Painting the 60

[TWHawk]

Lovin' Helen's well deserved makeover updates Traveler. One question though: Why didn't you wait until after HearseCon?

Because right now Nate and I have two solid weeks to work on her, and good weather for the foreseeable future. That's really rare.

[TWHawk]

K. So, today's pictures will get posted tomorrow... It was a long day.

[TWHawk]

Now in the light of day, I realize there are only two more pictures to add. It’s slow and careful work at this point, as Nate and I have heard so many horror stories that it’s impossible not to think one of us is going to make some catastrophic error. I have already managed to tag a bit of chrome with my angle grinder, which would upset me if I could figure out which gouge was mine and which was preexisting. The happy news is that it’s going a bit faster than I expected. The super exciting news is that as far as I can tell, this car has never been in so much as a fender-bender. There is a couple of small dings like car-door marks, but not a bit of bondo to be found. Also, she was definitely baby blue when new.

I am pleased that we started the project when we did. More often than I’d like I’ll be scuffing the paint and spot a crack which I then follow to the metal and usually find a little spot of rust. Still, I have found one cancerous spot small enough to cover with my little finger, and a couple of scary spots below the doors where you’d expect. Otherwise, she’s perfect.

Zack has been awesome in allowing us to use his driveway to make this mess, and running an extension cord from the house for us. Richard stopped in for a moment and spent the next couple of hours crawling under Helen to try his hand at turning some rotted screws. Nate has been with me every step of the way accept for the first few hours of a day when I’ll go get my OCD on making sure that everything is labeled or numbered and neatly stacked while trying not to cringe about the dirt on my casket table and the battery sitting in the passenger seat.

I have to hold off a bit this morning for a 9:am bone-cracky-doctor visit, and then I'll be back out there for day 5.

[hotroddwayne]

Good luck to you guys! Hope Helen turns out just like you want her to be... it's great to see a chick driven by passion to make an already goregous car even better, and willing to take it on yourselves every step of the way... no better way to learn

[TWHawk]

Thank you for the encouragement. I have to admit it's becoming an almost physical effort not to sometimes think along the lines of "Oh my god, what have I done to my car?"

Here's a question... If I'm not supposed to go near the chrome with sand paper, how do I get the paint off? Is there some sort of chemical I should try?

[hotroddwayne]

Here's a question... If I'm not supposed to go near the chrome with sand paper, how do I get the paint off? Is there some sort of chemical I should try?

You just have to be careful, you've already said you saw some scuffs in the chrome from a previous sandpaper incident. Fold over a piece of DA sandpaper & use that straight-edge of the paper to get up close along chrome moldings. Here's another trick I learned from trial-and-error... get some shim stock (it comes in several thicknesses for industrial applications to shim up moving parts in machinery to exact elevations) and a good thickness to use is .2mm what you do is cut a piece of shim stock about 3 - 5 inches long... it's THIN enough to slide UNDER any chrome molding... & fold it up to guard your chrome, use it to guard your chrome while hand sanding & move it along as you go. Shim stock is very thin metal & .2mm is only 2 tenths of a millimeter thick, comes in a roll usually or a sheet. It's tough as nails though even though paper thin... now you can get creative with smaller pieces of shim stock to get around rounded corners & tight areas... basically anywhere where the chrome is fastened to the coach with some type of clip & you can get your new "chrome shield" between the chrome & the body. Cut & fold a few different sizes & shapes & keep re-using them as you sand. Only slide the shim stock under the chrome a little, then fold it up so it always fits close even if there's a chrome clip in the area you slid it into under that chrome. Sorry for the metric references, but I work for the Japanese & all our stuff is metric but hopefully you understand the concept.

[TWHawk]

You just have to be careful, you've already said you saw some scuffs in the chrome from a previous sandpaper incident. Fold over a piece of DA sandpaper & use that straight-edge of the paper to get up close along chrome moldings. Here's another trick I learned from trial-and-error... get some shim stock (it comes in several thicknesses for industrial applications to shim up moving parts in machinery to exact elevations) and a good thickness to use is .2mm what you do is cut a piece of shim stock about 3 - 5 inches long... it's THIN enough to slide UNDER any chrome molding... & fold it up to guard your chrome, use it to guard your chrome while hand sanding & move it along as you go. Shim stock is very thin metal & .2mm is only 2 tenths of a millimeter thick, comes in a roll usually or a sheet. It's tough as nails though even though paper thin... now you can get creative with smaller pieces of shim stock to get around rounded corners & tight areas... basically anywhere where the chrome is fastened to the coach with some type of clip & you can get your new "chrome shield" between the chrome & the body. Cut & fold a few different sizes & shapes & keep re-using them as you sand. Only slide the shim stock under the chrome a little, then fold it up so it always fits close even if there's a chrome clip in the area you slid it into under that chrome. Sorry for the metric references, but I work for the Japanese & all our stuff is metric but hopefully you understand the concept.

Good advise, and thank you, but I didn't make myself understood...

Most of the chrome that I have removed from Helen has paint on it already. The prior painter tried to mask around everything, and missed a lot. I'd like to know how to get all of that old paint off of the chrome before I put it back on the car.

[R U INJRD]

Good advise, and thank you, but I didn't make myself understood...

Most of the chrome that I have removed from Helen has paint on it already. The prior painter tried to mask around everything, and missed a lot. I'd like to know how to get all of that old paint off of the chrome before I put it back on the car.

Try using superfine steel wool (#0000) and "chrome cleaner" (most auto parts stores and Wal-Mart, etc. sell it - it's just called "chrome cleaner"), but go really lightly with it or you'll start to get swirl marks in your chrome. Try it on an old piece first.

It may be called "chrome polish" too. Don't get fooled into thinking you can "polish" chrome though, like you can with other surfaces like aluminum or paint. Chrome is a hardened surface. You can take rust off of it, but this fools people into thinking they are polishing the metal, which you really arent doing. With aluminum or paint when you polish it you are creating a series of increasingly smaller "scratches", until they are so small you can't see them. With chrome, the harder you rub the more scratches you introduce. You want to go really lightly, so that you are removing the debris on the surface (rust, paint, whatever) without digging into the chrome surface. The chrome is hard enough that you can use something like steel wool to remove surface debris without harming the chrome, but if you start applying too much pressure you will eventully dig into the chrome, creating swirls that are almost impossible to remove. The more you try, the worse they get.

Practice is the best way to get a feel for how much you can do. I would suggest buying some new small chromed piece and using the polish on it to see what kind of pressure is too much. If you polish the piece and it still looks new, you're doing all right. If it has little scratches in it that weren't there when you took it out of the package you are applying too much pressure.

This is why professional auto detailers make the big bucks. They know how to clean your ride so it doesn't look worse when they're done.

[TWHawk]

Thanks, I'll try that!

No new pictures today, as nothing really looks different. I'm down to hand-sanding edges and the insides of doors. It rained today so I had a girl-moment with the wet sandpaper - That's just gross. Tomorrow will be more of the same. Hopefully she'll be ready to move into the warehouse for the final paint-prep stages on Monday.

[hotroddwayne]

So will you tell us what color (or colors) Helen is going to be? I know you hated the "easter egg" as you called it paint scheme! Just wondered if you'll tell us of if it's a surprise...

[TWHawk]

At this point, I am not sure about the color. Really, the project is more about preservation, so choosing the final color is in the works. Today Nate and I took a break from working on Helen directly, partially due to continuing rain, and partially due to some general bitchery that I'm sure was the result of six straight days of this crap.

So, today we started playing with particulate pigments, mixing and layering and playing. I don't remember how many combinations we tried on my poor motorcycle today. We'll go back and look at them when the sun shines again, and hopefully pick one.

[R U INJRD]

Have you considered white with a red stripe, yellow and black safety tape, and dryer vents for the roof?


That seems to be all the rage these days...

[TWHawk]

Bite your tongue.

[STODD]

Have you considered white with a red stripe, yellow and black safety tape, and dryer vents for the roof?


That seems to be all the rage these days...

Someone's looking for a beatdown...

[R U INJRD]

Bite your tongue.

Hey, since we have a dialogue going here, where is the larger version of your signature pic? I've been through all your pictures and haven't seen it anywhere. For some reason it bugs me that I can't see it larger.