Trunk-cated

While Chris and I worked on the El Camino, Chase was busy coating the trunk of the ’70 pro-street Camaro in our Raptor Liner coating for looks and protection.

The first photo shows you how we masked the car to prevent the stuff from getting on anything we didn’t want it on. Between the epoxy sealer which will bind to nearly anything and the Raptor Liner which does the same, let’s just say we didn’t take any shortcuts on the masking.

The second and third photos show the inside of the trunk after the epoxy primer has been applied. This primer is really not much more than sprayable epoxy glue. What it lands on it sticks to and once stuck and dried it is nearly impossible to dislodge. It forms a waterproof, near scratch proof, seal on the metal for protection and rust prevention.

The next three pictures, four, five and six, were taken after the application of the Raptor Liner bed liner. The Raptor Liner also provides a tough waterproof layer of protection which in some ways is even tougher than the epoxy. The two products complement each other nicely and form a layer of protection for the trunk of this car that will prevent rust and corrosion until long after I’m pushing up daises.

When we work on classic cars like this we do everything we can to stop rust cold. I guess you could say we have trunk-cated any rust problem in this area of the car. And it looks good too.

Looking good

Today, among other things, we mounted the hood. I don’t know what I was thinking, or more likely not thinking, when I didn’t get a picture of the car with the hood on, closed and all the dust wiped off.

The car isn’t finished but that doesn’t mean it isn’t looking good!

Duct tape … it’s just not a good look

Duct tape is some versatile stuff. You can use it to build boats, make wallets, and even repair cars. You can see in the first picture that is what these customers did after their crash. While the duct tape may be functional, it isn’t very attractive and I think we can do better.

While I worked on the El Camino yesterday, Chris began the disassembly of the truck. You can see him in the middle of the disassembly process in the second photo.

The next three photos, numbers three, four and five, show what we found behind the crushed and broken plastic bumper. The damage isn’t extensive, but this job is going to require more than a simple bumper cover replacement.

We will get the bent pieces on order so we can get them painted and back on the truck. Once we get finished with it the owner will be able to put their duct to better uses … like a stylish new cell phone case.

Seeing red

It was such a late night last night working on the El Camino I am just now getting around to reporting what else we did yesterday.

While Chris and I hammered away at the El Camino, Chase was in the paint booth trimming out the doors for the Ford Ranger. You can see the two doors in these photos.

Trimming out is nothing more than painting all the places that are difficult or impossible to paint when the panel is mounted on the vehicle. In the case of these doors, the inside and edges.

While painting the inside of the door is possible while it is mounted on the vehicle, doing so involves a lot of masking off that is unnecessary if the door is first removed from the vehicle. The edges are another matter however. When the door swings open the leading edge turns into face the vehicle making it impossible to reach to paint.

Removing the doors and putting them on a paint stand in the booth makes giving them a nice coat of paint a snap. Granted some of the areas we are painting are difficult to see once the panel is mounted on the vehicle, but this is a way to give the customer a much better paint job for very little more money.

Quality first … it is the motto we live and die by here at JMC AutoworX.