49 GMC Five Window

[e015475]

Well after two years and about 600 hours of hard labor, I'm out of paint prison!

Rolled the truck into a rented paint booth last Thursday and painted it Friday. A local body shop in Mesa, G5, rents their booth. It's about 40' long, which let us paint the cab on the truck and the bed in pieces all at the same time. Chris, the owner at G5, says it was built with the idea of painting buses, but seemed ideal for what we wanted to accomplish. Chris and the folks at G5 were very easy to work with and very helpful. This photo taken about 5am on paint day. Still have the same old crappy phone - please forgive the 'artifacts' in the pictures.


Here's the truck in the booth with the bed hanging from every stand we could find, including a couple of step ladders to hang the bed sides with a piece of conduit through the rolled edge.

Another view-

We sprayed from about 8 am to about 5 pm with an hour off for lunch (thanks Whataburger for keeping your AC at 72F, but you need to work on keeping your iced tea dispenser full). Three coats of base followed by three coats of clear. The truck had been done about two weeks prior, but temperatures in Phoenix were bumping 120F in the mid afternoon, so we waited for the weather to cool off a little to 110F (it wasn't much, but it did make a difference). When we started spraying in the morning it was in the high 70s, but in the middle of the afternoon it hit about 110F. You've not lived until you've been trapped in a metal box in the middle of Arizona in the summer! My guess was it was about 120F in the booth most of the afternoon. I can't recall a time where I drank more and peed less. Wyatt, my body guy, sprayed while I mixed paint, moved the step ladder so he could reach the roof center and kept the air hose from getting tangled. Wyatt started at one end of the booth and by the time he got to the other end, it was time to start the next coat. It was brutal. We used the slowest reducer possible but there is still a hint of orange-peel, but since it will be cut and buffed anyway, it is fine. The new Iwata gun was fabulous - the paint gravity feeds from a bladder and will spray at any angle. Very easy to keep it loaded with paint - no drips or spills. Controlling sweat dripping onto the panels was our biggest problem.

Can't say enough good things about Wyatt's (Tichenor Coach Works in Mesa) ability, attention to detail and consistency. Highly recommended.

Here's the truck un-masked but still in the booth-


And the rest of the parts...........

Took about six trips to get everything back home - didn't want to damage anything. Here it is back in the shop at home.

I didn't want to risk damaging any paint, so I've stored the painted parts in the living room. My wife is a very understanding and patient woman. The only comment so far, with just a hint of sarcasm, was "I really like how you've redecorated my house.' The hood will have to be color sanded and buffed before it can be reinstalled, so that's the next priority. Need to finish the gas tank install and hang the rear shocks before I can assemble the bed on the truck. Worried a little about grand kids in the house - thinking abut some police barricade tape, but that might push the wife over the edge!

If it ever gets cool enough to turn the air off and open the door, here's what the neighbors will see from the street at night.

Never get tired of looking at the engine bay.........

I'm going to take a break from the truck for a week or so. Monsoon season is just about here, and the humidity will make it pretty uncomfortable in the afternoon in Wyatt's shop in a week or two and I should be able to convince him to come help me cut and buff the truck in the air conditioned shop in the afternoons.

Was puttering around at Wyatt's waiting for the temps to drop for the booth and had the doors of my wife's MG TD blasted and found this. Wyatt is teaching me how to make a new door skins on the English wheel so I think I'll work on the MG for a week or two then jump back on the truck.


With regards, Phil