red beard

[franklin40]

making a little more progress on the roof. life is very busy right now. anyway this is the front visor. i’m assuming this gap should not be there but should be touching the gutter metal?

there are also some rust holes in it that need to be patched. i bought all new roof seals from cityracer. we’ll clean up the rust and repaint it eventually before reinstalling it.

 

[franklin40]

sandblasting sucks when your sand is dirty and keeps plugging the gun! guess i should just clean that crap up with some new stuff!! getting there anyway

 

[RevISK]

sandblasting sucks when your sand is dirty and keeps plugging the gun! guess i should just clean that crap up with some new stuff!! getting there anyway
View attachment 4027713

That is shockingly better!

 

[Chungas Revenge]

That is shockingly better!

Yup…!!!

 

[franklin40]

yeah it’s all pretty dirty and loads of surface rust. little
by little we’ll do what we need to seal it up. it’s not going to be a pretty truck but i will address problems properly as much as i have the ability to!!

 

[Chungas Revenge]

it’s not going to be a pretty truck…

It will be In the eyes of the beholder… looking pretty solid from the Land of Nod.

 

[franklin40]

finally making a bit more progress on the roof. i have all the holes welded. it’s really thin metal so not my best welding but good enough to seal it off. way better than what we started with!! just priming it now with what primer i have i on hand. well paint it white before install and i plan on doing a gel coat to the roof once we get the patching finished.

at least i know where all the snow was coming in through so that’ll stop happening!!

 

[Augustiron]

If you are separating the fiberglass from the steel, I have the official IH8mud rivet tool loaner to mail to the next in need...

 

[franklin40]

thanks. my drip rails are in decent shape. again mostly surface rust. i’m going to leave them for now and just give them a good cleaning and new seam sealer and paint. i don’t think i need to take them off

 

[Augustiron]

I had a couple of minor sections of rust and prior roof rack attachment damage to repair, But what made me really decide to separate them was how loose a lot of the existing rivets were after I dug out all the failing seam sealer and saw how loose everything was
I was happy to fix the steel, but also to clean everything up and epoxy prime it and reattach the fiberglass using the panel adhesive epoxy along with the rivets. Solid AF now

It wasn't really that bad of a job.

I have a spare tube of panel epoxy, a large bag of the right rivets, and clecos to hold it all together I pass on very reasonably if needed also.

See what you find when you take out the old seam sealer.

 

[franklin40]

good advice. it’s super solid right now but once sealer is out i may change my mind

 

[Augustiron]

If you are going as far as doing a re-gelcoat, do it all once and right.

In hindsight, I think I should have taken just the bare fiberglass top to a gel coater, then attached it to the restored steel properly, then seam sealed and painted the seam seal last.

I primered the steel, attached it to the fiberglass and seam sealed it and I'm now doing the repairs of holes in the fiberglass and have to figure out the top coat, but I think it will be weird to have the gel coat/ paint done only to the edge of the seam seal, I would have like to have had the gel coat with the same seal on top of it I think.

I am curious what others have done, what sequence of finishing and attaching.

 

[franklin40]

my plan is to dig out the seal sealer, clean up the drip rail but leave it in place if it’s not loose, prime and paint the metal, finish the fiberglas repair and prep, gel coat down to the drip rail then finish with white seam sealer

maybe i’ll find i’m way off base as i get deeper into it but that’s the plan for now

 

[franklin40]

the drip rails are solid and in good condition so i plan on just leaving them on. i bought seam sealer, paint and high build primer to get this baby going. gel coat is $$$. i think i’ll still go ahead with it but waiting to see if a body shop buddy of mine can get it or not. i like the idea of a thicker layer of coating but might just paint it if the gel coat is too much money.

again this is not a beauty queen restore. it’s a bush beater for my kids that i want to be a solid and sealed vehicle. he took it out driving yesterday with no roof and filled it with muddy water going through puddles with his sister!! so yeah definitely doesn’t need to be show room perfect!!

 

[knuckle47]

7-8 years ago I had restored an old boat that really needed all new gelcoat. As you said $$$.

Used a high build epoxy primer and paint.. after banging against the dock for 7 summers, winds, high tides and all of the bumps a boat can go thru in a 7 month season…7 times..not a single mark, scrape or scratch. I’d be surprised if your paint doesn’t live equally to fiberglass gelcoat.

EDITED: the 2nd photo below is what I started with

 

[franklin40]

and if my roof is taking that kind of abuse it’s being driven wrong . i might end up just painting it.

the nice thing about paint is with a good clear coat it shouldn’t chalk like gel coat can so i hopefully won’t have to buff it as often

 

[knuckle47]

Never sanded or buff or waxed this hull. Glossy as can be. The way it landed on the hull as it left the gun, is the way it stayed

 

[franklin40]

laid up the last few layers of fibreglass. the visor is reattached then sanding and body filler time!

 

[franklin40]

some filling and first coat of high fill primer is now on

it definitely shows some areas that still need some attention. i’ll get some more skim coat and keep working at the low spots. we’re very close to paint. my son wants to drive this thing soon as as it’s not show room quality by any means he doesn’t want to spend for ever making it perfect. he wants good and sealed!!

it’s already way better than when we started but my perfectionist side wants it to be better yet. plus i’m having fun learning about body work

 

[franklin40]

as i’m getting ready to put the roof seal on i’m also looking in my box of seals and the cowl vent seal is there. does this require taking the vent mechanism apart or can i just take the vent cover off from outside land replace through that opening?