1957 Thunderbird Restoration

[ZINGERCUSTOMS]

Hi my name is Josh, I have a small restoration shop in Indiana and am currently restoring this very solid 57. I like to document my work and share my processes with people so I will be posting my progress as we go...I have had this car in my shop for a couple months, been meaning to post but haven't had time so tonight is the night....
I will post pictures to bring it up to date.
You can see some other restorations I have done HERE
Just click on the title above the pictures and it will take you to the restorations and you will get an idea of what we do.

Anyway, Here is how it came to me.....Really solid car or appeared to be so...never know what is hiding under all that paint. I had some doubts as to condition since there was quite a bit of waviness in the paint. The original color is Azure Blue...but it seemed to be a mix of that and starmist...several panel repairs and paints = several shades.

Interior was restored a few years back and looks really nice!

The paint looked good from about 15 ft but on close inspection it was full of dirt nibs and fish eyes and bad blends and.......well you get the idea...the major color differences seen in the pictures are more a result of the camera than anything, although a each panel had a slightly different color of blue...

In a few days we had it torn down and ready for stripping....lets see how many coats of paint we can count, shall we?

Ready to strip!

 

[ZINGERCUSTOMS]

as suspected lots of filler over old repairs...seems more was used than necessary...

Yep lots o'paint and primer and filler and primer and red putty.....
But what about rust?

Here is a view of the only rusted areas we could find....amazing!
I have a few more pics but not now here is one of three small areas on the lower rear quarters that needed a little patch, about 3 to 4 inchs by 1 inch at the most. Other than that the car is amazingly solid....but not without its issues...

 

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Here are some of the old leaded repairs and dents that need attention.

Front fender was sectioned and the work was not too great...

This one looked like a bullet hit it!

This was a mangled mess here, multiple holes drilled all the way thru the panel and inner panel and then some sloppy slide hammer work that crushed the inner out into the outer quarter, I had a pic buy my camera didn't save it, so this is the biggest patch we put on the car and it turned out really nice.

 

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Here the nose is badly dented and filled with a lot of filler...

After metal finishing...

 

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The door gaps were as usual not good, hanging out in the wind on the lower rear of door and body lines not lining up when top was flush...also uneven.

You can't see it but it is held flush at top and the body line is off....

Hood high in front and back

Same with trunk lid...looks good from this angle but if you look close it is high all over, and the hinges are all the way down.

Here is after we reworked the door gaps, opened them up by cutting and welding where needed and ready to be hand filed to even them out.

 

[Jim D]

Beautiful work on the resto. You have a very good eye.

Jim D.

 

[ZINGERCUSTOMS]

Been a while since I updated...we have all the initial body work finished and are in the second blocking stage on most panels, fine tuning factory wiggles and wobbles...
We also refinished the engine compartment and trunk areas. Here are the pics. Thanks for looking.

First coat of Primer is Epoxy, then high build polyester for blocking.

Then it is this color for a while in the 2k Urethane for future blocking operations.

Inside trunk was some surface rust that we sanded and use POR15 products to etch and coat, then used rocker shutz to coat and then painted.

 

[ZINGERCUSTOMS]

The engine compartment was pretty nasty with paint stripped from brake fluid and such, lots of dirt in the paint. We were not removing the engine so we had to strip it down as best we could and paint around the engine. We used some high build primer in areas that needed attention.

after

Interesting that the air cleaner was chromed at one time during its life...

Other details

 

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Just sent out our hood hinges for rebuild and got them back. Really impressed with Wilsons Antique Car Parts via hoodhingerepair.com. They machine new rivets and main pin to the size of your worn hinges and press them in so there is no play, they even re manufactured the center post with a slot for the spring. Really economical and excellent quality. Had them back within 10 days.

Also wanted to show part of our process...
A lot of people use spray paint or a powder to put on guide coat for blocking operations. A good friend showed me this cheaper and better way. Take some acetone and a little single stage paint and just add enough paint to a quart can to tint the acetone, like a dark blue or black. Then you pour it on a rag and wipe the car down. The acetone evaporates so quick it won't hurt any primers with hardeners like 2k urethane or polyester primers. It stains it and gets into every sand scratch from 180 grit up to 320 and 400. Spray can guide coat can't do that unless you use a ton and put it on so thick you would be sanding the guide coat instead of the primer. The powder works better than spray can but it is expensive and still doesn't work as good as the acetone. Here is a couple pics....

This is after a few passes with 320 over previously sanded with 180, see the sand scratches?

And here is my block of choice for most of the blocking...

a simple wood stir stick you get for 5 gallon paint cans at your local paint store for free. Check to make sure they aren't warped and they really get panels straight. Hard to get used to holding and after you have a few calluses on your thumbs you don't mind so much. I use many other sanding blocks for various areas on a car but for large flat areas these work really good.
Thats if for now, hope to get to wet sanding the next coats of primer for paint.

 

[ZINGERCUSTOMS]

Update! We have really made some progress:
Here is the basecoat:

First Two coats of Clear:

This is after sanding the two coats with 600g

 

[ZINGERCUSTOMS]

After we wet sanded it as seen in the last post I shoot on 5 coats of clear.

Now it is time to sand....I feel like I am more of a sander than a painter

To get the desired finish, I go back to wet sanding beginning with 600 with a hand block, then 800g, then 1000, then 1200, then 1500, then 2000, then 2500 and then.....with a DA I use 3000, and 5000 grit. Every inch if the car gets this treatment, my arm pays the price.
But it is worth it.
Here is a couple pics of the fender after sanding it up to 5000 on the DA.

almost shines!
After first pass with buffer

Eventually I will have hit it once with a wool pad, then a foam cutting pad, then a black foam polish pand and then a final blue polish.

Here is the result of all that sanding, it is hard to show in a picture but this is a picture of the door on a stand, standing up, you can see the rear edge of the door to the left. you can see that the reflection is very crisp and clear.

We did some small parts refinish and installation here are some pictures:

 

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We clean and painted the frame up front

The steering wheel was a brighter shade of blue, the owner wanted to match it to the dash so we did.

 

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Well into the final assembly now. Heres some pics....
Nice fit on the front grill chrome

A lot of time was spent getting nice gaps on the front and rear light housings.

 

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Front bumper droop seems to be a commen problem, here we addressed that and machined the brackets so we had more adjustment.

Here is a better pic of the smaller wheel with the correct type center painted to match the interior.

Engine area spruced up some...

And just some details

Sound deadner tightens up the door sound when you close it.

 

[ZINGERCUSTOMS]

 

[ZINGERCUSTOMS]

1957ThunderBirdrestorationbywwwzingercustoms15.jpg photo by zingercustoms | Photobucket

you will notice the color differences in the blue in some pictures, that is just the camera picking up light differently.

 

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Here are the finished pics....

 

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I also made this for the customer I am sending it out to be chrome plated. I have these available...it is a filler piece for the front bumper that can be chromed to delete the license plate area of the bumper and fill out the bumper shape.

 

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[Ian M Greer]

You have done a beautiful job of restoring the 57 amazing paint job , you have to have one very happy customer . Ian M Greer (REMEMBER NOT ALL BIRDS FLY SOUTH)