Build 1st FJ40, '76 - SMOKEY - Puttin’ her Back Together

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Jdc1 said:
VV, Congrats on dropping the frame off to be coated. It is awesome assembling clean parts. It is great knowing that once assembled, they are there for good. I have as much time lately just staring at my brand new chassis as I do working on it.

We recently purchased a Devilbiss starting line 2 gun kit. Epoxy primer is surprising easy to spray. The hardest part was completely cleaning the gun after use.
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I've been considering one of these temporary garage type structures to use as a paint booth for primer, and for the body work and perhaps storage long term. About $350, and my brother in law has his fancy Audi R8 stored in one.
 
Maybe one of the body gurus will chime in but, from what I have read, primer will be sanded anyways so you do not have to be as meticulous about airborne dust and particles as the finish coat. @Irish11 did all of the prep and had maaco spray the final finish and his looks great. Is @Rainman 's body guy available?
 
Jdc1 said:
Maybe one of the body gurus will chime in but, from what I have read, primer will be sanded anyways so you do not have to be as meticulous about airborne dust and particles as the finish coat. @Irish11 did all of the prep and had maaco spray the final finish and his looks great. Is @Rainman 's body guy available?
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He might be - Rainman and I have discussed using him. I'm exploring a couple of guys that do more painting.
 
I found and met with a good painter here in town yesterday. Here is what he said.

I will Repair all the metal first. Then take it to be blasted and have a powder coat primer. He has worked with the same guy I have powder coating the frame right now.

Send it to him at that point and let him skim and paint. He asked if I wanted him to assemble the panels and fix all the gaps. I basically said no - I'll do that, plus it's a Land Cruiser.

He wants to do base and clear coat.

I said "how much" and he said $10K minimum. Whew.

I'm thinking to do single stage paint - allowing me to use the original Spring Green paint, plus it will cut down on the paint labor a bit.
 
If you have a place to do it, you could throw up a temporary paint booth, out of 2x4s and 6mil plastic, and buy your own equipment and paint and paint it yourself.

Edit: if you don't have a place, you can probably rent the use of someone's land to put up a temp booth. You may need a generator, but you can buy one out of your savings... Or, rent one.

I hate painting and have no patience for it, but I'd paint it myself before I laid out $10k to have it painted.

There's a paint forum on MUD and some great guys that can mentor you: Ron (@scrapdaddy ) immediately comes to mind. I think Peter (@Bambi Girl ) painted his as well.

Not my business, but I can tell you don't want to pay $10k... Check the paint forum... You may even find a painter...

Good luck!
 
Damn, if ever you needed DIY motivation, this is it. I refurbed a Bimmer years ago. Stripped the body, prepped and shot it in my garage. Came out great. Nice thing about the 40 is if you mess up the hood or doors, sand the Boo boo and shoot it again. I vote DIY!
 
I did my 62 myself and it came out like crap, but I know why. It's all in the prep work.
 
Solace in Solitude said:
Not my business, but I can tell you don't want to pay $10k... Check the paint forum... You may even find a painter...

Good luck!
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TheHardWay said:
Damn, if ever you needed DIY motivation, this is it. ... I vote DIY!
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Dang straight! This is one reason why I bought the big $$$$ Quincy compressor and ran copper lines to it - so I had the tools to do some of this myself.

My biggest issue is a place to paint it. My goal 3 years ago was to have a new building by now dedicated to shop space. I have considered buying a $350 "portable garage" and making it the paint booth, but I keep talking myself out of it. I haven't even run it past the princess yet. My garage is our daily house entrance - paint in there is a non-starter.
 
Vae Victus said:
Dang straight! This is one reason why I bought the big $$$$ Quincy compressor and ran copper lines to it - so I had the tools to do some of this myself.

My biggest issue is a place to paint it. My goal 3 years ago was to have a new building by now dedicated to shop space. I have considered buying a $350 "portable garage" and making it the paint booth, but I keep talking myself out of it. I haven't even run it past the princess yet. My garage is our daily house entrance - paint in there is a non-starter.
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Start with post #774

prior to this I was giving him grief about how to blend paint into your yard.... yet this guy, does show-quality work and paints outside.
 
Vv, our local vocational school has auto body classes for a few hundred dollars that gives students access to their booth.

If you have one close it might be an option or for a small donation (lunch) the instructors would use Smokey as a teaching project with your supervision. Many hands would make quick work.
 
Vae Victus said:
What was wrong with your prep?
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Not enough sanding of the original paint, and as we put each coat on including clear we didn't wet sand each coat smooth enough. This led to exponential orange peel.

Also you aren't going to have this issue but we didn't remove any glass of the doors.

And as for the rust we just filled it with bondo. I am "that" PO.
 
cruisermatt said:
Not enough sanding of the original paint, and as we put each coat on including clear we didn't wet sand each coat smooth enough. This led to exponential orange peel.

Also you aren't going to have this issue but we didn't remove any glass of the doors.

And as for the rust we just filled it with bondo. I am "that" PO.
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Ah, well, that's valuable to learn what NOT to do, right?

My local painting mentor has been radio silent in the past couple months. I need to call him and make sure he is ok.
 
alabamatacomaguy said:
Spent around half the day reading through your thread. Thought we could be best friends until I saw the auburn fan part.... We can talk in December I guess (i didn't watch the iron bowl this year and still haven't seen the game or highlights knowing ahead of time auburn would win by a hair and by dumb luck esp after that ga game), and I've been to probably 50% of home and away games of bama for more than the last decade.

I'm actually having to force myself away from football for a while, I keep telling myself not to get so bent out of shape for something I can't control so this year I have blacked out Espn and all of my bama sites and recruiting junk to make me focus on other things. ... I could not sleep a full night for weeks after that cam comeback.... I still can't stand him or think about that game, hence why i didn't watch this years and never will .

Anyway back to 40s your threads have been great to read and I relate to you some with not being a professional mechanic and working on the 40 between life and work when the moons align the right way,(work for family owned business with 6 locations and 3 more coming within 24 months across two states doesn't leave much cruiser time). I'm lucky if my workday is less than 10 hours and Sundays working 8 hours feels like a half day but life is good, though lately I have to watch myself or "just 5 minutes" will turn into a few hours on mud. People saying owning your own business and being your own boss sounds great... Thousands of customers are my boss with new ones coming in everyday if things are going good, what are those dreamers talking about, I'm sure you know more than me about pleasing customers in the food industry I don't envy you in that cutthroat environment where only the strongest of the strong survive.

I don't know why but your paper towels stuck with me.
I save paper towels as well for my projects, I quit buying at them at home probably going off of how they disappear at our stores so fast ,they usually get wasted or stolen from us enough to go through two of the SAMs club boxes a month at each location.

I've been looking at some of those things like the harbor freight media blaster or the Eastwood bucket gun. Like you until I get a garage or workshop I am limited on tools I can use, but in the hopefully short future a home shop full of Toyota projects is in the works.

Anyways I am way off topic on my post but I really enjoyed reading through your thread and your 40 adventure. Thanks for posting the details


...via IH8MUD app
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It's been over a year. What's new with you - have a project yet?

War Eagle.
 
Ok, so I need to start replacing sheet metal all over the truck. There are prob a dozen small square holes that range between 4x4 and 2x2, plus a hundred (ok, couple dozen) pinholes to fill with a MIG gun, as well as both front floor pans.

I own the passenger (gas tank) side floor pan already, but will need to buy the other floor pan.

My question: for the small replacement panels, what gauge steel am I getting? 16, 14?
 
I have a note in my Body info tab that factory gauge for the '77 is 16.
 
I think the 78 and older trucks were 16 gauge, 79 and up got thinner metal, to 18 gauge I'm pretty sure.
 
Hi VV
Just updating myself on your thread.
A few things .
Here in Australia you won't get much of a paint and panel job under $10,000 . So that price sounds ok to me.

In reading your thread I sense " will I "or "won't I " have a go at this painting stuff?
Is two pac the go or do I choose single?

Have you thought of buying a semi reasonable spray gun gravity feed about $100.00 . Well that's what we would have to pay.
Next.
Get your self a small amount of two pack primer and reducer. Don't forget to get the mixing pot . Cheap $0.50 each throwaway job use once . The mixing pot have the ratio of your mix marked on the pot and the man selling the paint will tell you the mixing ratio .
Prepare your panel first by wiping with grease and wax remover then spray panel at 40psi or a little greater and have a go.
To clean the gun I got good tips from a YouTube site follow this guy and so easy.
YouTube is also a good place to get how to hold the spray gun tips.
Forget the single pack that's old hat.
If all the above fails you will need to turn back to the painter idea.
I have said this before the panel work on my forty was most enjoyable and I was a little sad when this part of the build had finished.
Good luck
Cheers Peter



...via IH8MUD app
 
Bambi Girl said:
Hi VV
Just updating myself on your thread.
A few things .
Here in Australia you won't get much of a paint and panel job under $10,000 . So that price sounds ok to me.

In reading your thread I sense " will I "or "won't I " have a go at this painting stuff?
Is two pac the go or do I choose single?

Have you thought of buying a semi reasonable spray gun gravity feed about $100.00 . Well that's what we would have to pay.
Next.
Get your self a small amount of two pack primer and reducer. Don't forget to get the mixing pot . Cheap $0.50 each throwaway job use once . The mixing pot have the ratio of your mix marked on the pot and the man selling the paint will tell you the mixing ratio .
Prepare your panel first by wiping with grease and wax remover then spray panel at 40psi or a little greater and have a go.
To clean the gun I got good tips from a YouTube site follow this guy and so easy.
YouTube is also a good place to get how to hold the spray gun tips.
Forget the single pack that's old hat.
If all the above fails you will need to turn back to the painter idea.
I have said this before the panel work on my forty was most enjoyable and I was a little sad when this part of the build had finished.
Good luck
Cheers Peter

...via IH8MUD app
Click to expand...

Oh believe me, I've done a lot of reading and research on HLPV guns, paint, prep, etc. I've already bought the DA sander, and would love to give it a go. I have had several paint guns in the "shopping cart" but haven't consummated the deal.

I just can't quite figure out how to create an acceptable paint booth that my wife would not give me grief about daily, even if it was temporary.
 
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