1957 Chevy truck re-rebuild

[Baldeagle SR]

Jim that is a lot of work done. Can't wait to see it all painted. Rich

[tune_1]

Things are looking great. Thanks for taking the time to post all of the information and the pictures. Looking forward to the rest of the paint.

Dwight

[Kim57]

Looking very nice.
Kim

[hotrod1]

Is it going to look similar to your wall?

[Stepside Jim]

Baldeagle SR, yes, I am exhausted. I know it sounds strange but the time it took to put 2 coats of clear on the cab fenders, doors, and hood was nearly 3 hours. The hardest part was keeping a focus in my mind and my eyes. I've only done one paint job since 1998, over time you lose the natural ability to spray paint so it takes more concentration now.

tune_1, I think I remember you checking in before and appreciating the commentary along with the pics, you're welcome.

Thanks Kim, I know you've mentioned perhaps tackling your own paint. I know pictures are worth a thousand words, I figure these may help you in the future.

hotrod1, ahhh, I do seem to have a red stripe addiction going. I got more pics uploaded, let's see how this turns out.

Going to the black color you can see the exposed red pin stripe being covered.



I did 3 coats of black. I learned a lesson with the glove box door. I had it hanging separately when I painted the dash. I forgot to spray the glove box door on the first coat of black, no biggy, I'll get it with the next two coats. It looked fine, I sand and buffed, it still looked fine. Then I had installed it and rolled the truck out. As I looked closely I could see specks and shimmers of red showing through. Only detectable, in the direct sunlight, so I scuffed the surface, taped off the existing red pinstripe, sprayed 2 coats of black then cleared it again. The Glove box was a small lesson to learn, I might have been tempted to do 2 coats on the truck, I'm glad the glove box told me to do 3 coats of black, I'd hate to have to redo the black on the rest of the truck.

Now that the black has dried for about 4 hours I peeled back the pinstripe tape, nervously hoping that I covered and sealed all the edges well.


And the rest of the tape and paper. Remember, the base coat is fast drying color, no gloss.


There are decisions to be made, one decision is where to start and stop the colors and pinstripes. Often times I would stop at the edge of the door with the pinstripe and silver. In the case of the '57 Chevy truck doors the weather stripping is right there, so I brought the silver to where the weather stripping will break the colors.


The fender looking good.


The hood, base coat with all it's colors.


Finally getting clear coat sprayed.


I don't have a paint booth with a baking oven but I do have plenty of sunshine. I'm gonna have a ton of wet sanding and buffing, preferably I want the paint to be settled and cured, the hot sun will do the job.




There we are, I took about 100 pictures, I figured these few will tell a story.

I did get a couple of runs, fortunately they are on edges, if they were on large straight areas it would suck, I can sand and remove the ones on edges, if they are on flat areas, try as you may, there is usually a sign of where the run was.

I'll start the sanding and buffing tomorrow, I'm looking to get the same finish as I got on the dash and firewall.

Hopefully this will either help or guide some of you as you venture into your new territory of the world of painting.

[rgunlock]

Dang that looks AMAZING Jim!!! All the hours and hard work are sure paying off for you. Great job!

[tune_1]

Looking really good.

Dwight

[ChuckDriver]

Yep, very nice!

[michaelt55]

great detail, awesome build!!

[_Ogre]

looking good stepside...
i was so tired of bodywork/sanding when i painted my truk, i didn't cut or buff

[Stepside Jim]

Well it's been a little over week and hours of sanding and buffing. Every time I finished an area it looked so good I kept going and going and going, I felt like banging a drum and symbol. (enerygizer bunny)

If it wasn't for the black it wouldn't make such a difference and I knew the black was gonna be my time taker but I also knew black was the only color that was gonna get the look I was going for.

Hopefully I will have the radiator support finished this next week, then I can assemble the rest of the front end. For now the doors are on, I did install the 3 rubber stops in the jams and want to thank the forum. I did a search and found one of our fine members, Russel Ashley (spelling) had a fine writing on where they all went.

I ordered a rear slider from Classic parts, nice looking window and I like the dark shading.


Doors fit well and although I assembled and disassembled the truck for the pinstripes I was nervous that they would line up, thankfully they did.


I wanted to get a new windshield the old one had the slight bubble thing going inside and I didn't want to watch it grow over the next years. Fortunately there is a window place and the guy is familiar with these old trucks. I bought the front glass from him and he installed it. I also paid for the rear window install, I just didn't want to deal with the front and rear glass, yuck.


When I mentioned I couldn't stop cutting and buffing, how about an inside door step.


I did cut and buff the actual step but I haven't stepped on it yet. I may cover it with the 3M plastic... or cut some stainless inserts, I have all winter, hmmmmm.

How about the inner lower doors with the formed factory pattern. I took the time to fix any dents and also primed and block sanded them. Now after painting and cut and buff what an image they produce in the reflection.


Here's the psychological part of a build. If the weather stayed nice for another couple of months I'd probably push to finish it and perhaps skip a few odds and ends of detail.

But, since winter is lurking around the corner, I can move froward at a steady pace without a feeling of urgency, I knew winter was good for something.

[neatm]

I just went through your thread from the beginning..... You have done some very quality work.. Looking great!

[Kim57]

It's turning out great.
Kim

[Stepside Jim]

Just checking in, and thanks everybody. Since the truck and parts sat in the sun all day and I even turned everything around about 1:00PM so the cooking would be even an everything.

I'm starting the wet sanding, it's gonna take hours but it will be the icing on the cake once fully buffed.

Ok, back to work.....

[RockinKees]

Fantastic!!!

[G&R's57GMC]

That is one fast paint job ! Looks great !

[apache200]

Paint job looks really professional!

[Stepside Jim]

Wow, for the last year I have looked and looked for a picture or image of this paint scheme and colors to see what this will look like when done.

I found similar but not any that were close enough to really get a good view.

By the responses I feel I chose well and thank all of you for your support, it is very uplifting.

I'm working very hard right now on the cut and buff stage, I have one fender completely finished and wow, absolutely beautiful. I hope by end of today I can get enough done to get an assortment of pictures to post.

Once again, thanks for all your kind words, Jim

[Stepside Jim]

I've been working and working on the cut and buff stage. It is a a choice that you either commit and go all the way or you don't do any of it. The finished surface is quite different so if you do one panel and not the next panel, the difference will show.

I figure I'll do a run through of some of the cut and buff procedure.

The hood sprayed with clear coat. perhaps a bit dusty.


I started with 1500 grit paper and sanded by hand, all the time using water with a small bit of soap to keep the area being sanded wet.

Attention....... When wet sanding a panel never use your finder tips to apply the pressure. Your finger tips will leave impressions that will show after buffing. I do use my fingers but I use the flats of my fingers and always sand in different directions.

Half way through the 1500 grit hood sanding.


I'm gonna keep working the surface til I get rid of all the small shiny specks.


I'm very close to buffing time. I still have some shiny specks and edges to finalize. About this time I'm gonna switch to a sponge rubber block and use 2000 grit paper. The rubber block will help level the surface and the finer paper will reduce some of the buffing time.



I'm probably not the fastest cut and buffer but the sanding took around 4 hours on the hood. Next up buffing.

I use 3M foam buffing pads with 3M fast cutting compound then clean the surface for a second round of fast cutting compound. By now all the scratches should be gone. Next another cleaning and a fresh clean buffing pad and fine compound.




That pretty well does the hood, the doors and fenders have been through the same procedure.



It seems the silver doesn't get it's credit.


With any luck I can assemble some of the truck this next week, time will tell.

Going back a year or so I mentioned block sanding, then more block sanding, well, then perhaps even more block sanding. Seeing how the panels reflect everything now, I'm glad I took the time to try to get all the panels as straight as I could.

[RockinKees]

Man, that's a lot of commitment to get it that shiny!!!
But you can tell the difference!

Beautifull!

[Kim57]

Looks fantastic.
Kim

[Baldeagle SR]

That is really nice. You are raising the bar. Rich

[ChuckDriver]

Outstanding!

[tune_1]

Looking great.

[Kim57]

It's sure looking great.
Kim