My "37 Chevy truck build

[Ian Gibbons]

Rik Hoving wrote:

I like the. Lime gold color on the interior window frame. I always like repeating the exterior color on the inside in some way. The dash, or in this case the window frame. It ties the inside with he outside. Looking forward to see the color clearcoated. Have fun

That was kind of my thinking as well Rik.

Tony wrote:

Call me ignorant, but why did you not clear coat at the time? BTW, the colour looks great.

Two reasons Tony, one I wasn’t sure if I was going to have enough clear as I was using it to mix the paint colour so I didn’t want to clear some and then run out and chance if I can source some more clear and two because it’s lacquer I didn’t want to pile tons of coats on all at once and as there is no recoat window I can simply tack it off and clear it anytime.

[Larry Pointer]

Ahhhh, lacquer.  That “window” with today’s materials puts a huge stress on the home-garage painter.   Pacing progress within capabilities is challenging, for sure.  You’ve got a real fan here, Ian.  Cheers!

[Torchie]

My 2 cents Ian…..

I like the window garnish in Lime gold as well. As stated by both you and Rik I also like to tie in the exterior color to the interior via either the garnish mouldings. The dash or some times the steering wheel.

I miss shooting Lacquer paint as that was what I first learned on way back when. As Larry pointed out It can be much more forgiving then enamels which made it ideal for back yard body shop people. LOL  Now all I shoot is single  stage enamels.

We rarely shot clear over Lacquer (Or clear over enamel for that matter) but then we weren’t going for show type paint jobs.

How are you planning on buffing it out? Or to be less polite…Do you have any experiences using a buffing wheel?

One of my first jobs in the body shop was to buff out cars. I apparently had the “Touch” as it were and never had an issue with rubbing thru the paint. I still have my old buffing wheel. It looks like a 3/4 HP angle grinder with a fleece buffing pad on it.; I can hardly pick the damn thing up now. LOL

Everything looks great including the color. Going to be a one of a kind truck.

Torchie

[Ian Gibbons]

Larry Pointer wrote:

Ahhhh, lacquer. That “window” with today’s materials puts a huge stress on the home-garage painter. Pacing progress within capabilities is challenging, for sure. You’ve got a real fan here, Ian. Cheers!

Thanks Larry I appreciate it! I love spraying the lacquer VERY forgiving. I found a huge flaw in the grill shell after painting it (no idea how I missed it) so I sanded it back fixed it and then sprayed some paint over the area and you can’t even tell I resprayed it. There is no way I could have done that with modern paints with my abilities.

Torchie wrote:

My 2 cents Ian….. I like the window garnish in Lime gold as well. As stated by both you and Rik I also like to tie in the exterior color to the interior via either the garnish mouldings. The dash or some times the steering wheel. I miss shooting Lacquer paint as that was what I first learned on way back when. As Larry pointed out It can be much more forgiving then enamels which made it ideal for back yard body shop people. LOL Now all I shoot is single stage enamels. We rarely shot clear over Lacquer (Or clear over enamel for that matter) but then we weren’t going for show type paint jobs. How are you planning on buffing it out? Or to be less polite…Do you have any experiences using a buffing wheel? One of my first jobs in the body shop was to buff out cars. I apparently had the “Touch” as it were and never had an issue with rubbing thru the paint. I still have my old buffing wheel. It looks like a 3/4 HP angle grinder with a fleece buffing pad on it.; I can hardly pick the damn thing up now. LOL Everything looks great including the color. Going to be a one of a kind truck. Torchie

Thanks for the input Torchie. HAHA the no clear on lacquer paint jobs was kind of my fall back option if I ended up without enough clear but I have pretty much a full gallon so I will give it a go.

I am not sure how I am going to buff it as I have never buffed lacquer before. I do have some experience buffing as we have polishes in our line of products that I have had to demo on occasion but it has usually been single panel basecoat clear coat or fixing scratches on my own or friends vehicles. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I do have an adjustable speed grinder style buffer and various pads. I also have a friend who reps a polish line (Farecla) and I am pretty close with the 3M guy so I can get my hands on a variety of products and pads.

[Torchie]

Ian.

It sounds like between what you have learned so far and advice from your people you will have it all well in hand. lots of new products out there since I made my living working in the body shops.

I used 3m products back in the day for buffing in so far as their rubbing compound and then the swirl mark remover. the rubbing compound was the orange colored liquid that I believe they still sell today. I used to by it buy the gallon and put it in a restaurant style plastic squirt bottle.

My pad was just a fleece style pad as the use of foam backed and other things had not been invented yet. LOL

Same for the type of buffing machines. Mine is  just a large, heavy old Craftsman that looks like an electric angle grinder. One speed only. I also had an air powered one that was really fast but much lighter. That was speed variable depending on how hard you pulled the trigger. Much like a DA

As always the big thing to watch out for is the edges as you can rub thru then very quickly. Same for raised areas such as belt lines. And most would recommend that you always keep you pad totally flat to the surface (but I used to use just the outer edge of my pad at times to get into smaller areas).

You can Hand rub areas that are close to the edges and use the machine for the rest. Truthfully you could hand rub the entire truck if you had the  desire and the stamina. 🙂

Looking forward to seeing the end results as I am sure you are. 🙂 Take pride in the fact that you painted your own custom as some of the best builders I know have always found that a daunting task. And some have never done it.For me it was/is always my favorite part of any build.

Torchie

 

 

[Ian Gibbons]

Thanks for the info Torchie. Is there a prefered grit to colour sand with first? I know back in the day there were not as many options as today but would one need to do the multiple steps 1000  1500  2000, 3000 like are often used/needed today or would just getting it flat with something like 1000 be enough to buff it.

[Tony]

Thanks for the response.

When I (finally) get to paint on my sloper I’m going with lacquer. It’s home friendly (health), has a ‘look’ , it’s cheaper and to be honest, way back I never had any durability issues with it either.

Last lacquer job I did the finest paper was 1200 and that buffed out great with the 3M process. It’s easy enough to hand polish from there too. I suppose if you can use 2000, why not? 3000, maybe a step more than necessary.

[Torchie]

Tony wrote:

Thanks for the response. When I (finally) get to paint on my sloper I’m going with lacquer. It’s home friendly (health), has a ‘look’ , it’s cheaper and to be honest, way back I never had any durability issues with it either. Last lacquer job I did the finest paper was 1200 and that buffed out great with the 3M process. It’s easy enough to hand polish from there too. I suppose if you can use 2000, why not? 3000, maybe a step more than necessary.

I agree with Tony on the 1200. We used to put a little squirt of dish washing soap in the water bucket that we used to wet sand. It seemed to help keep the paper from loading up. And we never used different grades as you would for say primer or prep sanding. A fairly quick sand with 1200  and on to the buffing.

One thing that I have noticed in regards to painting now vs when I learned. Back then I was taught to flow it out as wet as possible. Lacquer as well as Enamel. See that was enamels big selling point. We sprayed it wet and then there was no buffing. Less time= less labor=More profits. And with Lacquer even though we sprayed it wet when you sanded and buffed it took the “New shine” look off of it and gave it what I call a softer shine.

I used to judge my flow by looking at the reflection of my wrist watch (Remember those old things. LOL) in the wet paint. The clearer the reflection the better the finished job.

Tony’s remark about lacquer being cheaper is interesting as around where I live Lacquer is really pricey if you can find it. And the reason that I shoot single stage enamel without clear coat is that after I have sanded and buffed it it looks very reminiscent of old style Lacquer. At least to my eye. I also have never had any problems with Lacquers durability same as Tony mentioned.

Torchie

[Tony]

While we’re on the  subject, I’ve never used lacquer with an HVLP gun….anything to consider? Last time I looked the paint folks tech sheets addressed differing psi.

[Larry Pointer]

Can’t say enough good about the value of the CCC threads.  Torchie, you are an “old school” treasure.  For younger enthusiasts to access the experiences and hard-learned tricks of a trade that today’s technology is replacing?  Priceless.  Tony, Quentin, and others, too.  Not to overlook the artistic eye of our Rik Hoving!   And over the various threads, the sharing and encouragement really is gratifying to see.  Ian, when we see your project come to life, it gives us old guys great pleasure, as does the work of Palle, Ken, Kyle and others who carry forward the torch of traditional custom car art expression.  Long live the CCC.

[Ian Gibbons]

Thanks again for the advise guys. Tony I used an HVLP gun (Devilbiss Techna) for my paint job. I worked well for me just set up as recommended for basecoat not that I would know any better. 🙂

[Torchie]

Tony wrote:

While we’re on the subject, I’ve never used lacquer with an HVLP gun….anything to consider? Last time I looked the paint folks tech sheets addressed differing psi.

Ian Gibbons wrote:

 

Thanks again for the advise guys. Tony I used an HVLP gun (Devilbiss Techna) for my paint job. I worked well for me just set up as recommended for basecoat not that I would know any better.

 

I have 4 paint guns that I have used over the years. One is an old Devilbiss. 2 are Binks and the last is a Craftsman that I use to shoot primer with only. I also have a friends HVLP gun hanging around which I have used but only in conjunction with my standard compressor. Not a HVLP compressor.

I have found that to me there is no real difference between between the way  my old guns shoot paint or the new HVLP. Regardless of the paint type I used. I may have used slightly less air pressure with the HVLP.

I have always shot paint at lower air pressure that was advocated on the paint can. And I always adjust my air pressure based on  my mixture  as well Being that I’m not real big on mixing a lot of paint all at once. I do enough to fill the gun and do more as needed even if I am doing a complete paint job on a car.

The biggest difference I noticed was the balance of the gun in my hand with the paint cannister on top vs the bottom feed suction type gun. But it didn’t take that long to get used to that.

Like most things. People develop a method that works for them. My advice is just based on what has worked for me. My gun movement speed (Coating sweeps) tends to be slower then what most people expect..( At least that’s what I been told) And for some reason I like to have the radio on playing music  when I paint.LOL

Torchie

 

[Ian Gibbons]

Torchie your paint mixing program sounds very similar to the one I used including the radio :). I mixed up a quart of reduced lime colour and a quart of reduced clear with the gold powder in it. I then mixed 300ml of the lime and 150ml of the gold mixture into the paint cup and than ended up being about 2/3 of the paint cup. I used disposable paint cups with my gun which made mixing the paint super easy as they are graduated like a regular mixing cup. I sprayed that and then remixed the two parts. I sprayed until I ran out of the gold mixture (usually that was two quarts of the gold) because the gold powder oxidized in the clear if I left it for any extended time and turned green.

Oh and I finished off the last few pieces this morning.

[Dave (a.k.a. rodncustomdreams)]

Ian, I’m sure pleased to see that you appear to be enjoying the painting process far better this time around.  You deserve the good results you seem to have experienced with this go-’round!  The truck will be bitchin’ – of that I have no doubt!

And, although I have painted precious few cars, I enjoy reading the experience and knowledgeable assistance offered here.  You never know when someone else will need it (perhaps even me again one day..).   ;-D

Dave

Jus' creepin' along..

[Ian Gibbons]

Thanks Dave!

Started spraying some clear today.

[Author]

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