That's right folks, we're in living color as of this past Monday. Check out the blog for some more info.
It's been a grueling couple of weeks and I don't think I have any finger prints left after all of the sanding, but our '68 fastback has come out of the paint booth looking an actual car again thanks to the great people at Classic Creations of Central Florida (www.classiccreationsfl.com). We still have plenty of wet sanding on the clear and then buffing the paint to a mirror finish, but the major hard work is done!
A special thanks must go out to Brian Smith at Auto Body Color & Supply (www.autobodycolor.com) for the help with our PPG Deltron paints. Brian took our original Ford Dark Shadow Gray base color and "kicked it up a notch" with some extra metallic and a bit of pearl and gave it the custom name of Ghost Gray Pearl Metallic. The stripes are standard Le Mans dimensions, but stopping at the hood and trunk lip, and are Reaper Black Metallic. We also used the stripe color for the taillight panel and fog light openings.
A last minute design change (and we mean like 30 minutes before spraying color) was the idea to under cut the rear valance, similar to how the SVT Mustang Cobra in 2003/04 was done. Once we get the car buffed out we'll be finishing this area with a fine black mesh screen with exhaust cut outs. The rear bumper, which is also fiberglass, is body color, and will be bolted up later after the taillight panel has been buffed out.
Overall we are extremely pleased at the outcome of all of our body work and custom touches and can't wait to start final assembly. You'll see the final paint story in the June 2011 issue of Modified Mustangs & Fords and look for further build stories throughout the year as work towards wrapping this project by Christmas 2011.