If you decide to do it yourself look into your local community college. It might offer courses in paint and body work and allow you to work on your own project. This is what I did. The cost of the courses are about 200-350 dollars and for that you get a place to make the mess involved with bodywork, spray booths, all tools you need and an instructor to over see your work.
This way not only do you learn something new but you can have the pride of saying that this is your work.

 

I live in Atlanta, so finding a trade school shouldn't be *too* difficult. I looked around for welding classes (albeit, very briefly) and didn't find much of anything that was for the weekender/hobbyist. But I should really look into it more. I'd love to be able to weld and do body work. I've just never had the tools or know-how.

 

I'll weigh in. On two Mustang projects, I did the body work and then took the car to Earl Scheib for a low cost paint job. Both projects went pretty well. The paint that they use is high quality....they do guarantee that the paint won't flake or peel for life. For around $400 they shoot a car. The guy who shoots it does nothing but shoot paint...all day...every day, so no orange peel, sags, runs, or thin spots.

The only thing they don't do is prep. They will scuff sand and mask the big parts. Both times that I went there, there were several project cars in the shop. Owners take off bumpers, trim, and do body work, then take it to Earl for the final paint.

So...get out Youtube, read Ax's tutorials, buy some body tools at Harbor Freight and get it ready yourself!

By the way...neither Mustang will win a show, but they do look pretty good. I was playing around with one this weekend....it has been 7 years since Earl shot the paint for us & it still looks pretty good.

Dan

 

Dan, I used to work next door to a small one man body shop. Many times he would get a job in that the customer would not want to pay the cost for one of his paint jobs. Supplies alone for his paint job cost as much or more than the local Macco, we don't have Earl Shreib around here any more, so the body guy would do all the body work and then send the car over to Macco for them to shoot one of their bargain $400 paint job. The came back looking really good.

The big draw back with places like Sheib or Macco is they only hose the paint on. If you're doing a really nice restoration you'll want more than just the exterior of the car painted. Many of or projects entail redoing the interiors which include the interior of the cab and the all of the area where panels meet like the door jambs and under the hood and when the body panels like the fender parts meet.

My wife's car needed some rust and dent repair, very minor stuff so my plan was to do all of the work and then take it down to Macco for one of their $400 paint jobs. The car had a rubber front and back bumper along with three different color stripes toward the bottom of the car. I told the estimator at Macco that I would have the car completely taped off and all I want them to do was spray the main color. He started filling out his estimate and when he was done he gave me a quote for over $1000. I asked what happened to the $400 special and he explained to me that since they wouldn't be spraying the entire car he had to quote it by the panel. I reminded him that I would have the car completely taped off and all they had to do was pull it into the booth and spray it like it was a complete car. He told me that's not the way they could do it and had to divide car into panel. It didn't make much sense to me. I ended up spraying it myself in the pole barn at home for about $400 in materials, including laying the three stripes.

 

Yes...my projects were all one color and the prep was done....all trim and bumpers, wiper arms etc. were removed.

I got the idea from an acquaintance who restores Porches. He went to Miracle Auto Painting with already prepped cars....and took his own paint. They were more than happy to shoot it on for him. They get pretty good after a while.

For a driver truck, it might be a good way to go....especially if you picked a light color that would be forgiving of the imperfections. You have to know going in, that if there is untreated rust, that is going to show back up in a year or so.

Dan

 

Great thread. As some of you already know, I originally decided to have my truck painted by others, after I disassembled it and media blasted it.


You also know that that did not end well for me. I then re-thought my options, sought some great help from this forum and went to work. I have learned so very much in the process and as already stated here, enjoyed the knowledge and progress. Will it ever be show quality? No. But I was never after show quality. I wanted a truck to take to a few local shows, ride my grandkids on and have fun. For those of you following my build, There are some new pics of the clear I shot yesterday. I have built a paint booth, bought a fantastic compressor and Youtubed the be Jesus out of the net.
( This is a thank you for all that ever helped me in any way on this forum )
Could a professional painter do it better. Absolutely. But as mentioned, most shops do not like to do resto work. Let alone this truck. In actuality, I could never have afforded to have it professionally done. So I had to Learn

 

The one thing all of you guys should think about it that these trucks were tools, built like tools and used like tools. At last count I've had 17-18 Bonus Built trucks, from F-1s to an F-8. Not a single one came from the factory with the quality construction and paint many of you are trying to achieve. There trucks were slapped together to get out the door of the factory and weren't built to last 10 years let alone 60+ years.

Any modern paint is better quality that what was squirted on them in the factory 60+ years ago. I had a '48-50 F-8 Firetruck with 3000 original miles and it looked like it never had any repair work done to it. The fitment of the doors was horrible, booth hit on the top back corners. I had to jack the door openings to make the door shut properly. The paint was another story. The body sheet metal was perfect, other than the holes in the roof where lights were mounted, but it absolutely no rust. I hit the paint with a DA sander and it fell off in pieces. There were two coats of paint, a black layer I assumed was some type of primer and the top red coat. Under the dash there was no paint, not even primer. I could tell that they just applied paint where they could get to without having to bend over too much.

Whatever you guys decide to do with your truck paintwise will be 200% better than the factory paint job and the quality of the modern paint, even the oil based hardware store kind, will be better than the products they sprayed at the factory.

 

This thread has got me thinking I'm almost finished with my truck!

Thanks guys. I really didn't want to double the money I have in it with a paint job. Now I've decided I won't.

 

Thank you all for your input on the $15K body work and paint job conversation.

It's only now sinking in that I'll do the prep work and give my best efforts over to a paint shop and hope for the best..I understand it's a driver but she deserves to look better.

Having said that..I thought I would move on to exploring a very much needed complete new 6 volt wiring harness.

I did an FTE advance search on the subject and came across a well respected FTE member who suggested a while back that he uses EZ Wiring because unlike the big names, they're half the price and good quality. I took this advice last night and ordered an EZ wiring kit for $170. Fortunately, I noted in a comment section I was keeping and rewiring a 6 volt system. I got a call this morning advising me that they only sell 12 volt harness' and recommended that I call M&H Wiring. I did and they told me they don't sell wiring for Fords..told me to try calling YnZ's Yesterday parts..pheww..ok so I call them and while I spoke to someone who appeared very knowledgeable and took me thru his catalog option list for a stock wiring harness for a 1948 F1 239 V8 6 volt.
A $1110.00 later he told me it doesn't include wiring for any future AC wiring and my dashboard which is NOT a '48 stock dash (see my album pics) causes some concern especially since the headlght switch is on the left side of the steering column and the ignition switch is on the right side..
He swore any of those other companies offering low prices and promising easy complete dyi instructions are nothing but trouble and my labor to install that stuff requires creative electrical experience and I would wish I spent the extra $$ to get the actual custom engineered harness for my truck versus those "universal fits all" harness advertisements...

$1110.00..WAS THIS A JOKE X 2?? C'Mon Man!

 

Some kind of a wack job you are, huh! Why can't you be like everybody else? (Kidding)

 

I got my stock looking 6 volt wiring harness for my 54 from MidFifty16 years ago. I don't remember the price but it was not expensive. Maybe you should call Classic Haulers their sister company for 48 to 52 trucks.

 

Well, I would be interested in what folks say on this and where to find a 6v harness.
MidFifty has one for $525!!! That's a bit more than $170 for a 12V. With that much of a price difference, I think it would force me to go 12v.
What did you guys with 6V systems do?

I didn't find a 6v harness on classic haulers, but I only looked very briefly.

On paint, one guy on here had a larger farm truck and he painted it with red tractor paint and a brush. It looked ok in the pictures. Bob makes a good point on just about anything we do would be as good as factory from back then. It really depends on what you want. I will never sell my truck unless I am forced to. Saying I did it would mean a lot more than a quality paint job.

 

I have stock 6 volt in both the F-2 and the panel. For the F-2 I bought stock harnesses from one of the reproduction part dealer. I don't remember who I bought it from or for how much, it was about 30 years ago. For the panel I made my own with the wire I had in my shop, I wire industrial controls for living and have spools of wire of different gauges and colors. I probably have $50 worth of wire and wire ends and other miscellaneous materials.

 

Did they use cloth insulated wiring in the six volt era?

 

I bought my 6V dash/engine harness(stock) from Mac's a few years ago. Top quality, made by a Co in Oregon. Was around $230 then. I ran the rear light wires myself, pretty simple.