Projects 1948 Chevrolet fleetmaster

I thought you had already sanded and polished the clear on the outside.

That's all going to look awesome when finished. Can you get anything for a referral from Grain-It? I think you've sold me on buying the kit.

 

no not the clear coat on the woodgrain, want it as cured as possible, in this heat really it takes 2 weeks. some people let theyre car cure for months. and as a referral, if you get it from a guy I got it from dee, you get an extra print plate and inks for same price, better than one plate and two inks. let me get ahold of him its been a while, I got the kit over 2 years ago and just put it away till now

 

very nice. making me seriously consider wood gaining my dash.

 

Incredible thread, this inspires me so much...I'm just a 16 year old trying to get his first car running. I painted mine completely with glossy rattle cans from lowes. I did a sh*tty job pin striping, have to touch it up but it's okay for a complete amateur. Will keep reading up on this thread, can't wait to see it all done!

 

I like to hear this, and that's how I got started. but youre way ahead of me when I was your age so youll be just fine. I wasn't painting anything just doing things like changing rims, sound systems and light maintenance. everything ive done anyone can do, it just took me a few years to get down cause I had no one to teach me but that's where im trying to leave sort of a guideline to follow and how its done. its also great to hear someone youre age into custom classic cars, most are into imports and new cars so you have good taste in cars. that's the beauty of custom classics, nothing you do to your car is shitty or half done. and you have a 50s car so you can be driving it bare metal or rusted and youre still rolling in style. keep it up, it wont take you long to get it all down as well. again thanks, give me just a bit longer and itll be done =)

and styleline, go for it. I saw a 58 woodgrained and pulled it of sweet

 

I really love that woodgrain. I have no experience wood graining metal, I was going to for the faceplate on my 1929 Atwater Kent Radio but I decided to just shellac over the original finish. I would love to do that to my dashboard, but it wouldn't look right in a car like this... I think next summer when I graduate I'm gonna take on another project, like this one. I've never seen woodgrain on the outside like you did here, it's actually pretty sharp.

 

don't be afraid to try something new, try it im sure itll come out good =) and thanks, tomorrow im wet sanding it and putting the trim on.

here it is, this is BEFORE I wet sand and buff/polish the clear coat so itll look better than this after

 

ok now im going to blow you up on the steering wheel pics, but its cause I liked how it came out so much, you have to see it in person the pics don't do it justice

 

I know its not a banjo steering wheel, but I dressed up this deluxe steering wheel as best as it could. two tone woodgrain and clearcoated. going to look better when it has the ring and moldings on

 

and from this

 

Everyday when I open the forum and check my subscribed accounts, I always get stoked when I see yours updated. Always means it is one step closer to completion, and always heavy with pictures! Keep it up!! Looks AWESOME! Not sure what I'm gonna do when this and the '59 are completed. Better do another car!! LOL!


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The more i see that woodgraining, the more I likes it! I did my steering wheel and put something like 6 coats of clear on it, rings and stuff will wear through one or two coats quickly.
I hope your pets or kids can run fast, if they stay still I reckon they will get woodgrained too!

 

Must woodgrain everything

 

Purty. That fan is fan-tastic.

 

thanks guys, after wet sanding and buffing/polishing itll look even more glossy. and yea on these every piece of metal in side the car was woodgrained or painted. in my case woodgrained. and yea roadster i hear you on the steering wheel, before i redid it it had the original paint on it but the left hand side had the paint worn away enough where it made a groove into the wheel itself from being handled so much. going to put more coats of clear on it, this car will get a lot of use its going everywhere. and of course after all these im getting another car when these are done, with me itll never stop its what makes me happy. itll be car after car trust me. next i want a 57 or something, aaanything 50s i can go even more custom than original. but my 65 is still going to get the works after the 48 and 59, i say by November. getting a whole new paint job and interior, but ed Watson inspired paint and custom 70s interior. might even get it some supreme rims. that should be quick like a 2 month tops job since the car already runs and drives fine and already has the hydraulics in it

 

still letting the clear coat on the interior pieces cure, found this to do today. I was putting this off because I never did it before and honestly was worried about ruining the woodgrain paint job and having to start over. I was scared to sand the clear coat thinking I might mess it all up since I never sanded and polished/buffed clear coat and I never used my new dewalt polisher.

ive heard horror stories of burning the paint from the heat of the polishing pad, and all the warnings about buffing right through edges, corners and high body lines right down to the bare metal. so I was putting this off for weeks, at one point I was thinking of just running it with all that orange peel over the clear coat even though it looked bad but I didn't want to take that chance. well today I said screw it im going to try it

got everything ready



I ended up getting 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit papers cause I heard you first sand with 1000 then 1500 then 2000. I got ahold of the guy I bought the buffing pads to know the order of buffing since its 3 different pads. turns out the lightest one has the same abrasion as 2000 grit so I can stop at 1500. then the yellow one is about 2500, and the foam pad is over 3000 grit and that's the finishing pad. the rubbing compound is for the pads, the glaze is for the foam.

check out how bad the orange peel was, and I was thinking of just running it like that. you can tell in the reflections and the shine and texture how bad it was, but ther reflections is what give it away







I decided to sand with 1500 not 1000, was worried of sanding away the clear coat and the woodgrain print. glad I started with 1500, and that's all I needed. turns out with 1500 you wet sand JUST A BIT, youre not there sanding for too long. with only about 10 seconds of wet sanding with a block, it was enough. you let it haze and where its still shiny those are low spots, where its hazed its all flat. but it didn't take long at all to make it haze





then I hit it with rubbing compound and the light sanding pad at 600 rpm to just spread the compound without tossing it everywhere. that's where the dewalt polisher comes in handy, its adjustable speeds. after you spread the compound, I set it at 1600 rpms which is still slow enough to have good control over the polisher and wont get too hot too fast. that's all the speed it needed 1600. here it is after all 3 pads. look at the reflection now of the polisher on the ground



compared to the other pillar that I haven't touched yet look at the reflection



before, look at the reflection





and after

 

before, bad orange peel look at the reflection



after





before



after



















so now green tape is off, can put the window trims on now

 

and at night looks the best









so I didn't ruin it, could have gotten it even flatter and the reflections even sharper if I sanded just a bit more but I didn't want to run the chance of making the clear coat too thin. but like this im very happy, i nailed it its way better than it was and was going to run. now i have the know how to do the dash and window frames

 

now what this means is after I put the trims around the windows im done with the whole outside of the car and I can finally wash it for the first time and knock off all that dirt



















and polishing these tomorrow

 

Wow bro you get down!! Ur Ranfla is looking dope keep it up!! Got me motivated! Off to the garage! Lol

 

thanks bro, glad it motivates you guys its not that hard I have no training that's why even with this I was scared to do it but it turned out good now I know how to finish a clear coated car. im determined to have this car done before the end of summer, and plan to enjoy it way into the holidays, bring home the Christmas tree with it, Christmas shopping and thanksgiving shopping and shit so not building it to put it away. I work tomorrow so I wont get anything done and Saturday I have family stuff to do so ill be back on it till sunday afternoon if I don't go to the cb picnic at santa fe dam

 

Sheit now I'm motivated! People told me "Don't polish your car yourself you'll burn through the paint bla bla bla" I could pay four bucks and recoat a whole entire area with paint if I mess up...it's no big deal ha! So, I think I'm gonna go and get a nice polishing kit over the weekend. I doubt it will do much considering the fact that it's just spray can paint, and not that good of a job, but whatever...

 

its not as hard as it seems, just don't set the poisher too high and youll have more control and wont burn through anything. the biggest mess up you can do is when you sand you sand for too long and eat away all the clear coat. and its I possible to mess that up easy cause I saw just how fast 1500 grit sand paper can start to remove the clear. but yea you can do it

 

I didn't even clear coat anything, should I have?