Thanks!... I'll be painting the car its original dark blue. I was thinking I could paint directly over the old basecoat since I would be using the same color, but it looks like I'll need to use a primer/sealer first. For clearcoat blending, there are some parts of the trunk area, which are actually parts on the quarter panel, where the clearcoat is wearing and is getting "cloudy." Would this be the same process? Sand off the bad clearcoat, apply a primer/sealer, spray a new basecoat and then spray a new clearcoat. I guess this is where it would get tricky trying to blend the new clearcoat with the rest of the quarter panel. Should I use wet/dry 2000 grit sandpaper when trying to blend the the new and old clearcoats?
I have an 84 Tbird that I'm going to repaint... The roof, hood and trunk need help, because the clear coat has worn off and it has damaged the base coat. But, the clearcoat and basecoat on the sides of the car are still in very good shape. I'm thinking of trying to just paint the roof, hood and trunk, and then try to do some clearcoat blending... I'll be using the same color as the original paint that's on the car now...
I'm assuming that I can sand off the remaining clearcoat on the roof, hood and trunk; prep the old base coat; respray new base coat over the old base coat; and then spray the clearcoat. For a partial paint job like this, would I want an enamel paint or urethane paint? What products would be best for repainting a mid-80s Ford so it would look somewhat original? Mid-80's Fords had a clearcoat that wasn't as "glossy" compared to newer cars. Is there a clearcoat/basecoat system that anyone could recommend? Thanks!
I discovered the speedometer cable was preventing the cluster from being removed. There wasn't enough slack in the speedometer cable in order the pull the instrument cluster forward. There was a "hook" bracket in the engine compartment right below the brake master cylinder that routed the speedometer cable to the transmission. I removed the hook bracket and this gave more slack to the speedometer cable. I was able to push the cable into the firewall. This enabled me to pull out the instrument cluster just enough so I could disconnect the speedometer cable. Once the speedometer cable was removed, I had enough room to access all the instrument cluster lamps. Since I had full access to all the lamps, I didn't have to disconnect the wiring harness from the instrument cluster, which looked difficult to remove...
I looked at a variety of different shop manuals for the car, and plenty of info online, and none of them mentioned anything about the speedometer cable brackets... Thanks!
Thanks!... I'll try to take off the speedometer cable from under the dash. Just wanted to get some ideas from the forum, because the "official" shop manual is not making sense to me...
The arm rests on both side doors of my 84 TBird are both sticky and look like someone sprayed glue on them. My car has been in extreme hot temps for most of its life... I guess it's a chemical reaction from the heat... I'm trying to find some type of cleaner that will get rid of this mess...
I'm trying to remove the buttstuffog instrument cluster on a 1984 TBird to replace some cluster lamps. I have the shop manual and it said to remove six screws around the cluster to remover it. When I removed the dash trim to get to the instrument cluster there were only four screw holes for mounting the instrument cluster. Two of the mounting screws were still present at the top of the cluster, but the lower screws were missing. The car has been in the family since new, so I know this is the first time the instrument cluster has been accessed. I removed the two screws at the top, but only the left side of the cluster would move. The right side where the speedometer is located is stuck. The shop manual said to simply remove the screws and pull out the cluster and then disconnect the speedometer cable. I looked under the dash and it looks like it would be extremely difficult to remove the speedometer cable when the instrument cluster is in its installed position. Any clues on what I might be doing wrong??? Thanks!
