Johnny Cash Tribute Truck

[bundeber]

Because it's a 67-68-69-70-72-74 chevy/gmc.

I've had this truck for almost 10 years now. Long story short, my dad had a 72 one ton that was turned into a car hauler. We hauled enduro cars and stock cars all over southern MN with it. I have always like the body style, and finally am going to get to finish my own.

I moved to Wyoming after college to get job experience as a teacher with plans to move back to MN and get a job. In the meantime I found two of these trucks, one a 3/4 ton 4x4 with a hammered body, and a nice 1/2 ton 2wd with a great body. Between the two of them I planned one truck. However in the meantime, my fiance cheated on me and I decided to stay in wyoming, unfortunately I already towed both trucks to MN. That summer I committed to doing most of the body work, and pickled all my fresh work in a coat of good primer and single stage paint with hardener. There it's sat for 9 years.

I got the go ahead from my wife to spend 6 weeks in MN finishing the truck. I've begun collecting parts and pieces to put it together. I already have a mid 70's front differential with disc brakes for it. I have a 1974 350 4 bolt main engine with about 15,000 miles on it to put in it. I'll rebuild it this summer just to make sure it's good to go, and put hard seats in the heads. I'm planning an nv4500 and 241 tcase (passenger side drop) for drivetrain. They're already in MN. My dad has a transmission shop in MN, so I have all the tools I need to make this happen. Which is good considering I only have 6 weeks to do it all.

I've always liked the 67-68 trim, and lo and behold, last week 67cheby decided to sell his. I've started polishing it up, and that's about all I'll be able to do until I get back to MN in June. So I figured I'd document that part of the process anyway.

[bundeber]

I watched a video on a guy using this product to strip anodizing off of aluminum trim. He wasn't kidding, five minutes and it's gone.

I started by washing all the dirt off the trim, dried it, and then applied the hair and grease remover, it takes just a little bit to make this work, no need to submerge it, just wipe it on. Be sure to use gloves. I figure any product that they sell in a plastic bag in case of leakage is some bad stuff.

I let it sit for 5 minutes, it was more than enough time. There's zero damage to the aluminum and it cleans up nicely.

The other guy bought his at Home Depot, I found it locally at Ace Hardware.

[bundeber]

After 5 minutes I rinsed with water and scrubbed it with a green scotchbrite pad to clean it off.

The next step is removing those pesky little dents. I tapped the backside with a small jewelers hammer, and rubbed it with a wooden tool to smooth it a bit. Then I used a jewelers file on the front to level it. Then I hit it with 600 grit sandpaper. Wetsanding of course. This pretty much took care of the dings and wrinkles.

The next step was 00 steel wool. It works well on jewelry, so I figured it would be fine here too. Then I used black jewelers rouge and a muslin buff to polish it. It still needs one more pass with red rouge to finish it up, but I'll do that when my coricone non ferrous metal sealer shows up. Here's the not quite finished piece.

I've got about 45 minutes in this cab corner. Hoping to finish all of it up this week.

[litew8]

nice work! Where are you getting the coricone? Direct?
I have an entire outer grille that needs protecting. Like the "Johnny Cash" reference.

[Tinkermc]

I thought you were polishing it for 67chevy anyhow it looks killer

[bundeber]

I could probably make a side business out of it! If 67cheby got quoted 1000 to restore his, I'd say that's a bit high, even if they were re-anodizing it.

And yep, I called the them direct to order the coricone, 25 bucks for an aerosol can of it, but it covers 300 square feet. From what I've seen of people using this, it seals really well in salt water conditions, so I imagine it will seal even better in non salt water situations. It also says it takes a caustic bath to remove it after it cures, but cleans up with water before then. Some instrument repair guys are using this on brass instruments too. I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

[67cheby]

that price didnt include re-andonizing it !! You are doing a great job, i am glad to see it be brought back to life !

[bundeber]

you and me both! Now that I have one small piece done, I'm getting impatient to have them all done...

On a side note, I visited my local junk yard. One with a vast collection of old trucks. Found probably 2 dozen doors in decent shape, several VERY nice cabs, including a 71 or 72 with factory marker lights on the roof. I didn't know they put those flat mounting spots on some of these cabs. Also they have a couple dozen fifties and early 60's trucks. I've got my name on a few choice pieces, now I just need to get out the tools and pull them off. Sadly, there are probably 30 small block engines just sitting out in the weather.

[67cheby]

i have a pretty nice set of headlight trim and one grill loop

[bundeber]

I'm actually going to use the 69 front clip... Although I'm seriously tempted to try to find a 67 because that hood is so much better looking. If I go that route, I'll let you know.

[68 TT]

Trim is looking great. Nice work.

Thanks for sharing the materials & methods you used to do it.

[gearys 5600]

Nice job on the trim..

[bundeber]

well, I've held off on updating, mostly because I was so bummed...

Trim is still polishing up nicely, but the coricone sealer I was planning on using looks like... well... it looks like I left my nice shiny pieces outside and someones dog peed on them. The coricone doesn't lay down very well with the light coats they call for, it has a very definate orange peel texture. So when you lay it down wet, it has a tendency to turn into a nasty dried urine color. I called the company, they don't know what's going on, they say they use it all the time with no issues, so not sure I'm going to get any satisfaction there.

This means two things, ONE, all my hard work goes back to square one, -strip, sand, steel wool, buff with 3 compounds all over again. Thankfully, I only have 3 pieces sprayed with coricone, and they're all straight pieces. And TWO, I have to find an alternative sealer.

I did however talk to a local powdercoater. He coats custom firearms here and said he has a clear product that he puts over polished steel barrels that looks pretty good. He's willing to run a test piece of aluminum for me this week and said the whole batch of trim would cost me 50 bucks. I should have this back from him tomorrow, or wednesday evening. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

If this doesn't work, anyone else know of a good product to put over polished aluminum to protect it from oxidization?

[67cheby]

well that stinks, looking forward to seeing what the powder coating look like !

[litew8]

damn, I was nearly ready to pull the trigger and buy some. Are you sure the aluminum was thoroughly cleaned of any contaminates? Sounds like it had a negative reaction, though I've never used it myself. I searched the internet and did find someone that used it on a boat, didn't look like dog . Maybe you can retest on something else?



the boat referenced above

[fxdxharley]

urithane clear works well over polished alum. im willing to bet the clear powder will be the hot ticket though and at 50 bucks thats a steal.

[bundeber]

yeah I'm sure there weren't any contaminates, I wiped it down three times before clearing, all three times with new gloves and a fresh rag. First two wipe downs were with wax and grease remover and the third wipe down was with lacquer thinner. My honest opinion on the stuff in the aerosol can is that it is too thick in this batch. I has the consistency of olive oil. Thin but not thin enough to level out without plenty of coverage. Then with all the grooves in the trim it runs and pools in the low spots, creating a thicker area. This stuff has an amber color in the jug, so what I'm seeing is a build up of that coloring in areas where it pools.

And the test on a piece of aluminum strip was the same deal. There wasn't any yellowing on it because it was perfectly flat. I put a bend in it and coated it again, and the yellow coloring was where the coating pooled. But in order to get it to have a wet glossy look I had to coat it too heavily to not sag. Like I said, just too much viscosity in this batch, maybe they're all like that I don't know.

It also dulls the shine a bit the pieces where it isn't yellowed. I really wouldn't recommend it for anything that you want to look like chrome. It would be the hot ticket for brushed aluminum though. I don't think you'd have to worry about smooth texture as much, and it seems very durable when cured.

I'm pretty excited about the powder coating though. I've seen some of his work and it's good. He also acid dips stuff first to make sure there aren't any contaminates. Just hoping his acid doesn't pit my aluminum. Hence the test piece first.

[bundeber]

Here are some pictures of what it looks like. This is the shiny surface that I started with.

[bundeber]

This is the orange peel that developed with only the light coats.

[bundeber]

this is the yellow streak that developed on heavier coats. It only shows up as it starts to cure, this took a couple days to develop, which is why I have multiple pieces coated.

[bundeber]

you can also see how the reflective quality of the piece is not the same as it was before clear coating. That's the same cab corner piece I showed at the beginning of the process all polished up.

Also here's some picts of the drain cleaner eating off the anodizing. Very aggressive chemical.

[bundeber]

This is how you know you have too much time on your hands and that you've become a bit obsessed with your truck...

[67cheby]

NICE artwork !

[litew8]

That last pic is cool!
-------------------------

I'm wondering if you could have wiped off the excess, and/or not applied it too thick. Maybe the brush on type would be different.
Application: No mixing required. Apply at temperatures between 45°F and100°F with conventional or electrostatic spray, quick-dip, flow, brush or wipe.

If you have any left, you can sell it to me?

[bundeber]

thanks cheby and litew8 I don't get to draw as often as I like!

Litew8, I'm actually wondering if it's not an elevation issue. I'm following the directions from top to bottom, time table, flow, cleaning. The pressure here is much less than it is at sea level. Perhaps my flow issue comes from there. I talked to the distributor yesterday, he said that they do a light coat, wait 5 min and then do another lite coat and is smoothes right out. When I do that I still get a pebbly texture, it never smoothes out like that picture of the boat.

And there's plenty of it left! probably 7/8ths of the can, it really doesn't take much to coat stuff. However if this powdercoating doesn't work, I'm going to haul it back to MN with me and try it at closer to sea level and see if that addresses the problem before I give up on it. I'll talk to the distributor again today and see what he thinks.

I'll keep you posted on it, maybe we can work out a deal on this stuff yet. If I'm not using it I'd gladly sell it.