The end is near

Its been a long time coming, but the FJ is really starting to take shape. The left rear door has given us a little bit of trouble so we decided to just remove that part from the equation. The lower part of the door had been patched a couple of times and they were not really getting along so we cut out the whole section and replaced it. The body work portion of that repair is almost complete and should be in primer tomorrow.  The paint work on the body is now complete as well. We shot some color on this on Tuesday and it really looks nice. A coat of sealer was applied to create a uniform ground coat for the color. We started with the white masking it off for the Freeborn red once it was dry enough to tape on. We then unmasked the white and applied the PPG urethane clear coat. This thing really stands tall now. Today we installed the head lights, left rear side marker and tail lights, new body to door gaskets, stripped the grill and bumpers. The bumpers have served their purpose.  Lots of dents and body work were hiding under several layers of paint. All that was removed today and bodywork will start on them tomorrow. We will paint the doors, grill, head light doors, side vents and bumpers next week if all goes well.

Good in the hood

Busy week here at the shop. We were able to get quite a bit of body work done on the ’57 parts. The hood, as you can see has been primed and the trunk is getting really close. The hood has braces that go underneath and these braces cause lines to form in the panels over time or I guess its possible they have been there since it was new. I dont know for sure, I wasnt around just yet. Anyway, wanting to make sure the panels were as straight as possible we decided to make those lines go away. Once the hood was nice and straight, Paul took back over the project for the priming. A coat of PPG epoxy primer was sprayed over the entire hood again followed by several coats of urethane primer. We will be blocking that out again and priming it once more to be sure we have the flattest, straightest metal possible. We have a couple more hours worth of work on the deck lid which kinda had the same issue as the hood. We hope to have it in primer tomorrow.

’57 Chevy block party

The progress is coming along. Here you can see we have the hood, doors and trunk ready for epoxy primer and filler. First thing we did after sanding them all down inside and out, was get a couple of coats of epoxy primer on these parts. All parts were sanded inside and once that was dry, we started doing the body work. We did find that this car has had a bump up or two. The door on the right side has a pretty good size dent in it as well as a rust repair where a patch panel was installed. It would be neat to hear the stories this car could tell. Next week the body work will continue and hopefully we can get these parts in primer.

Seeing more color

The FJ project is still moving along. Here you can see a little more color was sprayed this week. We are still prepping some places on the body and hope to have it painted on Tuesday. Things are looking pretty nice even though we cant fully disassemble the body because of the rarity of parts. Anytime we have a roof to paint, and especially if its one this big, we like to paint them by themselves. It just makes it nicer to be able to just concentrate on making the roof nice, then be able to focus later on painting the body. One of the doors is at Kellys, (our metal fabricator) to get some rust repaired that was in the bottom of the door. We should have that back the first of the week so we can get the body work fixed on it and have it ready to paint with the other door. Next week will be exciting to finally get color on here.

Introducing our newest project

Our newest project is the this 1970 Beetle. It is a special build because this was the owners very first car, bought new when he turned 16. Although it hasnt been in any major accidents, rust has gotten hold of this little bug in a few spots. We will be repairing the rusty areas and freshening up the outside and inside with new paint, bright work, interior and suspension. The engine had a recent check up and got a good bill of health. As you can see we got right to work disassembling the car. We did get quite a bit apart on it and the rest will be apart next week.  We will then start the rust repair and stripping off the old paint. This will be a bone stock restoration back to the factory color. Stay tuned to see the progress.

Cruiser

As progress continues on the FJ, today was paint day for a few body parts. Since we had few pieces ready for paint and an empty booth, we decided this morning we would put a few parts in there from the FJ and get them sprayed. We prepped them, sealed them, followed that with he correct Freeborn red and white paint colors then cleared them. Its been a long time coming but it sure is nice to finally see some color going on this cool vehicle. Next week we should be able to get the hood painted and a couple of other parts if things go smoothly. We are still fine tuning the body, its not too far from getting color either.

Back in the game

This Tundra came in to get its paint freshened up a bit. It it several years old and had seen some off road time so the owner wanted to make it nice again. We disassembled right much of it and sanded it all down. We sprayed a few coats of the factory color and couple coats of clear to bring the Tundra back to life. Once everything was dry, we did a spray in bedliner and reassembled it. Here you can see it all complete and ready for pick up.

Finally getting primed

We have been steadily plugging along on the FJ over the past couple of weeks and here is where we stand on it. The rain gutters have been stripped and cleaned out. A nice coat of epoxy was applied to the gutters followed by a flowable seam sealer. They really look nice and smooth now. Jordan also worked pretty diligently on sanding the nooks and crannies. It seemed like every time it was ready for primer another spot was found that needed attention. Cole prepped the under side and the top side of the hood today and with a little luck, we may start spraying some parts next week. We do have the body ready for primer now and It will go into the booth first thing Monday morning.

’57 Fenders

Here we have the fenders finished up and ready for paint. Jordan spent a few hours of the past couple of weeks working on these fenders and while he was working on the FJ, I got a chance to finish them up. As you can see they are in great shape and just needed a little body work to make the straight. Once I fine tuned where Jordan left off, we wiped them down several times and set them up in the booth. We sprayed a full coat of PPG DPLV then followed that up with PPG’s urethane primer. 4 coats later and a little dry time and they are straight and ready for the final blocking before getting painted.

Tundra

This Tundra is in the shop to get fresh coat of paint. With all of the off roading stickers on here, Im going to assume that this rig has seen a few miles in the woods but now its time to straighten out a few of those dings and scratches and make this thing shine again. We started by removing the bed the handles the mirrors and various other parts from the truck. In trying not to get too out of hand on this one, we didnt completely disassemble the truck like we would for a higher end job, but the finished product will still look pretty good. We then repaired a few dents, installed a new left fender and started sanding the rest of the truck. Since we had the bed ready first, it went on into the booth for painting. We will also be doing a spray in bedliner on here next week. We painted the front of the truck today but didnt get an pictures of it in clear. You will have to wait to see that next week when its all wrapped up.