Paint and a Buffer

"Don't let off the gas, Whatever you do, do not let off the gas." 

- Dust To Glory (2007)

Well this weekend may have been one of the last in which the car ventures outside for a while. It would appear that the glorious Seattle weather is taking a turn on us. Our 3 weeks of summer are fading quickly... Its currently 54 degrees out and pouring.....

 WAIT A TIC.... My journey of bringing this old Stude back to life must continue. I cant let the weather force us in to a standstill.This is pedal to the metal until we are done, can't let off the gas now.

 I went and worked on the car on Saturday in my continuing effort to clean her up. When I rolled it out of the garage, I scared my daughter (2yrs old) and freaked out a neighbor. The neighbor saw the car roll out with no one behind the wheel and my daughter thought it was scary for some reason; she usually loves the car. In her defense, the arms on the ski rack were up and looked almost like horns.

I bought a new buffer and some paint prior to taking the Stude out of the garage. So now I have two buffers. Makes it nice when using polish or wax as it allows me to put a polishing pad on one and a terry cloth pad on the other. The pads can be a pain to pull over the buffer, so having two is ideal in my opinion. The paint that I purchased was for the engine and wheels. I picked up a can of this for the engine parts I will be taking off and painting. The color to be chosen to go over this is still undecided. Looking for input from you readers out there.

Duplicolor Engine Enamel - Gray Primer

The other paint that I purchased was for the wheels. I plan on painting the wheels so that they are a matched set, instead of two pairs. I picked up some white auto primer and Sparkle Silver MetalSpecks for the base coats. The final color will be Burnt Orange MetalSpecks. My I will lay down 2 coats of silver then 3-4 coats of Orange. The silver base should make the Burnt Orange really pop. Then I will spray a couple coats of clear over them

Duplicolor MetalSpecks - Burnt Orange

This picture gives an idea of the MetalSpecks final product.

I was able to get two wheels done on Saturday with the silver. The O'reilly's that I went to was out of stock on Burnt Orange MetalSpecks so I was only able to purchase the Silver. I will get the orange next chance I get.

 I cant wait to get the orange on there to see how it looks. I think it will be a good contrast to the Dark Green that the car is now. Once they are painted, the Stude will be getting some new Chrome Lugs and possible some Chrome trim rings if I cant locate some Original Stude center caps. At some point in the future, I want to add wide white walls on it as well.

Now I mentioned that I had purchased another buffer. I did so under the knowledge that I didn't have the patience to hand buff the entire car. I did that once on a '67 Buick Lesabre and never want to do it again. I have already spent a few hours doing it by hand and am no where close to being 1/4 done, and who doesn't like new toys tools! So, while the paint was drying I pulled out my new buffer and went to work.


I used NuFinish Car Polish as mentioned in a previous entry. I applied it with one buffer then switched to the other to buff it out. I managed to get one side of the car done and a section of the roof before calling it quits for the day. It was amazing watching the old oxidized paint come back to life. There are some rough areas, but all in all it is looking a lot better on the outside.

This pic was taken prior to the first wash.

This is how it sits as of now, following paint and polish

 While I was painting the wheels, I also switched the back ones to the front and front to back. The tires that are on there were picked up used and are two different sizes. The larger ones were initially mounted on the front and it didn't matter to begin with. After looking at it, I thought it looked a tad goofy with bigger tires in the front than the back. I think it looks much better now.

That "vintage" ski-rack is still sitting on the roof. I tried to take it off again before realizing that I would need to take the entire luggage rack off to take off the ski-rack. That was more than I was willing to do, so its still up there, till next time, till next time....

Next time will also include more engine work and I will finish buffing out the paint. I will have a new belt to install and possibly an alternator(fingers crossed) & battery(again fingers crossed). We are going to see if the Marvel Mystery Oil did its job; definitely praying that it did. This Old Wagon is coming back to life one step at a time.

And, next time, that damned ski-rack is coming off!