The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Panels 'N Burbs Resto Report: I think I'm yellows on my Burb..

Hi Folks,

So it's been a while since the last update. Well things take time and I think you know that I'm taking back every single body panel to bare metal, then to be etch primed, normal sanding prime, followed by possible body work (dents and welding needed) takes as I guess you can image lots of time .

This time I took down all the small panels mostly interior once to bare metal followed by etch primer and a light sanding primer. Kind of looks like one of those art things that they try to sell to you for an arm and a leg. When it's just misc parts hanged up and not hard at all to make as you can see .

Interior bare metal art

Interior bare metal, top front cab panel

Interior bare metal, window frame rear

Interior bare metal, door panels

Exterior bare metal, cowl air intake

Interior bare metal, door window frames

Exterior and Interior bare metal misc parts,

Interior bare metal, more misc parts, call it art

Interior in etch primer, top front cab panel.

Interior in etch primer, misc small parts


I took it easy with the small panels and instead I took all engine panels and brackets (structural once) down to bare metal, again followed by etch and light filler primer even if I kind of forgot to take a pic of it. Well that's how it goes when your kind of just in work mode, tunnel vision I guess..

Engine bay bare metal, radiator cradel

Engine bay bare metal, inner fenders


There was quite a few stress cracks in the inner fender panels that needed mending and then I had to follow with some new etch and primer after all welding and grinding. After than I just normal body work before it was time to paint in in that egg shell black paint that GM has under the hood. Well it's actually a reflow primer at least during the sixties and seventies, I'm not to sure if they had it already in 58 need to check that. Anyhow the primer was sprayed and then all the panels, body etc went in to a high temp oven, and the paint basically flowed again as it became saggy or what ever you should call it. This is why it looks a little like powder coated even if it isn't.

Engine bay egg shell, radiator cradel

Engine bay egg shell, hood striker plate

Engine bay egg shell, hood

Engine bay egg shell, inner fender left

Engine bay egg shell, inner fender right

Anyway I got a very good result if I may say so. I've been using ProSpray/Omi-Cron products for a couple of years now and I have to say I'm very happy with there stuff. It's as good as PPG, Dupont or any of the other big labels but a whole lot cheaper. They are available on both sides of the pond and they sell the same stuff on both sides which is a nice thing.. Anyway check them out, no I don't work for them. I just wanted to give a tip of how to save a LOT when it comes to the paint stuff..


Hehe trying to make up for not taking pics of the parts in primer so here is a pic when I just made the first dust layer.

Engine bay egg shell dusting, radiator cradle

Engine bay egg shell dusting, front filler panel


I like working out side when the weather permits, its a whole lot nicer than a dusty garage, well tent. Thats another thing I don't get here in the UK, why are all garages smaller than any normal car? Well well here it's time for some sanding and rectifying of a few interior panels. It might all look very easy and it's not that hard but it takes time. I'm not keeping time just makes you depressed but I know that that weekend I spend about 35h. All good guesstimate is probably around 150-200h for all what you see here.

Sanding outside, window frames.

Sanding outside, work table with inner panels.

So it's always happy moments when it's finally time to do some real painting. Here we have all the parts placed for painting. Full soft drinks cans are really good to place things on. The contact surface is very small, just make sure they are full, empty once becomes very flimsy and things will fall when you start spraying.

Ready for paint, front

Ready for paint, table with window frames

Ready for paint, table with door panels

Ready for paint, table with small stuff and some hanged from the roof

Ready for paint, hood

Here I've done the black inner section of the front (egg shell again) and are masking it for the outer white band.

Egg shell black, front

The same was done with the fenders too. No the rest of the fenders aren't done since they need some serious body work. But doing the black and white bit saves me some time. When the fenders are up for painting the next time I only need to blend in the white then mask and spray the yellow. In stead of all three stages. One thing you might not know is that you can't tape/mask single stage color as quickly as two stage. There is a good three four hour wait until you can mask it off, not like when you do base coat when it's just 20/30 min or so.

Egg shell black, fender

I painted the reverse of the cowl intake and the vents in doors black too.

Egg shell black, rear of cowl air intake


Here I'm done with the white part and it's ready for masking off so we can paint the yellow.

White band front


Finlay all the yellow is done. I'm very pleased with the result. I know it can be very hard to see if a paint is good or not in a picture. But look at the hood picture, look at the reflections, no not that it reflects any paint even a real bad one will, but look at the edge of the reflection the less jagged the reflection i.e. clearer the better the paint job is. And this is about as good as you (well me) can get it out of a gun with no after care at all. You can go back to the body pics I posted before and you can see why I was not 100% happy with that paint. I was a bit stressed and I'm not a pro so I need to be lot more concentrated and rested before I paint. (Yes the pic is grainy but that is my cam on high iso setting . )

Paint all done in yellow, hood

Paint all done in yellow, table all full of painted parts

Paint all done in yellow, interior panel front of cab upper

Paint all done in yellow, table wit...nd brake leaver, gear shifter and so on.

Paint all done in yellow, upper middle interior panels

Paint all done in yellow, upper rear interior panel and in the background door panels

Paint all done in yellow, window frames

Ah two close up pics of the underneath of the hood, it contrast the black underneath very nicely. NOTE: it isn't over spray you see it's merely some sanding dust.

Paint all done in yellow, underneath hood great contrast

Paint all done in yellow, underneath hood edges

Another closeup of the rear of the cowl air intake, it pays off with the black that got the right over spray. Yep if 100% original I shouldn't masked the underneath of the hood but wanted it pretty for different reasons.

Paint all done in yellow, underneath cowl air intake

The last detail pic this time of the front, looks pretty nice if I may say so. However it highlights yet another problem with two tone and single stage paint, bridging and elasticity. Good paint bridge well, i.e. each paint droplet flows together well and it will also bridge a gap. Good paint is elastic, so even when a panel bend it will not crack. But when you mask you don't want any of that, you want the paint to not bridge across the tape and you want the paint to break when you remove the tape leaving a clean neat line. Since base coat is so thin it doesn't bridge as well as single stage and it thereby break easier making for one very tidy line. You can see between the black and white that there is a bit of a problem. The key is just to wait now. Make sure the paint that bridged isn't in contact with the paint you masked off. Then a week or two later just rub with your nail and it will break since the paint is getting harder. You can also use a razor blade to simply cut it off but wait it's just a lot easier.

Paint all done in yellow, white and black :), front pic 1

Paint all done in yellow, white and black :), front pic 2


Dunno if I said but got my 2nd and 3rd row seats. No you can't get original suburban seats so you got to improvise so I got my self the middle sears out of old VW buses. They come in both 2/3 and 1/1 with and fits the bill pretty well in regards to looks. Since a bit of what will be my third row seat is foldable I will be able to stuff some rather long stuff in my Burb.

Seats, third row

Seats, second row

Ah yes the fabric is set too. I'm very pleased with my choice. It will be nice pattern gray linen fabric on sides and back of all seats as well as the framing of the seating area. The same pattern gray fabric will also be on the door panels just as you can have on a deluxe cab. However being a Burb it will continue down the Q-panel as you know the Q-panel has the same kind of pressing as the door panel.

Gray pattern linen fabric

Gray pattern linen fabric, closeup of pattern


The seating surface will be covered in a golden metallic lucente linen fabric. I'm always skeptical when I buy something on Ebay – if it's 80% what they describe I'm generally happy. So when they sell surplus “luxury” upholstery fabric I take it with more than a grain of salt. But I got pleasantly surprised, this was indeed luxury fabric. I've never come across fabric of higher quality than this. Not even late fifties fabric in a Cadillac 60 special will come close. It's so thick but yet so supple, and the feeling is just astonishing. The golden metallic is really metallic in it's shine. To say the least I'm very happy, this will look very nice when I'm done sawing it up.

Golden metallic lucente linen fabric

Golden metallic lucente linen fabric, closeup of fabric

I've decided to not go with original suspension, rather than repairing the rear axle, buying kits for power steering, power brakes, disc brakes and so forth. I opted to go for something that has it all and also will give me comfortable ride along with very good road holding. That being a pair of Jaguar axles, so of I went and bought a XJ-S V12 – a car that had a good front and rear end along with actually a good engine but with a pretty rusty body. No don't worry I will not put the V12 in the Burb :), but that kitten purr very nicely. The advantage with Jag xels is that you don't need to modify the frame extensively to fit Jag axles, in fact you can unbolt the Jag axles and bolt up the old stuff, thats how neat it will be but more about that later when I'm doing the conversion.
89 XJ-S donor car, front

89 XJ-S donor car rear


Hehe, To be honest I never really liked English cars, way too much issues (quality) not that nice in my view, heck even a mid eighties Rolls is not that nice as in ride, quality and finish. Anyways this time I got impressed, really impressed . So impressed that I went and bought my self a nice example of a XJS. This one is very very nice low mileage car (just 70k), it only needs a very light TLC (read new rear bumper bits). It's the same year model (89) as the other one so I will have a good pile of spare parts as I part it out and that can't be a bad thing.

My nice 89 XJ-S front

My nice 89 XJ-S rear


If you look a bit carefully in the last pictures you will see my other daily driver favorites a Volvo C70, and A Cadillac STS. Sadly the STS most likely have a head gasket going and buying the tools and fixing it here in the UK is simply not economical, so I will most likely part out this 50k miles 1999 STS ..

Finlay I got my wheels sorted out too . I'm going for that look of what might been a “factory” show truck and the hubcaps here fits that bill very well. It's a 61 Buick 15” spinner hubcap, looks like a million $$ in my view.

Million $$ hubcaps

Gosh it got to be a bit much, think I need to report more often...
Burbly Dyna


PS: So why can't I get the same pampering as my Burb, as said I think I'm yellows

THat is alot of yellow. here in the states it looks like school bus yellow..

So, is there a contrast color? I think I did see a cream?

It's two tone, white and yellow (white roof and around windows), with a golden metallic/gray linen upholstery.


Cheers Dyna

I can't wait to see the over all photo. It sounds like a great combo of color. You don't see that much here in the states

Exactly why I picked it, you see a lot of different shades of red, blue, turquoise, black, but never or very seldom any two tone yellow/white. Simply didn't want to have a car looking like every one else.

Cheers Dyna

Where's the bleeding glove box door?