1955 Chevy

[tech69]

started this one on Thurs. Put about 28 hrs into it so far. The hood is also skimmed over after some metalworking. I'll be spot priming(g2) the quarters and hood today to block with 180, instead of throwing one more coat of mud
, and then spray the whole car and block with 400. MIght reblock with 600 but undecided. Anyhow, the painter who's gonna paint it seals with a 2k. Should that be a concern? Wouldn't I want him to use a real sealer that's
thin and doesn't disturb the blocking? Maybe it doesn't make a difference. I dunno...:rottentom

btw, this car in particular is a test in patience... It's epoxied and has bondo(that's sanded low) underneith but this car wasn't metal finished for paint. The guy did that so he'd get cheaper bodywork. So when I quoted him I was thinking fill but the reality of it was it had highspots and stretches everywhere. A lot of metalwork to get those quarters and hood halfway decent.

Anywho, today I prime the quarters/ hood, block, prep, some r&I, and kick out the L fender a tad and raise the bottom of the R door.. I'm pretty excited... This and my next car are going to show.

http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/sanchtech/P1020671.jpg
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[Bob K]

The 2k I use as wet on wet sealer is mixed with more thinner; it’s from the Spies Hecker line. It doesn’t get thick like when it's mixed as surfacer. You may want to ask the painter what brand he is using and check the mix instructions to get a feel for the possibility of damaging your work.

Bob K

[tech69]

The 2k I use as wet on wet sealer is mixed with more thinner; it’s from the Spies Hecker line. It doesn’t get thick like when it's mixed as surfacer. You may want to ask the painter what brand he is using and check the mix instructions to get a feel for the possibility of damaging your work.

Bob K

I'll be sure he makes it thin. Thanks for that. I was concerned cause I saw a mustang he was working on that was prepped and it wasn't prepped to my standards so I assumed he was planning on spraying a thicker sealer, but this is my customer so I'll be sure he gets a regular sealer or at least thins it as manufacture suggests. I already have to worry about him tweaking the panels from jamb overspray. I guess I just worry too much..:o

[tech69]

Yesterday I primed the hood and quarter and blocked with 180. Then I blocked the epoxy off with 180 to prep it...I found about 4-5 dings that need to be filled. It never ends with this car. The hood and the quarter also stretched in some areas still but I might be able to work it.

These stupid cars that have mud on them but aren't metal finished are the worst! You don't really want to dig out the bodywork but it appears it would have been my best bet cause I could have easily metal worked it properly had there not been any mud on it. Frustrating. Stud guns are the only way to shrink when the stretched metal is like an island surrounded by mud, and it doesn't always grab the metal correctly and it actually made other areas pop up. I think it's the creases under the mud already there.

40hrs

btw, I'd like to thank Martin for the basics tutorial on panel alignment. That part was totally easy but I still got some minor tweaking to do.
Couldn't have done it without that tutorial. Thanks!
http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/sanchtech/P1020675.jpg

http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/sanchtech/P1020676.jpg

[J-rod]

Reminds me of my rookie days. I never had the make shift garage, I did everything right in the open. Water the ground and away I went. Had a few show winners too. So what color will this be going once done? Not that Blue?????

[tech69]

competition orange. It's a b messing with rage extreme in the heat. It's to thin and then you got the heat making matters worse.

There's two areas that might not be perfect, both strethed areas. One on the hood but I decided to stop shrinking cause it was close enough and didn't
want anything else poking up. The other area is an area I shrunk right before priming the quarters, and I think there's a crease somewhere close to that
spot under the bondo he gave it to me in cause after sanding off the primer it seems like a spot nearby was raised, and I don't think I would have missed
that and primed over it. Discouraging but lessons none the less.

[tech69]

finished it up for prime by filling in 7-8 tiny dings I found when blocking the rest of the car I wasn't concentrating on. Forgot how much better it is working with mud when the temps are cool.

Anyhow, really need some advice...the guy gave me epoxy adhesive to adhere the hood to the supports but I'm not sure when to adhere it.

Should I adhere it before final blocking primer, or after?

Would this epoxy adhesive even be the right stuff for this?

One last question, do I make a bead across the beam or just segments?

Help really appreciated.

[tech69]

got the car primed finally but am dissapointed with my friend. I'm sure you guys dealt with stuff like this. Let me first state that I guess I'm kind of a square being that I get worried about every little thing that doesn't go right.

So here's the long and annoying story...

The guy who taught me R&I a while ago called me and asked for a favor on a car. Someone's hands were on it after the last prime and they did a number to it so he called me to see if I could straighten it out for him. Took me about an hour. Later I found out he got paid for that "favor". So I was telling him about this 55 Chevy I was gonna work on and he tells me about this friend that's actually a really good custom painter. So as a favor I told the owner of the car about this dude AFTER I saw that his work was good. He said he'd let him paint it and as a return favor for me straightening out that car This "friend" of mine said I could do the work in the warehouse. So all four of us meet at his warehouse and he's talking to the painter as I'm mollesting his car with a block to reveal everything. Then I dropped the customer off. SOON as I get back to the warehouse I'm all jazzed up and ready to get to work and they're talking about bringing it to the painter's house by DRIVING IT. I was nervous but like a dummy I just went along with it. So everything's fine and dandy and I'm working on this car in 100 degree heat and my "friend" kept asking me for favors in bodywork. I just ignored him but did two dents for him. It was nothing. Anyhow,the painter was painting something he was doing on the side and the FD came to his house and said the epa was coming the next day. They apparently had to bring all their supplies including the car back to the warehouse. Then my friend started acting different about when I could work on the car. Finally I got into the warehouse and I just wanted to finish the few dings that were left over and revealed when I blocked the epoxy for prime and prep. I actually had to prep in the dark and at that time I wasn't able to relax and be thorough cause I wasn't sure when I was gonna work on the car next. The next time after that I was to prime it in the warehouse and the other guy renting it had a fit, and this happened right when I was done masking. He removed all the masking material that night cause he didn't want it to look like he painted in the warehouse. I was losing my patience and I called my "friend" and said, "look, I'm gonna pull this car out of here and it's not getting painted by your friend." So now he's trying to cut his friend out of the loop and suggests I pay $50 to get it towed to his friends where I can finish the job and then he can outsource it to EARL SHEIB.
and said for HIS troubles he thinks he should be able to out source it. I was done dealing with him at that point and called the painter. The painter had a hook up at a custom place down the street and said if I paid $80 I can prime it there and block it. So we went there and primed it but as soon as it was done he wanted to take it back to the warehouse. That's when I wanted to start punching people. I looked at the prep and was furious. My mind was in no mindstate nor was there even enough light to prep it properly. So I saw all these areas I pretty much half assed cause I couldn't even focus on the job with all the drama and I was pissed!

So basically a car that should have been done in a week will take two weeks. I spent an uneccessary $80 and the prepping suffered cause I couldn't see what I was doing nor did I feel calm and collected to be patient. Sure, the bodywork is good(cause at that point I had a comfort zone in where I was doing it) but the prep stinks and it was something sooo easy to avoid. We're talking just feathering edges a little better. I work soo hard and for someone who doesn't work hard to play with my head just irritates me. So the car will be fixed but now a new can of worms have opened and now it will take more work to do something in the wrong order when all of it could have taken a few minutes. I know my prepping so when I saw that I told myself, "never will I deal with this drama again." These guys are so dishonest with customers too and encouraged me to do the same when it was my customer. So now I'm gonna give the primer two days to cure and it's gonna be no fun dealing with those areas that weren't prepped good. Now it's gonna have rattle can in some areas and more work for me....yah! :D

[tech69]

finally got the 55 blocked. My only complaint is the prep before priming. I was woken up at 1 am and told it was a great time to work on it. I wasn't mentally ready to go over that car tooth and nail. I think it would have came out flawless had it been somewhere else cause I would have even took care of the really tiny dings I found when blocking for prime. It will still turn out good...

http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/sanchtech/P1020725.jpg

I'll put up some pics in a few weeks when it's painted.

[Trim Doc]

Yes a lot of broken deals in the classic restore work. If you need trim work at a fair price for show room quality contact us at Patmai.com

Take care
Trim Doc

[MARTINSR]

Boy Doc, you are making your rounds of the forums with your one and only post being an advertisement.

Brian

[tech69]

he must be hitting up a lot of sites today cause he didn't even notice that there's no moulding holes.

[tech69]

Saw the car in paint. What a surprise. Thank god this guy told me he didn't want a showcar cause this pos needed priming twice or mud on the entire car. In certain places I didn't mud there's waves that primer couldn't take care of. I think my new rule will be if it's crappy everywhere pay for it to be primed twice, mud the whole car, or don't expect perfection. They always say they don't want perfection when getting an estimate but that always changes when they come and pick it up.

http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/sanchtech/P1020853.jpg
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[tech69]

http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/sanchtech/P1020861.jpg