’57 is up next
The ’57 is ready for its turn in the booth. The past couple of weeks we have been working on getting it ready for paint and Monday is the day. We have meticulously sanded this vehicle and spent quite a bit of time blowing out all the nooks and crannies where dust can hide. We have changed the booth filters and washed it down. Monday we will finish prepping the booth and finish masking off the car. We will start by applying a coat of sealer over the entire car. We will then paint the roof white and when that is dry, we will mask it off and paint the body the Tropical Turquoise. We will then follow that up with 3 coats of PPG’s 2021 high solids clear. Its been a long while coming but this ’57 will be looking good again in a few more days.
A little shiny work from this week
The owner of this 2003 Silverado wanted to freshen things up a bit. He bought the truck new and since it still ran great but looked bad he decided to paint it. After discussing his options we came up with a plan and got to work. We started by removing the lights, bumpers, handles, moldings and mirrors. We then sanded the whole truck down and fixed the very few small dents that it had. We then washed it a couple of times to make sure we had a clean truck, clean jambs and clean engine bay. We then masked off the ares that were not getting paint and started spraying. A few coats of PPG black followed by a couple coats of PPG’s high solids clear coat and we have very nice Silverado that shines better than new.
Cab’s on deck
Although we haven’t posted in a while on our restoration projects, we have worked on them some. Here is the cab on the C-10 that we have been working on. We started with the bed a couple of months ago and now we are onto the cab. As you can see its already in epoxy primer and we have started some body work. We did find a few too many pin holes to repair in the left and right floor pans so we will go ahead and replace them in a week or so. We have gotten a start on the body repairs in the meantime. Keep an eye out for this one. Its going to be a real head turner.
Back in the saddle
After many weeks of going full tilt on collision cars, we have opened up some breathing room and are back on the oldie goldies. We spent some time off and on block sanding this ’57 but the past couple of days have been pretty prosperous. Block sanding a vehicle with this much surface area was pretty time consuming as well as hard on the shoulders and elbows. The firewall was another area that was pretty tedious. Now, most of that is done and we really just have a few corners and channels to sand and a few places in the trunk before its ready for paint. It should be a real looker when we have all the color on it.
Body work is complete
The body work on the ’57 is now complete! After a solid week of bodywork, blocking, sanding and priming, the body is now ready for its final sanding. If the finial blocking comes out nice, the body will be ready for paint. This will really only leave a few trim parts and some interior parts that need painting. The straightening of these panels actually went very smoothly. Jordan and Cole get all the credit for that hard work. These guys worked really hard getting the body nice. Paul, then took his turn masking it off and spraying a few coats of high solids primer on here, twice. Its a dirty job and hard work, but the rewards worth every bit of it.
Time for bed
We have been working pretty hard and heavy on the the C-10 these past few weeks and its paying off. The hood is completely finished and ready for paint. The next time it gets sanded, it will be painted. The body work on the outside of the bedsides are done and in their second priming. We will block those out one more time and prime them once more to ensure they are straight. The body work on the inside of the bedsides was finished up today and they were primed as well. All in all, quite a bit of work getting done on this one. Next we finish the outsides of the beds then its on to the cab and doors.
Lining the fender wells
Last week while we were spraying so much bedliner, we thought we would go ahead and spray the fender wells on the 70 Beetle we’ve been working on. This is so much better than undercoating because its tougher, looks better and is a true urethane product. We started by sanding the areas with 80 grit paper that we wanted to spray. We then masked off the areas that didnt get liner. Prepped it all up, and sprayed 2 coats of liner on here. Once it was dry, we untapped it and as you can see, it looks great. This car is really starting to look good.
Straightening the curves
Now that the outside of the bedsides are straight, its time for the insides. Same steps here as the outsides. Block out the primer to find the highs and lows, tap the highs down and fill the lows. Since this truck is 45 years old, it has some wear and tear. We are going to go ahead and also fill the pitting that has occurred from years of use along with the spot welds to make the insides of these smooth as silk. Its little things like that that make it a little different than the others.
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.
