For the job at hand, the word “straight” should not apply. One more thing, before we begin, let’s just touch on terminology. This job calls for 80-grit on a 6-inch-padded dual-action (DA) sander. With the crooks and crannies tended to, we’re onto the larger expanse of roofskin. In the end we paid for that, as we waited, and waited, for higher-priced materials that arrived damaged-in an undamaged package. This time we drifted and sort of fell for a wannabe competitor’s fake free shipping offer. When preferred materials aren’t available locally, or when we just don’t like the prices, we’ll ordinarily call Summit. Read More: Deeply Rooted Passion: Bagged F100 This time we’ve set our own new record, by making only one. If you can learn from ours, you might not make as many of your own. If you’ve been with us for any length of time, you know we don’t downplay our mistakes. This time, quite fortunately, it’s not an absolute necessity. Under the right conditions, epoxy primer is a good option. Since Montana winters are cold, and since our non-heated paint booth draws outside airflow, initial curing of epoxy primer wouldn’t be all that it should. Today it’s a pretty common practice to apply a coat or two of epoxy primer ’tween prepared metal and body filler. Here, as usual, there’s more than one way to achieve the end results we’re after. A 3M Clean & Strip disc might rough these areas back up as necessary. For proper adhesion, upcoming coatings will depend on a not-so-polished surface. Since remaining traces of the old may not mix well with the new, we’ll just go with our own instinct. We knew that, but we didn’t know the old-time factory lead is incompatible with the lead that’s obtainable today. When a job truly demands it, Symcox uses lead. Still open for suggestions, we called upon our go-to guru Dave Symcox of nearby Restorations Limited. Our own instinct was to grind away lead and refill with fiber-reinforced polyester filler. Read More: Ford Truck Enthusiasts Take Over the Grand National F-100Įarlier, along the way, we also discovered a crack in the passenger-side A-pillar’s factory-leaded seam. Blowing, vacuuming, vibrating, rolling down the road in trailers, or rolling on a cab cart across the shop floor-all help to shake the stuff loose, but still, there’s more in there. Of course there’s always trapped abrasive. Back in Escondido, California, at Hot Rods & Custom Stuff (HR&CS), Zach the blaster did a bitchin job, as always. Before we do that, we’ll need to rid this cab’s crooks and nannies of remaining garnet blasting media. Since this cab’s oil-canning roofskin will require the use of filler anyhow, beginning with fiber-reinforced filler could go a long way to stiffen the unsupported panel.įirst things first, before we take a single smear we’ll need to prepare the steel. As polyester body fillers go, the fiber-reinforced variety is pert near structural once cured. Today for body seams, patch panels, or wherever body sheetmetal has been welded, it’s good to begin vehicle fillerwork with fiber-reinforced filler. Here a 3-inch 3M Scotch-Brite Roloc disc on a 2-inch backing allows us to use both sides of the disc. Sure, we can heat and beat as necessary to shrink this sheetmetal as we were taught to years ago, but through modern chemistry we have a time-is-money option. Making use of a Porto-Power, body clamps, and a ratchet strap, we corrected the affected pillars but afterward the roofskin seemed a little loose, as it would oilcan under pressure. As a result of some obvious crash testing, the passenger-side roof pillars were both pushed forward. Like the other panels, it’s taken its lumps and bumps. Read More: Part 1 Corner-Carving Components: Tubular Control Arms, Coilover Shocks, and Big Brake Kit By taking this phase panel by panel, it should be a little easier to concentrate on details. It’s now covered for protection, and interior fillerwork is pretty much done as well. At this stage, the firewall is finished to 120-grit. Only because it’s necessary, every cab panel will receive some degree of fillerwork. It’s doing a fine job of cleaning out leftover seam sealer and so on, but wire wheels tend to polish metal as well. The new wire wheel is part of a set from Harbor Freight. This story, however, won’t be about that, as we’ll be using fillers that are commonly used and available today. Granted, there are still some old-time craftsmen-no, let’s call ’em artists-who know how to lead. Polyester fillers were improving, and by then insurers wouldn’t pay the difference for lead anyhow. But afterward, in the collision repair field, I can’t recall using lead one single time. Back in California, around the middle of the ’70s when I was, oh, in training, leadwork autobody was still a part of Riverside Community College night school curriculum.
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