BJ60 to HJ61 Body swap...the five year plan turned right now plan!

[PeeZed]

Tonight I got out the HVLP gun and went for it on a few parts. From the videos I've watched online it seems that my paint is coming out more like glue than paint! It did say store in a "cool place" so I've just left it in the shop, but maybe I'll leave it in my slightly heated office in the shop instead and see if it makes a difference. It also says to not thin the paint, but the lady at Covlerdale said that 10% was the max I "could" thin it if I really wanted. Maybe I'll try that if bringing the temp up a bit doesn't help.

Oh, and the first round I had the bleeder on the top of the gun closed (I think). Not sure if that's supposed to be open or closed. I opened it on round two and didn't seem to make any difference that I could see/feel.

Anyways, it seems to be coming out really slow and low volume, leaving the orange peel type finish. If I put enough on it began to self level and I don't think I had any runs, so maybe I'm just needing to get the feel of it. My brain is thinking rattle can volume, but I'd say I was getting about half that, so I really had to slow things down to get decent coverage. We'll see what it looks like in the morning after curing overnight I suppose.

I'm just painting the parts that I thought would either be easy to sand out or are hidden/inner parts.

Also took the hood liner off and re-seam sealed all the OEM spots as every single one had pulled away. That should reduce rattling a bit! Gonna have to hit up Lordco for some new liner push button supports though...

And I changed my mind about the black brackets...I figured that I'm going to have to seam seal them once I re-fit all the doors and such, and I'd like to paint the sealer once it's applied, so having black brackets and grey doors and light grey sealant wouldn't "blend" well so I'll just paint it all the new grey!

Stopped in at Cloverdale Paint and they can make me up Aerosol cans with my paint match for $16ea, so I think I'll get a couple of those made up for easy touchups in the future or hard to get to places with an HVLP.

Anywho...first round of pics below...suggestions/recommendations are always welcome. I'm already thinking of how I would do things differently next time! Oh, yeah, it's very grey...and different light gives it a very different shade, so it will be interesting to see what the cured and sitting in the daylight color actually looks like. But yeah, grey...very grey.

Cheers!

 

[slowandsteady BJ]

Pretty rewarding eh? It always feels good when the paint hits the panels.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Very nice Paul; must feel really nice to get the paint on. I'm by no means an expert with painting, but I think a lot of paints do need to be thinned before being sprayed. Did you look into that at all for that particular paint? Also, not sure how ambient temp plays into it? Was it cold in your shop?

 

[PeeZed]

GTS...yeah, the MSDS sheet online says in regards to thinning, "Use as supplied" and somewhere else I read that it does not require thinning. My shop temp was definitely not the 25degrees it suggests, but it was at least above 18 and I had a diesel heater blowing towards the surfaces just before blasting them. Obviously not an ideal setup, but this is also not automotive paint either.

I'm just trying to figure out what the happy place is.
- General temps of area, metal, paint.
- Tip size of HVLP (currently a 1.4)
- Air pressure (currently getting about 24psi at the tip). I could probably get that up by removing some lengths of hose in the shop and/or adjusting the actual compressor settings.

I looked this morning and the tailgate panel looks a bit rough (to touch) so I might wet sand that, and the upper hatch looks a bit orange peelie, so both are different. But the hood looks great and the brackets also came out very acceptable.

I might just have to go slower and potentially risk runs. The coverage is super great as you can see how the 4 colors of the tailgate completely disappeared with just one coat!

I'm going to chat with my painter friend this afternoon and make any adjustments that he recommends and give 'er another go tonight and see what happens. I may even get to the inner doors and pillars on the body as well

 

[wombat]

The little bit of painting i have done lately i would say your paint was too cold and would thin it out. Two thin coats are better than one thick coat.
To avoid runs i would paint all loose parts laying flat rather than hanging up so parts like a hood do the underside one day then the top side the next day. Things like hinges spray them hanging up then come back to them after 15 min and dab the drips if there any with a foam brush.

 

[PeeZed]

Thanks Wombat. I've put the paint in my office and won't get to painting again until tomorrow evening so that will give it almost 24hrs to warm up a bit. I'll see if there's a difference then.

Also, I adjusted the fan width on the HVLP and it really helped for volume but still had to do two passes and the width is only 2-3" so it's still not ideal I don't think.

I sprayed the inner door jams and they turned out half decent so here's hoping by the time it gets to places that actually matter I'll have things figured out!

 

[Diesel Cruiserman]

Hey looking good man...

There is recommended thinning and then there is what works thinning..

I found with this product, you have to over thin it a fair bit. And get the place pretty warm and spray with a little more pressure to get it to lay down nice and smooth. Use the biggest tip on your HVLP that comes in the kits.

Cheers.
Rob

 

[PeeZed]

Thanks Rob!

My gun only came with a 1.4 tip. I'm having my painter friend come over tonight so hopefully he will be able to get the balance right with thinning. I'll blast some heat in the shop area but the main doors have huge gaps so the heat leaves fairly quickly. Worst case scenario is that I have to wait until it warms up (spring) before wet sanding and giving the whole thing another final coat.

 

[PeeZed]

So my painter friend came over tonight and confirmed my suspicions...it looks like crap. And by crap I mean compared to a professional job as there is heavy orange peel at best and very rough finish at worst. Looks like I'll be doing some sanding and then figuring out if warming up the paint and thinning it around 15% will help to get the volume and fan width necessary to get it to lay flat and smooth.

At the end of the day the truck will be very well sealed and protected for (hopefully) a few years. If I can spend a bit more time doing better prep and getting the gun to cooperate then I might actually appreciate the finish top coats too.

I'm going to be working on taking the Camo Rig apart for the next week as well (except a few days for family stuff), so if anyone is bored and wants to wrench on stuff just let me know

 

[PeeZed]

Tried thinning 20% tonight. Looks MUCH better. Now to wait until the already painted pieces cure enough so I can sand them down smooth and reapply a couple new coats. Sigh...

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Tried thinning 20% tonight. Looks MUCH better. Now to wait until the already painted pieces cure enough so I can sand them down smooth and reapply a couple new coats. Sigh...

Nice, that's good news. Hey, on the bright side, it'll be that much more west coast pin striping it can withstand! I've come to realize over the years that as long as I'm learning from my mistakes and gaining new experience, it's all well worth it.

 

[PeeZed]

Ya Nick, totally...first branch is gonna be super lame and head hung low and then it'll be like "whatev's" for the next ten years with rattle can touchups all the way

 

[PeeZed]

So yeah, thinning 20% is getting much better results. I've come to terms with the fact that this won't look like a pro job, and perhaps once the weather is warmer/dryer I can cut wax it and then if it doesn't turn out I can throw a few new coats on top and see how that turns out.

I'm not super happy with the color to be honest. In the store and on the can it looked much darker. Oh well, it will be sealed up and have a good base to add to in the future

So, here's a pic of what it's starting to look like at 20% thinned paint...

AND...I figured today would be a good day to start ripping into the Camo Cruiser. 16 hrs later and it's essentially ready to have the body lifted off...just have to remember to disconnect the fuel lines at the back. And yeah, after reviewing videos online and "learning" from the first windshield I removed on the HJ61 (which may or may not have cracked into a bazillion highways), I proceeded to remove my Camo Cruiser windshield today and about 3/4 the way through I cracked it...so yeah, anyone got a decent 60 series windshield for sale???

And here's a few reasons why this restoration is actually happening! And oh, yeah, if you see it in a picture on one side of the vehicle, just assume it's also on the other side...only allowed to post 20pics at a time...sorry

And this is what half of the body mount bolts looked like. 4 came out with relative ease (The front four), and the other 5 had to be cut out...but wait, that only adds up to 9 and there should be 12! Yes, yes there should...but there were only 9. And that, my friends, is why this project was not not just necessary but absolutely necessary!!!

 

[cruiserpilot]

camo paint wasn't just hiding the truck in the forest!

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Wow! I think it's all working out for the best that you've had to take on this project sooner than later! Cool pictures BTW.

I'm getting pretty excited about your project. You are moving along quite quickly considering how much work you've had to do. Will be a very nice end result I'm thinking.

 

[PeeZed]

Got home this afternoon and was determined to get the body off the frame. I only forgot to pull the speedo cable from out behind the dash, so I busted the clip off of it. I have a new crazy glue pen with infrared light curing engineering, so maybe I'll try and put it back on...otherwise, I'll be looking for a new speedo cable

I took a few pics before removing the body, mostly so I can remember what things looked like later when I look back on this project and wonder what the heck I had gotten myself into!

About half of the body mount brackets look pretty bad, possibly more. I found the two very rear body mounts which had separated from the body after it was removed...

Started spraying some degreaser on some heavily oiled areas to see how it would turn out and also see where leaks are coming from. Picture shows one half side mostly done of the tranny.

And now for the part of the show we've all been waiting for...(insert remarks from two old guys from muppets in balcony here...). Oh, pics of the body mounts start at front driver (left side) and go counter clockwise around drivers side and then up passenger side from rear.

First post will be of truck body and second will be of mounts.

 

[PeeZed]

Thanks for the encouragement GTS...I'm realizing now just how ambitious this project was, but am very glad that it's been progressing in a timely manner and will be a much more solid rig when it's done...not perfect, but solid.

And the body mounts...

Inner frame rails. Still mostly "solid" but will need some attention and upgrading for sure!

And the degreaser in action!

 

[bikersmurf]

Been there, done that... Don't envy your task, but sure understand your motivation.

 

[PeeZed]

I feel I need to say a caveat here about the PO. I bought this truck with the recommendation from the PO to not put a penny into the body as it was essentially "done." He had focussed his attention on the mechanical side of things and it has shown. Even removing the body yesterday proved once again how prepared he was for almost anything as I found a taped up garbage bag with both the upper/lower rad hoses in it burried deep in a side panel. Then today, zip tied to a cross member inside a bag filled with grease was an extra set of keys hidden between the frame and a cross member. Needless to say, the PO made many healthy patches to this beast over the years and it was time for a new body to be married onto her.

Today I got around to getting at the frame. A few spots took a good deal of effort to get loose, like that rear sandwich piece at the very rear insides of the frame. Chopped out five other frame spots and will weld in new 3/16" tomorrow hopefully. Let me say that this was no easy task. I used cutting wheels, grinding wheels, air chisels, sledge hammer, map gas (heat), etc...but I suppose in the end it will be stronger and maybe a few more years in her.

Going to run down to Vic and grab a few "new" body mounts from a forum member tomorrow morning, pick up some rust proofing and rustproofing goop (with shuntz gun?) as well.

Here's a few pics of the frame undoings...repairs to commence henceforth!

 

[Rigpig]

That's a lot of work, good on ya'! Looking good!