'66 Longbed 327 w/AC project

[cortcomp]

Did the color on doors last night, the paint was laying OK, but the clear went on GREAT. We had a little of something showing through the one door, so the last coat of clear we put on had a bit of a run in it, but it's in an easy to sand place, so we'll catch it during wetstand and polish....Doors have probably been best looking panels we've done so far, here they are this morning after drying all night.

[McMurphy]

Looking REAL good there sir !!

[cortcomp]

Thanks! I have to say, for what everyone said is cheap not to great paint, i feel the centari + clear is affordable and fantastic if you put the time in to get the panels straight.

[Modges'66]

Originally Posted by cortcomp

Thanks! I have to say, for what everyone said is cheap not to great paint, i feel the centari + clear is affordable and fantastic if you put the time in to get the panels straight.

Just my opinion, but wait 5-10 years and tell me that you feel the same way.
It is new & fresh right now, and I am sure that it looks AWESOME, and if you are gonna be getting rid of it in the next few, all is good.

On a side-note, we painted non-exposed surfaces on my dad's pro-street 10-12 years ago, with Centari and recently he was sayin how he wished he woulda used Chromabase Base/Clear inside & out and not worried about saving a buck, because of the way it was holding up on the exterior....

[cortcomp]

Well, when i say it looks fantastic, i mean in comparison with freshly laid BC/CC where you'd expect to see a real difference...only time will tell how either would look under similar use after such a long time. BUT:

One reason that i was OK with centari when we were deciding details is because my father in law painted my '71 pontiac with it (white, no clear over top) about 10 years ago, for his friend whom i bought it from much later....never sanded it, just sprayed and buffed it, and it still looks sharp to this day, despite abuse in my shop (cutting grinding dust and overspray on it for 2 years of work on different projects, etc. i've learned my lesson there!)

Now part of that is because these vehicles don't get driven like daily drivers and i get that, but part of me believes that enamel is good paint, just less margin for error (especially with metallics) and people like to use whatever is easier.

Also, another part of me believes that the clear over top will provide a lot in terms of protection and color protection as well as a large margin of error come wetsand and polish/buff time. There are great, expensive paint jobs that were done 20 years ago with enamel that look amazing. I just don't think people want to do the work with enamel and want to use easier to work with paint. I think the $150 to clear it in addition to paint is WELL WORTH it for insurance, sanding error room, looks, fixes issues while painting, etc, etc.

I don't mind trading effort and prep for savings in paint (and it really wasn't about saving the money, as much as playing with a paint that my father in law was comfortable with and me getting to experiment with different mixtures and trying the clear.), and after wetsanding and buffing, i honestly don't think the *average* BC/CC paint job will hold a candle to what we've done, and i can't wait to see the look on people's faces when they hear it's enamel.

That being said, i wouldn't do any of this: a) without clear: it just looks better, better protection, cheap insurance, and fixes the paint you just laid if it's orange peeling a bit from mixture, humidity, etc. and b) metallics, enamel metallic mistakes aren't pretty and are a PITA to fix.

You can see it still has good reflection after my terrible abuse, and all it has had after was a good scrubbing and another detailing:

[clemdaddy]

i too am a fan of centari and even the nason version works for me. i prefer not to clear coat for reasons of touchups and repair. my method is to lay on 9 - 12 coats of enamel with hardner. thats 3 wet coats at a time and sand it smooth then 3 more wet coats... till color sanding and final buffing.

to me its not really the painting, its all about prep and polish. and if you drive your truck a lot, its also about re-touch.

sorry to hijack the discussion, just .2 from one of the geezers

[Ta2Don]

Paint looks great, lovin' the color combo!!!

[cortcomp]

Thanks guys and yes clem, i agree, it's the before and after work that makes a big difference. Here's a shot from another forum, centari black, no clear, just painted, then lots of wetsanding, some polishing, hand wax....it's an amazing finish:





And here is the thread with more discussion on that (one of many around the internet with 8000 opinions):

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...anding-buffing

[cortcomp]

Wetsanded and painted interior of doors today...give it a day or two and start putting the latches, etc back into them. Will probably hang them first, since they'll be lighter.

[coulter]

your doing some super clean work man!!! keep it up

[cortcomp]

Thanks!

[Bomp]

Fantastic work man

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by cortcomp

Thanks! I have to say, for what everyone said is cheap not to great paint, i feel the centari + clear is affordable and fantastic if you put the time in to get the panels straight.

Whoever is telling you that Centauri is cheap and not that great is 1000% wrong. To me, if you're shooting a solid color, single stage is the best way to go. Base/Clear is great for metallics and pearls because they need the clear coat for encapsulation and protection. I like BCC paints, but only a few companies produce a clear that doesn't have a yellow or grayish cast after it's put down. Take a look at some of the BCC black paints and compare them to the single stage black paints. The BCC paints are not even close to being as deep and rich.

The newer, water borne Centauri was looked down upon when it came to market in it's re-formulated version. That is, until people started using it and realized that it performed extremely well. Don't be fooled by water-borne paint, folks! People often misquote it as "water-based", and that's a misnomer. The "water-borne" term needs to be thought of like the term "airborne". The paint does not use solvents to thin, suspend, and dispense like paints of old. It uses water instead. The EPA determined that the VOCs that were being expelled during the drying process by the solvent-based paints was at a harmful level, so they designed a paint that used water instead of solvent.

I think your choice of using Centauri was an excellent one. That's what I would have used.

[chevyrestoguy]

Before I go, I have to give my main reason for being a huge fan of Centari, My buddy bought this truck new in 1979. He owns a body shop and didn't like the factory black paint, so he stripped it down and shot it in Centauri in 1979.

See for yourself. The paint is 34 years old and still shines like glass. Don't think for a second that this is a pampered garage queen, either. It was a daily driver for years, and it used to tow their boat to the river for years until they sold the boat in the '90s. After that, the truck got a nasty 406 with two stages of nitrous and ran as fast as a 10.63. It used to 60ft at 1.62. Launching a 4400lb tank with no roll cage and slicks that hard will twist a truck badly, and the paint still looks nice. A few battle scars, but thats to be expected

[cortcomp]

Wow, that's a sharp truck! And thats a lot of wear and tear for that paint to still look that good. Mine probably won't be driven that hard.

Just hung the doors tonight, happy with how it's coming together.

[66 C10 383]

I just stumbled across your build and I must say you've done an outstanding job for not being a pro body man. It gives me inspiration though mine won't ever be that nice. I simply don't have the tools or space to dedicate to doing just 1 truck.

I'm glad you devoted so much time in documenting the removal of the roof section. I have some rust above the windshield and rood panel and, not being a body man myself either, was scratching my head as to how to fix that panel correctly along with the removal of the rust that hasn't come thru yet. The added insulation and sound deadening is just the bonus I needed to decide that my truck needs the same process applied.

[cortcomp]

Thank you for the compliments, and you see how bad i butchered my seam areas and they've come out great. The trick is to remove as little metal as possible. If you remove the roof skin and spotweld it back on, the welds you drilled out will leave little holes into the inner roof area. That's not an issue once seam sealer gets in there, BUT if you use the self leveling stuff, as it stiffens and flows into those holes, it leaves dimples in the surface of the seam sealer. My recommendation would be either mig weld to fill the metal you removed drilling out spot welds, or spotweld between the old welds but then put a thin coating of epoxy or seam sealer down first, real thin, like 1/16 inch, to fill those holes, so that when you put the leveling seam sealer in it doesn't flow down in some and dimple. Also, if you can weld, you can replace the upper windshield panel with a new one since your windshield will be out and the roof off. I'd weld fill it and shape it like i did, it looks great and eliminates a water entry area. The side seams i'd fill where the clips are too, but they're tougher because you need to build up metal there and they didn't come out as clean for me.

[cortcomp]

Should say, the dimpling is not a problem, and it still looks great, but if you want it to look as good as aero posted, you can't have the stuff flowing down into anything as it cures. Also, don't get any areas too hot welding that roof back in, if you have that insulation in there...i constantly ran my hand around the edge checking for hot spots to be sure there was no fire inside the roof.

[66 C10 383]

LoL ... dimples in my seam sealer is the least of my problems! This is going to be a driver and if they see my dimples they better get off my roof anyways ... I just want to get the rust stopped so it doesn't get any worse.

Thanks for the advice!

[cortcomp]

Did the black stripes around the door panel today, and put the insulation inside the door skins. Just need to do the inside of the door panels, and i should be done with the insulation altogether now.

[cortcomp]

Got some parts in today, put some more insulation on the backs of the door panels, put the door plugs in (the two black round ones) and going to start re-assembling the door guts tomorrow and this weekend.

[notsolo]

Truck is looking great...This is Going to a Super Sweet Ride... My favorite color combo w/ custom trim and BBW..... How did you prep inside doors for your sound deadener?

[cortcomp]

Thanks!

I wiped them down with thinner and alcohol (whichever spray bottle was closest.) I did have some problems with it biting well because it's hard to clean in there, and i had to remove the first one and realized then i had to do it in two vertical halves so i pulled it back out and did it again, so it took some tack off. What i did, was put some RTV on a bondo spreader and smear the inside of the door that was giving me issues. I checked today and it is on there forever. Also, inside the cabs when i realized i had a dirty area where it wasn't sticking, i used a can of 3m spray trim adhesive. It kind of melts the black tar stuff a bit and is sticky too, those areas bound right up also when i checked the next day. 99% of the build though, it stuck no problem and gripped tight. The best so far though, was the very thin coating of RTV. It doesn't peel back or budge off that door panel AT ALL.

[notsolo]

Thanks for the reply.... Doors are one of the hardest parts of the build I think...I am Working on blazer doors and I have to strip undercoating off the inside 1st...Kerosene is the only thing that I found for that so far.... My 1st truck was a 66 1 ton long bed. This is like a Cadillac version of that truck....

[cortcomp]

I can tell you, i cut my arms up pretty good working in that one access hole, and had cleaner and rtv all over my arms...but it'll be worth it in the end for sure.