Packing it up and moving it out to the next stage of the build
Made the decision on a body and paint shop to do the work.
A day I’ve been looking forward to and a day that I’ve been dreading. The truck is as far along as I can take it in my small shop and want the body & paint done by a shop more knowledgeable and capable than me. Where every build is different there are plenty of things that are in play regarding how the final outcome will be (will this be a whore story or smiles all around experience). I lay down some of the things that I’ve been thinking about and what I’m trying to do so that all will workout well for this stage of the build.
What I’m looking for is not a low end body & paint nor a high end custom, somewhere in between. This is probably the hardest thing to get both the shop doing the work and me on the same page with expectations of the end job being the same. There are going to be flaws in fit and fair of panels and some that I would like the shop to address or at least make less obvious and others that I don’t want them to waist time and cost on.
As I went around to many body and paint shops looking for estimates and some one that wanted to do the work, I found that many are not set up to do this kind of work or have experience in doing it. It’s totally different than driving the truck in and saying paint it. The few shops that would give some kind of estimate never came out and looked at the project and always came in with that big but (you never know what your going to run into until we get it into the shop) and they would do it on an open ended by the hour job and their estimates was just a ball park figure (where they came up with their estimates I don’t know) I prefer not to have work performed in this manor (what I would consider a possible open ended money pit). I ran into estimates from Ill paint anything you bring in for 3k to 20k plus at custom shops.
As fare as I’m concerned this puts the responsibility on me to eliminate or know what repairs will need to be done and to what extent. One of the most common areas that hidden rework can be found on our trucks is the cab rocker area. It might be that it’s just the outer rocker panel that needs to be replaced or the rework could carry into the floor supports and floor panel (a big difference in time and cost). I made the repairs to this area on my truck myself as you can see in this build, but if I didn’t repair it my self I would want it figured into the estimates. It’s time consuming to evaluate the repairs needed and to what extent. But in my opinion I believe it’s my responsibility in a body off rebuild (figuring this out in body and paint in some shop is just going to cause problems in time and cost not to mention an unpleasant experience). With the build being completely apart and more than a casual look you should be able to inspect all the areas with some sanding and screwdriver poking to find the hidden rework areas.
I finally found one shop that would come out and look at the project and give an estimate plus worked out some logistics. The owner has three shops in the area and they deal with high end europium cars to customs, plus everything in between, of course their primary work is coalition repair. The owner has some custom cars and has just picked up a 54 GMC cab over that he’s going to build as a car hauler (yes I did let him know about this forum and that it might help in finding some information in building his car hauler).
Some of the logistics and how where working them out
The shop picked up my trailer with all the panels and transported to the shop.
The shop will break it down and send all the parts that need media blasting out.
The parts back from media blasting will get a coat of epoxy primer.
Ill go into the shop and apply the seam sealer (I like this part, it keeps me involved and helps reduce the cost)
Ill be applying the undercoat to the cab and fenders as they are ready in the shop (plan on using Herculiner bed liner for the undercoating)
The inside of the cab and all the hidden areas will receive the finish paint.
Cab and forward panels transported to my shop and I will load it on my frame for the best fit and fair that I can do. (Recommended by the shop to help prevent problems that could arise in going from my stand to the frame).
Cab and frame transported to the shop where the external body and paint will be done.
Ill be going into the shop and helping with the color sanding and polish (another part that keeps me involved and helps reduce cost).
When all the body and paint is done transported back to my shop for final assembly by me.
The final color has been picked, its GM 505 green. The final paint might be a waterborne paint if one can be found to match if not a more standard finish will be used (this is a stock color for this truck, used during the time it was built). I found a web site that has the crossover codes for different paint manufacturers (of course the paint color chip on the web site isn’t a good representation of the color). Took a screen shot of the web site and posted it below with the crossover numbers.
A hot topic by some is what is the cost? I normally try to stay away from cost of parts because there can be such a wide price that can be paid for the same item or work. There’s always the one that says you paid too much for that or you got a steal for that, otherwise I cheated the shop or got cheated. I prefer not to look at it in this manor and I came up with a budget for the work 5K to 8K for body & paint and 1K for media blasting. As it always seem to me as time goes on (or I grow older) the price of things go up past my expectations, this is one of those things I wish didn’t happen but it appears the way of things (smile). Posted below is the estimate for the work
My end goals for this part of the build is
A body and paint at least as good as the truck had from the factory and probably better (I don’t think that the factory body and paint was that good in that time and with the newer paints it isn’t not to much to expect)
This part of the build done in approximately 3 months
No unexpected costs cropping up (definitely causing a not so pleasant experience)
I want the body and paint shop to make a profit and not loose money or find it to aggravating so that they want to do this kind of work (there are few places that even consider doing this kind of work and we can’t afford to loose any)
Now that I’ve left you with a wall of text to read and no pictures I think you can get an idea of where I’m attempting to go in progressing this build and hope you find it a good read. Wish me good luck on achieving my goals.
I would have taken a picture of the parts being towed to the body and paint shop but know that it just wouldn’t be seen right by some with a ford truck towing the parts (smile).
As the body and paint progress Ill be taking some pictures and posting them hear along with progress reports and any thing I think might be interesting. It left my shop on Monday the 23 of Aug, expecting it back at body and paint shop after media blasting in two weeks.
Enjoy your build