This stopped by the shop today.... The owner had asked me to paint this a couple years ago, but I was elbow deep in a 65 Fairlane at the time. He found someone else to paint it for him, it's a garage done finish with a bit of dust and peel in various areas, so I get to do some 3M trizact magic on it..
Cool my dad had a 36 GMC Maple Leaf tall cab when I was growing up. Always liked the lines on these trucks
Hey Mac, Atleast the tail gate won't need to be rebuilt on that one Great lookin rare GMC! Thanks for the peetures " Meanwhyle, back onboard The Tainted Pork "
Thanks for the comments guys. This thing is neat as a pin, but the owner just wants it detailed a bit nicer. We started to look around at a few things, and noticed this right off the bat. How does this happen? Next, the hood sides showed a bit of mis-alignment. Back by the cowl, plenty of gap at the top, but overlapping at the bottom.... This looks to be an issue with the core support height. Looked under the front end, and the core was bolted directly to the frame. Everything I've ever seen had a rubber pad and shims under it. Playing with some different sized bolt "spacers", it looks like we need to gain about 3/4" in height, for this as a result.... Still, we had inconsistencies from one side to the other. A quick triangulation measurement from drivers hinge pin to center of grille, and passenger hinge pin to center of grille, showed the grille is sitting off to the passenger side about 3/8". These didn't help matters either: Crooked hood hinge block Core shifted to passenger side So in order to not drag this out too long, I've asked the owner to come over tomorrow and draw the line in the sand so we can keep my anal retentive nature to a minimum..
Was it ever in a collision? The frame can ger "Out of Diamond" and cause things like that. The headlight fits into a notch in the reflector. Just take it apart and line everything up. It is still a nice truck.
The guy that painted it did have the cab off the frame, so best bet is he didn't get everything lined up just so before bolting things down. The truck is much too straight to have been mangled up. I think the guy did a decent job, just a bit more attention to detail would have made all the difference in the world. I'm good on the headlight, that comment was a bit of sarcasm.. I just can't see how anyone can put one together and miss the alignment like that...
Got started on the 3M Trizact tonight, that first picture shows a reflection of my manual door closer (not a scratch) Here's your typical defects, dust nibs, slightly orange peely/grainy appearance.. A quick once over with the 1500 grit Trizact on the DA highlights the areas needing attention quite well. Before.... After the 1500. Notice all the sanding scratches alongside the tape. It's all in the prep....or lack thereof. After the 3000 grit Trizact. As nice as this is coming out, it shouldn't take too much effort in buffing (fingers crossed) My biggest complaint in the past using W/D paper (even up to 2500) and the cross hatch pattern was those errant sanding scratches around the perimeter that always seemed a bear to get out. Here's the nice part about using the DA and the Trizact system, easily blend the prepped areas to the non-prepped without the headache of those sanding scratches. Smooth as a baby's behind... More typical sanding scratches left in the prep work... All done with the 3000 here, time for the next fender...
Thanks! Worked on the core support shim yesterday. In looking for a piece of rubber for the shim, found this generic exhaust hanger...... Used a strip of 1/8 x 1 aluminum for shims.... .......and pulled the ends snug together using a c/s 10-32 and riv-nut on the opposite side as a "hidden" nut. Installed...........
I can see why the owner had contacted you to paint it a couple of years ago..I can also see why you were "knee deep in another project" (your attention to detail, and your skills). Nice work. Great looking pickup.
dispite the flaws by the painter, I'd love to have that old GMC. Dont see too many like her running around
Hey Mac, I don't think it was paint prep the guy before you did, ' looks more like braille to me The core support shim detail ya came up with borders on genius! I like to cover grill openings & wheelhouses with paper before I start to cut or buff, ' saves me hours of cleaning up dead paint & compound in places that are hard to clean up. " Meanwhyle, back aboard The Tainted Pork "
Braille. Come to think of it, that would explain quite a bit of what I'm finding.. Had a question asking what 3M Trizact is. Sorry I missed that on the first post, I must be slipping. 3M Trizact is the product used to replace the wet sanding in the final cut and buff process. Here's the 1500 and 3000 grit pads, hook and loop attachment, used with a DA. A close up of the 1500. This pad is relatively flat, the purple looking surface is the abrasive material. The 3000 grit, a foam pad, the silver/grey surface is the abrasive. The biggest difference between W/D paper's abrasive and what you see here is consistency of the grit. The Trizact abrasive is much more consistant in grit, and from what you see in the pictures of the fenders posted above, no errant scratches from the abrasive, largely due to this consistency. These are used on a DA using hook and loop pad, and a 1/2" thick interface pad. This pad helps the abrasive sheet to follow the contour of the panel. A perfectly flat pad would have a tendancy to leave flat spots in a crowned panel, where the second picture below shows how the interface pad helps the abrasive follow the contour of what you're finishing. I have between 1 and 2 hours in each front fender, and about an hour or less per back fender. (time relative to the paint conditions present) You could easily double that time spent if wet sanding with W/D paper. While this method is a definite time saver (and especially in time saved in the buffing process), cost does play a factor. The 3000 grit box of 15 pads is right around $100, the 1500 much less. For time saved in an overall job however, worth their weight in gold.
The last time I tried that on a darker color, long straight panels the paint looked "choppy" after the rub. I fixed with 3000 on a long flexible block. I attributed it to the DA.
I remove the foam interface pad on long flat panels, helps keep things flatter. But this was made geared toward the collision industry I'm sure. Get them in and out the door in 3 days. Where it does real nice on the rounded stuff, nothing beats a long board for keeping things nice and flat....
got a buddy down in port charlotte, fl thats doing a frame off on one just like it. he did some research on them and claims there weren't that many made. by the way, he needs a pair of rear fenders for one if anyone knows of any let me know and i'll forward the info.
I had same problem with the core support on a '36 chevy pickup, one big difference is the spare tire. The fender has been filled but it looked to me like there was a pocket for the spare tire over on the passenger side. That truck is beautiful. How about some followup before and after shots? You going up to Dutchs'?
Got one of the fenders buffed out this morning. Here's what we're using, Presta products. The adjacent area is masked off (bed sheets come in handy) to minimize the clean up afterwards The results (and reflection) show dramatic improvement... Not sure how much of the yellow I'll be able to buff. The passenger door looks to have a bit more yellow than the cab next to it, as if the door got an extra coat of paint. Looking at some of the areas of the cab that are a bit "sparing" on application of paint, I'm worried that working these areas will risk revealing primer in short order.
More progress, masked the front fender for buffing.... Buffed......... OJ, here's the comparison, before and after.....
Well as much as I didn't want to, the hood had to come off. The front hinge pivot block had quite a bit of wear, enough that the hood would scrape paint when opened. To raise it up a bit and prevent more scraping we found some stainless tubing to form a sleeve and take up the slop. On to the back side of the hood, this is a home-made job that someone failed to get the studs straight on. .....which caused the alignment issue at the back.. As much as I hate slotting anything, the owner was more keen on that as a quicker fix, than me rebuilding, painting, etc. We did cut some 1/16 thick rubber washers to seal the holes. ....for a much better fit.. All the fenders buffed, and hood re-assembled. Couldn't do much to clean up the yellow as the paint was too thin, and I just didn't feel like repainting this right now. It's all ready to leave tomorrow, then I can get back to grinding and welding....
I'm severely impressed. Your willingness to take the long hard road to a great result instead of slinging crap all over everything and burning bald spots in the paint that was on there speaks volumes about your careful attention to detail. This guy got a first class result from skilled hands and he should be very thankful for it. Most places would have used pry bars to align and buffers to do hand work.
Thanks for the comments guys. One other issue we had while working on this truck, the mid fifties GM six cylinder must have had a car water pump, as the fan bolted to the front of it was located on the bottom half of the radiator. When we raised the front end with the shims, it also created a clearance issue of the fan blade to the bottom radiator neck. Took the fan off and clearanced the blades, which had been done once before. Upon the owner driving it home the other night, temperature outside close to 100 degrees, he said it overheated on the way home.....I guess the fan is much too small now. So it looks like we will be addressing the fan situation in the near future. Anyone have any preference to puller electric fans in the 14-16" range?
Very interesting stuff here. Great post. This is all the "little" stuff that makes what we do so hard. And, of course, it's hard for everyone else to see, which is why so much of the time, they blow it off. Great work on this one. I can't believe how those fenders buffed out.
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