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.

Another Ghia back on the road

Here we have the finished product!  After a good long while in the shop, this Ghia is headed home today. I know the owner is happy to have her car back. Im not sure what wheels are planned for this beauty, but I will post pictures of it when she gets them on.

FJ

Back in the mix is the FJ 55. We have been a little slow over the past few months on our restoration work since Paul was out with a shoulder surgery but now we are back full force. Paul is back and we have also hired an old friend, Jordan. He picked right up where we stopped.  The tail gate had had a few places welded up but not quite finished up. Jordan jumped right in and got to work. The tail gate is now ready for primer as well as the left rear door. He also spent some time cleaning up the drip rails and blocked out the rest of primer on the rest of the vehicle. Next week we will get these final repair spots in primer then start prepping the jambs for paint.

Clear as glass

We’ve been here. I know its been a while since my last post, we have been busy. Paul, my painter has been out with shoulder surgery and its just been Cole and I for the past 7 weeks or so. Its been crazy. Things are settling down some and we have been working on the Ghia recently so here is an update on it. The door glass, rubber, quarter glass and all rubber parts pertaining to them are in. All of these parts are original to the car, we just polished them up and detailed them so they would look as good as possible. The door sound so tight now when you close them. Its really nice. We also have running and driving car now. Although its not road worthy just yet. Its close. Plans for this week are to have the bumpers on, windshield in and get a couple of nick knack stuff painted. Its really coming together now.

Getting there

We had a pretty prosperous day on the Ghia today. We were able to get the wiring pretty well wrapped up. The back up lights were wired up today and the switch tested. Its about the only electrical part that hasn’t been replaced so we tested it to be sure its working properly. Sure enough its working so the back up lights should be fine. We still need a few parts so we moved on to putting the doors on. It took 3 people to make sure they went on without any bumps or bruises but we were able to get them on just fine. They lined up pretty well. Once all the door rubber is installed we may have to tweak a few things but so far so good. The switches have been mounted and looking good in the dash. That lowered stance really looks good on these VW’s. We hope to get the engine back next week from getting a tune up and new exhaust. If we do, we should be able to hook the battery up and start testing all of the circuits. We have gotten many compliments on the color. The owner had a great vision on that. Stay tuned.

Porsche gets a fresh coat

This Porsche was dropped off a couple of weeks ago to get a new paint job. The body was in great shape so there wasnt much work to do it. We did have to repair about a million rock chips that were on the front end but thats about it. We then sanded the rest of the car to prep it for paint. After a good sanding and a good bath we started masking off the areas that we didnt want to paint. Today we put it into the booth and started prepping it for paint. Once the body was nice and clean Paul started painting.  A coat of urethane sealer was sprayed first. Once that was dry, 3-4 coats of color was sprayed. Once that is dry we will spray the clear. We painted the hood yesterday and do have a couple of pictures of that for your viewing pleasure. We will post pictures of the body with clear tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Shelby gets a face lift

This Shelby GT 500 is ready to get its front end freshened up. It has a few miles on it and it has seen a few laps around the track. Its noting really major, just a few chips We must remove the stripes to refinish the hood and bumper, but while we were at it, the owner opted to redo all of stripes on the car just be sure that they all match and look the same. The track days are over for this Pony. Cruising and car shows are all that the future holds for  her. We intend to make sure she looks her best.

Shine on.

Today we were able to get some painting done on the Camaro. We started with painting the bottom side of the hood and trunk. We then painted the inside of doors. Once all that was dry, we flipped them over and painted the top side. While these were getting painted, the car was getting its final sanding so that tomorrow it can be made shiny. On a separate note, I will try to get that camera lens cleaned tomorrow.

Storms a coming

A couple of weeks ago, we had a storm here in Greensboro. The owner had been out earlier that day in his Mustang. The storm came up quick and included hail and high winds. Unfortunately this Mustang was caught up in it and was damaged by it. You may remember this car, we restored it a few years ago. Yesterday we started the repair by removing all that needed to be removed to ensure a quality job. Today we repaired the damaged areas and Paul sprayed a few coats of primer on the repair. Over the next day or so we will get the primer blocked out and the rest of the panels prepped for paint. We sure hate that this happened to his pride and joy, but we will get it looking all spiffy again in no time.

Back on the Ghia

After way too long, we were able to get back on the Ghia this week. No major accomplishments here but we did get some work done. There are several places that have to be cut out and new metal put back in because the metal is thin in some areas and has a few small pinholes. We were also planning on cutting the left rocker off to start fitting in the left heater channel and outer sheet metal but tubing we need to brace everything up didnt come in. We hope to get that in next week so we can start that up. We did get about 10 or so places welded up and a few little patches in and some made to keep things moving. We have been very blessed with lots of collision work over the past few months but unfortunately that takes our time away from these more fun projects. Our many thanks to the owner for her patients. We now have a full crew and you will be seeing more posts on this one in the weeks to come.