Dirt-Cheap Paint and Body Tips

The Valspar primer uses an activator like a basecoat and mixes with a 4:1:1 ratio. It takes about 5 quarts to cover an El Camino. To use a mixing cup, simply pick the column with the correct ratio and then pour the paint to any numbered line. Add the activator to the next line with a corresponding number. Simple!

The Valspar color primer promised resistance to the elements and a low price. Our plan is to sort of follow Stevenson's advice and make repairs, then spray them with the green Valspar primer. Any new bare metal parts will get a coat of expensive primer like Glasurit RM DP200 before we go in for the final paint job. In the meantime, for $189 we got a gallon of colored primer that we can sand and spray as we work.

We used a DeVilbiss FinishLine HVLP gun with a 1.8 tip to spray the primer. After about 15 seconds, we found the paint had a funky stucco texture. We called the local paint center and they said we forgot to add reducer. Guess what? They were right.

Staff Editor John McGann painted the jambs and wells first because those are the parts he usually misses.

Here's a tech tip: The distance between your thumb and pinky is the same as the recommended distance for spraying paint. Hang loose!

Proper painting technique also requires covering 50 percent of the previous paint line on the next pass. It is called overlapping and it eliminates thin spots. Also, we like to let go of the trigger before the gun stops moving.

We painted the entire car with only one coat so we don't have to sand as much. It will save a lot of time later.

We realized long ago that wheels and tires make the car. Just to see how far we could go, we got a set of 275/40ZR17 Toyo Proxes 4s to fit in the rear. In the front, the 255s had to work.

We enlisted the help of Bob Thompson, a local vintage Funny and Fuel Altered painter who has been adding hand-painted graphics to cars since the '60s. The idea was to add a story to the car to possibly distract onlookers from the color.

With the paint dry and the graphics applied, it was time to add some shine. To keep costs low, we only replaced the nose trim with an OPG grille kit and the front and rear bumpers for now. We reused the original bumper brackets and hardware, but we will likely replace the rusty pieces as the car's looks improve.

You can buy everything for the rear of the '64. The OPG replacement bumpers had the correct OEM holes for the license plate light and the mounting brackets. They make a big difference in the look of the car for less than $200 each.

We chose to pull the bumper guards because we think they are ugly. Looking back, we should have grabbed new lenses and housings for the blinkers. They crumbled when we removed them.

We reused the original window molding because it was in good shape. Push down using the palm of your hand and it will snap back into place.

The final piece was the grille kit from OPG. For about $550, you get the center grille, upper grille molding, headlight bezels, lower grille molding, headlight eyebrow molding, and the front hood edge molding.

While we were removing the front hood edge molding, we noticed the hood was buckled enough that the new piece would not fit. Since there are no reproduction steel hoods for the '64 that we know of, we will have to either fix this one or replace it with a fiberglass replica.

The result is a car that is going to get a lot more attention and is way better than just presentable. It still needs some major suspension and brake work and some rust removal, but now we can take our time.