Time to shine!

Its been a long time coming but we are finally spraying some color on the C-10 project. We had intentions on painting both bedsides today but when we were prepping them, we found a spot on one of them that wasnt up to snuff. So it came back out for repair and we slid the radiator support in in its place. These parts were sealed with PPG’s urethane sealer followed by 3 coats of PPG base coat then 3 coats of clear. Things went smoothly and the turned out very nice. The color looks amazing. We will wet sand and buff the outside of the bedside before reassembly. Hopefully we will get another batch of parts painted in the next couple of weeks.

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.

FJ55 still going

The FJ has been moving along just fine. The bumpers have been stripped, repaired and primed. Today we were able to sand the bumpers for paint tomorrow and got the doors trimmed out. We also stopped and painted the grill and the side vents and cover. They really turned out nice. The grill should look great when it’s back in its rightful place. We have a couple of finishing touches to put on the grill before  that happens though. The doors really look nice. Hopefully by Friday we hope to have the outside painted so that they can go back on the vehicle next week. This will only leave the tops of the front fenders left to repair and paint. This rare FJ is looking better and better. 

Gotta keep ’em separated

As you can see we have been making great progress on the ’70 beetle. Unfortunately, our progress has revealed a few real rust issues. Some of these rust problems were caused by a leaky master cylinder and brake fluid  resivoir others good ole fashioned water. Because the owner wants to keep this car for another 45 years we will replace all rusty parts and take all measures to keep it from returning. We didn’t have any issues separating the body from the pan and all of the pan bolts came out with no problems. Most of them however, were just about rusted in two so they will all be replaced as well. The engine was also removed so that we can more easily degrease the chassis. The engine runs well already so we will just clean the engine tins and paint them. Next on the agenda will be to remove the old wiring harness, windshield and back glass so we can get the body over to the blaster. Once back from the blaster our replacement parts should be in so we can start rust repairs. Stay with us on this repair. We are looking forward to this project. 

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.

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.

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.

Prime time

Here you can see we have the Mazda all ready for paint. We finished up the body work today and primed it. After blocking out the primer and prepping the rest of the panels for paint we washed it and have it in the booth for tomorrow, paint day.

Come together

We have made great progress on the Prius today. It was painted this morning. After allowing sufficient drying time, we started the assembly process. The left rear door is built back as well as some of the interior. Did come across a few little specialty clips and screws that were ripped out in the accident that were ordered. We hope those will be here on Friday. We will continue to assemble everything we can to keep things moving along. If all goes well we should wrap this one up and have it ready for delivery on Friday.

Too close

You know those posts that keep you from hitting a gas pump or the ATM ?  Dont you hate it when they move them?  Thats what we have here. It happens to the best of us from time to time. Luckily we were able to straighten this one out with out having to install a new panel. We will be fixing the rear bumper as well but most of that damage was just on the surface. We started by removing all the parts that were necessary. We then welded some tabs to the quarter to pull that sheet metal back into shape. We then used a stud welder to pull out the remaining low areas and tapped down the high ones. We then used filler to start smoothing up the body. This is about as far as we got today. Tomorrow we plan on having this one in primer and ready for paint on Thursday.