`71 Stutz Blackhawk 3 day correction - Immaculate Reflections

[white gecko]

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

[white gecko]

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!

[Thomas Dekany]

Excellent skills Jeff! Did you coat it?

[DaGonz]

Nice work.. but I think that car is hideous.. it looks like a 71 Pontiac Grand Prix mated with an Edsel...

[C. Charles Hahn]

Nice work.. but I think that car is hideous.. it looks like a 71 Pontiac Grand Prix mated with an Edsel...

You`re not far off... Stutz actually bought Pontiac Grand Prixs from a GM dealer in the States and shipped them to Italy to be converted into Blackhawks.



They were the "somewhat ugly choice of celebrities" in their day, kinda like Maybachs were/are the choice of celebrities now in spite of their relative unattractiveness.

[Scottwax]

At least its shiny and swirl free! Pretty impressive work bringing the paint and chrome back.

[Stealthbeam]

What a strange looking car, nice work indeed!

[Concourswanna b]

I never did get my Nardi wheel in any car I`ve owned... always wanted one. It`s too complicated now, due to airbags, etc.



You sure don`t see many of these cars around any more....

[white gecko]

Thanks for the compliments guys

[mnewxcv]

its jobs like this where I wish i could see the owners reaction to picking it up