Before I get into progress pics, I have bodywork questions. I got color on the El Camino bed today and it's a little on the thin side. I put on two coats and you can see where it's not completely covering the primer on the ribs on the bed floor and some contours on the bed exterior panel.
I imagine the easy answer for this is "more paint" but I am concerned about doing this on the car's body and obliterating molded-in details like the side markers and nameplate script. I'm sure there's a happy medium between not enough paint and too much paint, but I don't trust myself to get to that point and stopping before crossing it. On the plus side, that panel in the second picture is going to be hidden (it's the bulkhead between the interior and the bed) but it's not filling me with confidence when it's time to tackle the exterior.
I'm weighing options, including going to a darker color. That would probably mean doing the bed over in flat black since the paint inside that is going to be super thick and all detail will be lost. It would also highlight my poor bodywork from attempting to remove the vinyl top. I'll sleep on this decision.
Anyway, progress. I went to Home Depot hoping to find automotive body putty to smooth out my B-pillars, but found none. Out of desperation and parsimony, I figured sandable/paintable spackle might work. Long story short: it won't, but I had to try it.
Putting the stuff on, I had a hunch that it wasn't the right stuff for the job. Looking on the bright side, I now have some filler for whenever I get inspired to paint the living room.
Moving on: engine is done
Interior is done. I wound up repainting the door panels and did not attempt to redo the chrome strips on the trim panel.
Back to the body, where I pretty much sanded away all the putty I put on it. I don't want to deal with this area anymore so I sanded the whole thing down and the next thing I'll do with it is put down color for better or for worse. In light of the paint not completely covering primer above, I think I have to reshoot the hood with the lighter grey primer or run the risk of the hood winding up a different color than the rest of the body.
We're in wind-down mode now. All the parts left on the trees are for the most part detail stuff for under the hood after everything is put together. I got the front suspension half done so there's been some progress on the frame, though the balance of that has to wait until the interior and bed are mounted there first.