The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Cab painting and thoughts on it.

Well, after three years of cutting, grinding, cursing and crying I finally got paint on MY CAB

I'm a novice at this... never painted a car in my life so take these tips with a grain of salt. Just sharing in case anyone is interested.

When you are doing your priming mask over the body color flange by about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. This way when you pull all the tape off to re-tape for the finish color you can feather out the edge of the primer smooth on the flange instead of having a heavy buildup of paint at the line between the interior and exterior color.

For the life of me I just could not mask those big openings with masking paper so I used WHITE CORRUGATED PLASTIC that I bought at my local sign shop. I used it during all of the priming and sanding and then pulled all the making and re-taped it for the color coat. Being plastic the tape pulled off clean and I was able to wash each piece. Ignore the hood, I lost patience for my helper.

If you do this be sure you clean all the sanding dust from the inside of the corrugations otherwise it will blow out when you do your color coat.

Anyway, I'm totally relieved that this stage is behind me and can finally start putting this thing back together.

It's beautiful.

Thanks for the tips. This may have been your first paint job, but it looks great. Obviously you took great care with this and the result shows it. What kind of paint (two stage, etc.)and spray method did you you use (HVLP, regular spray gun, etc.). I wish mine comes out nearly as good when I'm ready to paint.

I used Nason Full Thane 2k (Seacrest Green) which I believe is either a PPG or DuPont product and a Devilbis Starting Line HVLP gun with a 1.2mm tip. I never used a really expensive gun to compare but the Starting Line gun is a HUGE improvement over any el-cheapo HVLP gun I've owned.

I'd highly recommend THIS SET for a $150. You get two guns, three tips (use the 1.5 for primer instead of the 1.8) tools and one regulator.

very nice job,I wish I was at that point.

I'm going to be afraid to remove my doors after they finally fit correctly.

good question on the masking, I will be looking at the same issues

BIG hurdle there Woody, congrats. It sure looks good from where I’m standing and I like the color. You must have picked up something from those paint guys when you put your time in at motor city. Surprised an old fart like you remembers that far back, (tee hee).
Boy am I jealous of you, I’ve had my bare sheet metal front clip hanging from the rafters now for a year. That hurdle for me is just too tall right now, too much junk in the way to get any room to paint.
We’ve talked before about the masking problem for the interiors. Never have been able to find out how they did it at the factory. In fact I’ve had many discussions as to whether they painted the interior first or the outside. Logic dictates that inside would have to have been done first as you’ve done. I like your idea for masking the large openings. I’ve always felt that they would have used some sort of plug or bung at the factory to speed up the masking process.
Just noticed your post about the Starter Line DeVilbiss set. I bought one similar to that a couple of years ago but my deal came with the touch-up gun also, think it was just under $200 at the time. I looked at the Finish Line guns but just couldn’t justify that kind of money for a few paint jobs. Heck at my age I might not even get to use the Starter Line guns before the sand runs out of the glass!
Again, great looking job, you’ve come a long way in the last four years buddy.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Oh, and Nason is a DuPont paint line. Comperable to the Omni line in PPG.

Thanks for the info on the paint and gun. I think I will go for the HVLP set you recommended. Looks better than the one I have now.

Hello Czechman. Your cab looks nice to me. I like the color. Wanted to tell you I finally got my pictures on DITY. Found a way to do it and wrote it on paper. If you take a loo, when you click on my link be sure and click on "All my Albums." That way you can get all two of them. Put some pictures of my shop and ect on there too. Take care and keep on getting that truck ready. Steven

I scribed a line around where my door hinges mount to the post and drilled a 1/8" hole through the door and hinge strap so mine go back where I want them.

looks great woody, job well done, just keep the pics coming

It does look great
I finally got back to work on mine.
managed to get the hood hinge bolt holes in front of firewall within 3/16 of level without shimming cab mounts.
Unfortunately,moving this affected door hinge and door is not lined up again.
I saw your post on bending hinges for alignment.
Hopefully I will be able to get some movement out of hinges and get closer.
I really want to get to the point you are soon.