Roadster pickup getting closer

Paul; First of all, I apologize for not getting your Billetproof shirt shipped out yet.:o The girl we had at work who did that stuff for me is gone, and I can never get out of work on time to hit UPS. I'm working on it.....sorry.

Yeah, what's going on with your '46? After all, I was nice enough to get all those old parts out of your way to give you some space. :LOL: We want updates. Funny how life gets in the way of this stuff, huh?:)

As for our progress, it has also been one step ahead and two back, it seems. Even simple stuff is slowing us down. For example, TWR is on national backorder on the L2323F30 pistons we wanted........NO TARGET DATE. I've called Summit, Jegs, PAW, Mondello, etc....no good anywhere. But last night I had a thought, I found Jegs has 40 over pistons in stock, so I am going to have the machine shop bore the block 10 more thousandths. Just what Dan needed, a few more cubic inches. :eek:

Boxes have been showing up here at work, the gaskets, and some other parts are here already, and the cam and new pistons should be here by Friday. Now we just have to find time to get the block to the machine shop. Working 5 days a week sure cramps my style on having the time to run around and do errands.:3dSMILE:

Don

Hey Don,

No biggie - I figure it'll arrive when it arrives ...... I'll thank you just the same - very much.

Works been a bitch & I'm moving on so progres is slower than I want. I also changed a bit of the frame design support pieces & that too has slowed it.

Updates & upgrades soon.

Paul

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Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Did you really, Earl? That's very cool. The Nitti roadster was one of my all time favorites, as it is for most people. Just in case anyone doesn't know about that car, here are some shots.

One thing I like about these forums is that you get to rub elbows with people who have done great stuff, like you doing that wiring. :):)

Don

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http://www.streetrodderweb.com/miles...ter/index.html

The above is the write up. When you read it I'm the guy "And with time running short...." I wired it during Christmas week (and day).

Earl

Thought I better post a little update, no picture worthy stuff, but progress nonetheless. We got all the paint stripped off the engine and Monday of this week Dan took the heads and block to the machine shop for it's second machining. Funny to have a motor remachined that never was started, but it was the only way we could get it right........plus it has to go 10 thousandths more over to fit the new pistons we bought. Engine should be back from the machine shop this Friday hopefully, and Sunday we are going to start putting it together.

Parts have been showing up too, looks like Xmas on our dining room table. :) New pistons, rings, bearings, gaskets, etc. Also bumped up to a little hotter cam, a Comp Cam H280. That and the higher compression pistons should help a little. We are also having the previously rebuilt heads milled a little........looks like Premium gas is in Dan's future.

Dan also got his dummy brake lines run, we picked up a bunch of regular steel lines at the auto store and he cut and fitted them to the car. Then he measured them and ordered stainless lines in those lengths. We'll bend those up to the shapes of the dummy lines when they come.

He thinks the engine will be gold and the rest of the car gloss black. Not the same gold as on mine, but lighter. We are shooting for fireup about this time next month. Still a lot to do, but getting closer.:D When the engine starts to go together I'll post some pictures.

Don

Hi Don. Chrysler had a color called Inca Gold that they used on PT Cruisers back in 2002 -03 (they may have used it on other vehicles in other years, too). It almost looks like a candy color. Have Dan take a look at that.:3dSMILE: If that's not unique enough, here's an idea - Years ago, custom painter Bob Keeney (Bikini Studios - Indianapolis, IN) did the block and heads of his '27 T roadster with varigated gold leaf!:eek: Talk about a standout engine! Wish I had a picture...:rolleyes:

Jim, we've actually looked at that PT Cruiser color........you're right, it's a nice one. He has also looked at a House of Colors gold, I forget what he said the name was, but it has some flake in it. It is a two stage, but that's ok, we can shoot single or base coat clear coat on the motor with no major differences.

Like most cars, he won't really know until he walks in the paint store and lays down his money. Every time I do one I bounce from color to color until that very last day...........it's the hardest decision to make regarding a car. :confused:

Don

Don was that a metalic gold that almost has a green tinge to it when it reflects in sunlight? A friend of ours was given a special edition PT cruiser by his late wife, for his 50th birthday. Very unique and cool color.

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Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Like most cars, he won't really know until he walks in the paint store and lays down his money. Every time I do one I bounce from color to color until that very last day
Don

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How true! After considering several shades of Red, a dark metallic Purple and '72 Dodge Challenger sublime Green, I settled on Cream and Orange for my coupe.:) Somehow I came home with Cream and Electric Lime Green!:whacked: I guess it worked out OK, though. I've had people follow me for miles just to find out what the colors are...:rolleyes::LOL::LOL:

Don i have followed this thread on the HAMB and its looking great, Awesome thread.

Steve, yep, I think we are talking about the same color. It seems to do what you describe from what I remember.

Jim, and look how well that color choice worked out for you. That was one of the things I really first noticed about your coupe, it was different from the pack..........a good different.

Steve, thanks. We were just discussing your green flake roadster the other night as we were sitting in our pondering chairs kicking paint jobs around. If we had your talents for painting or had a capable shop in this area, we would do a flake job on it for sure. But here in Ft Myers we don't exactly have an abundance of good painters to draw from. :(

Don

Don,
I'll bet you and Dan could it yourselves. You certainly know how to paint and all the guys around here that are profesionals that would help walk you threw it, if you run into trouble. I think you should flake it :3dSMILE:

Wow, Steve nice roadster!
Ken

Don - I agree with Ken. You do need a good gun and a get wee bit of experience with 'flake, but it shouldn't be insurmountable with such a small body. Since you did your own assembly of that Brookville body, you shouldn't run into as many of same quality problems that I had with the metalwork though there will be some dings that a bit of Rage and/or polyester primer wont cure. Even with my needing to buy a good gun, paint and other materials and a bunch of mistakes, I still saved about $12K:eek:

Epoxy primer
Rage filler/poly primer
2K primer
Paint

and that's all it is (sandpaper/wax and grease remover, reducers, tape as well

As far as flake - maybe your local paint supplier has some "goof" paint to practice with. I got a pint of some sort of DuPont blue flake for free and did some practice shots - then ended up with that '08 up Saleen/GT Mustang Venetian Orange - which has some pearl.

I agree with Ken & Dave; you guys could do it! I did some flake on motorcycles back in the '70's when we were using lacquer. It was labor intensive, but not overly difficult. I've never tried it with modern urethanes, but I don't think it would be terribly worse from a labor standpoint... Anyway, there are a couple of guys on here who can probably get you through it without much "blood loss"...:D

Hey, did you guys just call me a "FLAKE"? :LOL::LOL: Thanks for the vote of confidence, but without a booth it is really hard to turn out nice paint work. I know I saw Steve (Roadster 32) had plastic draped into a pretty effective booth when he did the green flake, but here in Florida if you can go 2 minutes without some insect finding his way into your wet paint you are living right. Plus, I really am not up for all that spraying, sanding, and buffing.........old age is catching up with me it seems.:(

Now that I think about it, weren't you the same group who talked us into powdercoating and buying a Brookville body in 300 pieces???? :LOL::LOL: (and we thank you every day for those suggestions :))

Don

yea, maybe you are right :LOL: But we got you thinking huh? :D
Ken

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Originally Posted by Ken Thurm

yea, maybe you are right :LOL: But we got you thinking huh? :D
Ken

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Yes, but you realize I have to nap for a while after doing that, don't you?? :p:LOL:

Don

Don,
Here's my plastic single use booth. It's gone now, but for about $50 plus another $120 for the fan, you too can have your own paint booth.:LOL::LOL:

http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/sho...=29683&page=14

I have better photos but they're on my other computer's hard drive - maybe tomorrow I'll post 'em

Come on Guy's we know Don doesn't have the talent to do that (way to make his head swell)...........LOL. All you have to do is look at the pink frame....LOL
Sorry Don had to do it............LOL
BradC

On my finances, there's no question about who is going to paint my cars; paying someone else to paint my stuff is out of the question:rolleyes: (unless I pay the neighborhood kids to do it with house paint and a brush:LOL:). My paint booth is my garage. I just cover up the stuff I don't want dusted with overspray, wet the floor, and go to it.:HMMM: Here's a pic of my coupe when I was painting it 3 years ago. If you look close in the lower left, you can see one of the fans under the garage door (I use 2). Bugs usually aren't a problem if you do your spraying during daylight.;) At night they are attracted to the lights in the garage.:mad:

I just did some priming today out in the garage. I will be painting it there too, same way Jim suggested. I have found that if you get at it early in the morning on days like today when it`s nice and cool before the heat and humidity hits then it works out . But the bugs were killing me tonight!

You got my vote of confidence Don!!

....and another showing my "pro level" booth

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...d/painted1.jpg

....and the filter system

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...d/Booth2-1.jpg

....and the fan. I needed to add a baffle to redirect the air out flow:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...d/Booth3-1.jpg

As far as overspray on the floor, I misted everything with water to hold any errant dust down and had very little in my paint, most of which probably came off my shoot suit or mask.

Oh yeah, I also have a nice fresh air breathing system that I'll be selling soon - and you really need that with many paints - like epoxy and clears.

Spray guns - lots of good ones, but my favorite - an Iwata LPH 400, low pressure and air consumption which means little overspray. Don't use the Harbor Freight 'purple' gun unless you like the surrounding area the same color you are painting :CRY::LOL:

hey them booth s work good i painted many cars in booth like that . i have painted many cars . the shops i work at over the years never few had a pro booth .alot of them were just dry wall clean rooms with filters in one end and a fan in the other.how you prep of the parts and you the air hose is were you see alot of the dirt as well as to much air movement junk out of the gun is a big deal to having a clean out side of the gun to i had a old tack rag i wipe the first 3 feet of the air hose and cleaned the cup evey time i fiiled it with paint. i painted cars planes boat trucks etc in every place you can think of alot of them came out very good first off it to be dust free in all joints and seam s the day before i would wash them if i could and blow them dry wash the room out pull the car in tape off before paint wet the floor pre clean the car tack off ever thing and go to it

Looks like we're "braggin' up" our home paint boothes. Here's my heated (when the sun shines here, both days per year:rolleyes:) "booth". Air flow is pretty good though.

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Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Looks like we're "braggin' up" our home paint boothes. Here's my heated (when the sun shines here, both days per year:rolleyes:) "booth". Air flow is pretty good though.

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I actually have a small parts "booth" as well under the back porch where I park my tractor that is quite similar. I share it with a couple of blue jays, a nesting robin family, a flock of goldfinches and 2 chipmunks that tend to cuss me out when I paint there:LOL::LOL: I was able to chase the white striped pussy cat away though.

Don,
I once made a spray booth in my garage out of some heavy tarps from a Army surplus store and some house filterers from the furnace and a fan that pulled the air threw the filterers. It kept all the bugs out and by wetting down the tarps and floor I got very little dust. When I didn't need it I just folded it up and put it outside in a storage shed. Just a thought.
Ken


IC2- Sorry I didn't see your post.
Brain Dead

Since we've deviated to the home paint booth, and I'm still on the fence about trying to paint the truck myself, Have any of you used a portable car canopy to use as a paint booth? My problem is the truck leaves about 6 inches room in front and back when parked in the garage making it very difficult to get around it not to mention no clearance on the driver's side. So I was thinkng of using one of those outdoor portable garages to have more space to move around I'm just not sure how much room on each side I would need. For that matter I could build a frame out of scrap wood and use visquene plastic for the sides. My biggest worry is actually how to spray the paint, how much to use and the whole process of sanding and buffing. I wish there was a paint for dummies book for cars!

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Originally Posted by stovens

Since we've deviated to the home paint booth, and I'm still on the fence about trying to paint the truck myself, Have any of you used a portable car canopy to use as a paint booth? My problem is the truck leaves about 6 inches room in front and back when parked in the garage making it very difficult to get around it not to mention no clearance on the driver's side. So I was thinkng of using one of those outdoor portable garages to have more space to move around I'm just not sure how much room on each side I would need. For that matter I could build a frame out of scrap wood and use visquene plastic for the sides. My biggest worry is actually how to spray the paint, how much to use and the whole process of sanding and buffing. I wish there was a paint for dummies book for cars!

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Steve - you need at least 3 and better 5-6 feet all the way around a vehicle to be able to walk and operate the gun successfully while attached to an unyielding air hose while you are dressed in a shoot suit and at a minimum wearing a carbon filter mask. Can you get by with less, yep, and some will say that they did, but what did the paint look like?

As far as building an outside booth, with wood and poly plastic - works fine, but it does have to be strong enough to withstand any wind lifting or ballooning the sides and kicking the dust off and keep out any breeze blown crud.

Books for "dummies" - there are a couple of pretty good ones. I'll see if I can round up my favorites and take a picture and forward later.

It really isn't difficult, just requires patience and GOOD materials. I have my preferences, as do many others and for sure am no more then an amateur painter. I tried low end sand paper, now only Norton(fave) or 3M. Epoxy primer, SPI(fave) or DuPont/PPG. Filler - only Evercoat Rage or Rage Gold. Base coat, DuPont (fave) or PPG/HOK/Sherwin Williams. Clear coat, SPI or DuPont also the others listed for base Spray gun, Iwata (fave) also Sata/DeVillbiss and others and so on. You develop a preference to what works for you, not necessarily what someone suggests. Regardless, pro level paint IS NOT cheap. Mine is listed for ~$650+/gallon and I needed 7 quarts (I have about 1.5 left to paint my hood side panels) plus reducers. Regardless, I still figured I saved over $12K by doing it myself even after buying everything.

When I worked at the body shop a few years ago, we had an excellent downdraft spray booth, but we still got tons of dirt in the paint jobs. Our detail girl would wet sand and buff them out and saved the painters tails a bunch of times. I have lost track of her, but would like to get her to buff out Dan's RPU when we do have it painted, she was topnotch.

As for home spray booths, here is mine. :p I have no idea why I get a bug in there occasionally. :LOL:

Don

Don

here is my old booth at my shop i painted alot of cars and trucks in it and a 1000 indy rim as well as other rims my gtos were painted in this both you can see my small fan by the wall i did not get very much dirt here at my shop, but one the two shops i work at we allways did get some dirt every thing was a cut and buff .there was a time i was painting cars and planes out of 3 shops oh yes the good old days

I find having the right temp is one of the most important things. for flake work i found that natural air drying to be better than force drying as it allows the flake to drop.

I line my workshop with thin plastic which is sold here under the name of Polymask, its sided and is marked this side out, paint sticks to it and never comes off, Its almost transparent so can be put in front of the lights so keeping them clean.
I use a heavier plastic on the floor and every edge is stuck down with masking tape, takes a while to do but well worth it, heres a pic



http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...ENOLACQUER.jpg

Roadster32 nice work. I like the candy apple metal flake. It has that 60's early 70's retro look. You make painting it look simple, but I know better. Again, nice work and welcome to CHR.

Cheers Steve, from another Steve :LOL:

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Originally Posted by stovens

Roadster32 nice work. I like the candy apple metal flake. It has that 60's early 70's retro look. You make painting it look simple, but I know better. Again, nice work and welcome to CHR.

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nice flake job!!
I love that green

Don, wake up any updates........LOL
BradC

Well, it's 7AM and Dan and I just got in from the shop.:eek: We haven't pulled an all nighter for a while. We got his engine and transmission painted and should be able to start assembling it later today.........much later.:) Right now we are going to crash for a while and tonight I'll post some pictures.

Thanks for asking...........can't remember last time I was this tired or this sore.

Don

Don, I stand corrected go to bed........LOL
BradC

Wow, can't remember the last time I slept til 2 PM. :eek: Dan is still sleeping, may make it in time for supper.:LOL:

We worked with Imron for the first time last night and like it a lot. We sprayed everything gloss black and they look great........at least through blurry eyes at 6:30 AM when we wrapped up. Dan found the blackest black I have ever seen, it is 1950 Chrysler black. Couldn't get the stuff to run and we laid on some very wet coats.

I'll post some pictures if I can get Sleeping Beauty up in time to go over there.

Don

Good afternoon Don! I'm right there with you still sipping on my coffee. Then off to work in the hour!

Glad to see someone else gets to sleep in Steve. Sorry that you have to head to work though.:)

We didn't make huge progress today, mainly because we were still tired, and also the paint was dry, but we wanted to let it cure a few more days before we start handling it. Dan got the brake lines run in the front section of the frame so that the engine wouldn't be in his way to lay them out. Now the motor can go in for the final time (I hope:rolleyes:).

Dan also spent the day polishing some of the aluminum engine parts. They are all new, but sitting around for 3-4 years dulled them a little, but buffing them is bringing them back. They should look pretty good against the all black engine.

Me, I spent the day napping in the shop office. Cranked up the a/c and slept for a few hours. Yesterday really took it's toll on me, and tomorrow it's back to work.:( Anyway, here are a few pictures of the engine and other parts, and also the stainless brake lines run in the front.

Don

It's looking great Don. Kurt