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Bob O'Neill on do-it-yourself bodywork and car painting
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Feb 4, 2025
Bob O'Neill on do-it-yourself bodywork and car painting: an Allpar interview. Bob's 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z is featured at http://www.allpar.com/model/daytona/restoration.html and features deep black paint, applied personally and to perfection.
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mob one of the things that we saw last
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year at Carlyle which impressed everyone
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was your Dodge Daytona with it's
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absolutely perfect mint condition paint
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job which he deprecated and said no this
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isn't nearly perfect and then you showed
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us some imperfections that nobody else
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could see well when you when you're
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painting a car for the first time after
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30 years of their opinion car before it
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does get to be rather a challenge
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especially if you're painting milf lake
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and I hadn't painted metal flake in such
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a long time the first time I painted
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metal flake was on a 62 Chrysler believe
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it or not and it was it was it green I
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hate they can suggest this but it was a
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green emerald green metallic which was a
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Ford color I'm sorry but that's what it
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was and it was a lacquer paint and
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basically had rolled it on and got a
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perfect job but in this particular case
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I wanted to use the original clear coat
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over the base coat and the preparation
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is the most important part basically I
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took the car apart and there's pictures
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of that in the gallery in the Daytona
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gallery just look in the photo gallery
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and then you see my my cars listed I
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have to change the head of it but I will
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but the preparation of the car is most
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important and what I did is I took the
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whole car apart and before I took it
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apart I circled and photographed all the
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imperfections that I thought that I was
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able to fix so that as we were standing
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away we would have a graphic record of
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where the imperfections were if we
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couldn't see them making it a whole lot
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easier so then we pounded out some of
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them and glazed over some of them with
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body putty some bondo but a whole gallon
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of bondo and use maybe like a golf ball
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size because it was really that that
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minimal and then the the red mud of the
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red lead putty and built it up and built
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it up until the body was as straight as
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we could possibly make it
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time that we had then came the primer
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the primer is a filler primer and what
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the primer basically does is it goes
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ahead and fills in the imperfections
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that you missed the first time but just
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sand it down prime it again send it down
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primary together basically we're
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blocking it and the most important part
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of the whole thing is to keep it clean
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and I was extremely fortunate there's a
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girl in of all places British Columbia
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up in that up in that area of Canada I
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was introduced to her by biz whose
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frequency forms occasionally and he
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introduced me to her and she and I
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communicated I've got documents that she
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emailed me of how to do these various
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things she said grab a bucket put a cup
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full of soap in it fill it up with nice
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warm water soak your paper and then use
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it to block out the car but keep a spray
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bottle of the same mixture so that you
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can keep it wet the whole time and this
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is how we do it when you don't have a
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whole lot of room you know you don't
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have a whole lot of the resource so we
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blocked it all out it looked okay and
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then of course then the paint went on
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but the imperfections you were talking
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about when you're when you're painting
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and you don't use the right reducer
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actually the reducer was okay it was the
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I think it was introduced or basically
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there's a FASTA medium and a slow
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reducer and when you when you use these
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the fast of course is going to have the
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paint flash really fast and depending on
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the temperature that might be what you
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want especially if it's in a cold
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temperature or if it's a warm
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temperature you might want it to flash a
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little bit slower to give the paint the
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opportunity to flow properly well paint
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like the other thing has green
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especially if you're dealing with
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metallic paint so I've paint it in one
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direction and I thought you know what
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I've got some paint left over in the can
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and this is the front of the hood I'm
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the pool that more paint on here and I
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wouldn't the opposite
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direction bad move so if you look at it
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in the light you can see that the
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reducer that I used didn't allow the
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metal flake to lay down to match the
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direction that I took in the other
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direction but you only see it in the
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annoy there's a couple of other areas
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but we won't talk about those now how
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did you keep large dust particles cat
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hair as human hairs leaves well I
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actually painted the thing of paint
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booth and another funny story and it
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feel kind of bad about it because I
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really intended to visit with this club
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more often but the Panhandle ponies once
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again for it gets involved Panhandle
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ponies was being led by or the president
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of panhandle ponies was a member of a
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Chrysler Club the local Chrysler club
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and they suggested that I contact one of
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the ladies there who owns a paint booth
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because she does Mustang restores so she
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graciously allowed me to bring the car
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in sweet o the car there put it in her
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paint booth and we did all the work in
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the paint booth so there are some bugs
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that got in and when you find one you
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just flick it off and if it's in the
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wrong process you end up with very small
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particles of wing embedded in your paint
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but that gives a character not
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necessarily going to win any major shows
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with it but it looks better than it did
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when it came from the factory I think so
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do thanks not-not-not the bug but the
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overall results yes well of course I
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have 1974 valiant so it came from the
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factory with bulges in the paint
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misaligned trim and misalignment yeah I
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ran into that problem the Daytona is
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notorious for having the doors too far
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forward and I've even had people ask me
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why did your doors not interfere with
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the front
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well for years they did and the reason
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that my the front of my door didn't rust
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was because it constantly rubbing the
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rust off of the bare metal as it reached
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that one particular spot but what i did
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was i removed the doors after so many
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years the cars hinge pins needed to be
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replaced so i replaced the hinge pins
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but in the process I pulled the doors
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back nearly an eighth of an inch so that
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the line of the front and the line in
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the back of the space between the doors
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and the fenders and the rear was the
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same I did the same thing with the rear
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deck and that was a challenge and I did
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the same thing with the with the hood
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and now they're all lined up another
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challenge was getting the round door for
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the gas cap perfectly round and in place
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as well that was a challenge took a
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couple of washers and moving things
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around a little bit to build it out and
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move it over but it it got wind up
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finally it's been about a day on that of
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course one thing that I should tell
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people I should ask you to tell people
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is that your Daytona is not one of the
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very last ones to leave the factory
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floor no so all this paint work and all
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these adjustments came this is now the
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year 2007 what years early told my
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Daytona is an 86 I bought it in december
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of 85 so I'm the only owner of the car
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and it has seen some action my
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daughter's drove it she was there was a
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time where she was accused of ramming
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into the back of another car with it but
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trust me it didn't happen the other car
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backed into her that was another story
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we don't have time to go into that but
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there's there was that incident and I
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drove it to Connecticut one time and the
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door was bashed in the only accident
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that it's ever had you know you have
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these things that you can't avoid and I
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was stupid one day and back into the
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Mustang and did a little digging on the
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on the rear which was taken care of but
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beyond that the car is solid we had a
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couple of rust areas that we had to deal
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with we dealt with those and when we
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have the entire interior out of the car
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because if you got to paint the car you
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have to paint everything taking a car to
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a place and having them slap some paint
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on it that makes it look good for a
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little while but they have to tape
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around everything in my case I removed
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all the trim I remove the wings the
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doors and everything get everything
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lined up but I remove the entire
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interior except for the dash and the the
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steering column that we take around but
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the entire interior got removed we found
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a couple of rust areas there I had an
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issue where my quarter windows on the
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side those were also removed because I
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had some issues where water had gotten
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in and it eventually arrested the some
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holes in the spare tire so well so if we
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repaired that and I found out where the
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what it was coming in because I got in
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the car with the interior removed I had
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some of the outside spray water on a
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water hose I said ah there it SAT so it
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we removed those we didn't break them
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which is kind of remarkable they're held
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in with five screws and butyl tape and
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it's touted to be one of the most
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difficult windows to remove but we took
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them out of it didn't break them and me
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when I pulled the trim the rubber trim
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off of the back glass I did that because
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I didn't want to to have no paint
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underneath right you know and I didn't
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wasn't going to tape it off so I just
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removed it once the car was finished I
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had the paint that I paint the last guy
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come out and I had him pull the rear he
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wasn't happy hold the rear glass reframe
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it clean it off reseal it and I said
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okay now how much you gonna charge me to
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put these two pieces back in well
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basically it was another bottle or a
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tube of that butyl that liquid urethane
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he says I put this on there those things
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I've never come
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that's fine so he put it on slant it in
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place I put the screws in tighten down
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he went to the other side will tell you
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what i have not had any more water so
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those side glasses were leaking and you
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know we painted underneath and clean
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them all up really well about the one
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common place where even new cars tend to
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get rust is the bottom of the door seen
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the bottom of the door seemed on the
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door itself and the door itself there's
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there is some issues with that and in
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the back after I painted it this was the
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paint job is now about three years old I
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noticed that as you know how the door
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skin comes around then it comes up and
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then is welded to the end right sides
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that's the course is talking about yes
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there's supposed to be a scene seal
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across that what happens is the same
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seal itself gets so brittle in flakes
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off and then of course the water comes
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in from the outside if you don't have
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those wipers now those wipers are no
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longer available untold for my car so
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you have to come up with another way to
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get those rubber wipers on the outside
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basically what they do is they keep the
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glass clean at the same time to keep
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water out well the majority of the water
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out anyways right those are the things
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that are felt like material it felt on
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the inside rubber on the outside so
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we're talking about the side windows now
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and not the windshield when you say not
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my difference thing not the window when
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you roll the windows down these are the
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wipers that are on the outside well if
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those are deteriorated to the point
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where mine were deteriorated then water
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is easily able to get in if it gets in
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its going to pull it's going to pool and
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of course that rust happens so the door
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that I had before I had the accident
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actually had some issues and I was going
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to have to deal with that well then the
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accident with the little crush crush on
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the the door oh well how to replace the
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door found a door in bluefield west
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virginia guy there has lots of Daytona's
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in the yard found a nice door found a
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good price on it looked at it it was
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flawless well it was red my car is blue
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so there's that flaw but I should care
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of that and in the meantime basically to
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solve that problem where the water comes
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and you have the rust it seeps down
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through the space between the frame and
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where it's welded up the water seeps
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down in there in the course it's just
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moisture so it causes for us to occur so
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what you have to do is you have to stop
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the rust from occurring there's a
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product that is available from lots of
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places but the one that is touted to be
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the best is from Eastwood and it's they
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call their rust encapsulator they have a
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rust converter they have a bunch of
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other things but the rust encapsulator
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basically what is going to happen on my
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next project and to repair my rear deck
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is I'm going to get inside and I'm going
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to lay down a layer of rust encapsulator
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to basically seal the steel now the
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steel is going to be sealed any rust
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that maybe there will no longer be
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forming new rust unless there's water
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and oxygen getting to the rest well rust
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encapsulator is going to encapsulate
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that to the extent that no more water
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can get there and on the underneath side
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where the metal is welded bent up and
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welded in I'm going to remove the same
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sealer clean it all out put in the rust
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encapsulator put a new layer of sand
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ceiling so in effect those areas if you
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can catch it before it gets like bubbly
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rust and now you have to do some serious
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work to it if you can catch it so that
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you notice that it's a little red and
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it's a you'll notice that there's rust
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there simply encapsulate the rust put
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the new seam sealer on to prevent water
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from getting into that area and you'll
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do a long you'll go a long way towards
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keeping it from becoming a whole you
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know you'll be able to store or let's go
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save your doors from having to be
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replaced or having to be welded or
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anything yeah on the new car the the
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black with a new project I bought it
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sight unseen more or less I mean I
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actually gave her the money when I saw
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the car but this is another 86 this
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one's a turbo z this was going to get
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the same treatment can cheer
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coming out everything's would be
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inspected but I've got two areas in that
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car that are going to need some work
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apparently the seam sealer at the cow
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where the firewall and the and the dash
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sort of come together up in that area
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the seam sealer is just flicked off to
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the point where water has gotten in
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there to the extent there is actually
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some really really thin metal I'm gonna
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have to cut that out and well the piece
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in it's just no other way to do it I
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also noticed that in the entire car when
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I inspected it prior to buying it there
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was a spot about the size of maybe two
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half dollars that is a hole in the
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rocker panel of course that's going to
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have to be cut out of oil it as well if
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you got hole you're going to have to
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weld it that's just the way it's going
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to be but after it's welded I'm going to
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coat it with the undercoating and the
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Russian caps later to prevent it from
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from rusting again in the future let's
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go up another question thank you very
15:53
much Bob Wells nai preciated your have
15:56
no problem
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