Grille

PAINTED! Time for Interior Dress Up

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OMG! IT’S PAINTED !

And it looks fantastic. I’m really happy the way the color turned out, and I’m happy it’s not as light as some of the pictures I saw online. My cousin did a fantastic job. He also said that it’s the reason why he used the gray primer the second time around to be sure it wasn’t too light. It really does look freaking awesome, and sparkly.

I can see myself driving it in no time! Uhhh….wait, I’ve got a lot to do now. All the stuff in boxes needs to get back into the car, but some pieces are quite ready yet.

Since, I’ve found out that cleaning and painting takes so long, I took the whole weekend to make sure all trim pieces that needs to be painted, did.

Used vinyl paint to paint the dash pad and package tray. But before that, spent hours taping up the chrome pieces of the headlight grill and taillights. This was so I could paint them black and the chrome will really POP! I will say this was not a fun activity of cleaning taping, painting, waiting, painting waiting.

I will say, when in doubt buy extra paint. It’s no fun running out to the store multiple times during your productive day.

Removal Day 2

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I was able to find a video on West Coast Classic Cougars that demonstrated how to find the practically hidden bolts that holds together to 2 pieces of the grille housing. It took a little while for me to find a wrench that fit, but I finally was able to take the left side off. VICTORY! The right one came off much pretty quickly.

The hideaway lights are run on vacuum hoses and a canister. My dad let me know that there is likely a leak or a problem with them, so my cousin also wanted me to remove that. The canister was locate behind the driver's side fender. Besides some rust falling in my eyes, (I know, I know. Always wear safety goggles...) it was pretty easy to remove. 

I spent the majority of my day removing the rest of the carpet and liner, and cleaning out all the rust to get the floor pans as clean as possible. I found about a dollar in change, but no gold. It smelled terrible in there! Probably could have used a mask. The soggy cardboard like floor liner definitely did a number on floor pan and there are some parts that I can see right through. Floor pans aren't that expensive though for this car, so we'll patch and replace where necessary.

My brother came by later in the day to lend a hand. He was able to remove the wheel trim, some door trim, and pop out the tail lights as well. There's still lots of trim on this car to remove. Taking time with it though, because all of the trim is in great shape, and I have all the pieces. I don't want to break anything.