Thread: Thoughts on "primer" finished cars---

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Y'all outta see the 78 firebird i use as a daily driver. the body is burgandy, with a clear primer that is peeling off. The nose, fender flares duck tail and rear bumper are grey primer, as is the hood. Although, the hood NOT being fiberglass, it is showing rust where the primer is thin. It got customized recently, at the WalMart parking lot, so there is a fresh dent in the front right fender and the nose sits slightly skewed. ( nose was perfect before that ). There is nasty red oxide primer around the door handles, where I stripped and primered it when replacing the door handles. There are also spots of red oxide at various places, as required to stave off mother nature. It is running the " stoner eyes " snowflakes from my 77 after it got wrecked ( THAT was a beautiful car )... the tops of the 'flakes are brilliant red, with the background white. Although I have a decent set of grille inserts, I prefer to run it without. After all, they'll probably get wrecked anyway. If you look close, you'll see that it is not a hood scoop, but rather a guages cowl which has been hand laid in fiberglass. And ya, the inside is just as rough.

It gets 18 MPG @ 80 mph with its .060 over 305, Summit headers, mild cam, and stock 2bbl manifold. It has taken me from GA to CA three times and gets an average of 300 miles p/wk. Right now, it is on a brief hiatus, as it awaits the pile of calipers and discs to be installed on the front end.

The 69 nomad is graciously accepting the responsibility of transportation while the old bird awaits my tender mercies. ( it looks nice though )

I have made them nice, and it seems that every time I do they get wrecked by some idiot that can't drive. So I drive it rough, and if it gets antoher dent, then what the hell.

I don't have a problem with it. When I got my '27 running I shot it with primer I tinted with the purple paint I did the frame in. Plan was to drive it for a few months, get the bugs out, and shoot it shiny purple. As it turned out, the car had no bugs, and I was having too much fun to tear it down. 7 years later it was still in purple primer.

At shows I would make excuses for it, but I had so many people tell me "don't paint it, the car is perfect the way it sits" that I finally started to like it.

If that is the look someone is after, it's really fine.


Don