Here are some better shots of the paint with my good camera. (Mike feel free to edit my old post.)


http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...Patrol/Ni1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...Patrol/Ni2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...Patrol/Ni3.jpg

Been a while since the last update:

Bumper covers are done!

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/Bumpers1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/Bumpers2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../Bumper3-1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/Bumpers4.jpg

Roof is done!

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...trol/roof1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...trol/roof2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...trol/roof3.jpg

b-pillars are done!

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/DSC_2613.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/DSC_2612.jpg

Hood and rear deck are done!

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...ehoodpaint.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...cklidpaint.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...ol/hoodtop.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...decklidtop.jpg

The front suspension is also back together with new ball joints, tie rod ends, rack, and bushings. The struts and springs are off a 20K mile Mustang so almost NOS. (the rotors & bearings will also be changed just have not gotten to that yet.)

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../Frontsusp.jpg

I plan to paint the body this week / weekend, I finished all my prepwork last weekend and she is finally ready!

What an AWESOME job you are doing with that SSP! :2thumbs:

As of tonight eveything is done, plan is to paint Friday!


http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...locking1-1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../blocking2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../blocking3.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../blocking4.jpg

That is going to be one awesome SSP! :cool:

This is so cool! Excellent work, one of the best restos I've ever seen I think...

Wow!!! That car is Dynomite. That Twlight blue is beautiful !

Car is looking really good! Can't wait to see it finished !!!!!!

Painted!
 

The body is now done!

Well the body is finally painted!

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...rol/taped1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...rol/taped2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...rol/taped3.jpg

7 coats of basecoat later....great color but it does not cover at all

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/basecoat.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/painted1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/painted2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/painted3.jpg

GREAT job, Aaron! That blue looks amazing...

:2thumbs:

SWEET!!!!!! :-)

Wow, beautiful work, Aaron. A work of art!!

Absolutely fantastic Aaron, so you are doing that paint work in your own place? Really cool work shop you have there.

Car looks amazing so far , i really enjoy seeing the step by step work being done!

KHP
 

Your car looking amazing first time on here in awhile...

Most of it I am doing at my place, I have access to a booth and that is where I did the trim pieces and bumper covers but I had so much masking and time doing the two tone on the car body itself I could not tie my buddies booth up for 2 days. I think the car actually came out cleaner then the stuff I painted in the booth anyway, lol.

Updates for this week, the rear deck is on, the trim is all painted, the door window frames are painted black, I started sanding and buffing, and I picked up some Gatorbacks.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...litt/trim1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...litt/photo.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...indowframe.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...t/reardeck.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...litt/buff2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...litt/buff1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...Gatorbacks.jpg

This car is going to be gorgeous! Your doing a great job!

And to think that most officers that drove SSPs never thought there would be a day where people would put so much dedication into restoring them back to inservice condition :)

Great job so far, you have crested the hill and are on a down hill path now:D

I know right!? My uncles are all cops in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area and when I told them I bought an old DPS mustang they laughed and said "Those car were drove hard and put up wet! Good luck". LOL! The joke is on them! My Dad is the only one that was not a cop (firefighter). He got a big kick out of it when i let him drive it to work one day. LOL

I agree completely, some of them knew they were special, to some it was just another car.

Very true, my experience has been the owners after the states really doing the damage though not the LEO's.

My original Sequence number from the Dearborn plant installed back behind the front bumper, yes I even painted the bumper speed nut brackets:

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...Patrol/seq.jpg


Putting the new channel run weather stripping in:


http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...channelrun.jpg

Antennas are fitted in their original holes. Fuel door with new bumpers, front bumper and rear bumper cover, almost NOS rear tail lights and NOS Quarter glass are in. Drip rails, door handles rear deck and rear deck emblems are all on, whew!

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...0Patrol/RF.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...0Patrol/LR.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...0Patrol/LF.jpg

Looking really good Aaron! Can not wait to see it in person.

One word - STUNNING! :2thumbs:

Beautiful job!

Looking very nice! Love the color!

Looking even better! I want more pics! :D

May I ask where you got the new window channels from?
Need to find a pair for my SSP.

They are from 50Resto, I could not find any NOS so I used these, I used them in the past on my AL DPS resto and I was happy with them.

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/...l-Weatherstrip

True story. Look how many were turned into drag cars and literally run into the ground by John Q. Public. I was thrilled to find mine quite literally untouched and original besides the usual replacement stuff like tires, hoses, etc. I was so happy to find the factory airbox still intact and not a cheesy chrome "CAI" from ebay. :) Besides the crappy re-paint on my car (good base/clear paint job honestly, crappy in the fact that they jambed over the stickers) its a good car; I'm hoping not to find major body work underneath that paint though. :/

Here are the latest pictures. I clean the original fuel and EVAP lines and repainted them. The brake lines are off a 92GT that was turned into a roadrace car with all custom lines installed and he did not need his perfect condition OE lines. Installed all of them on the car and I will get an underbody shot once I am done repainting the rear axle and replacing the suspension. The doors are built up minus the door panels and harnesses, she's coming right along!

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../fuellines.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...akeandfuel.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...rakelines1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...doorsbuilt.jpg

Now that the body is mostly done it’s back to the powertrain, I pulled the rear axle out and will be acid dipping the housing and repainting it. I will also be replacing all of the bearings, races, seals, and bushings. It will be just like new.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../rearaxle1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../bushings2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../rearaxle2.jpg

I got the rear wheel wells painted, so now all the underbody paint is done! The fuel tank and all new brakes and hardware are next. I installed the sway bar, hood hinges, p/s cooler, and started installing all the airbag sensors and wiring.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../enginebay.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...underbody2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...underbody1.jpg

I picked up all new bearings, seals, brakes, etc. for it. While the car is stuck on the lift I decided to finish off the fuel system and install all of low mileage almost NOS control arms and shocks.

Cleaned the tank and replaced the fuel pump:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...ol/Newpump.jpg

Installed:

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../FuelTank2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d.../FuelTank1.jpg

New calipers, wheel cylinders, master cylinder, booster, brake hoses, brake pads, shoes, rotors, drums, seals, hub/axles/pinion/carrier bearings, hardware, axle housing bushings, etc.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...rol/Brakes.jpg

very nice. working with clean new parts is great!!

Wow, what a magnificent job so far.

I got all of my parts back from the stripper; everything turned out very well, except for the wheels, more on that later. This weekend I was able to spray a few thick coats of POR15 black on everything and it turned out fantastic!

Rust free rear axle with new bushings pressed in:

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/SAM_5512.jpg

Sway bar, trans cross member, and trans oil cooler brackets all bare metal.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/SAM_5513.jpg

Everything painted!

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/SAM_5518.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/SAM_5516.jpg

The Goodyears were delivered this morning and I am very impressed! The tires look great and I am so happy I have a Gatorback I am not scarred to drive on. Rusty was great to do business with and I suggest anyone that is looking at these tires contact him. The Quality of the tires is very good, on par or better than anything that is coming out of the Goodyear plants I have visited. The only Quality items I would note is that there is a little excessive flash around the bead but probably not enough to cause any sealing issues. One of the 4 tires I received was also slightly ground on a section of the tread, very common and an OE approved method to help with balance and RFV.

Well Packaged:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...Goodyears1.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...Goodyears2.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...goodyears3.jpg

Light grinding on the tread:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...yearground.jpg

As far as the car goes I have been pretty busy so I don’t have the redone rear axle in, but I did a little more work on the engine bay. All the airbag sensors are in, the new booster and master cylinder are in, an new condenser and repainted original SSP A/T oil cooler are back in.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...nebay82212.jpg

Onto Wheels, so I have a rash free set of what I though was very clean 10 holes, my thinking was to acid dip them to remove the clearcoat, grim, and corrosion. Well it did not hope like I had planed so the wheels will have to be machined or I will have to find a different set. As you can see in my before and after pictures the wheels came back very clean, especially the insides but the dip didn’t phase the corrosion where the clear had peeled away:

Before:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...eelsbefore.jpg

After:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...heelsafter.jpg

Sorry to hear about the wheels. Maybe best to just get them re-machined at this point. Not sure what your Keyston/LKQ will charge you there, but I did my second round of some here at $85/each + tax. They turned out great.

Test the corrosion affected area with some household vinegar on a clean rag and dab and wipe it. Sometimes that cleans certain corrosion spots in my experience. If it's etched down then yes machining is the only way to take it off.

... but I again have to compliment you on your work. Absolutely stellar!

I see your reference to Rusty...and saw his posts over on ORG. What is his pricing like and do you have contact info you can post here for those that aren't on over there? Thanks.

Sorry Mike though he posted over here, Rusty's Contact # is 816-654-3400, he asked that the pricing not be posted online.

No prob, thanks for posting that up.