Started My Crew Cab Project
Thread Starter
|
Posting Guru
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,088
Likes: 4
Started My Crew Cab Project
Well, last week I started sanding paint off the hood of my '76 Crew Cab. My local NAPA store has an annual filter and tool sale which happened to be this past Friday. While I was there I picked up a hammer and dolly set. I got to work on learning how to take out dents today. It's coming along pretty good, I think. I used to weld for a living, so I basically understand how to read the metal.
One thing I have never been too good at is painting. I've helped friends shoot paint, but my painting experience is limited to refinishing toolboxes with rattle-cans. I bought a decent paint rig at Harbor Freight, along with a regulator and water separator and I'm going to paint my cattle trailer first for practice.
My big question for today is: my hood had patchy paint and surface rust where the paint was gone, as does the roof. To get a good finish, do I need to strip them both to bare metal, or just the rusty areas and take the paint down past the dead paint?
This is going to be a driver/hard-working towing rig, not a show queen, but I do want it to look nice when I'm done with it. I'm not stripping it to the frame, though I'm thinking about taking the bed off so I can actually paint between the cab and bed.
One thing I have never been too good at is painting. I've helped friends shoot paint, but my painting experience is limited to refinishing toolboxes with rattle-cans. I bought a decent paint rig at Harbor Freight, along with a regulator and water separator and I'm going to paint my cattle trailer first for practice.
My big question for today is: my hood had patchy paint and surface rust where the paint was gone, as does the roof. To get a good finish, do I need to strip them both to bare metal, or just the rusty areas and take the paint down past the dead paint?
This is going to be a driver/hard-working towing rig, not a show queen, but I do want it to look nice when I'm done with it. I'm not stripping it to the frame, though I'm thinking about taking the bed off so I can actually paint between the cab and bed.
Thread Starter
|
Posting Guru
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,088
Likes: 4
I got a fair amount of time in working on the Crew the last two days. Here's what I started with:
Worked a few dings out around the tail lights. Got them pretty close, but still have just a bit to go.
I got the bumper, grille guard, grille, and front fenders off today. The left front had a couple of dings in it. Started working on those this afternoon.
Worked a few dings out around the tail lights. Got them pretty close, but still have just a bit to go.
I got the bumper, grille guard, grille, and front fenders off today. The left front had a couple of dings in it. Started working on those this afternoon.
Cargo Master
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,219
Likes: 190
From: Colorado Springs
Ready strip discs are also aggressive, you can warp low crown panels if you get too crazy so limit use to dent repair etc. Stripping to bare metal is not necessary. If you want to go to bare metal, soda blasting is the only way to go.
Flaky paint should sand off easily, just sand down to good paint.
Surface rust can be easily removed with phosphoric acid with some clear plastic wrap layed over to prevent evaporation.
Thread Starter
|
Posting Guru
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,088
Likes: 4
I haven't updated this thread in quite a while. At times it has seemed like I would never get finished with this project. What with the daily work of running a ranch and a side-business, I would sometimes go weeks without getting to do a thing. Then my mother passed in July and I had to move everything from where I was working on it to my place, and I haven't had time to build my shop yet.
Once things got more or less sorted from my mother's passing I buckled down and started working on the Crew as much as possible. The last couple of weeks I've hired one of my nephews to help me. He did body and paint in the Air Force, so that's been a big help.
It isn't perfect, but it's going to be a working ranch truck again (I have to keep reminding myself).
Some of the body work after I got the bed off:
Prep for paint:
WE HAVE PAINT!
In case anybody is wondering, I didn't paint the bed front panel because I found marking from when the Crew was assembled in Toronto. Maybe silly, but I wanted to preserve those.
I've found out I still have some learning to do on body work, but I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt. Besides, almost everything was self-taught or learned from watching You Tube videos.
Hopefully, we should finish the paint Monday and start reassembly.
Once things got more or less sorted from my mother's passing I buckled down and started working on the Crew as much as possible. The last couple of weeks I've hired one of my nephews to help me. He did body and paint in the Air Force, so that's been a big help.
It isn't perfect, but it's going to be a working ranch truck again (I have to keep reminding myself).
Some of the body work after I got the bed off:
Prep for paint:
WE HAVE PAINT!
In case anybody is wondering, I didn't paint the bed front panel because I found marking from when the Crew was assembled in Toronto. Maybe silly, but I wanted to preserve those.
I've found out I still have some learning to do on body work, but I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt. Besides, almost everything was self-taught or learned from watching You Tube videos.
Hopefully, we should finish the paint Monday and start reassembly.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
F250Rob
1948 - 1956 F1, F100 & Larger F-Series Trucks
17
Apr 12, 2015 09:08 AM
wildjon300ci
Paint & Bodywork
6
Dec 12, 2003 02:39 PM
