Add me to the list of folks just now finding this thread. Dadgum Bob, I've missed a lot! Ol Sam is in good hands clearly. Great story, wonderful progress....more than I'm making on the A. Haha! Congrats on the 261....that's what I put in the Chevy (with a 235 head)....although mine doesn't have a Canadian accent. LOL Check your phone....I have a couple gifts for you.....
Dang. For the gifts, we'll teach your 261 to have an accent. And maybe even get you a bottle of maple syrup. LOL. (We'll share what they are with Sam's legion of admirers when I can get a pic. Very generous and much appreciated!!) If this 100 plus degree temp would let up, I'd go get some more work done on Sam so I'd have more to show off. But right now the temp out there is around 130 degrees and the Canadian 261's culture is rubbing off on me. Either that or I'm just lazy and refuse to fight that temp.
Lookie here at Dave's generous donation to Sam's resto. It is much appreciated and Sam will truly be styling with this on his engine. Only problem I see is now I'm gonna be looking out for all things finned. This gift has the potential to cost me more than the motor rebuild will, since I am slightly obsessed with the finned look.
Sure is purdy! I would not complain if one of those surfaced for my Buick. Rare as can be. Don't drag your feet with Sam. I hope to live long enough to see the finished product! Ben
Been difficult to find time to work on Sam lately. The jobs and the fact that my shop is an oven at Arkansas' Temps lately have hampered me. It was cooler this morning though and I snuck out to tinker with Sam. A wipe down and a few minutes later, I fired up the Spray fine Turbine and sprayed a bit of primer on the back cab wall. Lord. It highlighted a metric ton of little dings and dents. More sanding and work to come...
At the risk of being harshly judged.... Today was a day to try my hand at shooting the acrylic enamel on the bed. Now, the only paint experience I have is clearcoating two old pickups, and a little primer. And I'm using a turbine paint system. So I am not trying for professional results. ( I'd love them, but honestly, I'm keeping my expectations low). My thoughts are worse case scenario I can sand it off again and it can't be worse than mother nature's destructive paint job. I sprayed the passenger side bed and now I realize that Forester Green is beautiful and it will show every ding Sam has. And brother there are a zillon. And I'm getting alot of orange peel with the turbine system, which I hope some of that will flow out- it's wet and only 10 minutes old in this pic. But, at the end of the day, nice shine and for a 50 footer farm truck it'll suffice. I've gotta get more paint- I only had a quart, and the rest of the bed needs done. But here is a sneak peak in all it's orangepeeled dinged up glory. Be gentle on me guys, my grandkids can do a show job in 75 years to cover my hack...lol
That looks real good Bob! Better than most of our's first paint jobs...my first several for sure. Keep going...you got this! (oh, and I do really like the color as well)
Looks better than the rattle can paint I did on a Semi years ago. I was leased to northAmerican Van Lines. Bought a GMC cabover[ Astro] that had been a TG&Y lease truck. Red and White. Our trailers were blue and white. The blue was available in spray cans. Bought several, masking tape, sand paper and painted the red part of that dude in the parking lot that weekend. I drove that truck about five years. Ben
I went out a few ago and checked it. I shoulda waited to post pics, but it's hard to get a pic in the shop anyway. Alot of the orange peel flowed out, and it really doesn't look bad, despite the dings.... That and I determined to show good and bad in this thread. I'm not a pro, never will be, but as I've said I'm more towards preservation, repair and driving than "restoration", and it is stress release to tinker in the shop in a total different mode from what pays the bills. My plan now is to pick up a couple more quarts of paint- the local paint jobber will mix in quarts, gallons or whatever, but I find it easier to mix for spraying in the quart sizes- tomorrow. Then this week, as I have time, I hope to spray the rest of the bed and the rear fenders and put it all together. Then, back to work on the cab and the rest of the truck. I'm strongly considering taking some vacation time and try to get the old guy all in one color before it gets cold out. If I do, I'll have to discipline myself to treat it like a job and actually work instead of daydreaming..lol
I've been a professional mechanic for the past 65 years. (!) BMW, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz licensed over some of those years... Cadillac school, Ford, etc. I was in the life. But since finding and buying my $60 '55 F100 in 1972, the funny thing is that working on it is never relaxed, organized, or in any way 'professional' in description! It is full of doubt, indecision, and symptomatic fits of CRS! Other than that, it's wonderful. My young wife retires this year, so after the bed, fenders, and body prep she'll rewire it. Everything. Before Christmas? Maybe... California has a milder climate than Arkansas, we are in the 'Big Valley', in the heat. My shop is similar to yours: 25 feet by 25 feet. Wife Joey helped me assemble it. Yes, God IS good!
Well, Sam's Monday report. Another coat of paint on the bed. Sprayed a fender, but got a bit carried away. The curved surface threw me a bit and I wound up with some flow checks I'll have to fix. Had difficulty finding a way to paint the fenders, they are bulky and difficult to handle. I finally wound up mounting this one to the bed to spray, but I'm not real pleased. I think the other I will simply lay flat on a low table and spray it there. As usual this is a wet pic, so some of the orange peel will smooth out.. And looking at that pic it looks like alligator skin. Honest, it's not THAT bad in person. My camera obviously hates me. And below the top bed rail, you'll notice isn't painted. That's because we are going to roll bedliner to that point in the bed. With the cost of paint, I didn't feel a need to waste paint covering what is gonna be covered...
No doubt! I just painted my PU and I built these fender holders out of engine stands. I laid the fender on a piece of plywood, traced out the shape and cut them out with a jig saw. Mounted the head from the stand to the back side and slid them onto the stand. They rotate and roll around so it makes painting and body work easy. Best part is everyone has at least one of them so a few calls later you can have a complete set. I mounted my doors to a couple as well.
^^^If you look closely you can see the back side of the mount in a fender in the reflection. I am sanding and polishing them on the stands as well. Easy peasy. BTW, enjoying your build thread.
That's an awesome idea. Unfortunatly my engine stand is occupied too. LOL. I have way too much going on right now. I'm ready to get this bed painted and back together, out of the shop so maybe the camera will show it better. In real life it looks somewhat better I think. And there's enough paint on them I should be able to wet sand alot of the imperfections away. And thanks for following the antique's journey. This old truck means a ton to me and I am somewhat enjoying learning things on it.
Well, since my last post, I sprayed the other fender and had a terrible oops. Apparently, I thought I'd grabbed a clean tack rag, but wound up grabbing one with solvent on it. Big mistake. Paint wrinkled up terribly. After trying to fix it twice with poor results, I got mad, stripped them to bare metal, and primed them today. Maybe this weekend I can try to spray them again, for the last time, I hope.
I can definitely relate to that. About 25 years ago, I just finished blending in the repairs including fixing the flames on a Harley fender. I finished unmasking the flames and went to grab wax and grease remover to make sure I got all my fingerprints off prior to clear. This was sometime after midnight and I accidentally grabbed the lacquer thinner...and wiped most of the flames off... I was sick and still remember that one.
Try to paint panels in the orientation they are on the vehicle. Doors standing up as well as fenders and tailgate. Otherwise when everything is bolted together the panels will appear to be different shades. (Tradesman panelbeater/spraypainter)
Thanks! I'll be sure to do that when I spray color on them...and may I say that I much respect those of you that do this for a living. I'd go bankrupt and/or insane. Well, I'm not far now from either of those, but doubtless my trip into oblivion would accelerate.
Lord. Well, they aren't perfect. Little bit of trash, and I have another small run, but it's down low enough it's not super visible. But not bad for the conditions and experience. Good enough I'm not gonna mess with em anymore. I have to remind myself that "perfect is the enemy of good enough" and this looks really good for the old farm truck. Lol. I went to Harbour Freight and nabbed me a couple of cheap fender stands Now- I gotta get my daughter's off topic plastic fantastic outta the way so I can back Sam in and at least get the back of his cab painted so I can remount the bed before cold weather hits. .
Thought I'd show you an Arkansas Truck I just bought. I'm not keeping it. Trying to sell it to pay bills.
It's been a long winter. This week, I managed to steal a few minutes to work on the old truck, since it has warmed up . The job I have dreaded has arrived. Fender removal. No one told me that the front fender on a Advance Design Chevy was held on by approximately 3,000 bolts- and in my case, a couple of spot welds. And the bolts varied in size from 1/2 inch to 9/16 to 5/8, apparently depending on what Mr Sam had in the tool box when one shook out. Two hours of decidedly un- preacher like conversation with myself and I still didn't get the right front fender clear. But, I did get the hood latch piece off, and threw it in Rusty for a trip to the car wash, since I couldn't find the hose to the power washer. Oh, and I discovered that apparently Sam has a leaking radiator...which will have to be addressed. While uptown, I got a pic of Rusty in front of a cool new mural they painted in my town, since I had time. Then today, although I did not get pics, I managed to beg ,plead, and coax the fender in to coming off. Then I gave myself a shower by firing up the power washer, (whose hose I'd located) and power washing the inner fender area down good. Turned out the rust out damage I'd worried about in the lower front cab area was not nearly as bad as I feared- a spot about the size of a half dollar. No Idea how I got that lucky, but I'll take it. I cut out the rust, cut a patch and fixed it, then sprayed the repair and the inner fender area down with spray in bed liner. Now, next weekend, hopefully I'll have time to pull the other fender and rest of the grill and repair any damage there. Then we will be on track for a final sanding before a primer coat goes on. Still hoping to have some semblance of factory green shiny paint on it by this summer. Ready to get it back on the road so I can start fixing the '46's little quirks that are coming up. Nearly 15 years of daily driving and general work truck abuse is starting to show on it...I've patched it together for a while, just because I already had a truck torn apart. About time for it to get my shop time attention. Of course, once Sam's Body work is done....I'll need to get on that 261 build. This truck may take me right up to the end of my time on earth to get anywhere near finished...
You are making progress about as fast as me.....but at least we keep plodding along. I like the new mural....we have several popping up in the area around here too. Nice photo ops!
Since the last post, I managed to get the other fender and the grill off: Approximately a gazillion more bolts...and they, too, were three different sizes, having been replaced helter skelter by someone. And, apparently, running out of bolts, Mr Sam had fired up his trusty welder and used it where he felt it was needed, as discussed before, on this side as well. I also discovered that the passenger side had evidence of a past unpleasant stop, which I suspect will give me heartburn in a couple weeks. Tonight, I had a few minutes and since I'd already patched the small hole in the lower cowl and covered it in undercoating/bedliner, I decided to mock up the reproduction passenger fender. I was very concerned, as I'd been told how poorly they fit. But this one didn't fit too badly...nothing that can't be adjusted out I suspect. The hood on Sam has never fit great, anyway and needs adjusting- and has for some time. So, as it sits currently, held on by three bolts: And I got one of two patches needed on the driver's side installed. Maybe this weekend will see the other fender loosely mocked up and some sanding on the grille....oh, and I have to decide whether to let the local radiator guy rip my head off to recore the original radiator, or contribute to China's economy via Ebay and an aluminum radiator. I suspect, as usual, budget shall dictate the choice...viva la China. LOL
The Jalopy Journal
