Creating a KREEP..
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Early on, when it was first decided that a re-do was not only desired but necessary, I did a photoshop exercise to help choose a suitable colour. I’ll show those here to underline how happy I was to see the results of the paint choice. (I told you the story may jump around). 😉
The necessary profile shot of the Mercury as purchased:
Graphics removed. The purple is nice, but if we go through the effort of re-doing/repairing the car, then the best way to let folks know work has been done is to change the colour – right?
Now, a deep green was/is a popular choice. (Perhaps too popular for my tastes).
Looks pretty nice (one reason it’s popular).
A dark Washington Blue shade was also a good option:
Then there is the maroon/burgundy option:
All terrific choices, but I wanted to stand out from the crowd as well as stay fairly close to the era’s look. After reading Geo. Barris’ write-up on his painting methods in a Trend book, I was anxious to try a deep shade with the effect of adding gold powder. George had done this frequently, so I thought I would give it a digital try. A deep brown, almost black, with gold/bronze highlights would be different enough and give the Merc the classic/custom effect I was after. This is what we attempted to emulate with the paint; and I feel this is what we got:
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
Ten months after first dropping the car off at Ramsay’s Rod Shop (pretty quick I’d say..) my friend Bob trailered the car to my place from Warren’s Dream Car Garage. Word got around quickly, so there were more than enough bodies around to push/pull her into the light of day and then to the garage.
YEA!!
The rest of the car will be stored at Warren’s until needed as space will be limited in my home shop.
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
Got my folders mixed and missed some pics of the car during paint.
Base colour:
Clear coat:
I had messed with single-stage options, but could not get the results I was after (George and others had worked in lacquer which is tough for us to source in this neck of the woods). Then when Warren volunteered to paint the car I couldn’t very well interfere with his preferred methods and products, so base-clear it was! Not era correct, but the overall look is bang on I think.
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
Thank you everyone! Of course, it seems as soon as you get what you think is a great idea it turns up everywhere in some form or another! Brown is becoming the new red very rapidly! Tough to be unique ain’t it? (Ian, watch out. You might start to see shades of “lemon-lime” all over the place)! 🙂
Again, thanks.
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
Amazing Dave…. it is so great to see it get together step by step.. and then for the first time to see that color on the dash, then the fenders and hood… That must have been so exciting for you. The color really looks like something cooked up by the Barris or Ayala shop back in the early 1950’s.
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
Amazing how the close the color and gold powder effect turned out in real life compared to the photoshop.
Amazing how the close the color and gold powder effect turned out in real life compared to the photoshop.
Could not have been more pleased at that Dave! It’s one of the big things that makes folks take notice – paint first, then wheels/tires and if you feel you’ve got those right it’s a great relief..
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
The car came to me with the very common combo of 350ci Chevy, Turbo 350. This was working well, so I decided to continue with this setup in order to focus funds toward the rest of the re-do. After all the combination is “common” for good reason! After re-gasketing and painting the engine we re-mounted the newly serviced converter and transmission for ease of cleanup.
Some final touch-ups in the engine bay..
Engine and transmission should go in here:
Thanks to the additional heads and hands of phellow Pharaohs Jim and Cam, in it went!
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
With the drive train back in place the rest of the sheet metal can come home and will no longer be Warren’s responsibility(!).
Back fenders loosely mounted in preparation for the welting.
Put the nose on!!!
Hello KREEP!
Gas cap on (not as easy as I would have liked) and welting in place. Imagine what the Merc’s paint would look like if we had cut & polished it – but it’s a driver after all..
Neil & Lorne asked me not to reveal who these fellows are so you’ll have to guess.. 😉
Thanks to those two (un named 😉 ) fellows, we managed to tug all the welting into place:
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
Just had to mock up the grills..
Oh yes, and the hood installed too.
Changing up the headlight bulbs – old one on the right new one on the left.
Gonna make the original style column operate the automatic.
Dave
Jus' creepin' along..
Really good stuff Dave. Another great feature of your colour is the welting just kind of disappears something I am struggling with how I am going to do it on my truck. And yeah I have already seen a few lime gold coloured cars popping up in show coverage and lime green seems to be the new “in colour” for the econobox OEM vehicles as well. What can you do. 🙂 Drove home from Calgary in a snow storm today looks like summer is coming to an end quickly. 🙁
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