The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Planishing tips

I continue to chip away at the single running boards on my 1 ton. (1950) I had to splice two good pieces together and I am looking for tips and suggestions on how to planish the welds in those very tight little ribs on the board. Has anyone done this? It looks good tacked together for now, but I don't want people to be able to tell that it is two pieces.
Thanks.

I ground those welds down with 60 & 80 grit die grinder disks and planished with a piece of 3/8" steel plate on edge in the vice to get at those small seams.

This has nothing to do with planishing but I had to do some really serious patching in a section of one of my running boards. I didn't have a lot of issues with distortion because they are made of somewhat heavy material. they turned out really well but had some slight imperfections, to hide these and create some durability I sprayed them with a good bedliner material. I also did this because I didn't want to deal with scratching black paint during use. This is one of the few things on my 41 that is not stock but it looks great!

Fox: I had to section my running boards also and had a seam that I just could not get cleaned up to my satisfaction, so like Wanderwilly I went the Line-X route. After the the Line-x was applied I realized I didn't have to get the body work on that spot cleaned up as much as I did as that Line-x hides small mistakes. You'd never be able to tell that I took about 18" out of the running board in this spot. Line-X hides imperfections And that stuff is tough as nails.
Regards, Dave

Wow. That Line X looks really sharp! I'm going flat black on the 1 ton and that would blend very nicely. You've swayed me...LineX it is!

Fox, you won't regret covering that running board with the Line-X and it will look really sweet with a flat black truck. Did you check out my Line-X'd steering wheel in my Gallery Story? That turned out pretty cool, too.....
Dave

Linex on the steering wheel is a dynamite idea.
I was planning on using it on my running boards from the start, but haven't tackled them yet. That's what I used on the Lund fiberglass running boards I put on my SuperDuty instead of the cheesy stick-on treads they came with.

Thanks for the thumbs up, kl!

For any planishing like those on a running board, I like to find a piece of steel bar stock the same width as the underside detail between the bends. Less chance of adding any errant marks.....

A few more questions for you Dave:
1. For the LineX'ed steering wheel, how big of cracks could the LineX cover. I quite like that look too. Tough, simple, "original"...ish. It looks great!
2. How much did it cost to have the boards, apron and wheel done in LineX?
3. Also, what kind of bench seat did you use in your truck? It seems to fit very nicely.
Thanks!

Fox;
1. The cracks in my wheel were at most maybe 1/16" although the line-x guy said it would bridge 1/8". I'd probably fill an 1/8" crack before I'd let them have it tho. They'll do other than black but it's 2x more than black. Upon their suggestion that it holds paint well I just hit mine with a can of grey Rustoleum. It's holding up great! And mask off any area you don't want coated. It's a 2 part material and cures in 4 seconds.
2. The boards were $270, both sides. The aprons were $70, both sides. The wheel was $40.
3. The seat I lucked out on years ago. It was the third seat out of a mid 90's Windstar van. It was a take-out and still had the plastic on it. $50. The guy had 6 of them in different colors. The bottom cushion was a bit too soft so I cut out a piece of 1/4" Masonite and slid that between the bottom coils and the foam above it. Nice and firm now. I put power on it, from a 1992 Park Avenue. (Took the tank out of the cab first).
Fox....good luck w your project! Regards, Dave

Thanks a lot Dave!