I thought I'd do more glue than paint today but I kept looking at parts and thinking they needed more. Like the all flat-black serpentine belt system should have the faces of the pulleys in aluminum or steel. And the oil filter attached to the oil pan should be a different color. Yes it would be convenient to just say it's a Fram so it's perfectly OK to be orange like the oil pan itself, but instead I dabbed it with a little metallic blue.
Having said that, I also got the interior painted with semi-gloss black. I know this forum is anti-black interiors, and I understand why, but out of all the real life '68 El Camino SSeseses I found online, all of them seemed to have black interiors.
I decided to bite the bullet and sand off the vinyl top that was molded into the body.
Time will tell whether this is a good idea or not. I figure the worst case is that I screw this up so badly that the only solution is to lop off the roof completely and build an El Camino roadster.
Inside, I was kinda dreading detailing the wheels and grille, and bit the bullet to do those tonight. Lousy picture of a perfectly adequate job:
I did get some glue use today, adding the intake manifold and timing cover to the engine
Also, I put together the truck bed. I wanted to get it all together before going to paint, though I have a feeling it's going to be tough to get decent coverage of the ends with the way the tops curve in. It'll either be too much paint or not enough, guaranteed. If I louse it up, it'll turn flat black and nobody will be the wiser.
I got more primer on the body to check my vinyl-topectomy and the passenger side looks to be pretty much done. The drivers side isn't great but I think I'll try to fill the gaps with putty instead of trying more sanding of original plastic. I have a hunch that I've already messed with the contours of the rear fender already.
Regardless, progress is being made. Paint is now limited to dibs and dabs here and there rather than anything big, and we should start seeing more subassemblies getting built in the next day or two.