Painting and Brake Preparation

No work on the truck last weekend, the whole family went to Atlanta for Furry Weekend Atlanta. This story will be covered later in the Twilight Zone edition.

I took Friday afternoon off to get a head start on the work, with daylight savings time I will have plenty of light to work.  The goal was to finish painting the frame this weekend. Earlier in the week I went to Finishmaster to get a fresh can of Hardener. Got that and thought some sort of preparation rinse would help. The technician told me the proper method of use, which was to rub on over a one or two foot area and while it is still wet, wipe it off with a dry cloth. This is because the solvent dissolves the oils, but if you let it dry they will still be there and settle back onto the surface.

The temperature was perfect, so the first step was to sweep up the dust and clean the frame. I rinsed it with water, toweled it dry, and used the air nozzle to blow the remaining water off. Now for the prep rinse which gave me visions of The Karate Kid getting instructions by Mr. Miyagi. I wiped down a small area and it evaporated instantly, so much for collecting the suspended oil particles before they reformed back onto the frame.  After some experimentation I found that if I used a very wet cloth in one hand and dried it up immediately with a cloth in the other hand, it worked – “rub on, rub off - Hai Sensei!

Now for my first solo painting  job. Everything when as planned, set up the equipment, measured and mixed the paint, put it in the paint cup, tested the spray gun and adjusted it, perfect. Started spraying and everything seemed to be going well, that is until a big drop of paint landed on the frame – where did that come from?  Turns out the paint cup did not make a good seal to the gun and paint was oozing out. No problem, I used a paper towel to plug the dike and was back in business.

This is where I find out I am putting on too much paint and am getting sag lines. Basically when you get too much of a good thing, like paint, well it sags. I think you ladies will know what I am talking about.  Another round of gun adjustments, spraying farther away from the frame, keeping the pressure up, and life is good.  I finished in about two and a half hours, start to finish. Good time, even painted the front axle and other suspension parts.

What about the sag lines?  My first thought was to start over, blast, prime, and then paint it again. Ha ha, not really.  I had a quick debate with myself over this and used the “nobody will ever see the frame” card, so let it go Alice.

With the frame drying I started working on the brake subsystem. The weather went south on Saturday and Sunday, leaving me to work on the brakes the rest of the weekend.  I pulled out all the neatly stored brake parts and started cleaning. It was a highly coordinated three pronged assault, scrape of the gunk, put the parts in the rust remover solvent, and close the deal with the Wire Brush.

I had been a little careless with the wire brush, the few times it caught on the part and went over my gloved hand, nothing happened. But, when it slipped, rolled up my arm, and got stuck in my polar fleece coat - that hurt.  I am much more careful now.

I was making big time progress cleaning the parts. Nothing could be better than working in the Man Garage on Sunday afternoon, polishing my nuts. Stop that - look at the picture! They are as good as new.

My challenge for the weekend was the master cylinder outlet nut and the brake drum set screws. These were frozen and I could not get them loose on Saturday.  Liquid Wrench to the rescue, after soaking them with the solvent overnight, they broke loose. Chemistry saves the day again.

I had a brief discussion with my OSHA and spiritual advisor, Dale, about my progress rebuilding the old master cylinder. The two agencies he represented strongly advised me to reconsider and use a dual reservoir master cylinder. Prudent advice I must admit, however, earlier in the day I had a discussion with the family CFO about “controlling expenses” and did I think this was a big government defense contract, or what.  When she said she might polish my nuts if I didn’t slow down, I opted for the more economical route of rebuilding the old master cylinder.

All in all a good weekend, I see more three day weekends as the weather starts to warm up. I just hope with all this polishing I don’t go blind. Rub on – rub off.

Enjoy.

Frame and Suspension Parts Preparation

It was a good weekend, even with a small setback. The weather was cooperating and I had my list of goals; prep the rear end, prep the suspension parts, make sure I had ordered all the suspension parts I needed, and put the top coat on the frame.

Dale called Saturday morning and said he could help with the painting.  We checked out the frame and much to our dismay a few rivets on the front had rust showing.  This was the part of the frame that got wet from the week’s rain.  We ended up using Eastwoods Rust Inhibitor Primer to cover it.  In looking at the frame it was just too dusty to paint, we needed to degrease and dry it before we put on the top coat.  Since we had a 55 gallon drum of primer we thought – what the heck, let’s put on another coat of primer and then top coat it. What else can we do to make this part of the project longer!

After the prep work we took a break for lunch, thank you so much Chef Stephanie.  During the lunch conversation, I mentioned that we were putting one more coat of primer on.  Stephanie calmly turned and looked directly at Dale and asked “Was this your idea”?  This was an unnecessary delay according to her schedule and when momma is not happy, no one is happy.  Well we explained the technical intricacies of why we just could not paint over a messy primer coat surly she would understand.  We did not get any desert after lunch.

When we put on the original primer coat we had the diesel compressor which had unlimited air supply, so the spray gun had about a four inch pattern, sweet.  Now with our Handy Man compressor at 5 CFM we had to use Dale’s specialty gun. It has a pattern about the size of a silver dollar.  Makes me appreciate the “Manly” equipment.

After we finished the “last” primer coat, we immediately began the memory test and chemistry part of the process.  How long do we wait before we can paint over the primer?  Well I being the engineer, read the primer tech sheet. At a temperature of 60, the drying time was 30 minutes, awesome.  That’s when Dale pointed out this was 60 degrees Celsius, which just for the record, is the temperature of the center of the Sun! Well at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, it takes 8 hours to dry.  Not good. That was the chemistry part now for the memory part - what did Tony the paint technician tell us?  After a few hours we remembered he said we could put the top coat on in 30 minutes, back in business.

Henry helps a lot, man’s best friend.

Now for the first big setback of the project.  We are ready, we have all the correct paint gun paraphernalia, the paint (another gallon of paint for about an ounce of area to spray), the hardener, and even reducer (translation for construction painters, “thinner”).  It is important to use different terms for the same thing.  This way you keep the riffraff out and justify the higher price.

As the master paint mixer, I have the paint cup with the “certified” scale, so that I am sure to get the ratios correct.  This is chemistry after all.  In goes the 8 units of top coat paint, next is the 1 unit of hardener.  Dale had a can of the proper harder, I asked if I needed to shake it and Dale said maybe a little, so I gave it a shake and it felt like some liquid was in the can.  Next I took the cap of and began to pour. The can was upside down and nothing was coming out. The hardener had hardened in the can to the tune of about a one inch layer over the remaining liquid.  We pounded with a screw driver, nothing.  We need more Man-Power, let’s use the drill.  So I get out a ½ inch wood bit, chuck it up in the drill motor and begin the operation.  I am pushing with about 60 pounds of force, nothing.  Now I am at 100 pounds of force.  Finally it succumbs to the Man Force and not only does it go through the top layer, but the bottom of the can as well.  Yes Virginia, there was liquid hardener in the can and it is now pouring out onto the workbench.  Quickly we grab it and get 1 unit into the paint.  Then…..

Time stops and Dale and I look at each other and say, “we can’t use it”.  Neither of us knows the effect of the hardener hardening up on the chemical process, so there is a good possibility that it won’t react properly with the paint.  Therefore if we used it and it did not work, it would be hell to get it off the frame.  No desert for a month! Better to wait a week and put on the top coat once we get fresh hardener.  Bummer.

I had a wonderful Sunday, went for a bike ride, changed, got my coffee and out to the Man Garage.  I started with the cerebral activities first, making sure I had all the suspension parts and checking that I had ordered all the replacement parts that were needed.  I did find out that all the previous restoration enthusiasts before me we correct. “Take lots of pictures”.  In looking at the catalogs there was a spring bumper that I could not remember how it went on.  A quick look at the pictures taken during the break down and everything was clear. Thank you for the good advice.  I collected all the suspension parts and am ready to go.

I was not sure how I was going to clean the small suspension parts, i.e. front spindle, shock mount, tie bar, shackles, etc.  Meet my friend the wire brush.  This worked wonders taking off all the rust and gunk.  Next was a coat of the rust inhibiting primer and life was good.

Lastly I took on the rear end. Scraped and brushed off the rust and gunk and then drained the fluid.  Now for the hard part, the shop guide has the instructions for the inspection and rebuild of the rear end but I know I don’t have the tools or skill to take this on. I am going to ask for advice on the Stovebolt forum.

All in all a good two days and am looking forward to next weekend. Just a reminder, I have added a gadget to the blog that sends you an email notification when I make a new post. Sign up if you want the notification.

Happy Day.

Email Subscription

Since most of the work on this project occurs on the weekend and often, due to weather and work, not every weekend, I wanted to be able to send out an email notice that an update was posted.  Feedburner provides this service. If you enter your email in the box on the right you will receive the notices.  It's not mandatory, if you don't want the email, just view the blog when you choose to.

I do expect to work on it this weekend, so you will get an update Sunday night.

Enjoy

Brimmer