49 GMC Five Window

[e015475]

The guy that did the metal work on this truck ran a commercial body shop with lots of insurance work before he started just doing classic cars. He doesn't paint top coats at his shop. His process is blast, epoxy primer, metalwork, filler if needed, blocking, feather-fill, blocking, then urethane primer, blocking with 400 grit or reprime until it cleans up. For the top coat it goes somewhere else.

The painter follows basically the same process, but says he primes and blocks about four times and finishes up with 600 grit before top coat. He doesn't know the metal work guy and says he wants to guide coat the truck and re-block it to make sure it is good, and if he has too, prime it one more time. (When I visited him for a rough quote, he had a early SL Mercedes in his booth. I'm not a fan, but it was straight as a pin and the paint was drop-dead gorgeous)

I'm the guy in between the two of them with a checkbook, and I'm a little concerned

[joedoh]

well the metal prep looks stellar, I still think your painter is going to dance a jig painting it

[e015475]

Well I can think of worse problems to have! Thanks for the confidence.

Going to trailer it to a couple painters and take my metal man who did the prep with me and see what he thinks of the choices. About March sometime, I'd think

Still quite a row to hoe to get to that point.

[e015475]

Some progress. The to-do list is down to one page. Sitting in urethane primer sanded to 400 grit. GMC grill surround is still in Featherfill and needs more work.



The front sheet metal is all aligned (little adjustment needed on passenger side - I'd started taking the front surround off to work on it when I took the photo)



We were afraid that there wasn't enough support for the bear claw pin on the B-pillar so I made a plate out of 304 stainless to spread the load. Surface is brushed and covered with tape to protect it



Needed access to the clutch master and brake master from the cab. Made some floor reinforcement with some scrap sheet metal and the stretcher and plug welded them into the floor pan. Made the covers on the bead roller and fastened them to the floor with a quarter turn Dzus fasteners.



Still trying to get to the paint shop by the end of March

[oldman3]

Looks good...Jim

[e015475]

Had three reputable painters look at the truck - all said the same thing.

They didn't want to paint over prep work done by someone else. Only one bid - $8K - and he was going to reprime the truck and block it again using materials he's familiar with.

So it looks like the turn-key painting solution is out, and I'm going to have to manage it. The guy that did all the panel replacement and bodywork is an experienced painter, but no paint booth. The plan is to do all the jambs and interior in Wyatt's shop, then rent a booth to do the exterior.

Installed the Camaro gas tank with the filler under the license plate.



Another view showing the spout location



Trial fit of the new MarK bed making sure everything fits ok and running boards bolt up to the rear fenders.



The dash painted



Next step is the inside of the doors and the jambs

[84blaze]

Nice work!

[joedoh]

what a shame, here in kansas you cant swing a dead hooker without hitting a guy with a paint booth in his home shop, and the good guys are known all over town (so are the bad ones cof cof). I cant believe you cant find a painter, I knew a guy once that was one of the good ones, he would even plastic off YOUR garage and paint it, he would show up, scuff and tack, put some water on the floor, shoot and clean his gun. he loved those jobs, no overhead. no warranty either though.

I knew also guys that would quote high, prep and tape and TAKE IT TO MAACO, no kidding. with the prep and taping done MAACO jobs werent all that bad at all,but he was still shady about it. Then there were the home shop guys who charged regular rate. I never used them.

shops want to pay their guys so its probably about you did the hours of work they could charge for and didnt leave enough meat. I did a toyota a long time ago and the guy was a friend, let me use the shop and booth after hours. one of the nicest trucks I ever had too, as far as paintwork.

gorgeous color, I am still enamored by it.

edit: are you scanning photographs? I see artifacts in the pictures that seem to be in the same place on every photo! just a question haha.

[e015475]

It might of had something to do with the painters I got quotes from. I tried to find painters who'd done custom work that I'd actually seen and liked. Two of them had national exposure in some of the magazines and one had experience working for a local Mercedes collector. Criagslist and the paint supply store BB is full of hacks with a spray booths here too - most have some sort of experience in the collision industry and just want to turn the work in the quickest possible way. I've done a lot of drivers that way, but wanted a step up in quality for the truck.

I'm thinking this won't be much of a problem. I started the process of getting 'turn key' paint job before I retired the middle of April thinking I'd pay the painter out of cash flow while I was still working.

I think I can turn a lemon into lemonade. Now that I have a lot more time on my hands with retirement, I can do a lot of the grunt work myself - final disassembly, blocking, cleaning, taping for paint. I'll let the pro paint, but I can do a lot of the cut and buff and final assembly too. I'm looking forward to learning from a pro how it is done correctly. The only problem is that I only have a two month window before it is so stinkin hot here in Phoenix. Working in a tin building with outside temps at 115F in July under a swamp cooler is not an experience I want to repeat

[e015475]

oh- about the photos.

These photos were taken with my cell phone - which is usually a cast-off from one of my kids.

I see what you're talking about - going to try to clean the lens the next time I take photos with it!

[dug224]

Beautiful work!!

[Flysocal]

Some trick bits on this build. Headers and fuel filler come to mind but lots of yankee ingenuity here. Looking really good man! I def got sticker shock on the paint job too, I'm WAY over budget on it.

[e015475]

Shop painted the firewall yesterday after moving the body back on the frame and removing the bed. New Iwata gun is producing much better final finish and there's only a couple of dust nibs to deal with in the cut and buff. Here's the firewall at the first coat of base color -


The firewall with the final clear coats and un-taped



Inner fenders in base coat and waiting for flash off so the clear can be applied



The plan is to shop-paint all the interior and undersides of fenders/hood, reassemble and then go to the rented paint booth for final top coat

Making progress

[iowaboynca]

Given your painter situation, the truck is coming out great. I can only hope mine looks half as good when done.

[e015475]

Making some progress getting out of 'paint prison'

The inner fenders are cut and buffed. I took one outside to see if I could get a little better representation of the color in a photo - didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped (Excuse the 'artifacts' - still using a crappy cell phone)



Assembled the inner to the outer fender and mounted them on the truck. Everything is dirty from sitting in the shop for so long and it will be nice to have it home to clean it up.



Here's a detail of the 'relief' cut into the inner fender well to clear the headers. I have about 1" of clearance to the paint. Hoping this clearance plus the stainless I used and the ceramic coating will contain the heat enough to keep the heat from discoloring the paint



Started this side project on my bead roller. I want to make some aluminum door panels instead of using the stock cardboard. Picked up a ATV winch from HF a few weeks ago and motorized my bead roller



Speed of the bead roller is controlled by an old wa wa Crybaby pedal connected to a cheap ebay PWM controller and power supply. Need to practice with it a little to be able to follow the layout lines. Will use it to make a close out under the seat to replace the factory riser I removed, for the front bumper apron and some other details I want to make for the truck



Today I'll dig the GMC's hood out of the storage room and start prepping it for painting of the underside

Phil

[e015475]

Redirection. Space is a little tight at Wyatt's shop so I'll do the doors first and hang them then dig out the hood from the storage room.

Taped up the door jambs and Wyatt painted them - bottom sage green and above the belt-line is white-



Jambs painted out-



Doors done too, and color sand starts Monday - sorry, was a little shaky for this photo



Door closeout looks pretty straight



Made this door card out of 5052 aluminum. Will bead roll some details into this at home



Dash is cut and polished



Next - color sand and buff the inside of the doors then paint the inside of the hood

Phil

[neverfinished52]

looks awesome!

[MIKESAD50]

Looking Nice

[e015475]

First attempt at a door panel off of the winch powered bead roller-

Another view

Need to put the screw holes in before the bead work for the next iteration. (kind of a 'well duh' moment when they fit before I bead rolled them then didn't afterwards) Panel still hits the raised area around the window winder so I'll have to try the next die size up. Bought a microstop and a 82 deg countersink cutter to make the screw holes as perfect as I can. Standby for next door panel attempt.
Disassembled the hood again, sanded, painted, color sanded and buffed. Put back together with new stainless fasteners.

Installed the hood and the front sheet metal around the radiator support for what I hope is the last time before painting. Damn there's a lot of fasteners in this front end - ordered 75 and am still about 10 short.

Another view

Have to repaint the rear fenders anyway, so I asked Wyatt to remove the rivets that hold the brace to the fender and fill the holes in. Here they are gas welded shut

Wyatt planishing the weld and straightening a little distortion from welding.

The brace for the fender was retained by plug welding an extension that was peanut welded to the edge of the fender lip. Not cleaned up yet here, but you get the idea.

Ready for primer

Final block sanding of the MarK bed is next week and we should be ready after that to roll it to a paint booth. Probably a day in the booth for the cab, which will be painted assembled, and another day for all the bed parts.

Au revoir

[oldman3]

Nice update and truck is looking good...Jim

[MIKESAD50]

Looking very nice.

[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

[joedoh]

gorgeous!

[mongocanfly]

Absolutely agree^^^^...colors look great...always feels good when you get this close

curious though..do the rear tires need swapped side to side...from what I see they look directional..

[Advanced Design]

You are doing great work and the truck is coming out very nice. Impressively large paint booth there too!