Painted Hood and Fender

Three major body parts are ready to be sprayed with the final metallic blue top coat. Dayum.  I called Boojack last Friday and he had time this week to do the deed. On Monday I got a gallon of the good stuff – high test. I borrowed a truck to transport the parts and spent most of the evening carefully wrapping the hood and fender before placing them in the truck bed.

I pulled out my daughter’s Ninja Mutant Turtle Snuggie, my wife’s Navaho rug, two shams and our St. Kitts huge ass beach towels. Nothing was going to scratch my parts. I must have used a mile of rope to tie everything down and since there was a chance of rain on Tuesday I topped it all off with my camouflage tarp.

I am an early riser, so I was up at o’dark-thirty trying to figure out what time Boojack opened shop. The complication was that it was forecasted to rain all day and was drizzling already. I was watching the weather radar in order to time my run between the rain bands. It would be very bad if my parts got wet.

I finally called him at 7am and got a recording that the number had been temporarily disconnected. Nothing is easy, I am ready to go and my painter is out of business. I really hoped this was a cash flow situation and not a shutdown.  All I could do was head out and see what the deal was.

Here I go, driving 30 miles out in the Alabama country in a big pickup truck. My parts are wrapped in Snuggies and Indian blankets, covered up under a camo tarp, and it is raining. If this ain’t Hillbilly I don’t know what is.

This picture shows what I felt like as I was driving down the road. I am just glad a game warden did not pull me over, I am sure he would have fined me for impersonating a redneck.

As I had hoped, Boojack had not paid his phone bill on time and it was disconnected. He acted like it was a common occurrence. The rest was pretty routine. Boojack took the parts and three days later I picked them up, this time with a trailer.  He did a great job and I really like his shop. It makes me feel right at home, he must live in the historic district too.

These parts look so good I am storing them in the house. Since, Stephanie would not let me keep them in the bed room, I converted the dining room into the Parts Display Room and give tours on Wednesday afternoons.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards

In the last episode our auto body metal man had just finished spraying on a beautiful semi-gloss black topcoat over the hood. It was a sight to behold as he rode off into the sunset. Everyone had tears in their eyes.

The reason for painting the hood black was that BooJack, my professional painter suggested putting a black coat over the yellow sanding primer. This way it would not take as many coats of the final metallic blue color coat to cover the yellow. So I did.

A few days later when Dr. Culpepper was making his rounds, you know checking up on his neighborhood automotive patients - I proudly told him what I had accomplished.

He calmly stated in his Dalearian manner that I shouldn’t have done that. Okay Doc, what is the problem, BooJack said to put on black? He explained that the black paint I used was a topcoat and my pretty metallic blue topcoat paint would have a bad reaction if I sprayed it over the black paint.

I did get a second opinion and the guys that sell the paint agreed that my hood would go into anaphylactic shock if I mixed my topcoats. They also stated that having the yellow under the metallic blue base coat would give the final blue color a deeper luster. There is a lesson here, something about knowing what you are doing.

So, back to the beginning once again. It took most of a day to sand off the black paint, spray on the YELLOW sanding primer, and block sand it smooth. I have to admit though, the hood is perfect and will look beautiful with the blue topcoat.

Now the underside of the hood is another story. Plain old black topcoat is a perfectly fine color for the engine compartment. I am getting to be a better painter, but spray painting it the Hillbilly garage has its challenges. I am an expert at pulling bugs out of the wet paint, but water drops leaking from my gun onto the paint was a new experience.

I decided to upgrade my shop and purchased a huge ass air compressor. It is bigger than my wife and is guaranteed to pump out more air than congress. I might have just become a redneck shop.

Can’t wait to see the body parts with the metallic blue final coat.

April Column

My April colum is out. This month it is about blasting the 54 truck frame.

Hope you enjoy it.

Brimmer


http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/04/stripping_down_the_pickup_in_m.html

Stripping down the pickup in my hillbilly garage