Topic: Some actual pictures of my restoration - 1966 San Jose Coupe

[sally_66]

Enclosed I will show you some pics of my 1966 San Jose Coupe that arrived last saturday back from paint job - I hope you will enjoy



















Paint Code M - Wimbledon White
Trim Code 22 - Std. blue
C-Code - 289-2V
low Optioned Car ) .... but one of the last built in 1966

Matthias

[J_Speegle]

Looks like your making headway.

Since you posted some pictures, got to ask  . Is that the way you found the front wheelwells originally (black stopping mid way) and the rear wheelwells  (no body color and black on the frame rail)?



Not being critical - just trying to help

[Panther]

Not being critical - just trying to help

We're always thankful for your help!

Just talked to Matthias and he asked me to post his answers to your question, as he is quite busy today, hope this is ok

rear wheelwells: As the undercarriage and the rear wheel wells seemed to be in quite original condition (red oxide colored with body overspray, right sound deadener on rear wheel wells) and Matthias didn't notice any evidence of white paint on the rear wheel wells while stripping them he assumed the wheel wells should be done this way.
He told me that that he read somewhere that only dark cars received body color on the wheelwells, as rear wheel wells on light-colored cars stayed black - apparently i talked to him about that, but unfortunately i can't remember it.

Here's a photo showing a part of the wheelwell before stripping:



black on the framerail: they were black on the outside before stripping, that's why they were done this way. Here you can see the condition before stripping:





front wheelwells: The car wasn't found this way - before stripping it was actually the way you are describing it. As Matthias wasn't sure whether this was correct, he checked some original and restored cars he found - on these cars the black paint stopped mid-way - so he painted it that way.

[sally_66]

Thanx to Paul .... that´s correct

Thanx to Jeff .... always read your answers as an advice - not as critic to discourage me 

Here what I found and my conclusions:

underbody:
red oxide color with oil and dirt covered

rear wheelwells:
red oxide color with black underbody protection oversprayed like the structure I tried to rebuild
(photo with flash - so structure in original is not so heavy)
On my way be cleaning that stuff I do not found any white body paint

My idea by do that job was not to copy this by primering "oxid red" and using underbody in cause of the durability.
So I decide to simulate the structure with sprayable sound deadener, primer this with 2K-oxid and do the finish with gloss black 2K-paint

front wheelwells:
Here I saw different versions:
Semi-Gloss Black Paint from front to midway of the shock towers to versions were the cut is stright on the edge from firewall to side-panels like you mentioned Jeff. As I know my car is repainted ones in the 80´s I was here not sure .... but I think you are right ! .... because here I found the same black underbody protection as in the rear wheelhouses that seams to be very original !

By the way I had to learn: semigloss black I tried on a color-chart in relation to gloss black is to shiny .... so we decide to use gloss black.
You have to know it´s not possible to deal with the color codes you use in USA here in germany, but think the surface of the engine looks quit right as I also see in my survivor Ford Galaxie500 from 1968.

Jeff, what do you think when you see the pics of what I found in "original" condition ? ... May that be possible what I reconstruct ?

Yours

Matthias

[J_Speegle]

Thanks guys for the conversation and the pictures.

The undercarriage in your pictures and your comments matches what we've seen of cars built during that time and plant - a somewhat dark muddy red oxide

As for the rear wheelwells - what I'm seeing in your pictures suggest (only seeing what you posted) that it matched what we've often seen. That is body color over the sound deadener in the rear well wells. In the pictures below you can see the red arrows pointing to what looks like white paint on the floor and frame rails near or in the rear wheelwell area. Now that paint could not have gotten there without also coating the back, forward and rearward sections of the wheel well also.

The green arrow appears to be white paint over sound deadener in the shadow of the wheel house









The workers and plant used no mask for the rear wheelwell to block the pant as the gun traveled back and forth across the wheel well and as the painter painted the lip of the opening. That paint had to go somewhere. Here is an example with the quarter panel skin  removed from about the same time period of your car showing what we typically see





Now on some cars - seems to be that they are lighter cars it appears (small percentage - might suggest a single worker that some times did this IMHO) the guy applying the pinch weld black out (once thought to have been applied to all but dark color cars) also passed the gun across the rear wheelwell to blacken some of the surface of the rear wheelwell. But we have never seen any attempt to completely cover the complete rear wheelwell with black. Even the primer, body color or sound deadener never covered 100% of the wheelwell surface - likely they didn't want to risk getting overspray on the exterior of the car resulting in extra work and time


As for the front wheelwells we almost always (think I've seen one early 65 with some body color way down low on the frame rail that didn't get covered) the black covers all of the panels from rear splash shield on one side to the other leaving no body color (though think spots in the black can wear off with age)  being left exposed. Of course at least 50% of these front wheel wells were coated with sound deadener once the car was completely finished (lacking wheels and tires from what we understand

The wheelwells as you have the currently look like the often copied Dearborn style of finishing them.

If you need photo examples or anything please ask or we can continue since I'm sure there are others watching

[Panther]

Thank you very much for the information, Jeff!
Got good news: Yesterday Matthias called and told me that he painted the front wheel wells black, as we discussed, so this area should be correct now.
Unfortunately I didn't talk about the rear wheel wells with him yet, but got to do so, especially about the areas you pointed out on the pics of his unrestored car. Perhaps he will paint the rear wheel wells, too, to get complete correct. i think your example photo could convince him... 

As soon as the assembly will advance, Matthias or I will post new pics of the car.

[Panther]

Here's a pic of the repainted front wheel well:

[J_Speegle]

Here's a pic of the repainted front wheel well:

Much better