'71 Stutz Blackhawk 3 day correction - Immaculate Reflections

I did this one a while back but hadn't gotten around to posting it. This rare car was brought to me in order to recondition it for sale to get the most value possible for it. This was a first year example of the very rare coupe. The custom built Italian body was mated to an American platform and engine. The coachbuilt car cost between $22,000.......in 1971.....In today's money the equivalent price in today's dollars is about $123,000. When production ended in 1987, approximately 500-600 cars had been built.

Some of the features of this odd vehicle: 19 ft long, a 455ci V8 producing 425hp, getting 8mpg, and propelling the hefty car to 60mph in 8.9 seconds. The paintwork on the car took 6 weeks to lay the 18-22 coats of lacquer, which explains why my paint depth gauge was reading 450-900 microns of material on the all original paintwork. The interior included 24k gold, Italian AND English gauges, Mink carpet, a liquor cabinet in the rear (wow), and a host of other interesting features very uncommon in the 70's and even today.

It was set up for a complete reconditioning of the paint, chrome, and interior, while preserving as much material as possible, especially on the inside. Spent the better part of 3 days on it to achieve 90%+ correction and general tidying up of everything else. The interior was a little rough and and been re-dyed some time ago and not very well, limiting what could be done there. Some other minor repairs were carried out by the owner after the detail.



Onto the pics....




When it was dropped off....
















The brightwork was a little rough















After a bit of polishing, the luster was beginning to return












There was some pitting too deep to be polished out.






After a quick test to feel out the hardness of paint, a 50/50 shows a color difference even in indirect light.

















The other side of the trunk lid was pretty bad....










After several rounds of heavy compounding this was the result. The remaining marks were very deep sanding tracers, definitely below 1000 grit. Not perfect, but much better.







A rough 50/50 on the rear quarter/trunk









After working the hood for quite some time










Nicely corrected










Onto more of the brightwork... A lot of which needed to be re-chromed, but the owner requested I just get it looking a little better. Again, far from perfect, but a nice improvement.






















50/50 on the sill











Steering wheel needed polishing as well







The gold gauge trim was going to be re-installed by the owner later.






The mink-lined trunk lid, carefully vacuumed









The back seat, smaller than you'd think for a car of this size.





The liquor cabinet....though nothing was in it presently.







The spoke wheels were a pain, especially since the center was frozen on and couldn't be removed. Everything reachable was polished. Tires stripped and dressed.








All finished













It was an overcast day, so even though it was early afternoon, there was no sun out for sun pics.



































Thanks for looking!

 

Great job restoring a hideous looking car.

 

Interesting vehicle. The paint looks much brighter. Nice :thumb:

 

lol! i was thinking the same thing.

I can appreciate the handy work of it all though. They sure liked their chrome back then, and a mink lined trunk!? thats stylin'

 

Great work Jeff!

Can't say I've ever seen one of those before...looks like an old Eldorado smashed with a Monte Carlo and a Grand Prix or something... :shrug:

 

Thats baller status for sure. How many hours did you have into it?

 

great work, great car ! more similar project please all bmw, ferraris, lambos are boooring.

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This could be the ugliest car ever, barring the Pontiac Aztek. Impressive detail however!

 

Looks great. It's the first time I have ever seen a car like that.

 

thats looks like a 70's pimp car ,but good detail tho cant front

 

The hideousness of that car will haunt my dreams forever. Nice job, however.