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1963
Ford Falcon Restoration
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The car body actually being buffed by myself; and this
is a long and tedious process. After the cars are painted and clear
coated with three coats of acrylic urethane clear, I have to take
1200 grit sandpaper and sand the entire car body until all the orange
peel, all of the remnants of orange peel has been sanded off to a
flat finish; and then I take an electric buffer and buffing compound;
and I polish the car to a really high gloss getting rid of all the
scratches and leave a mirror finish. This process takes anywhere from
60 to 80 man-hours to do one car, including doors, fenders, hood,
trunk lid, and the quarter panels and roof. It's a long process, but
the results speak for themselves. |
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A picture of the hood right after the buffing process
was completed. Notice in the hood the reflection of the Holley Performance
Carburetor banner on the wall of the shop, how nice it reflects in
the finish. One of the tricks that I've learned over the years in
buffing and finishing paint is to buff it optically; and what I am
by that is that I look at the reflection of car banners and different
things on the walls in my shop, with the lights on as high as possible;
and when I can read the banners and read signs on the wall clearly,
I know that the finish of the paint is at its highest level. |
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The driver's door and the door jam area. The reason
I took this picture was to show the level of detail in the actual
latch assembly, the screws to hold the latch assembly in, the care
taken in masking off the data plate, that is actually riveted to the
door -- a lot of detail involved in painting cars and doing restoration
work. |
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Here is the driver's door in its closed position, and notice the
highly re-chromed and polished door handles, the key lock, and the
side trim has been reinstalled and the car's really starting to look
pretty at this point in time. This is when we really notice the results
of having door handles rechromed, the stainless steel lock mechanisms
repolished, and the detail of the side trim and the repainting of
the side trim done after its been polished, really, really starts
to show at this point in time. |
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The interior before door panels, carpeting, and before the upholstery
shop gets the car to finish the installation of the interior. Notice
that the top, the bottom of the inside of the doors have been repainted
in the original factory lacquer color, as well as the dash has been
totally repainted and detailed. These are the things that really help
in the overall appearance of a car; and you're really glad you did
it after the restoration is completed. |
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The passenger side of the car with the door on, trim on, and just
prior to leaving our facility to go to a company that we use for interior
work and convertible top -- the Auto Top Shop in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. |
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This is of the Falcon the day that we were getting ready to take
it to the Top Shop, the Auto Top Shop for its convertible top and
complete interior. Notice the front fenders are not on the car, the
engine's been installed, new tires, painted wheels. At this point,
it's getting very, very exciting to notice -- to get done with the
car and deliver it back to its owner. |
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And this is also the same day. We were getting ready to deliver
it to the Top Shop; and you can see we put all of the pieces and parts
in the car, in the trunk, these are the tops of the door panel trim,
stainless steel trim pieces that the interior people will install
on the door panels before putting them in the car. This concludes
the first string of pictures at this point in time. |
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