Builds Finally got my own...Meet BeBe (5 Viewers)

[gregnash]

And then last night I fought with the rear bumper bolts for about 3hrs, finally was able to get the rear bumper off after throwing just about every trick I could, besides heat, at them. Chrome ones snap pretty easily since they were so rusted in place, others were so rusted that I had to take two breaker bars at them (top and bottom). Luckily at one point I acquired a 24" 3/4 ratcheting breaker which became a life saver with my normal 36" breaker. So rear bumper is now off and will not be going back on until I am done painting. Front will not be coming off, really dont feel like breaking myself that much and the front valence has been off and on multiple times in the last couple years so I know that will come off easily!

Aside from that I (drunkenly) ended purchasing one of those Joying Android head units. Got into a offer/counteroffer battle with the Joying seller on ebay and well I will have a 7" Android 8.0 PX5 single din head unit coming next month (says shipping from China and should be here by October 5th). This pretty much came because of the fact that yesterday my current JVC head unit decided to drop the bluetooth connection a total of 4 times in the 5 drives I did. The new unit has a better bluetooth chip but also has their ZLink chip built in which will allow me to connect the phone to the unit (which I have it plugged in whenever I am in the truck anyways to charge) and then run Apple Car Play!

Here is current unit, JVC KDX-80BT
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

And what it will look like with the 7" single din, approximately...
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

 

[gregnash]

And some more body work today. Little bit of rust on the inside rail of the front passenger door, right near the open limiter (or whatever its called). Luckily was only through the outside door skin, so just cleaned it up, prepped it with Prep N Etch, primed it then filled the seam with new seam sealer.. no pics unfortunately as I was just moving.

Also, found the one bit of "bad" frame rust. After getting the bumper off on Friday there was a lot of rust the came out. This is what I found.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Prepped it with the wire wheel while the seam sealer cured. Then painted with some Rust-o-leum Rust Reformer. Put two coats of that on and will let it cure for a couple days then throw some matte black over it.

Literally about 6hrs of work here, took about 3 to tape everything off, and then rest of the time was prepping everything for paint, cleaning, tacking, cleaning more, tacking so more. The painting part was probably the quickest as the primer has about a 10-15 minute flash time. Used what I had left of primer which was probably 3 full coats on the door and about 3 1/2 on the body.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

 

[gregnash]

And reason for the rear door being taped off is here..
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Got to figure out how I can pull that. I have tried everything I have in my current arsenal; basketball in the door skin inflated, football too, hammering blocks of wood at angle, etc.
This was the best I could get but I am not happy with it. The closest one in the pic isn't as bad and probably will come out with the one closest to the front door. But really don't want to just paint over and really don't want to put that much mud right there. Options?

 

[Hojack]

I dig the white look... perhaps that’s because I have a white 60
Looks great Greg

 

[gregnash]

LOL... just primer dude... just primer!

 

[gregnash]

Just got shipping confirmation on the head unit and it will be here Thursday, from China?! Should be interesting to see it once I have it. Unfortunately, we are out of town on Thursday and then leaving again on Friday to be out of town. So will have to wait until at least next week to be installed. Planning to pull the dash as well to do some wire clean-up and fab a mounting bracket for the unit.

In other news, I went to HF and took a shot with their "paintless dent repair crossbar" kit. Seems to have worked pretty well. Spent a couple hours messing with it last night and has pulled both dents the majority of the way out!! Will post pics later. Crossbar piece is super cheap cast aluminum and already starting to bend but still functions.

 

[gregnash]

Well it is going to be go time this weekend!!!
We got a couple day spike in temps where it is going to be in the 80s-90s so I am going to take advantage and get s*** done. Temps have been in the 70s at highest since beginning of last week dipping into the 40s at night. Fall is saying "Im here b*&^%#, get your ISTH done!!" Starting Thursday night I will be pulling everything I need to apart, de-embleming everything and getting her ready for primer in the last few areas. Depending on how far I get with that on Thursday, Friday will be my day to finish primer, block where I need to then do remaining prep for base coat spray either that afternoon (depending on wind) or base coat on Saturday morning.

In other news (and pics), I was down sick with some new flu bug going around all week last week. So nothing much got done on the Cruiser. That is until Thursday when I get a random text stating that "Your package is out for delivery"?! WTF, seriously? Later that afternoon sure enough my new head unit shows up on my doorstep, So basically 5 days from China for the new Joying 7" head unit. Since birthday weekend plans were shot from me still recovering at that point from the flu I kept my half day on Friday and when I got home, started the install. Normal install of a stereo, did some wire clean-up while I had everything out since things were kinda nasty from the PO and my last install (did shielded connectors instead of trying to butt-splice everything, little less permanent).

Anyways, after a couple days of use the head unit is seriously awesome and Apple CarPlay, with my iPhone, is a game changer!!
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

And the GPS diagnostic screen showing connection status' and strength.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
GPS puck was able to be routed through one of the cracks in my dash between the dash cap itself and the defroster body (whatever that metal piece is). The puck is pretty small, maybe 2"x3" and the base is magnetic so it just snapped right to the dash. I have it middle of the passenger side (can see in the windshield in pic #2) and have not had any issues. Now just to get some time to go out and play with it.
I still need to do some cleanup in the mounting, gotta make a small surround for the unit to fit in the opening a bit better and want to play with the screen location a bit (the clips that hold it on the back to the din unit are moveable allowing for you to move the screen around some!).

 

[gregnash]

So it begins.......
Wish me luck!

 

[gregnash]

A millennium later.....

 

[cruisermatt]

You missed the gas cap latch...and the windshield. The door handles come out pretty easily too. You're going to get overspray on your wheels and bumper too.
Good luck! Make sure to buff paint and make sure it's really good and hardened before reinstalling everything. Otherwise the trim and lights will "sink" into the paint and make it flare up around the gaskets and plastic. Ugly.

 

[gregnash]

LOL... Dude just finished final body work and was literally taping things off for a full 8hrs. Only thing that is not covered at this point is the bumper which will get covered in the morning. Everything else, including wheels have been covered, taped, etc.

Everything DID get sanded too, so in the morning will be another blow off, then wipe down. That was a hard 14hrs.

 

[NeverGiveUpYota]

And reason for the rear door being taped off is here..
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

Got to figure out how I can pull that. I have tried everything I have in my current arsenal; basketball in the door skin inflated, football too, hammering blocks of wood at angle, etc.
This was the best I could get but I am not happy with it. The closest one in the pic isn't as bad and probably will come out with the one closest to the front door. But really don't want to just paint over and really don't want to put that much mud right there. Options?

I was told at the Airgas place that dry ice will pull a dent out. Try it and post up photos.

 

[Miloslavich]

Greg!!! solid work bro!

love the butcherknife decal on the rear hatch too

 

[Miloslavich]

Greg!!! solid work bro!

love the butcherknife decal on the rear hatch too

 

[gregnash]

And that's a wrap!!! Of course the wind had to start kicking up as it sprayed and blew s*** into the paint. Was able to get a majority of the stuff out but will need to do some serious sanding when the time comes. Now she sits to cure for a few days.
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr
Untitled by Greg Fisicaro, on Flickr

 

[Miloslavich]

SWEEEEET

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Good Job Greg!

 

[gregnash]

Thanks guys.. Definitely learned a lot from doing it this way. Have a few spots that I will have to get a pint for to do some touch ups here and there around gaskets/windows, few items that are stuck on... but otherwise was a fun and stressful process. Only ended up having one small section where the paint started to pull away with the tape but nothing bad.

Gonna have to wait a few days to do a "touchless" wash on her after I have reassembled. Giving her a couple more days to sit apart in the sun and cure some more. Tomorrow after work I will start the reassembly process.

Lessons learned for anyone that has never done this before and wants too....
1. When you "think" you are done prepping the surface, go through and do it again for good measure. Even if that means taking a RED Scotchbrite pad to everything.
2. Take your time masking. Learn how to back mask properly. This ended up being invaluable, the spots where I didn't back mask don't look near as good as the spots I did.
3. When taping/masking everything off, do it in a calm area. If that means doing everything first with the drivers door being last then do that... so worth it not to have to fit small gust of wind, bugs, or the fact that you left a tool in the car and have not masked everything off.
4. Remove EVERYTHING you possibly can, this will make things much easier, emblems, handles, key cylinders, gaskets, etc. Remove it ALL.
5. Realize that if you are doing this on your own that the masking, prepping process will be a full day endeavor on its own. I spent a total of 14hrs going over everything. And I probably could have used some more prep on a couple panels with the RED Scotchbrite.
6. If you have a choice of taking extra time to do it in a garage or build yourself a cheap spray booth... DO IT!!! Fighting the wind was not bad, and we had 10-15ish mph winds yesterday possibly more. The worst part was all the flying debris that kept getting in the paint RIGHT before or after I would spray.
7. Have a 2" roll of STICKY painters tape ready and at hand, dont know where I saw it but rolling it up so the sticky part is out and then just gently dabbing on the debris usually resulted in it coming off.. I say USUALLY, sometime it took more effort but since I knew I was painting outside and would end up getting some debris in the paint I made certain consolations and didn't fight with some items. That is what the cut and buff period in a month will be for.
8. Keep an eye on the lid of your paint cup. There is a vent port at the top that for me started to drip when I was spraying at weird angles. I have two paint drops (one on the hood and one on the roof) that I will have to deal with in the future.

Other than that have fun with the process. It was interesting to me to see what I could do, how far I could adequately spray, etc. when I was working it. I used the HF Purple gun with the upgraded 33oz metal can and that worked great. I would definitely not fill that all the way as it got a bit heavy and awkward when full to handle, especially when spraying the hood or roof. But the cheapo, throw away gun did great for me and my application and was cleaned for use later if I ever have to repair a paint or accidentally burn through the paint. I watched A LOT of videos on YouTube on how to do this stuff, talked with a couple friends that have done this in the past (one that used to be a bodyshop guy for a hot rod shop) and the biggest thing they said was just to have patience. Usually by the time you get all the way around a vehicle for spraying, take the time to fill you cup again (regardless of how much it needs), take a quick drink of water, go remove a few pieces of debris or look over your panels, take a deep breathe and then go and start your passes again as the first piece is usually ready for the next coat. It is really that fast.

Oh and the unmasking process (about 45 minutes after your last coat has been laid) is so SOOOOOOOO satisfying. Again, take your time, this isn't Christmas when you were 10 and just start ripping things apart. Slowly remove the tape, pulling at a 45* angle (from what everything said) and enjoy the slow unwrap of your new present!

 

[gregnash]

And crazy that this popped up last night on Facebook. It has been exactly 6yrs yesterday that the wife and I made the flight out to SLC to pick up BeBe and drive her home. Fitting that she got a new paint job this weekend as well!

 

[Ocho77]

Looks Awesome!!!