Its a block party!
In the words of Ice Cube, today was a good day. Lots of body work was completed on the quarters, the bottom of the hood and bottom portion of the bed floor was sprayed with epoxy. Once the epoxy was dry the bed floor was sprayed with bed liner. Tomorrow we plan on flipping the bed floor over, spraying epoxy on it and bed lining it as well. We will also spray the top side of the hood with high build epoxy and I hope to re-prime the bedsides. Its a tall order but we are really close to finishing up the body work on the bedsides.
Let the fun begin
Here you can see we have gotten started on the bodywork on the ’71 C10. This truck will be restoration with a few twists to make it more fun to drive and look better than when it was new. Paul worked on sanding the bottom of the bed in preparation for its epoxy coating followed by Raptor liner bed liner. The top side will also receive the same treatment. While Paul was working on that, Jordan and I was straightening out the bedsides. This truck has seen its days as a work truck. The beds are not in horrible shape but do need quite a bit of straightening out. All the molding holes have already been welded up as well as the side marker lights. These areas must now be straightened. We primed these panels a few weeks ago using PPG’s Vibrance line of high build epoxy. We then blocked the bedsides out with 80 grit sandpaper and started the body work you see here. Once the outsides of these bedsides are straight, we will prime these 2 more times to be sure they are nice and straight. This will ensure a slick paint job that you can also use as a mirror. Cole worked the hood over really good. Cleaning the pits of rust out and sanding it so we can apply epoxy to it as well. We also metal worked the hood out at this time to minimize filler. Tomorrow we plan on spraying some primer and bedliner so stay tuned.
Big day for the Bug
Today was a good day for the Beetle. We knew we would be finished up with our collision work on Thursday this week so we took some time to finish sanding the Bug and started prepping it for paint. This morning we slid it in the booth wiped it all down and started spraying it. After a good coat of sealer, several coats of base coat was sprayed inside and out on the body. We then let that all sit and dry thoroughly until after lunch. Once back, we followed the base with a couple coats of PPG’s high solids clear coat. As you can see it turned out pretty nice. We still have to find fenders and paint them as the original ones are just a bit too far gone to fix and a couple of other little parts need spraying. Once this body is good and dry it will go back on the chassis. We hope that happens late next week.
Bed time
Over the past few days we have been working on the C10 project, you may have seen the first post a few weeks back. We decided to blow this bed back apart to make sure we get paint and primer in all the nooks and crannies. It hard enough to do apart but together its impossible. We also welded in a patch in an ugly area on the inside lip of the bed rail. Looks like someone in the past put a hook there to strap down some cargo and it messed the lip up. What you see here is 3 good coats of PPG’s Vibrance line high build epoxy. We sanded and cleaned the metal multiple times to ensure the surface was as clean as possible. Paul then applied the primer allowing the product to dry in between coats. The next step for these panels will be a good blocking out with 80 grit. We will then be able to see all of our low and high spots. We will do our body work right over this product. Once they are straight, another coat of epoxy followed by several coats of urethane high build primer. These are the most important steps in the paint process.
Doing the trim
We have been prepping these parts for the past few days. We started by blocking them then going back over them with a soft pad on a DA. We then sanded the nooks and crannies to make sure out pant sticks in all the right places. Today was a pretty good for progress. We were able to get the insides of the hood and fenders painted and they turned out great! Tomorrow we will flip these parts over sand over the outside again to smooth them up one final time and lay down some slick paint on them.
Its a block party
We have been putting some time in on the bug this week. It was primed a couple of weeks ago, so now is the perfect time to block it out and start sanding the final sanding. While doing so we did find a few places that needed a little more love. Cole jumped on those and fixed them up yesterday and was able to reprime them today. Since we had some warm weather we were working on it outside today. We still have a bit to sand, but today was a good day. Another day like today on this little car and it will be ready for paint.
New job in the shop
Here are a few parts that were dropped off last week for a 1971 C10. We will be performing a full High Performance Finish on this truck. There will be several custom touches done on this one. The molding holes and side marker lights have all ready been welded up so we don’t have to worry with that. We did use our stud gun to weld studs to the low places so we can pull them back into shape to minimize the amount of filler needed to straighten out the dents. We also used a hammer and dolly to smooth out the dents as well. The next step will be to sand the bed inside and out and spray several coats of our high build epoxy primer. Stay tuned to this one. It should really stand tall.
Back on the Bug
Lots of work getting done on the Beetle last. All the body work is complete on the body. Cole and Jordan Jumped on this thing and really moved quickly straightening out the body. They started by blocking out the high build primer that was sprayed a while back. This showed them where the low and high spots are and also straightens out the minor imperfections and makes the panels flat and straight. Once the body panes were straight, the entire body needed to be sanded in preparation of the final urethane primer. 3 coats of that was sprayed and it too will be blocked out before paint.
Time for some color
Last week we pulled out a few parts for the ’57 Bel-Air and prepped them for paint. Paul blocked out the trunk and the doors to ensure they were straight and smooth. We then sanded these parts all on the inside for trim out. Once the were all sanded up, we cleaned them meticulously to ensure a clean paint job. We then sprayed a coat of urethane sealer on the parts to provide uniform color and increase adhesion of the base color coats. 3 coats of Tropical Turquoise was then sprayed once the sealer was dry followed by 3 coats of high solids PPG clear coat. These parts really turned out nice. Its a great sneak peak of what the car will look like. The finished product is going to be very impressive.
The finished product
Here we have the finished product! The owner has it all back together now and on the the road. He’s got himself a real head turner now.
