Painting the 60

[TWHawk]

Creepy ~ That is one well-executed car! (why is there no emoticon for a rim-shot?)

Trav, I am going to have to paint my 61 in my driveway, so I'll be making a "paint booth" from PVC pipe and clear plastic sheeting... Not the best idea, but it's all I got

Good luck! I'm finding lots of interesting ways of getting the job done. I never thought I'd be digging through my toolbox in search of a toothbrush, nor did I think a drinking straw would ever seem so valuable.

[Boogeyman Con Carne]

Creepy ~ That is one well-executed car! (why is there no emoticon for a rim-shot?)

Trav, I am going to have to paint my 61 in my driveway, so I'll be making a "paint booth" from PVC pipe and clear plastic sheeting... Not the best idea, but it's all I got

[TWHawk]

Boogeyman - Yeah, I do that. It's actually an interesting feat to wet down a floor that's served three generations of mechanics. What defeats us is the bay door and open beam ceiling above the car, the brick walls, shelves of parts, stacks of tires and various bits of equipment around the workspace. It's not exactly a clean environment. We do the best we can, and I'm just thankful we're not trying to do this outside.

Creepy - That's just beautiful! Well done, and welcome to the boards.

[Creepy Cruiser]

I'm new here, (in fact this is my first post, lol), and I came across this thread, and I just wanted to say "there is light at the end of the bodywork hell tunnel", lol. I feel your pain, because I've been there many of times. Here's the pics of my bagged '65 for a little extra motivation, lol.

Here's what I started with:






Here's when my buddy and I were doing all the reworking of the body and paint in a little garage, lol.

Startring all the way to bare metal.


A little primer, and a whole lot of blocking, over and over and over, lol.


And this is what I have now! (well worth all the pain!)







I hope this helps, lol.

***And yes, I drag the hell out of it, lol***

Have fun!

[Boogeyman Con Carne]

You may also want to wet the floor before you get started, and tread lightly. It will trap whatever dust blows in and keep it on the floor...

[TWHawk]

Holy crap, we're tired.

We have Helen back to the point she was at for Hearse Con, which is shot with a heavy rust-preventative primer, and a black base coat. We can see some areas where our prep wasn't quite what it could be. We are done for this week, and will go back and reassess the situation on Monday.

I am worlds happier with our working surface this time around, and I'm thinking we'll probably wet-sand and move on from here. Because of where we are working, I've already picked a bug out of the wet paint. Early next week, we'll be painting the insides of the doors, replacing the brackets for the rocker chrome and replacing the door seals. Once all that is done, we'll shoot our color, and start laying on the clear coats.

One other note - Respirators may be somewhat ineffective for protection against the lead-based paints from the manufacture, or perhaps I should have worn the thing longer than I did. I have been rather sick this week with nausea and gastric issues plus pain in the kidneys. It's getting better, and I'm only guessing as to what's made me ill. We are working with the bay door open, the ceiling vents open and a fan blowing, and we swept out the space and used a leaf-blower to blast the dust out several times. I'm just putting this here as a warning for the next person who decides to tackle this sort of project; just something to be aware of.

[TWHawk]

Unholy irony Traveler...you're going to like this story!

Through a random first conversation this evening with another hearse enthusiast, a myriad of old coach tales are exchanged. Half way in, I'm asked if I happen to know the history of your Crown. (Where did THAT come from?) "Guess it was previously owned by bikers that used it as a tow vehicle to Sturgis..."

At this point the other person interjects:

"Holy shit! I have an old pic of that car! Can't believe that I never drew the correlation. Then again, it was like 1979."

No promises but he's going to look for it! How cool would that be to have pics of (pre)Helen?

That would be very cool!
All I really know is that Micheal who sold the car to me had purchased it from a woman named Gail. He told me that she was the one who boughtt the car when it came out of service.

[60Crown]

Unholy irony Traveler...you're going to like this story!

Through a random first conversation this evening with another hearse enthusiast, a myriad of old coach tales are exchanged. Half way in, I'm asked if I happen to know the history of your Crown. (Where did THAT come from?) "Guess it was previously owned by bikers that used it as a tow vehicle to Sturgis..."

At this point the other person interjects:

"Holy shit! I have an old pic of that car! Can't believe that I never drew the correlation. Then again, it was like 1979."

No promises but he's going to look for it! How cool would that be to have pics of (pre)Helen?

[TWHawk]

It should open with Adobe...

Got it, thanks!

[Boogeyman Con Carne]

It should open with Adobe...

[TWHawk]

I envy your progress and improved arm musculature Has that CD shown up yet?

I have the CD, and thank you!

My computer won't read the file, but I'll see if Nate can beat it into submission for me.

[TWHawk]

Rattle can primer will not keep it from rusting. You have to have a topcoat on the outside and rust preventative on the inside. Otherwise, the rust will come right through that primer.

-denise

I appreciate what you are saying here.
This coat of primer is actually sort of a placeholder... Maybe rust isn't the word for it. What we are trying to prevent is what is maybe called Flashing? That rust-colored haze that freshly sanded metal will take on within a couple of days when left exposed. The layer that is on there now is meant to hold everything in stasis as it's just not possible for me to sand out an entire car in a day. In fact, it's taken Nate and I four days, plus we had to leave it for the weekend while I was working. Today we should finish the job of taking the whole car down to bare metal.

Each part of the car has been thoroughly washed down with degreaser, rinsed and dried before being hit with the primer, and once we have the whole thing done to this point, I should be able to see and address the ripples and dings that are invisible to me on the shiny bare metal. Once that is done to the best of my ability (again, it won't be perfect, and I'm ok with that) we'll wet sand and wash down the car again, mask it and shoot another automotive primer/ rust preventative. Over that will go the base, particulate color coat and at least a couple of coats of clear.

Between those coats will probably be a bit more sanding and swearing.

[Morella]

Rattle can primer will not keep it from rusting. You have to have a topcoat on the outside and rust preventative on the inside. Otherwise, the rust will come right through that primer.

-denise

[TWHawk]

No CD yet. It'll come in handy when it gets here.
My power steering pump is working more like a filter these days.

[Boogeyman Con Carne]

I envy your progress and improved arm musculature Has that CD shown up yet?