I believe Q*Bert said it best when he said, “@!#?@!”. I could probably expand on that, but the eloquence of the simple phrase seems so fitting to describe project: second pancake. It’s finished now, and finished is such an apt term.
The engine and interior really look very good on it. Even the wheels, decals, etc.:
And then there’s the body. Jesus Fucking Christ. Everything that could have gone wrong certainly did. The initial attempt to install bare metal foil on the side trim resulted in having to strip and repaint it. The second shot at painting wasn’t nearly as smooth as the first. Still, I soldiered on. I went with the two-tone paint because I knew it wasn’t going to be a showpiece and I figured I could learn something along the way. That also went pretty well. Even the application of the trim paint wasn’t too bad. Then I Installed the windows. Evidently I got some paint on my fingers during the process which resulted in globs of paint on the top. I’m too many coats of paint in to care to try stripping it down and starting over, so fuck it. I’m done.
I want to point out that what you are seeing on top of the fenders, hood and trunk lid isn’t imperfections in the paint, it is actual dust that collected because assembly of this thing took me so damn long. Once I had the body paint fucked up, I just kind of quit trying. But it’s done now and I can move on. Hopefully I won’t repeat the same mistakes on the next one. The next one was going to be an AMC Gremlin, but the wife bought me a Corvette model for Valentine’s Day (which I subsequently bought some wheels and paint for) and I am itching to get started on it. Crossing my fingers that I won’t make some boneheaded mistake that costs me the project.