Getting Ready for Paint

Now with our Mini Mark back in a rolling state, there were a few other tasks before getting it ready for paint. After all that time in pieces I could now put some gas in the tank and fire it up. Before that, one last bleed of the braking system, verifying the engine electrical and Vrooom! Pouring a little gas in the carburetor and a few cranks of the starter and there was life to my Mini Mark. At this point there were no doors, hood, engine cover, mirrors, windshield, or lights, but I couldn't resist taking it for a drive. It wasn't far, just up and down along the street, but if felt good to have it running again. Back into the shop, and let the body work begin. I didn't want the two spare tires, and rather than cut the wells out, I decided to fill them in, just in case someone ever wanted to return it to original. Fiberglass matting, resin, building up each well until they were ready to get the contours. Plastic body filler, sand, more filler, more sanding, sanding, sanding , primer, wet sand, finally getting both where I wanted them There was lots of other body work to do. I removed all the  snaps from covers and tops, Plugged holes from the original antenna, the power outlet for the hardtop, holes from the two driving lights on the cowl which I didn't plan on putting back on, and a few other holes which weren't needed anymore. Some had the edges cleaned up and resin added, other just received body filler. The whole body was sanded with 120 grit and then worked down to wet sanding. Red primer and more wet sanding, then finally a micro mesh pad over the whole body. Washing the body down and looking at the body lines until It was ready for paint.

Finding the right body shop was quite a challenge. Since I wasn't able to drive the car to each shop to get an estimate, I took pictures of the car at different angles and the loose body panels taking them to the shops I selected. A few came out and looked at the car in person, others just gave me a price, and a few never got back to me. The final decision was for the body shop I originally wanted to do the paint. I knew they would do a great job, and it wasn't far to trailer in. Dan's Body Shop in Michigan City, IN took on the job of turning my Mini Mark red. Jim, at Dan's made sure everything went according to plan. My son was given the task to pick the shade of red from all the color swatches. Dan's used PPG products, and this was actually a water base paint. PPG Mercedes Red was the final choice. I finished up the prep for the paint and asked my brother in law to trailer it there and back for me.



The day finally came and I rushed home from work and dove it up on the trailer. We got it down to Dan's and off loaded it. I gave Jim the keys and left it in his hands. While it was in paint for the next few weeks I started getting ready for assembly when it came back. Buying new Ford tail lights, polishing the aluminum brackets, polishing all the hinges and hardware, and doing something which wasn't done on the original. Each piece of hardware had a EPDM rubber gasket made for it where it would meet the body. The original had all the hardware screwed in with phillips head sheet metal screws, and direct contact to the body. Many of the screws were stripped or missing by the time I started the rebuild. My plan was to use stainless carriage bolts and serrated flange nuts for all the hardware mountings.

Three weeks after dropping the car off for paint I received a call that it was ready. The week was going to be busy and the weather just as unpredictable. The weather report called for light rain in the afternoon when I picked it up, and we made the decision to give it a try. Since the car was completely open, I didn't want to move it in a rainstorm. We were able to get the car back to my shop during a small window of no rain, or just light drizzle. WOW, what a change from the original tan to the new shade of red. The job of putting parts back on began. I installed the engine cover hinges first. That small porthole behind the passenger seat came in handy. I wouldn't be able to reach the nuts for that side without it. I was able to reach up to fasten the driver side hinge. Polishing the molding on the engine cover , re-installing it, and then attaching the engine cover to the hinges. The stainless carriage bolts looked great. I buffed and polished each head, cutting the bolts to length before installing them.