Build thread for the 72 GMC, finally. Thanks John!

I've slowly been reading this thread over the past week.

Tuna55- You Rock!!!

Also, you gave me some good ideas for the minitruck.

 Pardon me if I am repeating myself.....

What I did with the Volvo once it was in sealer and looking to go to the paint booth was wash the car with plain old water. The 2k is waterproof and you even have epoxy under that so it wont be soaking into the fillers.

The wet car looks like wet paint and you should get mirror-like reflections when looking into it. It will also show up any spots that you don't want to live with as distortions in the reflection.

Washing the car is also a good idea to get rid of all the dust that is hiding in the nooks and crannies until you point a spray gun at the spot and it blows powder all over your paint!

NOHOME said:

 Pardon me if I am repeating myself.....

What I did with the Volvo once it was in sealer and looking to go to the paint booth was wash the car with plain old water. The 2k is waterproof and you even have epoxy under that so it wont be soaking into the fillers.

The wet car looks like wet paint and you should get mirror-like reflections when looking into it. It will also show up any spots that you don't want to live with as distortions in the reflection.

Washing the car is also a good idea to get rid of all the dust that is hiding in the nooks and crannies until you point a spray gun at the spot and it blows powder all over your paint!

Nice, I will do that.

I have a weird almost-day off tomorrow, so I will at least start the 2K process assuming the compressor makes it. It's starting to sound icky.

Now I am starting to think about the only other unknown in the build, the seats. I am fairly sure I want to stay with a bench, and fairly certain I want some sort of houndstooth. I was an idiot years ago, and sold my bent seat frame because I was absolutely sure the hot ticket was a modern seat. Now I regret that. Honestly the comfort of the seat isn't important. Perhaps my butt isn't like normal a normal butt, but I'd rather sit on something like a park bench than a sofa. I, please avoid any euphemisms, would like something hard and flat ideally. I've been considering ordering some form of bench bomber seat, because it would likely be lighter and also harder anyway, and I could still cover it like it was stock with a small amount of foam. Then again, if it's not going to show, I could make it myself from square tubing if I could get the size close enough to use a generic houndstooth cover from wherever.

I welcome your thoughts! Most good seats are many hundreds of dollars or more, and the wait time is long. I'm thinking I want to do this over the winter.

I'm behind schedule. 

The 2.0 tip I bought from Eastwood in October is MIA. I'm stuck with 1.7 until the replacement arrives. 

The good news is that far-more persnickety tunakid 4 joined me and fixed way more stuff than I saw. 

The bad news is that I ran out of welding gas, had to adjust the rocker to fit the door better, and had to rebuild my regulator because the desiccant failed and filled it with beads. 

Stay tuned!

So the kid decided to clean up the door openings a lot, she was upset with how GM finished off all of that sheet metal. She really did great. 

While I had everything out, with the assumption that I was going to paint the 2k, I noticed in the sunlight that the bed side on the driver's side was all wrong. Suggestions?

Tunakid 4 didn't like the overlap spot welds around the upper part of the door opening, so she attempted to use some filler to clean up that area. It wasn't great, so I redid it today. Tunakid 1 also helped sand a few spots and get the bottom and jamb of the doors ready for primer. 

We spent the morning volunteering at a local garden, so it's been a short day. 

Having the kids lay hands on the truck is better than laying any  kind of paint on the truck. Can't wait for the grand-kids to start sanding!

Pete

NOHOME said:

Having the kids lay hands on the truck is better than laying any  kind of paint on the truck. Can't wait for the grand-kids to start sanding!

 

Pete

That's like a really nice compliment wrapped in a brick

tuna55 said:

NOHOME said:

Having the kids lay hands on the truck is better than laying any  kind of paint on the truck. Can't wait for the grand-kids to start sanding!

 

Pete

That's like a really nice compliment wrapped in a brick

That's how I read it at first, then realized he could have meant his grandkids, not yours!

In reply to tuna55 :

I hope that you did not take that as anything but a bit of ribbing from an audience  member that has been cheering for this build for a while. 

I was thinking of something that you posted a bit back and how we have all learned the reality about project time.

In reply to NOHOME :

No worries, and I get it. It is frustrating though. Not that you pointed out the slow, but the slow is tough. 

Here's my schedule for the week. 

Monday up at 5, to the gym then work. Home at 545 then out the door by 630 for trail life where I volunteer   home at 930. 

Tuesday up at 5, coffee with friend, then work. Home at 545 then bring tunakid 3 to archery at 630. Home at 930. 

Wednesday up at five, then work. Home at 545, guitar lesson 730-9.

Thursday up at five, run to church to fix stuff. Then work. Home at 545 then out the door at 6 to bring tunakid 4 to dance. Home at 930. 

Friday up at five to the gym, then to work. Straight from work to pumpkin patch event with family. Home at 9. 

Saturday up early, going to meet in-laws (ick). Home late. 

Sunday up at six, make everyone waffles, make dinner for midday, laundry and dishes, get everyone up for church. Home at 130. Feed everyone, back to church 515. Home at 8. 

That's average. 

I just realized that only the epoxy needs to have 24 hours of 65 degrees or above. The 2K primer can just be 3 hours above 60. That gives me some hope. Now for basecoat this year, but at least for 2K and all of the sanding and such. That way it can be 100% ready for basecoat in the spring.

There is a very good argument for waiting all winter before topcoat. The coatings on the truck are going to shrink and settle to whatever final point it will. If there are a few sanding scratches, it is easy to deal with them before you squirt color.

The Glasurit paint rep that was helping me with the Molvo suggested I wait a year before topcoat to let everything settle. "Yeah right" thought I to myself.

Pete

In reply to tuna55 :

My schedule is similar.  Every. Single. Day. is an impossible scheduling situation with my family.  And people wonder why I won't call or email them back immediately at 7pm. 

I've decided to try the no sleeping route, I'm going to come home after trail life tonight and immediately begin sanding. If I get everything ready then tomorrow between arriving home and archery I might be able to rush through some epoxy primer. If I stuff my face instead of really stopping to eat. I would really like to get this thing in 2k primer this winter.

Aaaaaaaand I ran out of sandpaper.

Up until midnight sanding and preparing for primer. It looks much better. I'm always a combination of delighted that it looks so much better and aghast at the idea that it still needed that much work. 

Out of town today. Actual spraying will have to wait. 

It's a little after midnight here, and it's done and ready for the last coat of epoxy. I've been over the entire truck now and fixed everything I was worried about. Yay!

Awesome to see tuna!!

Looks like I'll have Wednesday after work. I'll try to finish up the epoxy then. 

Ready to do the epoxy tonight. If I understand the perfect paint job instructions, then I can't do the 2k for a day. Realistically it's going to be next weekend. 

Well I got it all primed, still some ugly spots and a few runs, but mostly everything is great now

In reply to NOHOME :

Thanks!