then block sand it wet, with 400 grit. I then shoot a light coat of primer, or maybe a sealer, and if it looks good I will go ahead and shoot the color. If it's not as smooth as I like it I will wet sand with 600 grit, and then shoot the color. Preparation is everything, so take your time and get it nice and smooth and your paint job will look great.

Snowkat79 - thanks for the compliment, I am going to hate to see this one leave the garage.

[wiseslider]

Thank you so much for the info. Excellent work on your sled. Looks fantastic.