American in Austria 83 Build

[rideair]

Looks to me, you got the level of perfection wanted, learned something in the process and can now help others in the future, can't ask for anything more!

"Doing your own thing in your own time, you should be proud" (Easy Rider)

Enjoy,

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by rideair

Looks to me, you got the level of perfection wanted, learned something in the process and can now help others in the future, can't ask for anything more!

"Doing your own thing in your own time, you should be proud" (Easy Rider)

Enjoy,

This is def. a learning process. I am excited to see my level of metal skill by the end of the build, or at least my knowledge of moving metal. Other than the passenger side door the body seem pretty straight without any other oil canning.

When I get back from New Zealand in Sept. I will finish the roof so i am 100 percent happy with it and then start on spreading some filler and getting to making things very straight.

Talk to you then, any insight on the dry paint issue on the roof would be helpful. I feel like I might have been too close to the panel, not sure if that would cause a dry spray, or its simply just overspray landing on the roof, because it is the same on the rear window sill where its flat, a bit dry and when i rub my fingers over it this morning it seems to smooth out like I am remvoing the overspray. But other wise the epoxy seemed to set down nice and no solvent pop or fish eyes going on.

Paul

[44boggers]

Finally back to work on the cab after 7 weeks away. My focus now is getting the firewall completely finished by november so i can put the cab back on the frame and make room in my garage. Then I can do the rest of the body work while the cab is on the frame.

So the last two days I spent pretty the firewall and the inside of the cab (but that will be painted later on). Lots of sanding, wirewheeling and cleaning. I was trying to skip the step of washing everything with soap and water again, thinking i could get away with just using the degreaser but it was never ending brown/black on the paper towel. So I busted out the dish soap and got to work. I tell ya, that is the only way to go in order to get the metal spotless. After that I went over again with the degreaser and tack cloth and got spraying.

3 coats of epoxy primer. The first coat I think I thinned it out too much, so the 2nd/3rd coat I only reduced by about 5 percent and it seemed to lay down a bit nicer and seemed darker (blacker) than when i sprayed the rest of the cab last month.

I am still struggling with having some spots lay down silky smooth while others have a bit more orange peel or a slight rough texture. I feel like my speed is the same but maybe the smooth parts I am laying down more paint?? I really dont know as this is my first time using a paint gun.

Anyway. Next step will be to lay down filler on the firewall to get it as flat as I can before some slick sand.

If anyone has any tips about my uneven paint texture please chime in.

Thanks guys

Paul

[44boggers]

ALright guys, making some progress on the firewall. This thing was very far from flat, so I did the best metal work i could to get it flat before filler, epoxy again and now its in the slick sand stage. I will start blocking on it today and hopefully it is completely flat after that and I can get it into high build.

The first pic is before any filler was on, just epoxied it again after the metal beating. But you can see in the slick sand stage the difference in the flatness of the firewall. I didnt get a shot of the firewall before I added the slick sand.

I didnt do so much work to the area that will be covered by the heater core cover. That metal is so warped in there from the factory it was worth spending hours trying to get it straight when you will never see it. I hope that isnt be lazy. I will probably do a skim coat of filler just to make it look a little smoother but not much more beyond that point. My main focus was the very top of the firewall wall, because when you open the hood there is about a 2.5" width strip that is not covered up, and then the other main part was where I shaved the seems (upper left and right hand corner) along with the large flat part of the panel.

Till next time.

Paul