72 C20 Miss Olive

[Nomadicflyer]

I've jumped into the deep end. Some days I'm head above, some days I'm head under. I figured I'll keep thrashing until I learn some style and grace. Or drown trying! With the motivation and skillset I see available on these boards, I'm hoping for style and grace, with an assist from new friends.

I've had this grunt of a truck forever. For most of her life, she's lived in the desert. Recently relocated to Omaha, I was in for a crash course in cancer treatment! Miss Olive (as my wife has named her) is a 1972 C20 350 4 bbl long bed, fleet side, pull-anything workhorse that has served me well for decades. She deserves a new coat of everything, and while I haven't taken enough pictures, I'll share the ones I have taken.

I've surpassed my skillset and experience long ago on this project. I've been in learn/watch/do/correct/repeat cycle for a while. Lurking here has helped quite a bit, and I'm hoping that starting a build page will motivate me to keep up the pace.

All helpful suggestions are welcome, experiences and mistakes are sought for!

The mission: remove the bits of corrosion that she's picked up over the past two years in Omaha, give her a heavy dose of primer/color/clear and fix a few things along the way. I'm in the middle of a transfer, so the driveline and frame will have to wait until later.

Kevin

[Nomadicflyer]

Last month, I started after the cab. This was before turning the shop into a plastic jungle of paint booth:

[Nomadicflyer]

The bed came off, I built some stands and built up the air system for painting. Built some shelving for the walls over the workbench, after insulating and sheeting the walls. I doubled the amount of lighting fixtures and installed high K bulbs (still, it proved woefully inadequate):

[Nomadicflyer]

The bed box had been worked on by a motorcycle painter I found on CL. He was great, but his working space was just too small. Eventually, I decided to take the project over and brought it home.
What a truck bed looks like in a motorcycle paint booth:

I think he did a great job with what we started with. There was some welding and patching to do (removed the Camper Special tanks). He suggested Shopline PPG, and I've been using this system all the way through. So far, I'm happy with the results.

[Nomadicflyer]

I had some rust in the floor corners, and practiced my welding skills with a little MIG welder. The Hobart Handler 140 worked really well for me, once I learned how to use it. I also reinforced the runners along the rockers.

[Nomadicflyer]

Floor patch in, runner reinforcements. Pics of tack welding 1/2 and 1 inch angle iron along the floor lines, underneath. They now have a much better looking bead running along the seams.

Before I bought the welder, hired someone to put in rockers. Once I started reading how it's supposed to be done, I had to go back and do some touch up work on the panels. Cleaned up with some glass/Everclear.

[Nomadicflyer]

Once I was done with patching and filling holes, it was time to install some ventilation and some plastic walls in the shop, lay down some epoxy primer.

[Nomadicflyer]

I learned that my spray gun would not paint the underside of the cab roof. More parts were needed. Engage 3M PPS paint cup system. That worked great, until my old compressor cord decided 20+ years was enough. It retired on me. I found the same plug being sold, still after all these years. Works for me! I was back in business.

[notsolo]

Originally Posted by Nomadicflyer

Floor patch in, runner reinforcements. Pics of tack welding 1/2 and 1 inch angle iron along the floor lines, underneath. They now have a much better looking bead running along the seams.

Before I bought the welder, hired someone to put in rockers. Once I started reading how it's supposed to be done, I had to go back and do some touch up work on the panels. Cleaned up with some glass/Everclear.

You are doing some nice work on Miss Olive, Under the cab rockers were you going to seal the rough edge? I have used Sika flex 1a Polyurethane caulk for many years with good results. Prime 1st and run a bead in the corner, then paint over or undercoat after it's dry 24-36 hrs. also have used it on vertical joints etc, stays flexible..3m 5200 is also good.

[Nomadicflyer]

Notsolo,
Thank you. I went back and welded a bead with .024 solid along the length of the gap, where the tack welds show in the pic. I'm pretty focused on moisture paths, and would like to keep everything as sealed up as I can make it.

I'll learn up on Sika Flex. I figure I'll go with POR 15 for the underneath post welds? That's what the black line is, on the floor seams. I wanted to get something in there, where the sandblaster couldn't clean out everything. I POR 15'd the corners, under the dash (a rust film was setting up there) and where I'd made repairs difficult to paint.

The 2 part epoxy seam sealer I've used on the drain channel kicked my butt, I wasn't fast enough to pull the tape before it set. It set quick! Now I have a little edge on my seal, where the tape lifted the edge. Is the 3m 5200 more forgiving?

Pic of the under dash, film of rust before POR and after:

[Nomadicflyer]

Went to primer, and things weren't flowing just right. Went back to the paint supplier, they suggested reducing the primer. 1:1:1/2, if I remember right. That brought me to my next learned skillset: fixing runs. With a thinner mix, the primer settled down to a smooth finish, but then I ended up with runs. Ergh. They should call this sanding. It's 80% sanding, 10% rework, 10% painting. I'm hoping with experience, I can change those numbers. Reshoot went better.

With sanding runs, came sanding through. Burned through some of the corners, which is fine... I was going to reshoot primer, anyway. Learning. It's not easy, being me.

I learned that being height impaired, with alligator arms, makes painting the roof hard. Note the heavy lines. Am I the only one here that ended up with one foot on the ladder, one foot on the firewall, one hand holding the ceiling conduit while trying to paint with the other one? That's tough! No pics of THAT, thank goodness...

[Nomadicflyer]

And color is next. The color wasn't coating right, I finally heeded the advise of many, and switched to the high flow couplings for the air hose. Enter new runs, sanding and repainting. But it sure covered better! Every time I make an adjustment, I have to make a corresponding step back and relearn how to shoot the gun.

After all the filtering and ventilating, I still ended up with a big, fat juicy bug in the paint. Probably the only one on the block. Nature is fun.

The clear went on really well. I need to sand down the line across the back and tape for the bottom color.

[notsolo]

Painting can be like that! I had pretty good luck on my Blazer, 1 time in a row is what I got, Not an expert by any means just do it for the pride of I painted that. Your body work and paint looks good to me, some 1 said a good coat of paint is close to being a big run, getting that close to perfect with garage shop paint booth and equipment is magic... Sika, and 3m 5200 stay tacky for an hr or more getting it smooth in the drip rails is tough. Shop towel and reducer smooths it out, I used Sika 25 yrs ago on my panel truck, best thing I knew about at the time. Olive is Going to be Awesome with the color going on the bottom....Ed

[Nomadicflyer]

Thanks, Ed! Looks like it was more than luck on your ride! Nice pics! I'll keep Sika in mind, with some reducer at hand for the next sealing job. I'll keep looking for the line between runs and good coverage!

[Nomadicflyer]

This is the target. Looks like we're of a same mind in color scheme .

[notsolo]

Hey Kevin, Are you using the PPS system all the time? I had poor luck with it. My equipment and skill, not the PPS. YouTube painting clips helped me out some, made the overlap closer together. Getting the mix just right is also important. I only have a handful of days here when the weather is decent humidity etc. Lots of factors to consider. Crazy but I would take the gun apart after each coat, clean and reassemble, giving good flash time in between. I'm happy how mine turned, out decent for a driver. I should have looked at factory colors, mine was a custom mix I made from metallic base coat TCP Global...Sika Flex 1a is usually available from concrete suppliers. What kind of clear and what size tip are you going to use.?....Ed

[Nomadicflyer]

Hey Ed,
I only used the PPS system for the underside spraying. One thing caught me as I used it, the first time. The liner would draw down and provide product to spray in any position, but close to the end I'd see it trapped about half a cup of product in a fold of the liner as it collapsed. Turning the gun upside down and letting some air into the cup fixed it, but only if I wasn't spraying upside down. Besides that, it worked ok for me.

You're right about the mix. I'm pretty focused on getting it as close as I can. I use mix cups from the PPG supplier, and it seems to work pretty spot on. I used to live in Silver Springs, I can imagine you had issues with weather and humidity. Been a good couple of weeks, here in Omaha. I've counted myself lucky. So much to keep track of, between temps and humidity.

Between coats/batches, I've run a little cleaner through the gun, while I mix up another go. I'm always misjudging the amount of product I need, too much or too little. I'm using a Devilbiss Finish Line gun, and although I don't have anything else to compare it to, it seems to do everything that the videos said it should. I'm using a 1.5 tip on primer and color, 1.3 on clear.

Your paint looks great! I'd be happy with that, as well.

I have to sand down a paint ridge on the back of the cab, where my white/clear meets the primer below it... I didn't watch what I was doing, and didn't feather the transition the way I had planned to. The green will go just under the back window, higher than I had originally planned. At any rate, I have a paint ridge at the bottom of the white, and I need to knock that down before painting the next color. I think I'm going after it with 1,000 grit wet paper, hoping not to burn through the primer in the process. Does that sound about right?

Gotta head to Vegas, work on an Airstream. I won't be posting much, for the next two weeks. Time to pull the 454 from the motorhome, drop in a 502 and give the fuel companies reason to rejoice! It's a tow truck engine, so I should be able to pull anything after this!

Kevin

[notsolo]

Kevin, Not sure about the ridge, 1000 grit paper is a safe bet small hard sanding block would do.I use 1/4 vinyl mud flap, stiff but flexible. Mine was metallic so anything after the base went on was fix and re shoot. Depending on how thin the clear is 1.5 tip might work pretty good. Getting the clear as smooth as possible saves a ton of elbow grease when and if your going to cut and buff. I need to work on my cut and buff skills. I gave up after about 10hrs wet sanding and said good enough... I'm going for the 3rd time's the charm on motor trans comb. last 6 months I am working on 5.7 TBI swap out of a 1993 Caprice wagon, Whole drive train, rebuilt exhaust, Boyd aluminum gas tank. Howell stand alone harness. Just about done with the wiring, reused the OEM in tank fuel pump, made a locking plate to hold the O ring. Would like to get closer to 20 mpg. 350 with a Saginaw 3 speed was getting about 10 mpg with 373 in the rear....502 might do better on mpg? gas is still cheap... this week... Have Fun in Vegas...Ed.

[Nomadicflyer]

Hey, Ed! sounds like quite a process, your Caprice Wagon. Just got back from an Airstream extraction mission in Vegas. Got it moved from a friends house to a truck shop, dropped waaaaaay too much on a 502 crate engine/accessories, and now I'm back to work on the C20.

Check this out: I painted the insides of the doors, today. Did the epoxy primer yesterday. Ended up with some issues. I'm repainting the doors, I had paid a guy to paint them months ago, and didn't like the results. Don't like them even more, now. I had sanded down most of the paint, down to bare metal in many places. Painted the primer, and got a crazy elephant skin/dry lakebed cracking come up through the primer. sanded the panel back down, this time removing all the 'old' paint (which was supposed to be just 6 months old), and the primer went on fine.

Now I'm doing color. The epoxy looked good, I sanded down the overspray and made things super clean. The door I had problems with elephant skin turned out great... the other one ended up with these 'scratches' coming up through the color coat. Sanded down the spots that looked scratched, and even the primer underneath looks scratched~ again, coming up from the work the prior painter did a few months ago.

I gave the painter the materials to paint, it's all PPG Shopline. Or at least that's what I thought.... but now I'm wondering if he used something else, or didn't really sand the doors down to bare metal prior to painting. I'm really getting spanked on these doors! I am SO DONE messing with them! LOL!

Has anyone seen this, before? Is there an answer beyond sanding to metal and starting over? Why didn't my last issue come through the epoxy primer, but came through on the color coat? Each time I think I have this figured out... something bites me in the butt.

[Nomadicflyer]

The picture through the loop was of the elephant skin after sanding. It looked kinda neat, the underlaying paint (which I mistook as 2k high build), wrinkled when the epoxy went over it. But only in that one spot... weird. Figures to me if it were to do it in one spot, it would do it over the entire area. But just that one spot. Same goes for my second issue, after the base layer of white.... just in three little spots. I sanded them down, and the 'scratches' are old paint, pushing up through the epoxy primer from below. I'm just shaking my head. How many guys scuff and paint over old paint, and it turns out just fine? LOL!

[notsolo]

Hey Kevin, hard to figure out, but not uncommon. In my case the whole hood looked like that, cost me a lot of work. Mine was from
Laquer based primer and urethane over it, did not go well. Some times solvent does not evaporate, temp, and humidity.Flash time? etc. I don,t do enough to be consistent as I would like. Your making great progress, small blemish, you moved on and the rest is looking good....Ed

[Nomadicflyer]

Jeez, the whole hood would suck! I guess I'll be an awesome sander, by the end of this! LOL!

[Nomadicflyer]

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=722864

Looks like I need to rework the dash, now. I guess I didn't spend enough time on the final sanding of the primer?

[Nomadicflyer]

I never notice how much a project like this gets to me, until after passing a milestone. Then the mist clears, the weight is lifted, and my wife starts talking to me again.

[notsolo]

Welcome back, lookin really good what happen with the dash? I have to leave my paint clothes outside, then maybe I am allowed into the house.