The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Painting a cab?

Finally to the point that the cab is ready for paint, and planning to do it the week between Christmas and new years. This is a ‘53. It’s off the truck and on a steel stand. I’m planning to paint it the original interior and exterior colors. What’s the best sequence to do this? I have the doors on it right now. I have gone back on forth on whether I should paint the inside or outside first, and whether the doors should be on or off. Any tips on what sequence makes the most sense?

Underside first no masking
Then do the Inside, no masking, over spray of inside to underside is acceptable
Finally Mask off the doors and windows for the exterior color again you get exterior overspray onto underside if any at all

This order is based on factory overspray I’ve observed on Canadian built trucks
But whatever you want to do I’m sure it will look great

Generally I think spraying the most cosmetically important surface last makes intuitive sense because that’s the one you don’t want any masking to damage and also the surface you don’t want to overspray at all
But inside can be touched up worst case
And the underside didn’t matter at all, had any paint was good enough
-s

I'm with 2ManyTrucks. That's the way I did my cab. Also had the doors off and painted them separately. I used cardboard to mask the windshield and rear window, and "tape and drape" on the door openings. I also taped up all the holes in the firewall.
Not having to worry about masking for the interior painting made that real easy. It would be kind of hard to paint the inside with the door openings masked closed.

I shot undercoating on the bottom of the cab when it was still on the rotisserie.

Thanks to both of you! I'm hoping that in a week or two my cab looks like that!

Inside first. You don't want to have to reach past the pretty exterior with a gun full of liquid and an air hose to do the interior after the exterior. Make sure you have some good temperature, especially the object you are spraying. This way you get good cure times.

Before you spray the primer on the interior, be sure to sand the metal with 180 grit to get a good bite on the metal. This is important for when you remove the masking tape off of the interior after you paint the exterior. If you don't, you will risk pulling off the interior paint when you remove the tape.
You will likely be sanding the interior primer before you paint with color. This is also important for the same reason as above.
Don't ask me how I know this.

What is the best sequence when painting a two color interior? I am planning on painting cab factory colors and the dash is a lighter blue, while the rest of the interior is the same as the cab. My thought was to paint the dash, base and clear, and then mask it, then paint the rest of the interior and cab. My plan is to paint the interior first and then the jams, followed by the outside of the cab. Is it best to mask any of it since it is the same color? I would like to avoid/minimize any overspray affects but I would rather not mask if I can get away with it. When painting the cab is it best to paint the interior base and clear first and then move on to the outside? Thanks for helping out a rookie.

I don't think there were two color interiors from the factory.
That being said, I think your thought of painting the dash first and then masking that, which minimizes the amount of masking you have to do. Although if you're doing base/clear, you could do all the clear at the same time.
Otherwise, your thought to move from interior to exterior is a good plan as noted above in this thread.

Thank you, I appreciate the feed back. I am restoring a 1954 GMC 102 that was originally Teel Blue exterior and a Teel and Cumberland Blue interior like this picture. I have seen pictures of two-tone Browns and Greens as well. I think these were limited the 54's 55.1s.  

I didn't realize GMC had 2 color interiors. But it looks like that dash panel could be removed and painted separately.
I just looked at GMC's colors and they had a bigger listing than Chevy for the same years.

From my understanding you could ask for any color you wanted from the factory if you supplied the paint. The panels do come out, but the actual dash is a different color from the body and interior. Mine will be teel blue exterior on the cab and cumberland blue on the dash, steering column and wheel, and the door window internal surrounds. Those are the colors it was when I purchased it in 83.

Are the two tone interior colors the same as Chevrolet but in a reversed pattern? Jim Carter has the Chevrolet colors that are pretty close to the original.

GMC has lots more color options than Chevy. Here's the 1954 color listings for each brand. This was snipped from paintref.com
It looks like Omaha Orange (the "standard" fleet color) is the only common color.

I meant the actual interior colors for the "two-tone" interior. It looks like GMC and Chevrolet may use the same colors but in a reverse pattern. Example: The chevrolet uses the lighter blue as the main color with the dash top, side window surrounds, steering wheel the darker blue. GMC looks to use the darker blue as the main color and dash surround and side window surrounds as well as steering wheel and column the lighter blue. It looks like quite possibly, they use the same two blues but reverse the pattern.