1962 Buick Skylark Convertible

I started on the stripping of the paint, man is that acrylic lacquer tough to get off,, tried 80, then 40 grit sandpaper, next a stripping pad and finally I went to a wire wheel which I say worked very well but slow going.
Happy how straight and clean it was.

Thats exactly what I did...used wire wheel on the whole car...85 hours later it was down to bare metal and rust and fiberglass free.

Yes it will take me some time for sure. I have a question as to what everyone did on the front fender seams that I think should be smooth. The second pic stuff is behind the bumper but still should look better or is mine just bad??

Well after stripping the fenders, put everything into epoxy primer. I was happy with the little bodywork filler that I found on these pieces.

The rear quarter on drivers side needs some love. Both inner and outers require patch panels.

Dealt with the rear quarter rust with a patch...learned not to lose wheel well lip, tough getting that back.
So not much happening these days as I blew out my knee doing this...getting old sure starting to suck!!

Got the patch panels in on drivers rear quarter.
Stripped more paint off and found where the bondo was hiding in a fair quantity. It looks like they tried to pull it out but it is impossible to get at from the back. So looks like I will need to buy that stud welder after all.

Passenger side is going to be a lot more work, check out the bondo thickness and pop rivets used on the previous repairs. Wheel wells need work but the rockers will need replacing. I thought this was going to be the easier side...oh well

Drilled out the pop rivets expecting to see rust but found that the rocker was smashed in???? This is looking like it will not come out with my new stud welder so need to come up with a way to bring this 1/8" or 3/16" metal out. Any ideas??

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Is that rust at the door corner? Going to replace it? I would cut there and take a bar to push the dent out, another way maybe is to cut in the center of the dent pull it out the weld the cut, if the metal is stretched welding might bring it back into place. As for the holes in the rear I'd cut that mess out and patch in a new piece, welding up holes like that and as they stretched it pulling it out your going to have a mess. (I know personally) btw great job so far.

The door corner is good just missed primer there. I couldn't get to the back of rocker, there is another floor piece there ( convertible thing??) So I went and built the Branford 4000 dent puller (lol) then attacked tabs and started to get the dent out. First I was pulling the tabs off, not enough weld on them, now I'm snapping Gr.8 bolts so started using an allen key??see how long that lasts. The rust on lower quarter, wheel lip and rear rocker area will all be cut and replaced. Thanks, here are a couple pics of the process i"m using not going to be fast but should get the job done on this 1/8" rocker!

I was messing around and installed the BUICK letters on the epoxy paint...maybe a color change coming...love the look.

This rust repair starting to feel like a full time job but getting there.


Just this left to do for sheet metal replacement, then on to body work .....yahoo???

Made the patch panel on pass. side a little different. I think it worked out better and way easier.



Building the inner patch before I cut the outer out just so I have a reference.

Panels all in and ready for epoxy primer, but I had to get the trim off the top and happy I got it off without breaking any clips. No rust but lots of flaky paint.

Car sitting waiting for epoxy but the temp needs to warm up, still in -25*C range and I need to ventilate my garage after painting.

Skylark now in epoxy primer and ready for some filler!! Pics a little hazy, not the best place to spray epoxy but all I had.

Well I think i have the body work completed now, so I put the car into what i hope is the last round of epoxy. I switched to grey as the black just sands bad. Next up will be two rounds of two coats of hi build primer with a final sand of 400 before paint.

Well today was the day the Skylark went out to be painted. I was going to change color but decided to go with factory Arctic White to keep it as close to original as possible. It will be single stage with two coats of clear to allow correction if needed. Can't wait but should be done by next week!!!!!

So to help pass the time waiting for the car to come back I decided to start on polishing the trim. Some of the chrome is pock marked but still looks okay for this driver!!

Car is painted and looking very nice I must say. Single stage with two coats of clear.

On her way home!!

Car is home and ready for all the polished bling to go back on. This is the scary part not wanting to scratch the fresh paint.