Check this out ... if it opens. http://gmcpauls.com/47-72-info.htm It has very good information on bed wood and dimensions of the notch used with the metal strips --- that can be cut with a table saw. Several years ago I printed it out for reference and went to see if I could share. Hopefully you can get to it. Good luck with the bed.
I started my day by taking a nice ride in my coupe today - it’s been raining so much it had been a bit since my last ride. Once back, I buttoned up the back of the frame so it looks like it did before being painted, using more hold downs for the lines now and the brake and fuel lines got painted. I didn’t get a chance to work on the rear fenders because it was supposed to rain by late morning - it kept getting pushed off until it finally rained at around 4 pm. Oh well ..... After doing some honey dos I called it a day.
After several days of only a couple hours available to work on the project, all for good reasons I might add, I finally finished the rear wiring (or as far as I can go right now) ... It took awhile and a bit of ingenuity to get the wires in the smaller sleeves. They seemed a bit smaller and I compared them to some pieces I had left over from the 32 and they seemed smaller. Anyway, I fought through it. After tomorrow we are getting some clear weather so I look forward to getting the bed, fenders, tailgate, and front covers ready for a final coat of primer sealer. This time it will be my first attempt using a spray gun. What could go wrong?!?! Lol!
Did some additional wiring cleanup so when the motor gets installed, spaghettis isn’t everywhere and in the way ... The line going left is for the lights up front and will go along the inner fender panel and the one pointing up is for the engine wiring, fog light, and AC. One more group of wires will come from the fuse panel and run under the truck for the starter and such. Finally got a chance to clean off and sand down the rear fenders. Driver side is a really nice fender, passenger side has some major repairs all over it, including the removal of the spare tire well... We are in for a stretch of nice weather so fingers crossed I can get the bed, fenders, t-gate and front cover panels primer sealed, sanded down, and hopefully in paint. We shall see .....
The two rear fenders are now ready to get a final primer coat and paint .... I also assembled my 53 .Buick tail lights - I started with the 34 tail light .... .... and removed the lens and holder. You need the two screws and gasket. I then removed the actual light portion .... The Buick unit is a surface tail light .... I removed the bulb mount and removed the housing from the mount plate .... From there I mounted a new bulb mount from Autozone .... After drilling the Buick plate for the two holes in the 34 housing, I joined the two together using an LED 1157 bulb from united pacific, extended the wires, placed a rubber grommet where the wires exit and used the original wire sleeve, completing the conversion .... It was a good day .....
I finished prepping the bed for its final coat of primer sealer. Needed a little touching up, I svv CB scotch padded it and then went over it lightly with 220, blowing it s are off afterward. I will wipe it down with mineral spirits before primer sealing it. For what it is, it looks pretty good now - we will see once it’s painted. I also worked on the front two shock mounts - I needed to heat and bend the one leg on both sides. I bent both to almost catch a hole in the frame - just needed to ream it out a bit ...... Looking at the weather, Sunday/Monday are cooler at around 80 both dayside., Hukidity is all over At hut w nap lately so we shall see. I have a medium reducer so I can also adjust the mix - right now it’s 4:1. Another good day in my book as I got a late start .....
After all the bed and fender work the shop needed a thorough cleaning. I did that on Thursday and it was such and beautiful, cooler, and it felt like the beginning of Fall day, the wife and I took a ride in the coupe. We drove the whole length of the Colonial Parkway which, if you have never done it, it’s one of the coolest cruising roads on the east coast. One stop we did make was at my friend Ben’s place to pick up something he made for me .... I needed a panel to house switches for the fuel pump, electrical fan, interior lights, and a spare just to even things off. The center oval is an led indicator of what gear wifey will be in. Although the pattern is on the gear handle, she felt more comfortable “seeing” what gear she is in rather than “feeling” for it. Not what you or I would have opted for, but the truck is for her and the more comfy she feels “before” it’s on the road, the more apt she will be to jump in and drive it when it is done. Thank you, Ben - just what I was looking for. It has an industrial, made up at the shop kinda feel imho. It will be painted, along with the other panel Ben made up, in the same color as the steering column. Today I did some traveling picking up paint supplies and some “protective” gear for Fall Carlisle. If things stay more or less status quo, I am going with all kinds of stuff I hope to sell. So, masks, wipes, gloves, and spray disinfectant for Gabby, my LI buddy Johnny C, and I were needed. Gotta keep my best buds safe while there..... Also did some horse trading for parts to haul to Carlisle as well - got some nice 37-41 and 46-48 style backing plates and a pair of ‘40 Ford front drums to match ... Tomorrow I will touch up the black painted under structure of the bed, tape it all off my nice dry, and then start playing with my spray gun ....
Yesterday I touched up the black on the bed and watched some Videos on how to setup and use a spray gun and I learned a lot. I then used some 220 on everything as some areas were not the best and got it as smooth as I dare. I also got my hood ornament in yesterday and fitted it to my hood .... Not too bad imho ..... Today I taped off the bed and wiped down everything with mineral spirits as tomorrow is paint day .... I have come up with a plan as to where to place stuff to paint everything save for the tailgate - I still have to come up with an idea on how to suspend that to shoot it. It can be one side than the other using the primer and that is ok but when doing color I don’t know. If all goes well tomorrow though, I will shoot color on Monday. Fingers crossed! I will take a pic of my “paint booth” before I start. I have some cardboard and paper to set the gun and because of the videos I viewed I have a good idea what I am looking for settings wise. I bought an hvlp gun stand from HF but not an HF gun. So I had to modify the stand a bit to match the gun I have and I then anchored it to my bench. I modified it by the handle to center and locate it in the stand to keep it steady. Tomorrow is the big day ...... wish me luck!
So I got myself and the yard ready for the primer sealer .... And I made a rookie mistake. My paint is an 8:1 mix with hardener, the primer sealer is 4:1 with reducer. For whatever reason I had the 8:1 mix in my head and mixed the primer sealer with reducer to that formula. I had orange peal after the first small batch I mixed up so I added more reducer to the next batch. It got better as I went along and the outside of the tailgate came out the best ... So I will have some sanding to do later tonight and tomorrow and I do have areas where there are runs I need to take care of. Not the worst mistake but better on the primer than on the color paint. I still hope to shoot color tomorrow but it may not happen on everything. I will try and shoot the bed and the two small panels and see how I do time wise to see whether I can finish everything .....
Try hanging your tailgate off wire I use a old clothes rack be sure to the all 4 corners down or you will be painting a moving target.
Thanks - I actually laid it down and did the inside first. I might be able to hang it from my easy up ....
Well, the truck bed, fenders, tailgate and frame not cover panels are painted! I sanded everything down from yesterday’s mistake and tried a small batch with 50% flattener. It did not look like I wanted . So I bumped it to 100% and it came out really nice. Unfortunately , it does not match up with the cab very well so that will have to be to be painted to match. All in all, it was a home run for me! The weather held up great, I had enough supplies, and after a while I kind of got into a rhythm. Not that I want to go out and paint cars, but it went much better than expected and the result exceeded my expectation!
Most paint stores sell a zap cup. It’s basically a measuring cup with a hole in the bottom and you time how long it takes for the paint to run out. Also called a viscosity meter. I just use a paint stitch and stir the paint and when you pull it out watch the stream off the paddle wher it runs into the paint and you will see bubbles form compared to the paint coming out of the viscosity cup and you will get really close. It’s worked for me over 50 years. I use preclean to wipe down not mineral spirits because some leave a oily residue. Just my 2’ct worth. Frank
When you put color on the first coat is a tack coat, wait till it get’s tacky touch it some place that doesn't show and feel for a tack once you have that put your second coat on pay particular attention to how the paint is laying down, does the second pass wet out into the previous pass on overlap. I assume you are shooting a single stage paint like acrylic enamel or urethane. The 3rd coats really makes it flow out, be sure to use the proper temp. reducer and it will make it work better. Too slow and you get runs, to fast and you get orange peal. Remember a slick paint job is a controlled run. Synthetic enamel, acrylic enamel, and urethane shoots basically the same way. The only time I used lacquer, or acrylic lacquer was to do spot repair. P.M. me if you have any Questions Frank
1-Shot - thank you Frank for your insight and you offer. But really, I had no issues with the paint - 8:1 and the 1 is hardener - no reducer. My issue was how much flattener to put in to get my desired “egg shell” appearance as there was no data using the flattener with the TCPGlobal acrylic enamel. I started with 50% and it hardly did anything. The next easiest step was 100% as it was easy to figure out. It worked out better than I ever expected - dumb luck was on my side. My wife loves the color and I really do like it better than what’s on the cab and since some of the old body work was cracking and needs redoing, I will reshoot the cab (it was done about 11 years ago). I also love the texture as it’s not smooth, not orange peel, but more of an industrial feel, and to touch this up after the truck is all assembled will be a piece of cake. The TCPGlobal stuff is more or less for the novice home user - it’s not for professionals or shops. It’s a “keep-it-simple-stupid” method, it is definitely simple, and it worked. I waited about 15-20 minutes between coats and I started shooting paint around 10am, everything had 3 coats by 1 pm (no buffing of a flattened paint), everything was knocked down and packed up by 3pm, and the wife and I took ride in the coupe.
Had so me personal stuff to do yesterday and the entire morning today so I got a chance to chill from my painting. Today I worked on the cab. There were 4 spots that needed some work before the fab is painted .... I wanted to knock these out but it’s been a while since doing body work .... The door and the back panel were easy - the upper cowl and the lower door needed some investigating to find out the extent of the problems .... I went little by little and the door needed a lot of bondo taken/sanded out to make things look right. For the upper cowl I had one of those old metal shape copier things that I took a shape from the passenger side just so it would get me close. Other than some finish sanding, they both came out pretty good .... Couple small pinholes I need to fill in the door and work the lower edge in one spot a bit but other than that, it all worked out pretty well imho .....
Worked on scuffing up the backside, the two doors and the cowl, taped up the rear and door windows and taped off the frame areas. I plan on shooting what is ready on Saturday ..... then mask off, scuff up, clean things off, and shoot the rest next week.
So I got the cab all prepped, it was a beautiful day for painting, and I painted great until I ran out of flattener! Grrrrrr ...... All that is left is the firewall and top of the cowl ... Then it’s on to the front fenders and hood ....
Been sidetracked with a couple non-car projects lately. But, today I did get a chance to mask off the front windshield, cowl vent, and corrected a problem. I made a slight error in my door jamb masking first time around. After the first angle going inward I covered the next flat surface. That meant you could see the old color through the door gaps. I re-taped the door jambs and will repaint those areas to correct that. Sorry for no pics but I will take some tomorrow. I did get my flattener in btw so as soon as the weather clears, I will finish painting the cab. I will start going over the front fenders and hood while waiting for the weather ......
Haven’t been able to work on the project - I am in the middle of a bonsai run to pick up a small camper in Minnesota! We left yesterday mid day, got there at mid day today, made the transaction, and we are on our way back now. Gabby is with me helping with the driving duties. It’s light, only 16’ tip to tip, it’s 32 years old but in great shape! Best of all it was cheap and very well kept. Perfect to put behind the new pickup. Yep - I am crazy!
I had a Scamp. Great little campers. Take the curtians out frount & rear windows and you can see behind you.
The Jalopy Journal
