Crabbie cabbie

Today was very productive. We spent all morning sanding the cab to smooth up the metal so the epoxy would have a nice surface to bite to. After all the panels were sanded, special attention was paid to all the little nooks and crannies, and believe me, there were hundreds of them. After lunch, the cab was moved into the booth and was wiped down many times to ensure a good clean surface. We sprayed epoxy on the bottom of the cab first, then carefully set it down to spray the rest once it had set up some. Paul did a wonderful job getting primer in all the hidden and hard to reach areas. If any are found tomorrow, we will brush them in for coverage. Tomorrow we will also seam seal all of the cracks and crevasses that may hold water. Once that is dry, we will apply 3 good coats of slick sand high build primer and also spray the Raptor liner in the floor and bottom of the cab.

Bare bones

Today we were able to spend some time sanding on the cab to the ’52 Ford. Just like all bare metal projects, we started with 80 grit on a dual action sander. This smooths the metal and preps it for the epoxy primer that comes next. We got the outside pretty good, but sill have the inside to sand. We hope to get that done tomorrow. If it all works out, the bottom of the cab and the inside of the floor will have epoxy and our Raptor liner spray in bed liner sprayed on them by the end of the week.

Buff and polish

Here you can see what a few hours of wet sanding and buffing can do. We started out by sanding the doors of the ’52 with 1000 grit sand paper. Once we were happy with the smoothness of the clear with that, we switched to 2000 grit sand paper, then finally 3000. The 3000 grit paper makes the buffing stages go quite a bit quicker.  Once we were finished with the sanding Paul took over the buffing stages from here on out. He started with a heavy cutting compound, the switched to a light cut before finally going over it with a polishing compound. As you can see, they came out nice and slick.

Rust no more

Today we were able to get the slick sand applied to the Ghia. Slick Sand is a very high build primer that allows us to block out the fine waves and ripples in sheet metal. Once that was dry enough to move out of the booth, we put the hood and deck lid in the booth to spray the epoxy on them. We sprayed the bottom side and then the top once it was dry enough to turn over. Monday we will apply the slick sand to these parts.  Now that the body is water tight with no worries about rusting from hand prints and humidity, we will start with the major rust repair in the rockers and floor pans.

Epoxy primer

Today was epoxy day for the Ghia. We spent the morning hours prepping the car for primer. We sanded the entire car with 80 grit paper and used a grinder to remove body filler from the lower front center section. Once the metal was ready, we blew the dust off of all the nooks and crannies then wiped it down several times to be sure it was clean. Then we masked off the interior to keep things neat. Now its time for Paul to spray the epoxy. PPG’s epoxy primer is designed to seal up the metal and provide excellent adhesion to the metal and the subsequent products that will go on top of it. Since epoxy takes a while to dry, and it was late in the day, we chose to apply the Slick Sand primer tomorrow morning. Slick Sand primer will provide us with enough material to block out to ensure we have flat straight surface as well as a great base to do body work over. Stay tuned tomorrow to see it in its Slick Sand glory.

Another paint day

It was a good day in the booth today. We finally sprayed some red on the ole’ 52 Ford. We spent some time this morning doing a final prep on them and started spraying just before lunch. After a coat of urethane sealer, 3 coats of red were carefully sprayed. Once that was dry, 3 coats of PPG high solids clear was sprayed. Once these are good and dry, we will wet sand them to an ultra smooth surface then buff them back out to have a knock your eyeballs out shine.

The Coach

This wonderful Coach is in the shop to get a pretty minor scratch repaired. I was informed that it is also for sale.

Down, but not out

 This F250 came in last week after a run in with a deer. After a few new parts up front and little repair on the fender this truck is ready for the road again.

Back on it

 We  worked on the ’52 Ford truck last Friday and today. We have the doors and hood all ready for paint now. Today we blocked out the top side of the hood and prepped the bottom side for paint as well. Tomorrow we will do the same to the doors and hopefully get a little RED sprayed on them as well. Our plan is to get the doors and hood trimmed out so we can paint the top sides of them on Wednesday.

Getting close

We have had this Challenger in the shop for a while to make repairs from a pretty major accident. We switched out all the suspension on the right front and we had the engine cradle replaced at Automotive Service shop. Dick Shirley provided the measuring and frame pulling for us. All of the front bumper parts will be replaced. New fender, right door, right rocker rounds out the damage. The owner requested a few little custom touches. with painting the hood black being one of them. We were already going to have to paint it, so painting it black was no big deal. Instead of just plain black, we opted to jazz it up a little more by making it a black metallic. It really looks good and should make this Challenger stand out from the crowd. We are waiting on a few parts for the front bumper that are on back order. When we get those in, I will post a picture of the finished product.