Prime time ’55

We shot a few coats of primer on the ’55 hood and trunk today.  As you can see they were in pretty good shape. We did have a few places that needed some attention but once they were straight and the booth was open, we slid them on in. These parts will be blocked one more time to be sure they are ready for paint. Its a long process but it really pays off in the end.

Straightening the curves

The body work on the ’55 is coming right along. We have been blocking the car out to find what needs to be straightened and what we can straighten with blocking and priming. This car has had some nice work done in the past but we will be fine tuning what they started. As you can see it does have several places that need attention and about that many more that we haven’t gotten to yet. Next week we should be able to start spraying some primer on these repairs. Once that happens another good blocking to make sure we didn’t miss anything then start prepping for paint.

4 more ready

We have been working hard on the C-10, and it shows. We now have 4 more parts ready for paint. Cole and Jordan finished blocking these panels out today and Paul had just enough time to spray a few coats of urethane primer on them before quitting time. These panels will be blocked one final time to be certain they are nice and straight before painting.

C10 in progress

Over the past couple of weeks we have been plugging along on the C10 project. Repairs on the cab are moving along. The firewall is pretty smooth, work on the cab continues and work on the doors has begun. Although these are new doors they still came with a few dents that needed attention. We blocked them out to find the low spots and high spots then straightened them out. We will be applying our high build primer over these doors in the next day or so and they will receive another blocking followed by a final prime with regular urethane primer. Once that happens we will have 2 more panels ready for paint.

’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.

Cab’s on deck

Although we haven’t posted in a while on our restoration projects, we have worked on them some. Here is the cab on the C-10 that we have been working on. We started with the bed a couple of months ago and now we are onto the cab. As you can see its already in epoxy primer and we have started some body work. We did find a few too many pin holes to repair in the left and right floor pans so we will go ahead and replace them in a week or so. We have gotten a start on the body repairs in the meantime. Keep an eye out for this one. Its going to be a real head turner.

 

Back in the saddle

After many weeks of going full tilt on collision cars, we have opened up some breathing room and are back on the oldie goldies. We spent some time off and on block sanding this ’57 but the past couple of days have been pretty prosperous. Block sanding a vehicle with this much surface area was pretty time consuming as well as hard on the shoulders and elbows. The firewall was another area that was pretty tedious. Now, most of that is done and we really just have a few corners and channels to sand and a few places in the trunk before its ready for paint. It should be a real looker when we have all the color on it.

Body work is complete

The body work on the ’57 is now complete! After a solid week of bodywork, blocking, sanding and priming, the body is now ready for its final sanding. If the finial blocking comes out nice, the body will be ready for paint. This will really only leave a few trim parts and some interior parts that need painting. The straightening of these panels actually went very smoothly. Jordan and Cole get all the credit for that hard work. These guys worked really hard getting the body nice. Paul, then took his turn masking it off and spraying a few coats of high solids primer on here, twice. Its a dirty job and hard work, but the rewards worth every bit of it.

Time for bed

We have been working pretty hard and heavy on the the C-10 these past few weeks and its paying off. The hood is completely finished and ready for paint. The next time it gets sanded, it will be painted.  The body work on the outside of the bedsides are done and in their second priming. We will block those out one more time and prime them once more to ensure they are straight. The body work on the inside of the bedsides was finished up today and they were primed as well. All in all, quite a bit of work getting done on this one. Next we finish the outsides of the beds then its on to the cab and doors.

Straightening the curves

Now that the outside of the bedsides are straight, its time for the insides. Same steps here as the outsides. Block out the primer to find the highs and lows, tap the highs down and fill the lows. Since this truck is 45 years old, it has some wear and tear. We are going to go ahead and also fill the pitting that has occurred from years of use along with the spot welds to make the insides of these smooth as silk. Its little things like that that make it a little different than the others.