PAINT!

In a whirlwind of a weekend, I eventually got some primer shot on the bare metal!

This all started Saturday morning, when I jumped back into it all, after a great Thanksgiving meal, and a much needed 'do-nothing' day on Friday. As mentioned last post, I have been spending a lot of time slowly gathering the necessary tools, and setup, to shoot paint. I decided Saturday, it was time to jump in and do it. but wait... remember? my new dryer contraption doesn't quite hold water. oh yeah, ok, I'll fix that, then I'll be ready. 3 hrs later, I eventually rebuilt the setup, after a few failed attempts at sealing the leaks, funny thing, when you drill large holes in the bottom of a bucket, it doesn't want to hold water very easily. ok... got that done, lets go get the 'truck house' opened up and wipe the metal down one last time so I can shoot some paint, already!

RUST! damn. some of the sandblasted metal had flash rusted, after sitting all week. But it looks like has been raining on the whole truck, what? how did this happen, is this carport leaking like a sieve? CONDENSATION. so, the ground is wet, which the carport is set over (and it will be wet until at least June), this has caused condensation to build up pretty heavily on the ceiling, and every time the wind blows, it drops the water onto the truck. not exactly what I had in mind.

DARK! we are in the midst of our darkest days here in the PacNW, and that means, if it is cloudy, your struggling for daylight around 4:00. yeah, really, 4:00! So... time to go inside, I guess. that day is shot.

woke up Sunday with lots to do, in order to get paint on the bare metal, but I am seeing that this is beginning to be urgent, or I will have to re-sandblast everything. not cool. so game plan: put the front wheels back on the truck, roll it out of the carport, blow all of the condensation off the sides and ceiling, put down a floor, roll the truck back in, clean the metal with dish soap, and hot water, wipe everything down with wax and grease remover, mask off the cab, then spray primer. oh- and I've never used a paint gun, so add, get the gun setup properly, and manage to get everything right on the first try... uhh... right. ok.



FLOOR! I needed to get a floor down in order to block the moisture that has been coming up from the ground, and "raining" on the truck, especially for painting. so I got a 100ft roll of 6 mil plastic and put down 5 layers of it for the floor. 2 reasons for the layers. 1. the ground is gravel, so it has to be thick enough to not puncture with the weight of the truck, or me walking around. 2. throughout the process, I can peel back layers to the clean layers below, to have a fresh start for painting new coats.

once I got the condensation dried up, and the floor down, I backed the truck back in, and got back to it. It is important to clean bare metal with wax and grease remover before primer. If anything is between the primer, and the metal, then at some later date, after 100s of hours of paint and bodywork, you will scratch the paint, and it will begin flaking, all the way back down to bare metal, and that is really tough to fix!


PAINT! Finally! Saturday night, I read up on the best ways to tune the paint gun, so I felt pretty confident that I could figure this out before sunset (shortly after lunch! ugh...). I followed the tips and tricks to a T, and IT WORKED! it was that easy?! no way. it was! I got the paint mixed per the instructions, and I was off to see the wizard. it went really well. the primer looks great, and overall, I am really encouraged to keep going until I get good at shooting a good finish coat of color.

I got everything done and it was getting dark as I was cleaning the paint gun-- oh, and the dryer from the last post worked phenomenally, couldn't be happier with that. so cleanup happened in the dark, which I see being pretty normal for me until March or so.

overall, a success. this could have all gone much worse, and been a rough 'first time' to get past, but a lot of research, and the right tools have really helped this process be as easy as I can make it. in my driveway.

hope everyone has a great Holiday season!


and some fun shots of a paint gun, these fascinate me for some reason...

Driveway-o-chevys