Finishing touches

Last night, Gary, Kathleen, Patrick and I put the finishing touches on the set.  It is very strange to not be doing lights as well.  I feel like I'm not doing part of my job.  On the other hand, it is nice to have the stress off.

Monday evening, Melanie and I made the "tonneau" cover for the bed.  Originally, it was going to be a full platform that the cast could be up on, but after blocking the show, Scott decided to not have anyone actually up there.  Marcy and Ryan sit on the tailgate, but not in the middle of the bed. So, we used luan and a 2x2 frame and made a panel that just drops in and covers the bed. This is a good thing because the inside of the bed was is ROUGH shape.  When we bought the truck, it had a plastic bed liner, which I pulled out and threw away, because it was going to be in the way of the platform.  Too bad.  If that were still around, I would have put a coat of black paint on it to make it look new and left it in.

Last night, I rolled a coat of flat black on the bed cover and then painted the floor of the band platform so that it is ready for musicians to move in tonight.

I have been unhappy with the bed of the truck ever since we first assembled it in the shop. Notice in the pic on the left how the space between the cab and bed is wider at the top than the bottom? It always looked like it was sagging.  So, I cut a 2" shim and last night, Patrick jacked the bed up and put the shim in.  You can see in the pic on the right that it looks a LOT better now.

Gary added a little rust to the lamp posts and billboard frame and painted out the bases to look like beat up concrete.  He then attacked the floor with the texture roller and several colors of gray and cream to make it look like weathered asphalt.  Finishing touches included cracks, a pool of spilled oil and a tire mark.

Patrick and Kathleen hung flags on strings above the stage
and out into the first couple of rows of the audience.  It brings the top down just a little bit on the parking lot.  I think that with stage lights and the parking lot lights on, it will feel like a real car lot.

The last thing we did was to move in one of the typical tan steel desks that everyone used in the 70's-90's offices.




So, that finishes my work on "Hands on a Hardbody".  It is now up to the cast, band, Ken and Kerrie to bring it to life.

Can't wait to see it all come together.
R