Wheels, Chrome and Block Paint

Today on muscle car, do it yourself. Paint projects that will take your ride to the next level plus a top of the line performance Plymouth.

Hey, welcome to Muscle car. When planning a project, you always think about the big parts like what engine you're gonna put in it, suspension or even wheels and tires. But when you get down to it, what makes one car separate from all the rest are the small details and that's what today's show is gonna be about a few of those small details that push your car above and beyond all the rest,

your block is one place to start. A lot of people throw chrome at an engine to dress it up. But if your block is ugly, you're just wasting a lot of money. If you won't show quality, just painting it isn't enough. So I'll show you a way to smooth out the block to give you that award winning look.

The block has already been cleaned and stripped so I can go ahead and mask it up

when taping gasket services. Remember that the edges of these areas will be seen, so trim it back. So you're not masking off too much.

There are always some casting stamps and imperfections and we want a completely smooth look. So I'm grinding them off along with any useless tap.

I'm going over the whole block with sanding roll for the rougher areas. Smooth them out with a car by a bit.

The more time you spend on this step, the better it's going to look and the less sanding you have to do later.

All right, after about an hour and a half of grinding, it looks good. Next step is get it in the booth, get some primer on it.

I'm laying down a single coat of gray DP primer first to seal up the bare metal.

After letting it dry for 30 minutes, I'm going back with two coats of some two K primer.

You wanna keep this as thin as possible to prevent it feeling later down the road.

The next step is you guessed it, Sandy. I'm using some 320 grit to remove all the texture. It may take some time. But trust me, it's worth it

once it's all clean, it's time for some color. A couple coats of single stage four blue will finish it up.

It's done.

And you can see the difference from the un prepped side

to the smooth out outside. This is the kind of detail that it definitely get you some attention from the judges,

not every project calls for a smooth out block, but you still want it to look good. There's a right and a wrong way to do a simple paint job too and you don't need a lot of equipment to do it.

Build on a budget muscle car projects that save you time and money.

It's amazing what a simple block repaint can do for your engine bay.

VHTS high temp engine enamel can give you that fresh off the production line. Look, it's available at Summit and you can pick it up at most part stores. The VHT product line has you covered from stripper and primer to color and clear and it comes in a huge variety of stock and specialty colors

start by spraying on some strip fast. Once the paint starts to lift, it's pretty easy to scrape off.

Once all the paint is loosened, clean it with some water to neutralize the stripper.

Once the block is dry, I'm going over with a scuff pad to take off any old paint and to prep the surface for the new,

some pre cleaner removes any leftover contaminants.

A

quick coat of primer will give a good base for the color.

Once the primer dries, the color can go on two coats of Chevy Orange will revive this old bow tie.

Next comes a coat of clear vhts high tempo enamel is designed to withstand corrosion, rust, chemicals, gas and de greasers.

But to get these benefits, it's gotta be cured

on a block. The heat of the engine will do the trick as for smaller pieces like hardware and brackets, put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. I've showed you a few ways to dress up your engine block. Rick's got a few ways to doll up your wheels that's coming up next

after the break. How to give your chrome a paint job that'll last.

Hey, guys, we're back. You know, another great skill to have under your belt is knowing how to paint chrome and it can really come in handy if you want that monochromatic style for your car by painting the trim and the bumpers, or if you just wanna take your chrome wheels and give them a little different style and that's what we're gonna do here today. We got the wheels pulled off a red sled and we're gonna paint the centers jet black for a more sinister look

to get all the grime off. I'm spraying them down with a brake cleaner since it won't leave a residue. You see all that stuff coming off,

wipe off any excess and make sure to blow out all your nooks and crannies

follow up with an ammonia based glass cleaner.

The next step will involve abrasive, so make sure to protect the areas you don't want scuffed up. Chrome is surprisingly easy to scratch. So don't think you can get away without masking it off. A

red scotch. Pride is just aggressive enough for the job you can use sandpaper, just stick to a fine grit like 120

up or you could end up sanding through the chrome.

I'm using reduce it to draw out any contaminants that may have been pushed into the scratches during sanding.

Now, you'd think that after scrubbing this thing down to the scotch Brite, it'd be spotless

as you can see. It's not, you need to get the chrome as clean as possible for the paint to stick

the green fine line tape. I'm laying down first will give a cleaner edge than a regular masking tape. It's more expensive but worth it to get a quality job.

Since sloppy overspray can ruin the best of paint jobs. I'm masking off the back too.

One down, three more to go. So we get to move into the booth.

You know, the biggest problem with pain and chrome is adhesion. I mean, chrome is hard and there's not a whole lot of materials out there that like to stick to it.

I tell you I've burned a lot of time and even more money trying to find a way to paint it and not have the material peel off

this stuff right here is the best that I have found. It's an A Po One adhesion promoter since I started using this and got a system down. I haven't had a single peeler

and that's saying a lot when you're painting over chrome,

there's not a lot of tricks to laying this stuff down. But the one thing you do have to keep in mind is the simple fact that it's clear as you probably noticed when I was pouring it into the gun.

Now,

you have to be real careful. Don't lay it on too thick. Otherwise it will actually

delain. It's a nice thin, even like a medium wet coat is all you need.

I'm using AD P 90 sealer, which is a non etching sealer. Now, conventional wisdom would say to use an etch. But if you do that, it will actually work against the A po one that you've already laid down

and then you can run into some problems

after letting the A po one dry for about 10 minutes. I'm laying down a single coat of the sealer.

There's something else that I wanted to let you guys in on.

There's two reasons I'm using this little gun, the LP H 80. Number one, it's a lot smaller and easier to maneuver in and around these rims. Number two, it's got a smaller tip on it because you really don't want a lot of build up. You don't want a lot of milk thickness on there just makes it that much easier to chip.

Now, the sealer needs to dry for about 30 minutes. Then it's on to the base coat.

I only need a single coat of base after 20 minutes of dry time. I'm coming back with two coats of clear.

Well, the rims are done and not only do they look good, but they're gonna keep looking good for a lot of years and a lot of miles. And if you don't believe me, take a look at my orange Ford, I painted over the chrome front bumper on it about four years ago using the same process, 35,000 miles and no chips. And this is a pretty major change for these rims requiring some pretty major equipment. But if you're looking for a more subtle change, I'm gonna show you how to use a simple tool that's been around for almost 100 years coming up later in the show

up next, a street to strip Plymouth that's still prowling the pavement.

Today's flashback. A 1968 Plymouth GTX,

the GTX debuted in 1967 as Plymouth's first all in one performance package

for its second outing. It got a total makeover shedding his boxy image to hit the road as the sleek muscle clad warrior.

The Coke bottle shape was in and Plymouth revamped its whole belvedere line with more curves all around.

The GTX was the top tier model and came standard with bucket seats, torque, flight transmission,

dual hood, scoops and heavy duty brakes,

suspension

and battery.

The potent 440 Super Commando was still the base engine with a

hemi is a $600 option.

Ricky Richard paid just 850 bucks for this GTX back in 1977 and it soon became a part of the family shortly after buying it. My son was born and I brought him home from the hospital in it. Since then. He and my daughter have both brought their kids home from the hospital when they were born

now. But this ain't no ordinary family car.

440 cubic inches of raw power under the hood churned out 375 horses.

Top speed was 100 and 21 and it could run through the quarter mile in the mid fourteens at 96 miles an hour.

Plenty of low end torque made it a stoplight demon soaring from 0 to 60 in under seven seconds.

The outside screams performance with its racing stripes, blacked out hood treatment and eye catching color

electric blue

red street tires and 14 inch mag wheels complete the package.

Plymouth made other changes for 68 including the new grill with a GTX in the center.

The Belvedere nameplate was dropped and the badging moved back to the rear quarter

engine. Call outs were now on the scoop instead of the hood ornament and an optional in dash tack replaced the console

mounted set up.

The car came in either a hard top or a convertible

and the new look was a hit driving up sales to around 19,000, about 6000 more than the 67 model.

However, it was overshadowed and outsell by Plymouth's newest muscle car. The road runner.

It was essentially a stripped down version of the GTA, a

base road runner went for about three grand, but the GTX would cost you 350 bucks more

for that.

You got a deluxe interior featuring wood grain trim and the outside was spruced up with more chrome on the tail panel and wheel wells.

Plus you got the 440 wedge

out of the bird car standard 383.

This numbers matching GTX saw plenty of action on the drag strip until Ricky decided to give it a faithful restoration.

He even made sure that the battery cable had blue overspray

just the way it came from the factory.

The car is worth a whole lot more now than the 850 bucks he originally paid in more ways than one. It's just a big part of the family. We would never part with it for anything.

Coming up. A tiny tool that makes striping wheels a breeze.

Hey guys, thanks for hanging out, you know, the rims on Street fighter, but they do look pretty tough, but with the black and gray paint scheme, they sort of get lost. Well, a red pinstripe around the outside of the rim will help dry your eye

and help break it up from the tire. It's really not that hard to do if you have the right tool. Now, this little dude is called a Bugler funny name, but a really cool tool. It was originally designed over 75 years ago for manufacturers to Pinstripe car bodies that come off the assembly line. They still work pretty good for that, but they also work pretty good for Pinstripe and rims.

You can see in the rendering here, there's a red that's bright enough to pop, but dark enough that it doesn't overpower the whole paint scheme.

I've got two colors here. One that's a little too dark one that's a little too bright. So I'm gonna mix the two together and get a red that's closer to the rendering.

Yeah, I like that.

There's a bunch of different size heads available in singles or doubles. But the basic kit comes with the main tool and six heads

before attaching the head. A small amount of paint goes into the Bugler,

attach your head of choice and push the plunger up just until you see the paint, then prime the wheel,

the guide I'm attaching helps keep a consistent line around the rim or whatever it is you're striping.

Once you've got everything set up, it's just a matter of keeping a steady hand

and that's, it takes longer to set the tool up than it does to actually use it. And since we're using one shot strip in enamel when this stuff dries it's there.

I say I got three more wheels to do,

but for this week we're out of time. So until next time we're out of here