"Geronimo" 54' 3100 LS built in PA

[lower50's]

Well that looks amazing!!! Get it moving by end of October when I come meet up with you again and we can line all three up.

[99 to Life]

when you coming in october? I need all the time I can get! Getting front bags in my 51' almost done with that, then onto the rear. as for geronimo going to tig up the exhaust friday I think, and try and get trans in. Then I can put cab on if I want, but I gotta lot of interior stripping and primer work to do still.

[99 to Life]

I wouldn't call myself a painter. hardly enough practice but I can get by and make it look pretty presentable to most! This is just single stage paint from summit, basically made by kirker. I use single stage bc of time. I want to paint a full truck someday and a car actually but its just a long ways off, I'd prolly do base clear on something like that.

[lower50's]

We are going to the same Good Guys show we went to last year in Charlotte NC. We would be rolling through your neck of the woods on our way home Oct 25-26

[99 to Life]

9-9 Feels like winter is right around the corner. Weather has been killing me. anyway, I really need to wrap up these doors, inner fenders and interior so I can get them painted. Once I do that, I'm most likely taking this truck down to my garage in town. I then have another 54' I'm going to set up the suspension on in this garage, its a truck I'm doing for a friend. So just racing against the weather again.

Doors were a tad rougher than I thought, and take longer to teardown and clean up too. Welded up a ton of ext mirror holes. My hobart shat the bed, so I'm using my back up eastwood. I'm dead broke but I need to get another welder bc the eastwood is for my home garage and I need it bc I'm doing the suspension on my 51'. I'm doing some trade work to obtain a nice Lincoln tig which I'll have at my main garage.

Lastly got trans mounted finally. Here is an adapter I needed bc this 4l60e wasn't mated to an LS from the factory. only other thing you have to do is expand the flexplate bolts (just 3 of them). I was going to paint this flexplate many times and the weather was trash so it never go done. Kinda regret not doing it. but oh well. getting driveshaft made soon and putting cab back on soon.

[99 to Life]

9-10 got doors about ready for primer I'd say 10hrs in the doors, stripping and fixing them. Spent about 4hrs on the inner fenders, patched all the extra holes, and fixed some other areas on them. Stripped back sides and coated with chassis saver. I'll be spraying raptor liner on them, then prepping top for primer and paint.

I still have some interior of cab to finish up, finalize dash, front fenders to strip and coat, also rear fenders and I'm done with the majority of parts. Then its basically final assembly, brakes, steering, trans lines, wiring, glass, interior. hahah its gonna take way longer than I expect!

[oldman3]

99, those inner fender are in amazing good shape, and the black just shows it off...Jim

[99 to Life]

yah not too bad. I'v seen much worse for sure. I have quite a few inner fenders bc it is def one thing that gets overlooked on a build. I buy em when I can. I like the stock inners on these trucks alot.

[lower50's]

I love gloss black inner fenders.

[99 to Life]

well as do I, but they are getting same blue as firewall. doors and jams will be blue, bottom of dash blue, everything else will be accented with a khaki brown color. Just prepping and painting that stuff and firewall is prolly 80-100hrs dep on condition. I got 386hrs in this build so far. I was guessing this would take 500hr. So I'm prolly gonna be right on the money. Budget is pretty dang close too!

[99 to Life]

9-15 hours are adding up. put 5 more in today doing some final sanding on dash and doors, masked off cab and sprayed epoxy. I hit a few small parts and still have alot more to do. also got to do inner fenders. My goal is to get more stuff in high build, more stuff in epoxy and be caught up for moday so I can spray the color on everything. But I'll still prolly have some straggler parts I'll need to paint later on.

[oldman3]

99, looks good buddy...Jim

[lower50's]

Coming along really nice. It takes a lot of time but it will be worth it.

[joedoh]

man you have a lot of hours in this truck but its really paying off. looks great as always.

[99 to Life]

9-16 Thanks guys, yes hours feel loooong when doing body work. I spent almost 7hrs straight today just prepping all these little parts and inner fenders. Bought a replacement steering wheel and filled some cracks in it. Cleaned the door hinges, stripped door molding, did body work on the glove box (Iv never seen on not dented) luckily the 54' ones are smooth. Cleaned up some carriage bolts that I'll use on a few visible areas of cab.

I feel a little hokey showing yinz my paint setup, but its what I got to deal with. I'll do high build primer tomorrow and sand. Then when I paint, I'll do that in closed doors most likely. Even though at this rate I can only paint a partial truck every two years, I'v been thinking of ways to make a paint and body only area. Either my other garage here and or adding onto my commercial garage in town.

Lastly, as most of you guys can relate, buying tools is sometimes not in the budget. I'v been doing all my work with HF guns and its ok but I want to start really seeing what I can accomplish with some decent stuff. So I'v read alot of good reviews on this 100$ gun. I'll try it and see and eventually just keep getting better guns and comparing. Im a huge believer in most of quality is the user not the tool.

[oldman3]

99, I agree about the spray guns. I did mine with a cheap HVLP gun and my truck came out nice (for an at home job) even won best paint at a couple car shows. It's mainly used for primer now, since Mark bought better guns for paint and clear...Jim

[lower50's]

Coming along nice. I have seen some great paint jobs with really cheap guns, so your one up on them.

[99 to Life]

10-5 Sorry for the lack of updates. My life has been super crazy. Finally about done with paint. Now onto final assembly. I'm happy with the color scheme. I seem to struggle with colors sometimes, I'll think about it for months and months sometimes. I did base clear on the tan and single stage on the blue. Some of the blue I didn't get to spray as wet looking, so I shot clear over it. Looks really nice even without cut and buff.

I don't have a booth so its hard not to get some contamination, but again its not going to be a perfect paint job for what this truck is.

[OutlawDrifter]

Looks great, I like the color combo!

[MIKESAD50]

Thats looking great. combo looks nice

[lower50's]

Can't wait to see it in person.

[oldman3]

99, paint looks great to me, nice choice on two colors...Jim

[Advanced Design]

Looks very good!

[joedoh]

jeeze o man thats a gorgeous color

[Flysocal]

Man I really like the color!