Sunday Column

My May Sunday column is out. I did post some pictures of the dinner on facebook.

enjoy

A lesson learned about exotic fare on a Denver visit

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/05/a_lesson_learned_about_exotic.html

Starting on the Cab

With the hood and front fenders painted, it is on to the cab. The immediate problem is a three foot vertical crease in the cab, just in front of the door. This baby is about two inches deep and I am trying to figure out what could have caused it. My best guess is some type of cowboy equipment - maybe at the rodeo someone backed a horse trailer into it.

With a dent this big I am going to have to perform a kickpanelectomy. This is a complex procedure to remove the inside panel of the cab so I can bump out the dent. With my huge ass air compressor, that is still bigger than my wife, there will be plenty of air to run the cut off tool and nibbler.

Sparks were flying when I started cutting into the metal but I had more protection than a frat boy on date night; safety glasses, respirator, gloves, and ear guards. Four out of five is not bad. I got my air nibbler going and was cleaning up around the opening when I saw an open spot and just started cutting up to the top. Thankfully I stopped before I got to the end as I had cut two inches past the replacement part I had purchased.

With the panel removed I now had access to the dent. I know most of the guys will be able to relate to this. I basically spent about an hour just looking at the dent wondering how I was going to repair it. The next hour was spent hoping it would magically fix itself. And then I was ready, I got out my hammer and dolly and started bumping. Even with the kick panel removed it was still hard to get the hammer in the small space. I hammered, and bumped, and banged on my dolly for 5 hours.

I actually made good progress getting about half of the dent out. WhooHoo. However, the next day I could not move my right hand.  All the banging really stressed my wrist and I really could not pick anything up with it. With my left hand I could comb my hair just fine and brushing my teeth was a little harder. And after a few tries my aim was good enough to hit the toilet. I did clean up the floor and cabinets and as long as my wife doesn’t read this post I should be okay.

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

 

Grilling in the Hood

The front grille that came with the truck was in sorry shape. One of the cross members was crushed, several were split and overall it was covered with a category EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita Rust scale.  In other words, it was a disaster. So instead of spending countless hours repairing it, I decided to purchase a refurbished grille on eBay. This way I could spend my time at the brew pub instead of the hillbilly garage.

The eBay grille came primed and ready to paint, according to the seller’s description. The dilemma was, did the seller really do a good job with the prep work. I thought about asking TSA to help since they could x-ray scan it, but they just don’t have a sense of humor. As it turns out I waited about four weeks before I was able to work on the grille and I was disappointed (but not surprised) to see rust blooming everywhere. Glad I waited.

My friend Dale came over to help last weekend and I asked if he would work on the grille. He agreed and proceeded to take it apart. Drilling out the rivets did required “special” tools, which I knew he was itching to put to use. Once the grille was disassembled he used a sander/grinder to remove the paint and rust on every dad gum piece.

My task for the day was to weld in a replacement part on the hood support where it had rotted out. We both worked all of Saturday and Dale shamed me once again by completely finishing the prep work on all the grille parts. I did weld in my little part, but it didn’t seem like much by comparison.

The next task was to prepare the underside of the hood before it was primed. It took most of the next day to wire brush and sand off the rust and old paint. When I was done the underside of the hood was shiny and bright just like new. However, the next morning everything had flash rusted and I was back to ground zero.

I am convinced that Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, was not weaving and unweaving a burial shroud to stave off her suitors, but was really working in a chariot shop. During the day she would sand the rust off the chariot fenders and each night they would flash rust. She would start over the next day and repeat the process. In fact I think Odysseus was really a used chariot traveling salesman.

Once again I resorted to my chemical dependency and was able to remove the flash rust with Eastwood’s Fast Etch. With the rust converted I sprayed on the epoxy primer. Sweet.

I am finding that as I get more experienced and skilled with each stage of the restoration, it is harder to find interesting stories. Only Penelope would be interested if I described the technical details of applying body filler and sanding it to a smooth contour. But I do find that Stephanie is much happier with my progress.

The plan for this weekend was to finish the top of the hood. I sprayed on the urethane sanding primer and was disappointed by the rough texture of the coating. In discussing my technique with Dale, my spiritual and technical advisor, I discovered that I was spraying at 10 psi when I should have been spraying with a pressure of 50 psi. Here is the deal, at 10 psi it is like pooping out mash potatoes onto the hood. And of course they are lumpy. However at 50 psi, even mashed potatoes get atomized and a fine mist coats the part being painted. Employing my new technique I put a black top coat on the hood a dayum it looks good. The next step is to take it to Boo Jack to put on the final color coat.

Happy Day

The grille that came with the 54 Chevy truck.

Dale at work on the grille.

Rust coming through the primer.

The replacement metal for the rotted area.

Grille parts preped and ready to go.

One side is clean and the other side has the flash rust.

Grille parts primed.

Nectar of the Gods.

The underside of the hood primed.

Body filler on the hood.

Urethane primer on the hood.

Black top coat on the hood.

A New Column

For those of you that don't subscribe to the Huntsville Times, my Sunday column was published this week. It is not related to the truck project.

Hope you enjoy it.

Brimmer

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/03/a_race_against_pride_the_clock.html

After my daughter had run well in a local one-mile race, I thought we could try a 5K race. Neither of us really had any knowledge about road racing, other than the basics - run like hell to the finish line.
A 5K is 5,000 meters long, which seemed like a lot until I got it translated into English.
It turns out to be a little over three miles. If Brooke ran one mile, surely she could run three - she was a 6-year-old after all.
....