Project: Tow-Rat (Lil' Blue)

[6DoF]

still waiting on chassis saver to arrive, so in the mean time we shall prime n sand again. hopefully this weekend i can get the painted surfaces in a 2nd coat of primer ready for paint.

[6DoF]

holy productive weekend batman! not all on the 55 though ... had to move a bunch of gravel back up the hill on my driveway and grade it all, plus i finally got the airstream all sealed up! no more leaking on my new floor.

for the 55 however i got the ChassisSaver on the floor, and i love this stuff. i've used it with amazing results for years and no clue why i thought i could "do better" for this truck. then put some red-oxide putty down on my floor/firewall patches to fill the back side weld textures, all that still needs sanded off. my 1/2 tube of seam sealer from under the cab had glued the plunger in place so i had to order a new one.

got primer in the cab that'll need sanded out now, but it's fun seeing it all "one color"! it's actually 98% smooth enough for paint as-is everywhere but the lower dash. that'll most likely need sanded/re-primed another time or 2.

the doors got fully torn down and i started a debate with myself over keep or ditch the vent windows. $500 for all the glass n guts without ... $1000 for everything new to keep the vents. basically everyone said to keep em, and i'll agree i have to keep them. just wish my glass/tracks were worth keeping or restoring. i chopped the bottom off the drivers door since it was totally gone, cleaned it all up and got it all coated in ChassisSaver. with any luck i can get the patch in there quickly and have the doors ready for interior paint with the rest of the cab.

[lower50's]

WOW!! Lots of steps forward and a few back but it is coming together very nice. Make sure you read the prep for the lizard skin, if I remember you need to scuff the primer.

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by lower50's

WOW!! Lots of steps forward and a few back but it is coming together very nice. Make sure you read the prep for the lizard skin, if I remember you need to scuff the primer.

weather ya need to or not ... scuff all the things!! there's no way i'm risking anything not sticking and needing re-done

[6DoF]

so the bottom of the door welded in pretty well! i'm actually starting to feel better about this whole sheet metal thing. i guess we'll see how my finishing steps go. welded, ground, and finger painted red-oxide putty to make sure it got in all the little places around the welds. then the bottom of the skin was urethane seam sealer glued back to the new structure since the fold lip was long gone. a thick bead to fill/solidify the bottom of the other door also seamed reasonable.

so this dash filler plate hole ... what to do ... i'm thinking fighter jet style covered toggle switch, and when ppl ask about it i let them flip it. but all it does it squirt em with water or something else funny for me.

also got all the seam sealer done on the floor. I've recently been caulking basically everything on the airstream resto and got some extra practice. i think this smoothed out pretty good!

[6DoF]

was a solid weekend! wish it had been cooler Saturday morning for shooting clays, but i survived. lucky for us, i hooked up the airstream AC earlier this spring. the wife n i finally got the shell sealed enough that we could put the new floor down! i really needed to stop trying to find what was leaking, and assume EVERYTHING WAS. biggest issues were one taillight and the newly installed power plug. threw down a nice Luan before the vinyl roll even.

for the '55 though, the entire interior is officially in the first coat of primer! fawkin hell paint prep takes forever ... most of it came out pretty good with just the one primer coat, but the passenger door was beat and the paint chipped to hell. you can see the scarring in the old paint in the close up picture. that'll need sanded out and primed again, but that's all the further i'm going to take it. these doors aren't in good enough shape to be worth really detailing out that uber clean. hell, my weld seam is barely noticeable already too, and the flat top coat will help hide it all.

if you remember back to post#239, and #293 i made some non-race-ready (but better than a 3pt conversion) 4-pt harness brackets for the cab. i recently remember them myself and need to get them fit for install before paint. that's next on my list.

[lower50's]

I hear you with the metal prep, lot's of hours and not really much to show for it. Your airstream is looking amazing, I would love to get my hands on one.

[youngrodder]

Busy weekend. The photo from inside the airstream has cool perspective to it with that flooring pattern.

Nice job getting the inside metal covered.

Marc

[6DoF]

getting in some new practice again, sanding out the primer to hide the BS from the old paint. one door was SO much worse than they other, took so much extra sanding! got a few places that'll most likely take sanding in the next primer coat, but then it'll all be good enough for sure.

[daddyjeep]

You have been productive. It is coming along now. Once I finish all of these catering events in the next few weeks, I really need to get back to work on my truck.

[6DoF]

Seat belts!!

not sure what i had been waiting for, but finally did the fab/install on the seat belt mounts. these will be 4-pt harnesses and i still feel really good about these being better than adapting in a 3-pt. not race-ready, but still better.

the floor tab placement worked out great, they match the angle of the floor rib while being tucked in nice under the seat. they point straight thru where the seats come together and around hips. i'm glad they didn't end up in the middle of the floor back there, always setting junk on them behind the seat.

the back wall plates were kind of a paint to get bent right, but turned out good. the plates are actually bent concave to match the cab and not pinch the belts to the wall.

[6DoF]

next thing was finishing paint prep. the wife helped me sand out a few more spot coats of primer while i was doing the belts, everything is now ready for white!

Wednesday night is painting night ... stay tuned.

to finish prep for white, i lizard skin'd the roof to make a head liner. made a big difference in the ring of the panel. the whole ceiling will get hosed down white now, and i have a nice white head liner trim rubber for it too. should look kinda sexy i hope.

[6DoF]

WTF was i thinking... I only bought one qt of flat white. I made it thru all the bits and doors, then ran out before i ever started the cab. Not only that, i ran out ONE PASS before finishing the 2nd main door cover plate. ONE PASS short of finishing ... Uugghh ...

[youngrodder]

A lot of good progress happening over there...Looking great.

Marc

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

A lot of good progress happening over there...Looking great.

Marc

thank ya sir! you and others have set some high standards around here i'm trying to live up to

[6DoF]

tell ya what, now that it's cured that Lizard Skin really made a bid difference on the reverb in the roof skin.

[lower50's]

Looking really nice!!
Here is a Video I made that shows what your talking about with the ringing in the cab, big difference. The roof of my cab is just a thud when you smack it now.
https://youtu.be/GymwCS3Mxqo

[daddyjeep]

Originally Posted by 6DoF

tell ya what, now that it's cured that Lizard Skin really made a bid difference on the reverb in the roof skin.

I like the texture that it added to the roof as well.

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by daddyjeep

I like the texture that it added to the roof as well.

Functionality ... CHECK! it's great!
Form ............. CHECK! it's great!
application ...... total and epic mess, that suuuuucked

spraying the lizard skin was easy enough, and i love the texture and look for the "headliner".

then having to go back and paint it was an epic pain in the ass! rattle can probably would have been ok, but the gravity feed HVLP couldn't do it. i could only tip the gun back so far or the paint was no longer being drawn in, or i would hit the ceiling/surround with the can. i got it as best i could, then looking from the front had a TON of black spots as the texture "shadowed" a lot of holes. i ended up having to pull out a mini HVLP touch-up gun and it was able to twist in well enough to get full coverage. even with it i kept drawing air or dumping paint out the lid vent.

next time i try something like this, i'll most likely buy a mid-sized siphon gun so the tank is under the nozzle.

[6DoF]

even with the ceiling difficulty, i was still able to get it painted! i am officially done with the white. it's not perfect, but it's more than good enough for me and this build. there are still some places you can see scratches from the original paint, or places you can see slight texture differences from heavier/lighter coats of paint, etc. but for the VAST majority of the "issues", you'd have to know what's up and be looking for it. nothing jumps out at ya.

something else i did with the white was try and spray up under the dash as much as possible. i figure the more white i can get up there, there brighter and easier it will be to work under there later. it's patchy and looks like over spray in places, but should be better than modeled rust for contrast. when i do the black though, to clean up the edges, i'll most likely have to start with the mini touch-up gun again.

a little more cure time and i can tape it all off for the floor lizard skin and everything getting the flat black top coat.

[6DoF]

well ... poop ... my brand new "white" headliner edging isn't the correct white at all. wife hates it, I'm trying to decide what to do. i think these are my options

X) run it
A) get a white door edge trim from Amazon
A) get a black headline trim
C) paint the "headliner" black with the black trim

no way i'll run it, it's just not right. think i'm going to get white door trim and the black headliner trim to see what i like more, then decide if i have to repaint the most pain-in-the-a$$ surface ever.

[Rickysnickers]

Are you able to paint that trim using interior dye/paint? Or because the trim is flexible, that's not an option?

[dsraven]

Can you possibly glue on a ight fabric covering?

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

Are you able to paint that trim using interior dye/paint? Or because the trim is flexible, that's not an option?

Originally Posted by dsraven

Can you possibly glue on a ight fabric covering?

i feel like with the flex of this rubber, anything i applied over the seal would have to be done after install. and i just don't know if they would last.

i'm feeling a lot better about just doing the black trim now though, since there will still be a lot of black in the cab. i could also just paint the "headliner" orange like the chassis

this stuff is super tight between the the roof skin and inner structure, i have to believe that i'll help with cab noise too. this is leaning me away from the door edging.

[Jason 56]

Everything is coming along great. I really like the lizard skin on the roof. Great idea. I like the idea of the black trim/black roof. With the other black in the interior. You’re making great progress!