47-55.1 Painter Needed

[JDarby]

I need to find a painter for my 1955.1 GMC pick up truck here in the Dallas area
That can do a basic three color paint scheme, nothing fancy.

The truck has most of the body work completed on it and is
in pieces meaning cab / hood / fenders including bed is all apart and
running boards etc, would be delivered on a trailer.

PM me if you can help,
Thanks JDarby

[dsraven]

one idea would be to slip into a few body shop supply vendors near you and simply ask if they know of anybody doing side jobs, small shops with a paint booth or individuals who can paint. the good thing about that way is that they would know who does good work with good supplies and who cuts corners so the job doesn't turn out awesome. there also may be shops in your area where you can do mechanical and autobody work yourself. some of these shops have paint booths as well as resident autobody guys who just do work out of that "you wrench it" shop. the autobody supply vendor may know of where to look.

[e015475]

Painting was the most challenging part of building my '49

I'd completed the body work, assembled the truck to make sure everything fit and gaps were good and blown it back apart for paint. The truck was sitting in primer and ready to paint. All the undersides/jambs/firewall/inside doors/wheel wheels were shop painted and all that remained was the exterior surfaces

What I found was that no shop was willing to do the paint because they'd not done the prep and body work. The shops that'd bid the work wanted to strip the primer and start over and the prices were in the $8-12K range plus materials (seven or eight years ago)

Like dsraven suggests, I went to my local DIY auto paint supplier and asked the general manager if she knew of shops that'd do the work and she pointed me to a bulliten board of painters and booths. Of these, there were several 'production/insurance' body shops that'd rent thier booth (both with and without a painter) But with the truck blown apart, it was going to take several weekends going through their booth to paint all the components.

I finally ended up renting a booth for the weekend and hiring a painter by the hour to shoot the truck in pieces. The booth I rented was used to paint school buses and was big enough to paint all the components at once. We started Friday night hanging and cleaning all the panels, came back early Saturday morning and shot the truck and finished up mid afternoon. Sunday we loaded up the painted parts and moved everything back to my shop at home for cut, buff and assembly

The only other way that I might have done this is to stop after the metal work was done and hire someone to do the rest - seal, prime, block and paint. It would have been expensive.

[JDarby]

These are both great Idea's, keep'm coming please!!!

[e015475]

Another idea I've considered is an inflatable paint booth.

When I was looking for a painter, there was a 'man and a dog' shop that turned out very impressive work in his home shop. He did everything from the metal work to the final paint. He did his spraying at his house using an inflatable paint booth. (His waiting list was over a year long, so I didn't use him)

My idea was to buy one big enough to paint the cab sitting on a rolling chassis then cycle everything else through piecemeal. If your garage is big eneough I've even heard of guys setting them up there and just let them deflate in place until the next batch of parts is ready to paint.

The thought was that once I was through with the project, I'd put it on marketplace and sell it and recoup some of the investment and not have to store it. IIRC the booth rental for the weekend was about $500 and in today's dollars that'd go pretty far in buying an inflatable booth.

(I once painted an MGB black in my workshop. I thought I'd covered everything with plastic to make a makeshift paint booth - what a mess. Black overspray was everywhere, including my epoxy floors.)

[dsraven]

if you plan to paint yourself, even primer, make sure to use the proper breathing apparatus. it doesn't make sense to skimp on this part. yes, you get the job done cheaper but the project wil seem very unimportant when you are stuck with lung problems due to the stuff in the paint. it ain't worth it.
end of rant, lol.