A couple updates - progress photos

[Beatcoaster]

Well, with the rain finally coming here in Seattle I think summer is finally over, but I have gotten a lot done since March when I bought this purple beast...


Since then I started with the interior first as I'm sure most of you have seen. Going from this:



To this:


After that I debated on saving for the engine/tranny but it was just too purple and I couldn't take it much more...So after countless hours of rust removal, redoing the drip rail with 3m 8307, and a lot of unphotographed other things, I made some progress worth documenting.

After finishing the interior totally with a rattlecan I felt confident doing the outside - and the adventure began, spraying metallic with a rattlecan(bad idea), outside in my driveway(bad idea), panel by panel(bad idea)...After plenty of screw ups/testing I finally figured out the steps needed to make it look good with no streaking or having the clear lay over and stripe the metallic flake. So far I have probably spent $300 in paint but it's still cheaper than buying a large cfm compressor/guns/paint/clear/hardner/etc - and it isn't purple anymore.

Here the grill is finally complete. It was torn completely apart, 3 hours of taping the letters and lines, painted, polished and rebuilt - probably 16 hours just in this...


This whole fender was bashed in along the crease in the arch - I pulled it all out and used a little filler and voila - no more dents - a lot more sanding, paint, sanding, clear, sanding and it will be ready for a buff/polish. Notice how bad and striped a rattlecan metallic job can look if you just lay it down without a care...


The initial pass of 1500, still need to block it with 2000. Funny how all these scratches dissapear!


My test panel, with various patches hand rubbed with only rubbing compound after it was sanded w/2000 Who says a rattlecan paint job can't look good?


The shiney spot!



So now that the rains are here - time to go inside and start on my LED lighting projects. The entire truck will be lit with LED's except for the headlights. I started messing around with the sidemarkers tonight and I came up with a sweet idea for backlighting them with the parking lights on. The backs on the original Guide sidemarkers are too thick, but these aftermarket ones from Classic Industries work perfect. The bulb socket will be connected to the turn signal, so they will have dual function, and look really slick going down the road...