Painting a truck

Ugh...
There is nothing more tedious than trying to paint a vehicle and make it look like a factory finish.  In fact, I am convinced that, unless you are an auto body shop with all of the experience and equipment, it isn't going to happen.

The truck IS red. At least that it true.  In pictures, it looks pretty good, but up close, it is NOT a factory finish.  We had an impossible time getting it to not orange peel.  I hope that from the audience, it will be reasonably acceptable and not distracting.

FRIDAY
We did all of the due prep work.  Patrick and I played with Bondo for the fist time.  There was some hail damage on the roof of the cab, and a significant crease in the tailgate as well as a serious abrasion on the plate around the handle.  After pricing a replacement plate, and a tailgate, we decided that the best way to go was Bondo and prayer.
Patrick cut an opening on the inside of the tailgate and popped the crease out as best as he could. We drilled a few holes in the bottom of the crease so that the Bondo would seep through and have something to hold on to.

We hit the plastic plate with the disc sander to smooth down the abrasion.  Then mixed about a tennis ball amount of Bondo and worked it in.  That shit sets up FAST.  30 minutes later, we ground it down with the sander and applied a second coat.  30 minutes after that, we finish sanded it and applied some primer.

We sanded every square inch of gold paint with the sander to make sure that there was no trace of wax, oil or tar. It also gave a good tooth for the the new paint to grab.  Final task was to spot prime any bare metal and let it dry overnight.

SATURDAY
I cleaned as much dust out of the shop as I could and then began wet sanding all of the surfaces using the finest foam sanding block that I could get.  After wiping it down, it was exceptionally smooth.  I think we did the prep work quite well.

A photographer from the Belleville News Democrat came by a little before 10 AM to take some "action shots" for an upcoming article, but there was no action going on, so he left and said that he'd be back at 1PM.

We let it dry while we got ready to paint coat #1.  Two foam brushes, two 4" foam rollers and two plastic hand-held paint trays...we mixed as little thinner into the quart of bright red paint and began.  The first coat took about 2 hours to apply. We wrapped up right at 1 PM...no photographer.

We stood and watched the paint dry for about 45 minutes before the photographer finally arrived.  So, we had to make up some "work" for him to take pictures of. We pulled out the gallon of black and started painting some of the exposed wood framework.  That was good enough for his pix.

After he was done and gone, we cleaned up and left it to dry.  That paint takes about 12 hours to dry for re-coating.

SUNDAY
Kathleen and I headed to the shop about 10 AM. Patrick and Melanie were not able to be there before 11 AM, so we thought that we would get a jump-start on the second coat.

We wet sanded all of the red surfaces, knocking off the few spots of dust that had landed in the finish.  Patrick and Melanie hadn't arrived  yet, so we continued painting all of the exposed wood frame black.  Still no Pat and Mel, so we dove in and applied the second coat, same way as the first.  Second coat took a little over an hour.  We finished just as Melanie arrived.  Headed home around 2 PM.




Some areas of the finish look really good, even up close. Some areas I am just not happy with.  I have about 1/3 of a quart of paint left. My plan is to sand and re-coat the passenger door and rear fender on Monday evening.  Hope that third time is the charm...

Wednesday evening, we will pull the tape, reassemble the pieces that we took off, and polish things up.  We need to cut and fit the new Lexan windshield and then work out mounting the wheels.  I hope that when we leave Wednesday evening, we have what looks like a finished truck!

R

Prep and paint

Tonight, we begin the painstaking process of prepping for paint.

On a normal set, that would involve...well...nothing.  Slap a base coat on and get ready for some "latex magic".  Oooo...  that could be taken a couple of different ways, if my mind weren't so innocent.

Painting a vehicle is, or at least SHOULD be a little more painstaking. Since this vehicle will never see the tough environment of the street again, its paint job doesn't have to be quite as thorough, but we still want a smooth, glossy finish that looks like a new truck. So, it needs to be done with some care.

We will start by sanding the entire surface to be painted. There are dings, dimples and grit  from years on the road. 

The original paint is oxidized, chipped and faded and there are a few rust spots that need smoothing out.  Next we will use Bondo to fill in little dings, dents and rust spots.  Then that will have to dry for a couple of days before we can sand it out flush with the adjacent metal.

The other project that will hopefully be tackled tonight and Friday is to clean all of the black plastic body moldings and give them a light coat of flat black spray paint.  Then they should be ready to re-install after the body panels are painted red and cured.

Probably Friday evening, we will sand down the Bondo patches and spot prime any metal that we bared with sanding.  There are wear spots along the top edge of the fenders on the bed.  They were caused by the plastic bed liner that we removed and threw away because it was beat up and faded.  I plan to just use spray Rustoleum primer for light rust and previously painted surfaces.  That should dry overnight. Saturday morning, we will finish sand the whole thing with 400 grit sandpaper.




According to UPS, my Epiphanes Bright Red yacht enamel and thinner is in Ohio somewhere and should arrive Thursday afternoon.  Just in time for coat #1 on Saturday!!!  

More pix after this weekend, I promise...
R

Almost ready for paint!

We had a VERY productive week in the scenic shop.  The truck has made great progress.  All of the body parts have been fitted and anchored except the bed and rear bumper.

FRIDAY EVENING
Kathleen, Melanie and Shelley worked on the interior of the truck. The headliner and seat needed to be cleaned and painted after years of smoking and who knows what else.  We actually ended up spray painting the seat black to hide the stains...

The doors were so heavy that they kept causing the wooden door posts to fail, so we gutted them, removing glass, all mechanisms and a huge steel weight in the bottom of each.  After remounting them, they were remarkably easier to handle and closed better.  We then focused our attention on working out the rest of the font end.  Fenders first, then grill.


Trying to figure out the geometry of the front end of this truck is a challenge.  Nothing is a right angle and all of the parts bolted to a frame that is now gone.  Very little bolts together.  Fortunately when we cut the windshield frame from the fire wall, we left the two bolt holes that held the top of the fenders.  That and the front edge of the doors, tells us where the fender needs to be.  Fortunately, Nissan designed this model with a narrow metal strip between the bumper and the grill that bolts to the front of the fenders.  These three pieces became our guide for fitting everything else together.


With these pieces in the right place and a few beers down, we called it a night about 10PM.

SATURDAY
After a good nights sleep, I got to the shop and spent an hour or so just cleaning.  We had parts EVERYWHERE and no place to work.  It looked like a mechanic shop, not the neat and organized scenic shop that I normally run.  While cleaning and organizing, it dawned on me that we needed to make sure that the bumper was in the right place, centered on the frame first and then align the front of the fenders, grill and hood to it.  Remarkably, once the bumper was mounted and fenders anchored in place, the hood dropped on and was within 1/8" of being square...close enough for a stage prop.

We then had to black out behind the grill and needed to figure out how to mount the lights. A piece of luan shot to the framing behind the grill stiffened the front end. The lights mounted to it with relative ease.  The front end was essentially done.

Kathleen and Melanie both showed up a little after noon. The two of them attacked the interior, replacing the carpet and fitting the gearshift assembly back in.  Meanwhile, the seat is STILL DRYING in the sun.



With the front end in good shape, Patrick and I turned our attention to the bed.  When we built the initial chassis, the framing stopped at the axles. To extend it out to the bumper in both the front and at the back, we sistered 2x4s on top of the initial 2x6 frame, holding them with mending plates.  For the front end, 2x4s more than adequately supported the weight of the sheet metal.  When we sistered 2x4s on the back and set the bed on, it sagged...A LOT!!!  So, a quick trip to Home Depot, we replaced the 2x4s with 2x6s and that was better.

The bed is so damn heavy, that it probably doesn't need to be bolted down!  It took four of us to lift it on to the wooden chassis.  When we set it down on the frame, the casters on both rear legs flattened to the floor...sigh.  So, much for moving it around in the shop anymore.  Those casters were rated at 200 lbs each!



This isn't the first time that I have had problems with casters under a truck.  When I did The Grapes of Wrath in 2010, our truck was MUCH lighter.  I fabricated it almost completely out of wood.  The only metal on it were the two front fenders and the rims for the four wheels.  For Grapes, I choreographed the truck to move to different positions on stage as part of the scene changes.  I went through 3 sets of casters on it during rehearsals and the run of the show.

We fought for over an hour with getting four bolts to hold down the bed to the frame.  I was tired and frustrated and we called it a day.

Wednesday evening, we will finish the bed and rear bumper.  Then it is time to start prepping for paint.  Every surface needs to be sanded and the few dings need to be filled with Bondo and ground down. Some spot priming and it will be ready for paint.  I am considering using yacht enamel instead of automotive paint.  I have painted several boats in the past decade and know that I can get a smooth, level, glossy finish without all of the hassle of paint sprayers. I will probably roll it on with foam rollers.  This paint wouldn't hold up on the road, but this truck has retired from the road...

Goal is to be ready for paint next weekend!!!!
R

The truck is reborn...

This week has been a little funny.  Wednesday night, we spent time cleaning up the pieces that we had taken off of the truck. By cleaning up, I don't mean soap and water.  There were a LOT of sharp edges on the parts where we had cut parts away from the frame and uni-body.  We also spent over an hour and removed the shattered windshield.  That will be replaced by a sheet of Lexan...stronger and lighter weight than glass and will not shatter.  But that's not happening until the very last thing, after reassembly and paint.

On Saturday morning at 8 AM, my nephew and brother in law arrived at the scenic shop with a car hauler trailer.  It took the three of us about an hour to maneuver the carcass of the truck onto the trailer.  What made it so difficult was not the weight.  Removing the body and bed probably reduced the weight by 1/3.  What made it so difficult was that I had cut the steering wheel out for use in the prop truck.  So, to turn the wheels, we had to jack up the front end, push the wheels one way or the other, then let it back down.



The overhead door on the shop is at a 90-degree angle to the driveway, so the truck carcass had to come out and be turned 90-degrees before it could be winched on to the trailer. That's what took all of the time.









With the carcass on the trailer and strapped down, there was now some room to breathe in the shop.

We really couldn't begin putting things back together until that mess was cleaned up and gone.








On Sunday morning, I picked up some lumber and was at the shop by 8:30 AM.  First thing on the agenda was to rearrange things so that I had some room to get to the tools and to load in the lumber.

Patrick arrived around 10 AM and we started building the new wood chassis that would hold the body pieces.  We basically made a box out of 2x6's that was the size of the wheelbase of a Nissan Frontier...8'-8" long and 4' wide.  The two end boards extend an extra few inches and will serve as the "axle"...the wheels will hang on them.

We made four legs out of 2x4's and fastened them into the corners with carriage bolts.  We put special, high-capacity caster assemblies on the bottom of each leg. These will be critical for moving the thing around both in the shop, and through the halls to the theater.  The chassis will ultimately be 15' long and 5' wide when all is done.  That is just a bit too unwieldy to carry without wheels.

Before the carcass left the shop, I made some careful measurements of where the body parts; the cab in particular, sat in relation to the axles. This would be critical if I had any hope of hiding the legs behind the tires.

We added a horizontal brace to the chassis underneath where the back wall of the cab would set.  We then lifted the cab on to the chassis and positioned it where it needed to be relative to the axles.  We then had to whittle and fit the supports that replaced the firewall which we cut away because of weight and size.  This extends from the underside of the windshield to the chassis.

The uprights also serve as the door posts, where the doors hinge on.

We re-installed the dash, to make sure that we had bracing where we needed it and to make sure that the luan closure on the firewall was adequate to disappear up behind the dash.

Our attention then turned to fitting the doors.  We will put a plywood floor in the cab eventually, but it must extend out several inches beyond the chassis and until the doors are on, there is no way to know exactly how far.  There will also be custom sill pieces that I will fabricate out of wood and attach to the floor.

Hanging the doors was a bit tricky. They are extremely heavy and they tend to twist the wooden door posts.  We will have to reinforce the door posts after we get the rest of the framing on.

All in all, it was a good days work.  Wednesday night we will pick up with the front fenders, the floor of the cab and door sills.  Then the grille, headlights, etc to finish off the front end.

Until next weekend...R

Deconstruction is always the worst!

I think the part of doing the truck that I have been dreading the most was tearing it apart.  I have no sentimentality for this particular vehicle. We bought it with the intention of cutting it into pieces.  But I have been dreading it for months.  You see, I'm not a car guy.  Don't get me wrong...I absolutely LOVE driving a nice car, but I have never been one of those guys that likes to tinker with a car in his garage on the weekend.  I don't have a project car hidden away somewhere.  A boat is a different story, but never cars.  I just want one that is new, nice and reliable.  I don't even change my own oil or vacuum it out.

So, the idea of having to figure out how Nissan put this thing together and then reverse the process was not something that I was awaiting with eager anticipation.

FRIDAY
Friday evening, Melanie, Patrick and his girlfriend Shelley and I spent a couple of hours and got the shop ready to hold this thing.  The scenic shop is decent in size, but certainly not spacious.  We moved the last of the props from RENT into storage in the loft, rearranged wood, and shoved all of the tools at the end as far away from the garage door as we could get them and still move around.

Then we grabbed the keys and went to the parking lot, where our golden beauty queen has been sitting for the past 6 months with no license plates and a flat tire.

I fully expected it to be completely dead and to have to push the thing into the shop.  After all, it barely ran when I bought it and it sat outside all winter without being started.

The bed had about 6 inches of water in it. Leaves all over it.


So, I opened the door, climbed in and put the key in the ignition.  I pushed in the clutch and turned the key, and it fired right up with a beautiful cloud of blue smoke out the back.


It sounded just as bad as it did the day I drove it on to the shop parking lot.  Loud, rough, gravelly...











There is a small incline on the parking lot, so I pulled the truck with the nose facing uphill and the water poured out of the bed.

















I then turned it around and backed it into the shop.



SATURDAY

I decided that the only way that I was going to overcome my apprehension was to dive headlong into it. Saturday morning, Melanie and Shelley had to work. So, Patrick and I showed up at the shop around 10 AM, hell-bent on tearing into this thing.   Patrick removed the tailgate and doors.

The body parts on the truck are amazingly light weight. Not much between you and the other cars on the road!

I started on the front end, removing the grille, bumper cover, lights, etc.  After some fighting unsuccessfully with two rusted bolts holding on the bed, we turned our attention to the interior.

The "Hardbody" script really doesn't call for the interior of the truck to be heavily detailed, but because in our venue, the audience has to walk across the front edge of the performance area to get to their seats, they will be within touching distance of the truck. Likewise, they will be able to see in the windows.  So, we decided to pull the seats, steering wheel and dash and reassemble them in our prop truck.  That seemed simple enough. Well...


Compared to the exterior, the dash is put together like a Swiss watch.  I was amazed at how many little pieces had to be taken off to get to the next screw or bolt.  We managed to remove everything that we could find and still, we couldn't get the main dash skin off.  It appeared that the passenger airbag was holding it on.  Of course, airbags are meant to not be tampered with, so they are put in with mega bolts that require special tools to remove and a thick metal bracket. After what we had done, my saws-all blade was done and I had no new ones.

With that, we gave up for the day, but felt like we made decent progress.

We left the office and I made a trip to Harbor Freight Tools to get an air chisel, grinder, impact wrench, and more assorted blades and bits to attack tomorrow.





SUNDAY 
Sunday, Patrick was free until 4PM and Melanie was available after lunch and my brother-in-law and nephew were also available.  My nephew is a high school student in Festus and does scrapping for extra cash. He was thrilled to get to take the carcass of the truck that we didn't need. But the stipulation was that he had to come and help get it ready for him to take.

So, Patrick and I got back on the dash with a fresh blade in the saws-all and got the airbag cut free.  It was amazing actually, when you remove most of the useful components from behind, the dash is relatively light and easy to reassemble as a unit. It will go back in our prop truck in one piece.

Reinforcements from Festus arrived about 1:30 and we set about trying to get the bed off and then the most difficult and scary part.  We have to cut the cab in just the right places so that we can keep it in tact enough to put it back together with discreet seams, yet small enough pieces that we can move it around.  All of this while keeping the glass in tact. First part...accomplished...second part...not so much. The windshield developed a crack right up the middle.  I am going to see how it survives during reconstruction, but it may get replaced with lighter weight Lexan.

We spent about four hours but managed to get the cab cut off and setting on saw bucks.  Meanwhile, Melanie and Patrick began washing down the parts that we had removed.  15 years of smoker residue, road gunk, etc...it was pretty disgusting...

The bed finally came loose and now everything is off of the truck frame that we need to save to put it back together, except the rear bumper.


We have all of the parts stacked in the in the shop.

Wednesday evening, we will get in there and grind all of the sharp edges so that they are safe to handle and get the rest of the body parts wiped down and organized.

We have to make sure that we have removed all of our tools and then we will get the carcass of the truck ready for my nephew to come with a flatbed trailer next weekend and haul it away.  Then we will have enough room in the shop to start making the wooden framework that the body gets reassembled on to.

And that, my readers, is how you deconstruct a truck in a weekend!



More as it starts to go back together... R

Rent wrap-up . . . Hardbody Kick-off

I can't believe that it has been a month since my last post.  I guess I have been just a little bit busy.  Getting "Rent" on stage was a big job, as they all seem to be. The run of the show went incredibly well and the critics were very good to us.

Since opening "Rent" at New Line, I (along with Kathleen) staged a production of "The Diary of Anne Frank" at Looking Glass Playhouse. It opened the Thursday after "Rent' and closed the Sunday before "Rent" closed.  How convenient is that?  In addition, I finished installing "Cabaret" at Stray Dog Theatre.

So, I may not have written much, but I have sure been busy...

Last Saturday, we closed the show and began the arduous task of striking it.  We began about 10:30 PM and I finally left the theater at 2 AM on Sunday morning with 20 lights still on the ceiling, all the rest of the lights to be sorted, and packed for return and a few scenic things to take back to the shop.

Sunday morning, like clockwork, I was up at 6:30 AM and back at the theater at 8.  I dropped a few lights, but my wife is not fond of the idea of me on a ladder 16' off the floor and no one else around to sweep up the mess should I come crashing to the floor.  So, I spent about 4 hours removing and sorting gels, wrapping cords and packing things as best as I could.  At noon, I loaded my car with as much stuff to take back to the shop as I could and headed out.

Monday after school, Kathleen and one of her students joined me to drop the last of the lights, load all of that into the trailer and return it to Mark Shilling.  We then loaded the last of the scenic and prop items and hauled them back to IL.  I have a little bit to put away in the shop and "Rent" will officially be put to bed.

Tonight, after cleaning up the shop and getting everything out of the way, I will pull our 1998 Nissan Frontier pick-up truck into the shop to begin surgically dissecting it...literally skinning it.  The next task is a daunting one.  I have to take that truck apart, build a light-weight framework, then reattach the body to that framework so that it still looks like a Nissan Frontier.  I would be lying if I said that I wasn't just a little bit intimidated by the prospect.

The goal is to have the truck ready for load-in by the end of April because May 10 will get here REALLY fast!

If I live through this season, I'm not sure how many more of these INSANE projects I can take on...

What we do for our art...  See you at the theater!
R