Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

[Harry M.]

Greetings, I'm in the process of restoring my 73 t-top. I joined NCRS in 1993 and had my car judged at Cypress Gardens. It earned a second flight with driving points. Since then, I have disassembled the entire car in my garage (body off the frame). I'm shooting for Top Flight, so before I go any further I need to ask a lot of questions.

I have read through the technical information manual and judging guide, but still would love to have guidance from more experienced members, maybe a 73-74 judge in the final assembly. So far, I have got the frame sandblasted and painted. I mixed a quart of flat black and a quart of semi-gloss together and used it all. Now, before I get the body back on the frame, I want to do the engine compartment. The TIM (technical information manual) says the engine compartment should be a semi-gloss black, but also says that the vertical portion of the fire wall is painted with "black-out".

My first questions are the following: Is the black out the same or different than the semi-gloss? Is the upper flat portion of the firewall (where the hood seal meets the firewall) the same color? The paint on my firewall does not look like semi-gloss, it looks more like flat black paint. Could this be because the car is 30 plus years old? The point is that I don't want to over restore. Also, I can see that the non-vertical portion of the fire wall has no black out paint, as well as, the inside of the front fenders.

The next question is: What about all the brackets that have nuts attached to them and are rivited to the firewall? Were they painted along with the firewall or installed after the black out process? I know that this is going to be a long restoration process--the cleaning, detailing, and assembly, so I want to make as few mistakes as possible (lose the least number of points) as possible.

Hopefully, this will be a great learning experience for me, and as progress is made, others may also benefit. Any and all help concerning this restoration will be greatly appreciated!!

Harry Morgan
Member #24110

[Harry M.]

Re: Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

Hello again, getting ready to put some paint on the inner fender skirts and fire wall. With no advice as yet, I'm going to use a semi-flat because the semi-gloss that the TIM says is right looks to shiney to me. I'm still not sure about the brackets - natural finish or painted with the fire wall. Also not sure about the paint on the upper lip of the fire wall where the hood seal seals as well as inside the cowl area where the windshield wipers are, should everything be the same color? Any advice at this time will be helpful.

[Michael W.]

Re: Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

I'm confused about the mention of semi-gloss paint on the firewall. There are some components in the engine bay that were dip painted or spray painted semi-gloss, but not the inner fenders or the firewall.

AFAIK, the blackout paint is much closer to flat than it is to semi-gloss and in many cases was applied directly over the unpainted fibreglass.

Some of the brackets you mention were attached prior to the blackout procedure- the wire clamps under the hood opening is a good example- and if you move them to the side bare 'glass can be seen underneath on an unrestored car.

Hope this helps

[Harmon C.]

Re: Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

Harry
On the firewall I would use John Deere blitz black (it is low gloss) and stop painting near the part that is not vertical. The inter fenders did have the metal brackets that bend over wires installed as Mike said. Don't paint the inter fenders all the way to the top or bottom and I use blitz black. Use no tape just let the area where you stop painting as it happens. The black out in the bottom of the wiper area is thin so match what you have with blitz black. Do not paint the wiper metal parts in the bottom with this paint they should have more gloss and the brass parts on the end are unpainted. The heater hose clamps have more shine also.

[Jack H.]

Re: Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

That's one of the problems with the term 'semi-gloss', it simply means the gloss factor lies 'somewhere' between full gloss and flat... Those in the professional paint circles define gloss in terms of percentage (3% gloss, 80% gloss, Etc.) that being a reference to a test technique that measures what percentage of incident light is reflected back to a light receiver from a pre-defined surface area.

But, our judging guides do NOT want people lugging scientific appartus (e.g. reflectometer, gas chromatigraph) onto the judging field and getting carried away with originality assessments! The judging process is intended to be one of 'appearance' to the skilled eye...

In some JG books, guidance is better... I recall one section of descriptive text on fan blades saying they were painted semi-gloss black followed by a clarification to the effect "not so glossy that you can see your own reflection".

That's good! It's essentially saying the finish is in the 80% gloss factor area without confusing things by introducing the concept of gloss factor measurement.

[Harry M.]

Re: Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

Thanks Guys for replying. Will follow your recomendations. However need more detail about the upper flat lip of the fire wall - was it painted before or after the body? Where and how is the transition from body color to the black fire wall paint? - Mine kinda looks like the body color was applied first then the black fire wall paint. It does't look like the masking job was perfect - a bit of a fuzzy straight line between the two colors. Also were the brackets (with the studs that the lower hood latches bolt to) that are rivited to the top of the fire wall painted with the fire wall - brackets and studs? Thanks for your patience.

[Wayne P.]

Re: Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

Back egde of hood surround was blacked at the same time as the engine compartment and wiper compartment.

[Alan S.]

Re: Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

Hi Harry,
Here are 2 pictures of the surround lip color/blackout transition on my 71 Coupe. I believe I've noticed there is some variation in what this transition looks like from car to car. So please realize that this is just 1 example.
Note that the cowl and wiper well had a good bit of exterior color (red) on it before blackout. I had already wiped some of the black off to show what was underneath.
Regards,
Alan

[Harry M.]

Re: Help with proper restoration of a 73 T-top

Thanks. Allen, your car kind of looks like mine about now.