Spent the day mostly going in circles. Managed to get the inner roof frame welded back together, nothing fancy as it is all hidden. Then I turned my attention to the drip rail...... This thing is going to be the death of me The one I cut off the car is missing the flange that attaches to the roof frame and has the roof section spot welded to it every half inch. I started to do some trimming to it with plans on reattaching the flange part and splitting all the spot welds but "damn" So then I got the idea of using the bead roller in conjunction with the sheet metal break to fabricate a new drip rail all together. This had led me into another "well damn" Using the hemming die set lead to making a real warped and wavy thing that would no way work. So I opted to bend the first 120 degrees then use the closing dies on the bead roller. This worked well but another problem popped up as the metal break has an issue where it does not keep the same bend radius its whole length. This causes an error on the edge width of the drip rail when it is hemmed together. This error could usually be adjusted out, but I can't get the one side to adjust in all the way as there is and old braze repair that is limiting its adjustment travel. So oh great! another project to get into... Well thats my day...how was yours?
I'll keep them. I like stock bodies and interiors but with modern powertrains. Never know, might winde up with wire wheels and wide whites before all is done.
Pretty simple really, I measure then lay out scribe lines so I know where to position the metal in the bender. This is my old compass that I use for the lay out lines... Was pretty busy the last couple days working on fixing the roof and drip rail. Wound up doing it differently than planned because I just couldn't roll the edge of the drip rail edge exactly like what's on the car. So I wound up attaching a flanged piece in position and will tim it back then attach the original edge of the drip rail to it after finishing off the roof. The front section is a pain getting it curved just right. I spent hours on getting it ac close as I can. Came out really well for having to hammer it out by hand. Have to finish welding it up another day. Had to split and stack some firewood for the next couple days.
Well I finally got tired of photobucket sending me notifications about being over the limit, and am working on downloading alot of them. Ran into a couple of cars I had painted and figured I'd slap them in this thread.
Weather has finally turned so I could spray some epoxy, then hit it with some high build primer. (Evercoat 4:1) So the worst is over, now things should start progressing more quickly...
I've been doing it since I was 15 years old. Automotive refinishing is a process that requires alot of different skills learned over time.
Holy... that puts my spray paint finish to shame haha. What spray gun do you use? What kind of paint?
I use the harbor freight cheap ass guns for primer, and a sata for the base clear. I bike I used an airbrush and templates cut from frisk paper for the flames. Just shadow the edge of the templates with the airbrush. Paint was house of colors candy apple red over red and grey base colors. The bike is featured in Iron works magazine around ??? Shit I forget when. But I have the magazine around here somewhere...
@Zapins , Here's the "special" tools. After the high build primer goes on a tracer coat is misted on so while you are block sanding things out you can visually see low and high areas like this small dent and a low spot at a body seam. No magic here, just time patience and alot of beer helps.
Interesting. Makes sense. Color to help figure out which area is up or down. I wouldn't mind giving that a try one day. The automotive paint seems to be a lot more durable than other paints for some reason. Would be nice to get it on refurbished machines.
You want durable zap, you should try jet glo. I swear this paint is indestructible. Expensive as all hell, but what paint isnt these days? How ol earl scheib made money at 99bucks is beyond me. Maybe it was by saving water, they wouldnt even wash your car when you went in for a respray. My neighbor with the tormach down the street painted his truck yesterday in his driveway with boat paint. Cost him 12bucks. It's better than the primer job he had and from 75feet away, it's a good looking 400dollar truck.
Man you got some cool neighbors. I need a $400 truck... Jet glo huh? I'll have to keep it in mind. A scratch resistant paint would be welcomed for my shop tools.
You probably noticed that Jet Glow paint is one of those two-part polyurethane paints. I know we get warned all the time that everything is dangerous. But this paint is very likely to cause serious health issues if not used with proper PPE. I am not talking about "known to cause cancer in the State of California." These paints can cause signifcant respiratory illness and some people become exquisitely sensitive to them after a single use. I have sprayed them 30 years ago with a good fresh air supply and assited evacuation of paint fumes. I probably would be reluctant to do that now without a full hazmat suit and positive pressure fresh air supply. Indeed, polyurethane paints are very durable and can be beautiful. But, the cautions accompanying them are real. Denis