Projects 28 RPU "problem child" build thread "first try at a hotrod"

Few more progress pics

Made two stands to hold the front fenders while I did a final sand and paint




Like everything else little issue showed up where the fender flexes in the corner.. appears as if the super high build I put on them when I originally put the truck together had cracked some.. not the black line you have to look close and there is some small cracks coming from the bottom edge


Ground it back to bare metal in that area and up about 2" then feathered it out.. guide coat and sand sand sand






Let them dry off real well then hosed some black and 3 coats of clear..






They will need a wet sand and a buff.. thought I could get away without it until I set them outside with nature light on them.. little bit of dirt and some orange peel..

Couldn't help but set them on..


Sanded the rears last night.. still have to get the edges and re tape the underside of them buy hopefully get them sprayed this weekend.. then onto the splash aprons..

Might wait till just before I assemble the fenders to buff them..


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

The rears put up a little fight.


Put the base down and ended up with some dirt in it.. had to wait overnight and scuff the dirt out of it today.. one coat of base to even it out then 3 coats of clear..

Switched to medium activator since it warmed up.. flowed out a little better..




Might stick them and the fronts in natures oven tomorrow.. looks like it's going to be a nice sunny day..


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Well the sun wasn't to kind to me.. better to find it now though..









One spot appears to have been in the last coat of high build..

Other one 75% appears to have been in the last coat of high build and two larger cracks in the first coat of high build..

Also found one other small spot up on the front that did it also..

Get to try my hand at spot repairs.. which I did find out I shouldn't have to worry about buffing through the clear.. there is plenty on there.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Been kind of slow around here lately.. life has had its way of beating me around last few months...

Second time around on the passenger side fender seemed to turn out ok.. set it in the sun for a few days and it didn’t shrink..


Painted the headlights and tail lights while I was at it..

Come to find I think I was spraying the primer to thick.. it cracked in the curve of the running board also.. so I blocked it way way down.. then sprayed two light coats and blocked one more time..




Welded up a few of the holes in the tank so I could take it and the cab down to get blasted.




They just messaged me saying the cab is done so hopefully go pick it up on Monday morning and maybe get going on it next week..


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Well so much for getting started on doing body work...

Picked the parts up early this morning.. it was still dark.. they were on a pallet so they just loaded the pallet up in the trailer and I closed the door... came home after work to unload it out of the trailer and get a closer look at them..



















I can’t win with this thing... always something...


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Sorry to see this...
Nothing else to do but send it back and possibly stay there during next blast, in order to ensure sufficient quality.

 

I’ll probably just end up touching up the smaller parts myself...

Did send text guy pics of it and he claimed it to be flash rust.. I can go with that on some things but there are spots that were not even blasted..

I’ve said I could bring the stuff back if I needed so I’ll probably take the cab back down


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Made a little head way.. blasted the hood myself long with a few other things..

Ended up contacting a buddy that started working on his own from his home shop to see if he would give me a hand get this thing moving faster..

He was nice enough to let me bring it up and work along with him..

Come to find they warped both doors while blasting the inside.. there were low spots where the 4 holes in the inner structure are at..

Got it ruffed in before taking it up..





Took off the lower section of the bed along with the fender mounts due to rust seeping out.. come to find out I didn’t get any primer in there before and Brookville’s primer wasn’t all that thick..

bonneville really highlights thin spots for ya..







So took it down and had it blasted and the cab and gas tank touched up at the blasters and he was nice enough that he didn’t charge to do the bed after the issues the last trip there..



Made decent progress... the bed we think is ready for a final sand and paint.. tank & cab need another block and prime.. doors and hood will need a little more work yet..

Weather was really nice few days ago so can’t pass up roadster ride in November in Ohio




Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Was able to get a few things painted on the underside yesterday.

Had to sand part of the gas tank down after running a block across it.. didn’t realize how deep the pits were





Went ahead and fixed the little low spots from welding up where the taillight used to be and where I welded two small studs to cover the wires up.


All covered up


Sprayed them down yesterday






Going to try and make it up to my buddies to get a plan together for the outside.. he has a bigger paint area then I do.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Brought the cab back home so I could cut the inside and bottom of the cab in.









Also brought back the hood.. still had the hood sides here.. decided to go with satin on the inside just due to the shape the hood is in.

So mixed some flatter in the clear.



Be a lot easier if I was painting this thing inside and out all at one time







Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

It's looking great!

 

Thanks! Hope to get painting few small things again soon.. steering wheel and some brackets..

Did have to do some machining to finally have a horn button/ cover on the wheel..

Since it’s all I had at the time the model A steering shaft caused issues with the cover not being able to go all the way down onto the wheel..

The supports on the cover were hitting the nut on the shaft.. so easy fix machine the supports off..



Then turned down an old pin laying in the box of round junk so it would tightly fit into the center of the steering shaft... threaded the other end so I could thread it into a piece I made to set inside the wheel..



Counter sunk the existing holes on the opposite side to use two 1/4x20 machine screws to hold the plate to the wheel.





Actually just dumb luck but the extra I had left on the threads of the center pin was just right to hold the horn button up where it needs to be.. never had a spring so it would fall in if pushed..



Now I just have to find some sort of epoxy to fill in around the spokes out to the wheel.. I did some mud work on it way before but there is a fair gap from the spokes out to the wheel.






Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Made a little progress.. started working on the motor out of the other roadster I have.. it was well past due for an overhaul..

Had to do some repairs to the wheel. Kept picking at it and it ended up breaking out a lot more of it.


Some people on a 35-40 group suggested repair it with PC-7 epoxy.. the white area is what had broken out after picking at it..












Ended up changing the color for the gauge panel that goes around the column since the maroon didn’t match up with the tank.




Hopefully get a run in stand built for the motor since it will be a few weeks before the machine shop can get it in.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Nice repair on the steering wheel.

 

Steering wheel came out nice!

 

Thanks! Turned out better then I expected

Thanks!!

While waiting for the paint to cure some before moving it around I pulled the motor on the other roadster that needs an overhaul.. which lead to making a run in stand..

Few pics from that.

Broke 5 studs and three of them put up a good fight..







Perimeter frame.


Front mount adjustable


Front risers/ engine mounts


Adjustable radiator mount


Control panel. Used an old door off the inside of an old safe that I had since it was already polished and turned.. the stand is pinched on like everything else so it can be moved anywhere on the frame..


Picked up a 32 truck grill few years back and threw it on since it was just hanging on the wall.. maybe keep me from hitting the radiator..








Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Great work.

 

Run stand is really well thought out!

 

Thanks! Machine shop started on it last week so hopefully have it back after they get the internal parts delivered and the work done..

Out of room so extended the booth a little to hopefully make enough room to paint everything at one time..


Wanted to make sure the doors lined up after moving and welding a few things before I had it blasted..


Started blocking the firewall and found a little surprise


For some reason all around the edge of the ignition box cover the primer lifted.. must have been something on the little filler I used. The epoxy is what lifted.. also found a small crack in the primer where it must have got heavy in a corner..


All straightened back out... hopefully


Made up a stand for the hood and grille shell reusing one of the front fender stands




Put some 1/4” bolts up through the cowl and two nuts on top to space the tank up so it could get painted together


Going to be tight in here


Started sanding on the bed and it’s going to take awhile so hopefully next few weeks ill have some color on it.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Got all the plastic replaced and cleaned the booth all out. Had a buddy come down and give me a hand.. brought his spray gun since I just have a cheap one from local hardware store.. not sure if that was a good idea since I wasn’t used to spraying with it..

tossed some color on it yesterday... which I think is only going to cause more work..
























Color is so dark until you put some light on it.. which is one problem I had was not near enough light in the booth. Hope to move it out in the sun outside Sunday to have a look at it.. afraid it’s going to be tiger striped or spoty..



Even with a maroon sealer it took 5 coats of base to get it to look solid. Even sprayed each coat a different direction..



Clear is really orange peaked but I figured that’s way better then sanding out a bunch or runs..




Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

I was taught that a really slick paint job was a controlled run.

 

There is definitely a lot of truth in that statement!


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Very nice work, Jared!

 

Going to be a really nice RPU. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

 

Thanks!! Really want to get it finished up!

Thanks!! Hopefully paint the bed this coming weekend.. got distracted dragging home another model A and a 32 BB truck this weekend




Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Well painting the bed decided to become a big problem..

I know I spray kinda heavy but... when I got more paint they gave me a different brand of reducer.. still a urethane reducer... never had this bad it runs in my life...

So this was a week or so ago so I got extremely aggravated and just left it set.. just happened on the inside of the bed and tailgate..











Was hoping to get this back together by spring but who knows.. I’ll get back to it sometime.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Well fuck man

 

Dang it! Luckily it’s just paint, but it can be aggravating. I’m just leaving mine rusty, and not worry about scratches. That’s going to be a beautiful truck I took a few ideas from it because it looks so rad

 

Not fun for sure!, take short break as you get with supplier of reducer to hash things out. Then well you already know, start over. Been following your thread since the start and you are doing a great job!!!

 

You didn’t control the run. When you put your base coat on what till it tacks up really good. Touch it and see if it is a kitty wet wait until it’s sticker or it will not hold the additional coats. Watch your spray pattern as it hits the surface and see if it blends [burn in] into the overlap.’pay close att to your spray pattern at this point. I tend to use a slower reducer and wait between coats, some times with a fast reducer you get orange peal and dry spots. The trick to getting runs out is sanding them flat and not undercut the edges. A old painter’s trick is bar of LAVA soap has the pumice grit in it like 1000 grit sandpaper, just use water and hold the bar flat and sand with it like you would use a block and it will cut the runs off nice and flat.if you see a run forming you can try to run it if the edge carefully. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to the spray pattern as it contacts the previous coat and GOOD lighting. Hope this has been helpful to you. Frank