’57 is up next

The ’57 is ready for its turn in the booth. The past couple of weeks we have been working on getting it ready for paint and Monday is the day. We have meticulously sanded this vehicle and spent quite a bit of time blowing out all the nooks and crannies where dust can hide. We have changed the booth filters and washed it down. Monday we will finish prepping the booth and finish masking off the car. We will start by applying a coat of sealer over the entire car. We will then paint the roof white and when that is dry, we will mask it off and paint the body the Tropical Turquoise. We will then follow that up with 3 coats of PPG’s 2021 high solids clear. Its been a long while coming but this ’57 will be looking good again in a few more days.

Bed time

Over the past few days we have been working on the C10 project, you may have seen the first post a few weeks back. We decided to blow this bed back apart to make sure we get paint and primer in all the nooks and crannies. It hard enough to do apart but together its impossible. We also welded in a patch in an ugly area on the inside lip of the bed rail. Looks like someone in the past put a hook there to strap down some cargo and it messed the lip up. What you see here is 3 good coats of PPG’s Vibrance line high build epoxy. We sanded and cleaned the metal multiple times to ensure the surface was as clean as possible. Paul then applied the primer allowing the product to dry in between coats. The next step for these panels will be a good blocking out with 80 grit. We will then be able to see all of our low and high spots. We will do our body work right over this product. Once they are straight, another coat of epoxy followed by several coats of urethane high build primer. These are the most important steps in the paint process.

New job in the shop

Here are a few parts that were dropped off last week for a 1971 C10. We will be performing a full High Performance Finish on this truck. There will be several custom touches done on this one. The molding holes and side marker lights have all ready been welded up so we don’t have to worry with that. We did use our stud gun to weld studs to the low places so we can pull them back into shape to minimize the amount of filler needed to straighten out the dents. We also used a hammer and dolly to smooth out the dents as well. The next step will be to sand the bed inside and out and spray several coats of our high build epoxy primer. Stay tuned to this one. It should really stand tall.

Back on the Bug

Lots of work getting done on the Beetle last. All the body work is complete on the body. Cole and Jordan Jumped on this thing and really moved quickly straightening out the body. They started by blocking out the high build primer that was sprayed a while back. This showed them where the low and high spots are and also straightens out the minor imperfections and makes the panels flat and straight. Once the body panes were straight, the entire body needed to be sanded in preparation of the final urethane primer. 3 coats of that was sprayed and it too will be blocked out before paint.

Time for some color

Last week we pulled out a few parts for the ’57 Bel-Air and prepped them for paint. Paul blocked out the trunk and the doors to ensure they were straight and smooth. We then sanded these parts all on the inside for trim out. Once the were all sanded up, we cleaned them meticulously to ensure a clean paint job. We then sprayed a coat of urethane sealer on the parts to provide uniform color and increase adhesion of the base color coats. 3 coats of Tropical Turquoise was then sprayed once the sealer was dry followed by 3 coats of high solids PPG clear coat. These parts really turned out nice. Its a great sneak peak of what the car will look like. The finished product is going to be very impressive.

The finished product

Here we have the finished product! The owner has it all back together now and on the the road. He’s got himself a real head turner now.

One clean ’57

Its been crazy around here the past few weeks. We have been very busy with deer hits and general accidents. We sent the ’57 over to the blasters a few weeks ago and got it back last week and we were very impressed with what we have. This is a very solid car. We immediately began sanding it in preparation for primer. We sanded every single square inch of this car to ensure good adhesion of the primer. We then dug out all of the old seam sealer in the car and slid it in the booth this afternoon. We then meticulously wiped the car down to be sure we had the metal as clean as possible. Before spraying we masked off the frame, floor, and rear inner fender wells. We applied 2 coats of PPG’s high build epoxy from their Vibrance line. Things are looking really good. Tomorrow the wheels go back on and it waits for its turn over at Kelly’s place to get the new right quarter installed.

’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.

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.

’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.