Part 2 by 50wllystrk

7 minute(s) of a 668 minute read

DavisI, thanks, I also am very happy with the shine.

04wjoilburner, I'll go one better, I'm also not big on black vehicles and I'm not too big on silver vehicles, but putting the two together has really turned out nice.

Gojeep. Thanks for checking in, I appreciate your compliments.

I've been sanding and buffing for days now, I'd be embarrassed to count and tell the actual amount of time I've spent. On the other hand, who counts the amount of hours we spend watching tv, sitting on the computer, well, I'm sure you get the idea.

As I sanded and buffed the hood I took pictures of the procedure, here we go.

I had a choice to leave the paint as is out of the gun. It had gloss but there is a hidden gloss that will be worth the effort.

I have most of the sanding done but at this time I'll look closely to find the small specks of shine that still need to be sanded yet.

Never use your finger tips to apply pressure while sanding, you will create grooves that will show in the finish later. I use the flats of my fingers and always change the directions as I'm sanding.

Once I finish with the 1500 grit sanding I switched to 2000 grit paper wrapped around a soft rubber block to help level the surface and to eliminate the deeper scratches of the 1500 paper.

On to the buffing, basically starting with a fast cut compound then moving to finer stuff. Let's look at the results.

On to the silver, it doesn't reflect the same as the black. Be warned though, spraying anything with metallic is tricky. The problem is getting the metallic to lay even, it wants to create a striped look. It comes from "burying" the metallic practicals as you spray each pass with the gun. I tend to not make solid wet passes with metallic, I do light passes, then do light diagonal passes so I never create any solid spray patterns. With enough light passes I spray til the surface is evenly covered and wet.

The door looking good.

I'm really happy with the silver, I wanted a lighter colored silver with a strong metallic sparkle.

If I keep at it for the next week I should be able assemble the parts, I can't wait.

10-7-2014

Wow, that sure was a nice clean shop back then.

No real sports fan here, I can however post a pic that will give clue to the color scheme.

I knew I wanted white/bright, but I wanted to break it up a bit. I will say however, the stripes have been perfect for checking the body panelsduring the block sanding stage. I know about the guide coat sanding process, I just believe we can go one step better and wet the panel and watch an image reflection on the panel to see if it waves as you move back and forth causing the image to move about the panel. The stripes have been the perfect image to use looking for imperfections.


Jims-87YJ I do have updates, yet I believe you've jumped to the last pages without reading the middle 100 pages.

We've moved from the Willys truck to a 1957 Chevy Truck project. Once I finished the necessary work on the Willys I could either stop posting here, or, as some wanted, I could use the build thread to continue to show different projects and the ways to approach and finish them.

I gotta say, I don't know of much we haven't touched on, but I do know I'm not done working in the shop, so we will continue.

On the 1957 Chevy Truck two tone paint I have gone through a lot of 2000 grit paper. Once I got started on the cut and buff I couldn't stop.

Let's see where we are.

Rear window in place. I have installed windows in many a vehicle but I wasn't gonna fight these old style windows. Fortunately there is a fellow, Marvin, who is very familiar with these, I called, I assisted, I paid, I smiled. 

New door handle and scratch guard thingy.

Front windshield, I had to buy a new one, then pay for shipping. By having Marvin bring the windshield and buying it from him, it didn't cost much more to pay his labor.

These trucks have a large step just inside the door, I just had to cut and buff.

No optical illusion here... these doors have a pressed in pattern, some guys cover it over with material. I didn't want to go that far but I wanted the door to look nice so I did take the time to block sand them true for the best finish once they were painted. I'm glad I did, after I cut and buffed they make some cool repetitious images.

How cool is that??

I'd like to get the front fenders and hood on the truck but I am in the process of getting the radiator support painted. Hopefully Sunday or Monday I can get it black, once it's dry I can assemble more. Then I can start focusing on interior odds and ends.

Thanks again everybody for checking in. Jim