Capturing the vision

Yesterday we put some primer on the truck, both to give the truck part of its character, but also to protect the metal. Today we are going to hide all that work so we can carefully reveal it later in a way that best compliments the truck and fulfills the vision of the owner.

The first picture is how we left the truck yesterday with its various coats of primer and paint. Now that the base coat, for the lack of a better term, is dry, we are ready to apply the details.

The second photograph is of the door where we will be stenciling in a service station sign. The first step is to put some white paint on the door, the color that will make-up the advertisement. The next photo, the third, shows the door after the paint dried and I … uhhh …  distressed it … with some sandpaper. Basically I sanded the snot out of with some fine sandpaper until I killed every bit of the shine. You can also see in the third photo that I am about to apply the stencils that will make up the sign on the door.

Pictures four through nine are of the stencils being carefully applied to the door to create the signage. The stencils will protect the white paint underneath from the final color, allowing the white to remain. When the stencils are peeled away they will take the top coat with it, leaving the white paint underneath showing through.

The last set of pictures, numbers ten through sixteen, are of the truck receiving its final coat of paint, an olive color used on some BMW’s. This is a regular base coat paint, and when paired with the clear coat, makes for a very attractive color. But in this case we will not be covering the base coat with a clear coat. This will cause the paint to remain in a near flat finish and allow the paint to experience an accelerated aging process. Without the protective clear coat this paint will take on the patina of old paint without the owner having to wait 20, 30, or more, years for it to happen. Aging thirty years in less than one … think of it as near instant old.

Tomorrow, after we put the finishing touches on the truck, this … well, beautiful is a bit of a stretch … this classic rat rot truck will be ready to go home with it’s owner. And what a sight it will be too.