My plans to paint the truck have to be put on the back burner for now since the economy has not turned around, I decided to keep the money in the rainy day fund.
With that in mind I decided to have a little fun with the already faded and oxidized paint. I got this article in my Rodder mag back in October and knew that this was the direction I wanted to go but did not have a clue as to what was going be the logo.
http://www.classictrucks.com/tech/10.../photo_01.html
I thought about making up some kind of fake business but couldn't come up with one that I wanted painted on the side of my truck for a while. Then a friend of mine came to work one day with a Callahan Auto Parts shirt and I figured that that would be awesome on the '69. Being that it is one of my wife and my favorite movies, it just fit the faded green trucks personality.
So my sign maker friend that made the Good Year letters for my tires got another call from me and we replicated the logo perfectly. $25 bucks for the vinyl and $30 for the paint, a couple hours of work and it changes the whole attitude of the truck.
Here is the before
Here is the logo I had made
Cleaned the side of the truck of any wax then stuck the vinyl on being careful to get all the bubbles that were close to the edges, but not real concerned about the ones in the middle where paint will not be.
Ready for paint, I used Omni brand MTK urethane with MH167 hardener. I don't know if this was a good choice or not but I figured that I was going to be distressing it over oxidized paint so it really did not matter as long as I could achieve the look I wanted.
I scuffed the surface after the vinyl was applied to give the paint something to grab onto since I was not priming it. Then applied several heavy coats with a soft brush waiting only several minutes between coats.
Waited about 20 minutes and peeled off the vinyl negative
Right after I got the vinyl off I used H.E.T. reducer 1380 and rubbed the patina into the paint. It really was easier to achieve the look I wanted than I thought it was going to be. I was a little nervous going into it but after the first couple of letters I was a lot more at ease.
One thing the article does not mention and I found worked well was 0000 steel wool after I was done with the reducer. The reducer is basically like solvent and leaves the thinned paint all around the letters, a careful, steady hand will get the majority of the smudged paint off from around the letters but letting it sit for 30 min or so then I hit it with the steel wool and it took the rest of the unwanted paint off leaving me with this result. I am very happy with the final product.
