I've finally got clear title to my father-in-laws first truck 1929 Chevy flat bed after a lot of paperwork, and I'm ready to get down and dirty with restoration.
I've disassemble all of the body parts and brought them into my shop to spend the winter banging out every dent, welding and repairing any tears, repairing a few rust areas that need replacing.
Snow will soon be upon us at this elevation so I'm now set to hibernate in my shop and get the body in shape before next spring. Thats my hopes anyway.
Back in the early 70's I worked in a body shop for a couple of years. Our work was basically repairing dents that were seldom brought down to bare metal.
I dug out my old set of hammers and dollies, air files, slap files and everything that I need to get started and decided to do some research on the internet since I'm starting with a vehicle that hasn't a spec of paint on it. And also I figured that techniques and paint materials have probably changed some in the last 45 years. Glad I did, but now I'm REALLY confused and hesitant to get started until I get some firm answers and opinions form a lot of people.
I'm pretty good at using a hammer and dolly to get it metal pretty close to original without having to use much body filler at all. Most of the time multiple layers of primer coats would file rather than bondo. My boss always complained that I spent too much time with my body tools when I could just fill the small pits. Maybe I did. But this is my baby now that I am working on and I don't mind taken what every time it takes to make it perfect.
After disassembling all of the body parts, I have examined every edge and piece trying to find a hint of a speck of paint to determine the original color with no luck.
From all the pictures I've seen, it appears as though Green and Black were the two prominent colors used.
I'm not such a purist that color is that important to me but I'd like to know what was the original. I'm a "semi purist" because there are some really cool colors out there that would look great on the truck. And I'd like to do a mile deep paint job on it.
(1) First question: Is there a number anywhere on the vehicle that will show the paint code?
I've been watching tons of Youtube videos on painting and restoring old vehicles and I'm totally confused when it comes to bare metal painting and body filler.
The body is very smooth (not much pitting at all) It has a patina of rust, but if you take a white dress shirt and rub across it, No rust transfers to the white shirt at all.
Very little rust on the body at all. I don't know if it is because the vehicle has been in southeast Colorado where it is very dry, or because of the metal it was made from.
Anyway, I know I need to sand and wire wheel down to shiny metal before I begin body work and paint, but I'm confused on the processes that I've seen on multiple youtube videos that seem to conflict with each other.
One guy that seems to be very well respected on youtube is this guy "Pete" somebody? Every other word is the "F" word. If you can get past his fowl mouth, he has good tips, but he was the only one that I could find that says that when you get down to bare metal, you have to start with an epoxy primer because regular primer or sealer will not stick or adhere to the metal and will eventually peel off.
He also said you can not sand epoxy primer but said that you have to spray on epoxy primer before you fill. That doesn't make since to me. Doesn't using an etching body filler adhere to the metal by etching itself into the metal? And since you can't sand or scuff epoxy paint, wouldn't the filler separate from on top of the epoxy paint?
We used to alternates colors of primer as an indicator when block sanding. If you block sand and get down to the epoxy primer, won't it gum up or not allow you to feather properly?
I want to do this to last forever.
(2) Question: When you are down to bare metal, do I body fill (and with what body filler, etching primer, etc) first? before priming? That is the way we did it in the 70's
(3) Should I use epoxy primer for first coat on top of the filler? Or a sealer? Or just a good primer? And if I do use epoxy primer and it can't be sanded or scuffed, how will the next coat of primer stick to the epoxy primer?
Thanks for reading my rambling on.
Hope someone can give me some clarification.
Dave
Last edited by Dinodave; 09/23/2017 3:41 AM.
