Technical Yeah, Its got a Hemi/41 shop truck

I've been absent from here for a while and so missed your progress. Looks fantastic!

 

Thanks Brian! I appreciate that

 

BTW Brian, I see what you did there. You loomed around my 41 PU build so you could be the first post on page 41. Clever.

 

Well, duh...

 

Sit rep; My paint job needed some work after close examination. Sags in some areas, dry in others, solvent pops, etc. Some where the fault of the painter but most was due to the ridiculous temps in the booth and trying to take on too much at one time.

I was having a zesty adult beverage at the local watering hole the other night and one of my buddy's had his 30 something son with him, cool guy that I have met before. At the end of the evening I had hired an employee to assist with the sanding and some recoating.

The issue with the fast changing temp in my booth caused all sorts of havoc including solvent popping on the rear fenders and the bed rails (the last items in the booth on that hot afternoon last week). Those parts required sanding all the pops out, more color and new top coat. I'd say they turned out pretty good. I actually shot the rear fenders in the middle of my garage since the temp in the booth was off the hook by 10:00. Sticky floor but it worked just fine.

To better fit my over 80 paint booth (temp not age) I switched to slow activator in my clear. It still required a lot of tinkering on the gun during the morning, especially air and material.

When I set up the booth yesterday at 6:00am the booth was 65 degrees. By 7:30 it was 80 and go time. 77 was the high outside yesterday but at one point the booth hit mid 90s and when the sun went behind a cloud...back to 80. I lot of gunmanship was required by this hack. I have laid out nicer jobs with less work but this is working out just fine.

A bit or orange peel but that will sand out and they will polish up deep. There is now a lot of clear to play with.

The cab only required sanding out of the sags I stylishly added (they made it look faster), a bit more color where I scuffed through in spots and flow coat.

It was just as easy to clear everything than to mask off the inside so I sanded it and re-cleared as well.

It is 95 today so no painting, let the parts sit a couple of days and Wednesday I will put the bed and tailgate in the booth for clear coat. I will also start the sand out procedure...again!

A little bit of lint filtered it's way through but the roof flowed out nice.

The firewall received another coat of the shiny stuff as well after I sanded down a couple of minor runs that likely would have never been seen once the Hemi is shoed back against it.

The front fenders could have used one more coat but I was nearing my one hour max for recoat window so I opted to stop begore I screwed them up. I will sand them down and I need to I will run them back in the booth and flow coat one more time.

It makes a world of difference having a helper in the booth to move things around, swivel the doors up so I could paint the bottoms, an extra set of eyes (younger ones come in handy) to look for dry spots and so on.

Since my new employee is intimately familiar now with the truck I am going to let him run the bonnet after we sand it out tight. He has experience polishing and I have experience burning through stuff.

I pay him $50 an hour but he doesn't drink much so I can afford it.

I did end up buying that air/wet jitter bug sander off Amazon for $100 with a bunch of paper for it. It can make a mess but with with 800 on it I sanded down the back of the cab, the roof, bed and doors in a fraction of the time it would take otherwise. it came with grades up to 2000 so I think it will see action again this week as we prep for polishing. It did burn through a spot or two when I tired to use it on round surfaces but that was user error. I like the silly thing. It syphons clean water out of a bucket while you sand out the panels. Pretty cool.

 

Honestly, that’s how I paint on a normal basis. I’m no pro, so I lay down my color and the clear with a medium clear coat. Then I just wet sand everything and spray the clear again. It makes me look like I can paint….

 

It's sort of like my welding ability, I am a great grinder. A little clean up work goes a long ways buddy!

I told my young assistant (I call him Igor) paint is dumb, between the two of us we can outthink it.

 

Dang, you’re good! That looks great!

 

Here is a fun way to waste an evening. Mask off the tailgate letters...

Shoot them with Wimbledon white....

Then remove the masking and detail the edges as best as you can

Tomorrow I will sand it down and shoot the clear coat on the tailgate. So much fun!

 

Glad you're havin' it man, so close. (I know, still a lot of work ahead, but SO CLOSE!)

 

And getting closer sir!. Funny, I was thinking today whilst sanding the cab for the 102nd time over the last year or so, that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter...or I am stroking out. Either way, the end is near.

Cab is now sanded to 2000. I experimented on the back of the cab with my wet/air sander, using 800 to cut, then switching to 1000 by hand on a soft block, then 1500 and 2000. I do the sanding, my polisher steps in next and 2000 is where he wanted it. The 800 is a bit aggressive but the kit I received goes from 800 to 1500 so little choice. Since the bed sits up against this panel it made a good choice for practice this morning.

It is silky smooth and straight as hell. The result of massive block sanding and a missing year of my life. Crap, am I tired of sanding.

Damn thing is trying to shine already. This should polish out uber-tight. I haven't done a lot of base/clear color sanding but I have developed a feel for how far to take the 1000 before going 1500 and 2000 to make sure that it is flat and that I leave plenty of clear for the buffing. I take the 1000 down to the point that there is small gloss black specks in the finish and then switch paper. The 1500 cuts the rest flat and the 2000 cleans up what the others left behind.

I got the tailgate (pain in the Fn arse) and cab in 2000, one door finished and the bed in 1000. Tomorrow I will tackle the other door, put the bed in 2000 and sand out the four fenders then it is polishing time.

I don't count sheep at night, rather I ponder how many times I have sanded this damn truck. Then I weep slightly only to nod off and awake to head out to the garage to sand even more. I could easily pull off the perfect bank job at the moment as I have no fingerprints remaining on my digits. The FBI would probably do a search for people that recently purchased auto paint supplies and a bouncy house paint booth. Drat! Foiled again!

I forget, is 2022 a black alliance plate year @Ryan , I hope so as the truck needs one on that Wimbledon firewall.

 

Ha ha! No blood coming through?

 

Not on me but my assistant sprang a finger leak yesterday.

 

Getting close!

 

The light at the end of the tunnel is usually a train headed in my direction!! Good luck!

 

No trains yet but I’m keeping my ears open, or at least one ear…deaf in the other. When my wife is in a mood she makes me find the beeping smoke detector, fun game.

I had a few runs but they were in the clear so easy to sand out. I flow coated more clear after sanding everything down. Lots of material to sand out and it looks pretty damn flat. My body work and prep I think was spot on.

Still have the bed to finish, my back, arms and hands are killing me. Time for a zesty bev

 

I have sanded and polished the DeSoto 3 times, I STILL am seeing spots that have curlicue scratches from some dirt under the DA pad with 2000 gr, and a couple places where there are sanding scratches from the 1200 that I don't see while I'm polishing. I HATE doing this. The roadster is pretty darn nice right out of the gun (single stage urethane), I'm leaving it alone. Good for you for staying after it.

 

I was talking to a painter buddy and he says he lays down 4-5 coats of clear using slow reducer so it doesn’t pop and then sands with 500, goes to 1200 and polishes. He said I was nuts staring at 800 and going to 2000. Oh well, it’s done and ready to polish. I was at 600 wet prior to sand, I hope the scratching is minimal

 

You very well may be nuts, but you're going to love the results you get! You are doing this for yourself, and you want what you want..... your buddy is doing it for a living, so he provides a serviceable product/outcome that satisfies the paying customer.... two different goals. At least you can sleep at night, knowing YOUR customer will be happy (even though we all know he's kind of nuts). Now drink up before the ice melts and get back to work!

 

Ice melts? Huh, learn something new everyday. I bet it has something to do with global warming. I installed a commercial ice maker in my bar, I figure I am doing my part to replace the melting ice caps by adding more ice.

The pick up bed got its attention yesterday. it is ready for polishing outside...

And inside

I put it on the lift so we could stand inside it and sand it down. It will stay there for the polishing. I would have really been a PITA otherwise.

I also hit the leading door jamb on both doors. I am thankful this stage is behind me. I wish the polishing was done, I am looking forward to the assembly. That's my favorite part.

Oh BTW, rivets suck! They are impossible to sand around on this bed. Everyone of them got got the paint sanded off...again! I'll be touching those up. I thought about welding the bed together. The rivets add a little vintage style but not worth the effort IMHO.

 

Maybe I can borrow your Igor when I paint mine. I dread the sanding phase.

 

I dread it as well. We have a painting day coming up Wednesday, high of 79. I don’t like the jambs, they got a bit light in spots. So tonight I masked off the doors and the cab and I will re shoot them Wednesday morning.

does it ever end?

 

Someday, you will be looking back trying to remember what it took to get it painted. Old man memory will kick in and you’ll tell a young guy it “prolly took a couple weeks”.

 

All taped up. Time for a drink and a shower

I’ll slip a car bag over the cab tomorrow night and finish taping it up. No good place to cut the dash so I’ll re clear it.

I used crash wrap on the doors and split it and used tape on them in the tricky areas around the body reveal

I’m also going to shoot more clear on the inside reveals. PITA to polish. Easier to flow coat more clear.

 

@Bandit Billy you're truly a motivated Hamber with a high bar for detail...AND an inspiration...it's certainly nice to have help when you need it...as said your closing in on another massive milestone...with lots of room for a couple sets of clubs...Mr and Miss's Bandits...

 

Put it in the t-bird as originally intended. Though any old car with a hemi is extra cool.

 

What is this end you speak of?

 

It wasn’t today man. I flow coated the doors in, out and jambs.


Cab jambs and dash,


tail gate on both sides



the front of the bed…


…that will not be directly seen ever but I can’t stand knowing stuff if FUBAR. It isn’t now. I had burnt through to the primer in spots while wet sanding so I painted those places by hand with a striping sword and buried it in clear. Cannot see the bodge repair.

And I hit these louvered bed filler panels again as I do not plan to polish them. They don’t need it now.

fun times in the bandit garage.
Next up, polish jokes (not the nationality, I refer to buffing all this paint out. Humor is needed as I dread this part)

How many polisher does it take to buff out a truck?

3. One to run the wool bonnet, one to keep my glass full and a third to re paint and clear all my burn throughs. On second thought, that wasn’t all that funny.

 

Buck up little camper!

 

Love the door painting fixtures.