Projects 1948 Chevrolet fleetmaster

ok here it is guys, if you have about an hour to kill, check out my 59 build

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=809214

 

I got to say I've enjoyed watching you in the photos tear down the 48 and bring here back. I'm just slowly ironing out some bugs in mine after 7yrs of making it better. I went for the OG look on hte outside with a few little custom items. You work hard man...I remember filling all the un-necessary holes in my firewall. I swapped out my motor for a new 350. I can't wait to see the finished product.

If you figure out how to get the hood aligned better I'd like to know. I hate the gap toothed look but so I'm told a lot of them left the factory that way. I had a lot of cutting and grafting of sheet metal to mine thanks to my old tin knocker we replaced the left side full quarter and right side door. I painted mine almost the same color as the onwe at the Pomona show picture.

Good luck looking for more !!

 

thanks bro. and yea with the hood, ive never seen one perfectly aligned unless its never been taken off. well see how mine turns out when I get there, but if there is an unsightly gap ill figure out how to align it and let you know. give me about a week to get to that point

 

KQQL...I'm going back to square one with the old hinges and springs.

 

yea ill let you know how that goes. will be there in a few days I say by next week.

got the headlights, brake switch, cowl vent gasket, complete bolt kit for front and back fenders, blue flame decal for my valve cover and the Chevrolet script for my 59s continental kit



cleaned up my frame, resprayed it since I sprayed it a year ago. getting it ready to drop motor in now all that's left is to paint the firewall on sunday and the motor drops in Monday


and got the inside fender and panels sprayed. rust free and clean now


ok so yea I took the manifolds apart and see the lever has nothing to do with the intake. thanks for the info chevybomber its still alittle seized but open a bit. ill lube it up with bolt off. for now I cleaned them off inside and out, grinded them and sprayed them with manifold high heat paint. going alittle different, white to match the blue flame decal and accent the blue block

 

im going to end up flying the Rochester b. you guys that have this one already, is there something missing here?

and got the rebuild kit from autozone, that's the part #. took them a while to find it had to get the older guy to help me


and new gaskets for my manifolds
[img width=700 height=525]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/reyes213/48/2013-06-15184701_zps7f141b3c.jpg[/img]

 

rebuilt my carb today, it was crazy how easy that was and that's including the float drop and rise measurement. cleaning it out took longer than putting it together. but now I have a fresh rebuilt carburetor to run on my motor

old plunger, was seized inside the cylinder I had to take It out with pliers it broke off the rod

fresh new plunger






old plunger was made out of leather, not sure if new one is too


tabs you have to adjust

to make sure the rise is 1 9/32

and drop is 1 3/4

and I changed my mind, went with gray instead of white


tomorrow something new

 

o and I got the heat riser fixed, it should be very easy to open by hand, and the spring shoots it right back with no restrictions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flOYNruPdEw&feature=youtu.be

 

prepped the body, masked and sanded the primer with 600 grit sand paper

mixed the paint 4:1:1 mixture buckskin tan flat acrylic lacquer

and now my firewall and cowl is sprayed. layed perfect, satin sheen look I was looking for. and will never flake or dull out its acrylic lacquer paint not primer. im very happy with how it came out and will look in the end

 

and getting these ready to drop in in a week when im done painting

 

Looks sweet brother.

 

thanks =) layed on extremely good and easy and even, first time I sprayed flat paint. was alittle confident since its not that easy to stripe flat paint because it dries flat and you can just go back and lay another coat and its gone. worst thing you can do is make it drip I guess. but this layed down perfect and easy. well see how the rest of the body goes, but im doing the roof next so I don't scratch the body trying to spray the top

 

Can't wait to see it! That cowl/firewall paint is such a tease!

 

yea bro, im excited about how good it came out now cant wait to see the whole body this color. check in for that sunday =D

got my flat black today, ordered it wed nite got here today. now im ready to paint the whole car





back to work on it tomorrow going to spend the whole day working on it
and I started to drop the motor in already


and painted some of the tranny covers

 

oh and of course, this car will have pinstriping done to it that's a must. right now in the process of looking for a pinstripe artist in so cal so if any of you know someone let me know. back to work tomorrow =)

 

took me hours trying to get the old motor mounts loose, no luck. hit it with impact gun for less than a min, came right off

new motor mount holes


and new motor mounts installed


which means motor dropped and bolted down for good. hook up the radiator, hook up battery and connect gas line and motor will start right up



old motor mounts no good

second time this puts in work for me

tomorrow hook up intake and exhaust, and paint the roof or the fenders and hood. its all going to be done faster from here now that I got all the mechanical taken care of so its on now =)

 

You're livin' the life, man.

 

thanks brother, its getting there. loving every min of it =)

black, even flat black, is the hardest color to paint because every single ding or imperfection I might have missed shows more. luckily theyre on the very top youd have to get on a ladder to see them. not perfect but im very happy with how it came out. besides, I plan to airbrush something on the top when the car is done so itll cover them up
wet sanded and prepped the primer


cover up the 59 to keep overspray off

and spray. boulevard black flat urethane







im running a red pinstripe along the paint split










take care of the body tomorrow

 

Subscribed, go man, go!!!

 

Just love the quality of this thread! New updates everyday - like I wish I could be doing!!! Looking sweet!

 

thanks guys. there is update today, but was just prepping the fenders and hood to primer early in the morning and you guys seen pictures of the fenders ready to paint. what happened is I jumped on the motor and firewall which took me a few days and some surface rust developed that I had to remove before I primer. surface rust can settle in overnight, so a few days of neglect built a nice amount but its all gone and ready to spray =) so no pics for tonight but tomorrows pics will more than make up for it youll see and it wont disappoint

I have 2 questions guys, see if any of you guys know.

1. voltage regulator. my 48 had the original voltage regulator, so im pretty sure its a 6 volt. but when I bought it it was running off a 12 volt battery and was warned not to because it could catch on fire, Im guessing cause of the original wiring (cloth) that was falling apart by just handling it. my motor still has the generator but upgraded to a 12 volt but because its a generator, I need the external regulator. whats the point of the regulator and what would happen if its a 6 volt regulator but used it on my 12 volt system?

2. if I primer my fenders early in the morning and its pretty hot here in so cal so if I let them bake in the sun for a few hours since the morning, will the primer be cured enough to paint them the same day later in the afternoon?

thanks in advance for any help guys

 

got up today, back to work on the 48

yesterday I prepped these, they sat for a few days while I worked on dropping the motor so some surface rust set in and I had to get it ready for paint again. metal work was already done since then so all I had to do was sand the metal again with my d.a. sander. now theyre ready for primer



and spray








got the one shot paint and mack brush to stripe the paint part line on the cowl

and start to work on the visor so I can paint it and mount it for good





small dings ill tap out tomorrow, visor came off an east coast car where it rained hail but was in very good shape

 

done for the day, was going to paint them today since on the primer can it said one hour sanding and drying time but decided to let them sit overnight and through the morning till about noon to be sure theyre dry


tomorrow I paint all those pieces black and the hood tan. then start to wet sand the body to paint. ill start early hopefully I can get it painted by tomorrow. if not ill finish prepping the visor and paint it

 

That's a good idea to let the primered parts sit overnight before painting. I did the same with my truck, which I am still in the process of painting.
A few things I did (do) differently is
1: on bare metal parts, I brushed on some metal prep called Phosphoric before I primered the parts, for better rust protection.
2: I do not wet sand primer unless it's designed for wet sanding because primer is like a sponge and if you wet sand the primer, you would have to wait days for it to be dry enough to paint (even though it may feel and look dry). That trapped moisture can cause problems later.
Anyways, that's my 2 cent

 

thanks for the info, if I dry sand will it still be as good as if its wet sanded and dry? and the phosphoric is it an aerosol or quart/gallon can? whats it do does it neutralize any rust that may be left over?

 

Well it's a too late for the metal prep on your fenders but home depot has it in a gallon and before I even put any bondo (but after I've done metal work. Pounding out the dents ect.), I brushed the metal prep all over the bare metal and I leave for a few days.
When I am ready to put the bondo, I dry sanded the part with 400 grit, wiped it down with thinner and then I applied the bondo. After all that was done, then I sprayed primer, blocked sanded, more primed, maybe a little more bondo here and there.
Once I was satisfied, I sprayed a final coat of primer and I left it alone for awhile. When I was ready to paint, I dry sanded the primer, first a quick light sand with 400 grit and then 600 grit and it was easy to sand. I kept a brass wire brush nearby to unclog the sandpaper every now and then Now I am in process of painting the interior.
You go through alot of sandpaper, alot of thinner, alot of tape, alot of everything.
Also I spray a light coat of paint first because a small nick could go unnoticed while in the primer stage and then it pops with the paint. And that's where I am right now. I could leave alone but then it sticks in my mind so I use a little bondo, a little spot priming , light sand the entire area again, wipe down with a cleaner and paint. A lot of work.
By the way, another brand of metal prep is called Jasco but you can find the metal prep in the paint section. I know it works because there were a couple of parts that just had the metal prep,no primer, and they sat for months and they never formed any rust.
. If you go to a thread called for the AD crowd, there are a few pics of my trucks interior. Right now I ran out of paint, so I have to order some next week, spray and then I will post more photos. Sorry for the looooooooooong story.

 

no thanks for the info =)

 

sanded the primer to prep for the paint


and ready




remember, it looks glossy cause its wet. but its going to dry to a deep flat black














ill be busy and gone all day tomorrow and into Saturday, so sunday ill paint the body and put it all together. almost there almost done

 

YES. Love it.

 

thanks, glad you guys do. once the body is painted it all comes together and thatll only take me one day. im busy today cant work on the car but im back on it this weekend. I kinda needed the day break.

yesterday when I started painting, I started with the hood, by the time I was done spraying the hood I knew something was wrong. I picked the hood up to move it to the side where the sun could hit it and didn't feel right, I felt drunk. when I started one of the fenders, I felt it even more and started making mistakes like I made a small drip on it and started getting sloppy on my strokes but luckily its flat black and I just went over it again. but when it started happening instead of me being more cautious I was like I don't give a fuck, looks good to me like if I was actually drunk and painting. again im lucky its flat black and was fixed easy. by the time I was done with all of them and was cleaning my gun I felt like I needed to go to sleep and didn't clean the rest of the stuff up. now I woke up with a headache. the fumes got to me even though I was outside and I spray with no breather.

so its my day off today, and its my bday so no work today. before I went in for the night, snapped these pictures where the fenders and hood were set so the sun can bake them tomorrow. gloss is almost gone so its got the satin look already. love how it looks in the night, a deep black with hardly any shine













I was out there and even then I could smell them. apparently for bugs it was the place to be they were all getting high too and it was bug city. what tripped me out was there was atleast a dozen water bugs chillin under the fenders and big motherfuckers too. I know they didn't come from inside my house so when I turned the lights on all the way they all ran back into the wood fence on my neighbors side. I poked my head over the wall and there was a shitload of them on his patio and on the side of his wall and along his windows and his sliding door was open so im sure they got inside too. im used to seeing a few, one here or there pop up but a god damn gang that shit was nasty so I got the orkin man showing up today to hit my wall. well im off, going to enjoy my day and night, called off work too. but by this time next week itll all be painted and put together and the interior in and all thatll be left is to fix the one torn small brake line and its on the road =D