ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[zmotorsports]

Mike congrats on the grand daughter. They also can be fun in the shop. this is a short video of my #3 grand daughter in mine a few years

back.https://youtu.be/0ihbBrpEjlc?si=vu_gWw5ObFhepS7M

I can't wait to see what your going to build yours

Awesome.

 

[zmotorsports]

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

My wife and I were able to watch our grandson all day on Saturday. We know his world has been turned upside down with the arrival of his little sister so we wanted to make sure he doesn't feel left out, plus it will give my son and DIL a chance to get some rest in between feedings of their daughter. I know my son has been making a special effort to engage with his son, but I also know they are both exhausted.

We went and picked him up Saturday morning and my wife had a bunch of activities planned as well as I had a couple of projects in the shop for him to work on.

Proud daddy and his daughter. She has him wrapped around her little finger and he is so sweet and tender with her.


My grandson and I worked on a small project in the shop then he insisted to push the shop vac around and help me to clean up. We acquired some small wood projects so we built a little red fire truck and he got to use the hammer to nail it together and helped me put the stickers on it. When I asked him to roll the step stool over to the bench he ran right over, grabbed the rolling step and pushed it right up to the workbench. He knows the drill.



It was so great to be able to spend the entire day with him and nothing else on the agenda other than playing with him and letting him be a little boy running around the yard and shop.

 

[zmotorsports]

Friday night before the wife arrived home from work, I pulled the Jeep in the shop and was planning on repacking the bearings in the tire carrier. I had purchased a new seal a few weeks ago as the carrier was starting to feel a little loose during our last trip and I wanted to get the bearings repacked before our Jeeping/RV'ing season began.

Stop removed and cleaned in the solvent tank to remove buildup.


Dust cap removed and revealed a little more wear than I expected. This thing doesn't get the same use as a trailer axle, but it seems I can only get about 3 years between rebuilds.




After removing the seal and lower bearing I noted the rollers were quite bad so upon inspecting the race, I noticed a hairline crack. During removal it came out in two pieces.


I looked at the clock and it was nearing time when my local trailer supply was closing so I ran and just caught them before closing and grabbed a couple of bearings and races. A little high pressure lube aids in race installation.


Packing the bearings for installation.


And all back together.


With the wife still not home from work I figured I had enough time to remove the freedom tops and install our Sunrider soft-top with the upcoming trips and nicer weather on the horizon.


Freedom tops removed and gaskets given a good detail using some all-purpose cleaner before installing the Sunrider top.


Freedom tops in case and ready to store for the summer.



Thanks for looking.

 

[ScepterToad]

Looks like a great day in the shop with your grandson Mike!

On the tire carrier, is it my eyes or is that rusted? If it is, I'm a bit shocked as I wouldn't think too much water could get in there.

 

[zmotorsports]

Looks like a great day in the shop with your grandson Mike!

On the tire carrier, is it my eyes or is that rusted? If it is, I'm a bit shocked as I wouldn't think too much water could get in there.

Thanks Keith.

Yes, there was a slight amount of surface rust on the top of the carrier spindle and top of the castellated nut. The lower bearing also had a little corrosion on the lower side of the inner race, so I am assuming this is coming from pressure washing and some moisture is forced past the seal.

 

[zmotorsports]

In keeping step with some Jeep maintenance, now it's time to turn to the cosmetics. I can't believe I let this go for two years now. In spring of 2024 when the wife and I went to Sedona, AZ we had a wind gust catch my driver's door and break the limiting strap which sent the mirror into the cowl and put a rather large dent in it. I pushed the dent much of the way out last year but it bugs me still.

With the coach work done and almost ready for our first trip and the mechanical maintenance completed on the Jeep I decided to push a couple of side jobs off another week or so and bring the cosmetics of the Jeep up to par.

Sunday afternoon while the wife was doing some housework, I went out to try to get a coat of epoxy on the area so I could begin work this week. I started by removing the LS badge that I installed after the engine swap and cleaned the adhesive as well as gave this area of the cowl a good cleaning with wax & grease remover.


Then I spent a little more time with hammer and dollies to refine the dent a bit more.


I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. Should require only a slight skim coat of filler.


Ground to bare metal.


Used my small DA sander to prep it a bit further out so I could spray some epoxy primer on it before closing up the shop.


With a coat of epoxy primer on the bare metal Sunday afternoon, I dug all of my paint and body supplies out of the basement and laid them out.



More to come with last nights work.

 

[zmotorsports]

Last night after mowing the lawns, I commenced the body work on the cowl area.

A very thin coat of filler.


Sanded down with 80-grit and then 180-grit followed by a guide coat to ensure no low spots.


Then 320-grit.


Followed by a skim coat of glazing filler to refine the scratches and another round of guide coat. Now everything is nearly perfect and not much in terms of primer is needed. Masked off for a couple light coats of epoxy primer. Epoxy primer should be more than adequate in terms of mil thickness as a high build primer is not needed with the body being perfectly flat and no deep scratches.


Couple light coats of epoxy primer and left to dry.



Thanks for looking.

 

[WoodsTruck]

Mike,
I'll bring my Bronco over, it has the same dent.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Grant, thank you for sharing your story and I am very sorry for the loss of your father. I hope you had a good relationship with him. Mine grew to a great relationship with my father, once I got to an age where I realized I didn't know everything and my dad became smarter and smarter. My father has been gone for 24 years now and I still miss him daily. Some days much more than others and I know he would be proud of his grandson and the great young man he has turned into and I wish he could see his great-grandchildren. He became softer as he aged and maybe that is why I had a better relationship with him than my older siblings did.


Looking back, I think that bond between my son and I was strengthened immensely as I watched him, talked to him and held his little hand all through the incubator for those first couple of months. I can totally understand your ex-wife wanting to wrap him up in a bubble to protect him as I feel I was the same way. I developed a strong situational awareness and practiced risk avoidance greatly with our son. There were things I used to do as a child growing up on a farm that in no way on God's green earth I would allow him to do.

Yes, we did a lot of motorsports activities, but him being safe was always the first and foremost point of concern. Even when he was old enough to ride a quad and snowmobile by himself and even with proper training, there were certain times of day we stayed off the mountain due to other people's patterns. We avoided certain trails at certain times of the day as masses of people were heading back to their vehicles in the parking lots. We took out of the way routes to avoid those high-speed idiots who thought the trails were their personal racetracks, etc.

When my son expressed the desire to start riding a motorcycle in high school, I immediately put my foot down and said no. My wife explained that I was being a bit of a hypocrite because I had been buying, building and riding motorcycles for the better part of our marriage even though my father was not pleased with my choice. I conceded under one condition, that he would take a proper riding course and learn from someone other than myself because I know how kids are when it comes from learning everything from dad. A non-biased or third party often times gets through better than a father does. He agreed but wanted me to take the course with him. I agreed.

When we would go on rides, I often times explained risk avoidance and just not putting oneself into certain situations when it wasn't necessary. Things like watching the front tires of cars when pulling out of parking lots to reveal signs of a car preparing to move, avoiding certain traffic lights or intersections at certain times of days, making a right hand turn and going around the block or to a light vs. trying to cross traffic and make a left-hand turn. All of these things were done to protect him and keep him safe. I have always felt like we fought so hard to get him here and the good Lord has blessed him for a reason, then it was up to me to make sure it wasn't for not.

I'm sure I have been overprotective, but I just hope he knows it was all for his benefit, but also because I'm selfish and I don't think I could live with myself if anything happened to him, especially doing something I introduced him to or allowed him to do.

The downside to that is now I feel the same way about my grandchildren; I want to wrap them up in bubble wrap and protect them from the world we live in. I'm sure that's not a healthy behavior on my part though, the stress becomes overwhelming at times.

Thanks Mike. I’m lucky that I always had a very close relationship with him and we would talk daily even right up to the very end. That makes the loss even harder, but it was also incredibly hard to see him suffer so long too. He told me he was ready to go so that helps a bit.

I think it’s only natural that we want to protect our children I sure as hell couldn’t imagine the pain of loosing a kid before I myself pass. That being said we can’t shelter and bubble wrap them. I worked professionally in avalanche terrain for 28 years, and have every training certification possible and my images are in the cover of every training / manual / book etc world wide. With all of that experience the one thing I’ve learned is I know enough to know I don’t know ****, so I’ve always tried to be as careful as possible. After our Japan accident I called my dad and that’s one of the few times I heard him cry…. He knew I got lucky on that one. Calling my friend Kyle’s dad and newlywed wife and then holding my phone over his body so she could say her goes the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Flying home afterwards I asked myself do I really want to keep taking the kids skiing knowing this might happen to them sometime? Hell I didn’t know if I wanted to put ski boots on again myself. Then I got to thinking about all of the good times we have skiing together, and how sitting on the chairlift is one of the few times we can have a conversation with no distractions. It made me realize I sure as heck don’t want to take that joy away from either of us and to me, that far out ways the risk, so instead I do my best to teach them as much as I can about how to be safe in the mountains and more importantly how all it takes is one mistake or missing one detail for things to go bad.

With my new shop being downtown I see so many drug adicts and that scares me too… I’d much rather introduce the kids to a healthy lifestyle (even if that means possibly getting hurt skiing / biking) so they are more likely to hang with good people and avoid the drug scene, and learn to make good choices in life.

My dad and grandpa let me work in the shop with them at a very young age age. It scared the **** out of my mom / grandma and truth be told I shouldn’t have been running a saw that young…. But they taught me how to do things safely and were very strict about that. That experience created such a strong bond between us I wouldn't change it for the world even if I had lost a few fingers ( I may be loosing one to dupuytren's anyways). I must have been 4 or 5 and grandpa had an old electric motor on the bench. I remember cranking the spindle in reverse and got one hell of a shock.. to this day I still remember a motor in reverse becomes a generator.

Your grandson is picking up far more than you may realize working in the shop with you…. Their young minds are like sponges and they seem to soak up far more than we expect. After you are long gone he’s still going to remember working in grandpas shop as a kid. That’s special and enjoy every minute of it.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks Mike. I’m lucky that I always had a very close relationship with him and we would talk daily even right up to the very end. That makes the loss even harder, but it was also incredibly hard to see him suffer so long too. He told me he was ready to go so that helps a bit.

I think it’s only natural that we want to protect our children I sure as hell couldn’t imagine the pain of loosing a kid before I myself pass. That being said we can’t shelter and bubble wrap them. I worked professionally in avalanche terrain for 28 years, and have every training certification possible and my images are in the cover of every training / manual / book etc world wide. With all of that experience the one thing I’ve learned is I know enough to know I don’t know ****, so I’ve always tried to be as careful as possible. After our Japan accident I called my dad and that’s one of the few times I heard him cry…. He knew I got lucky on that one. Calling my friend Kyle’s dad and newlywed wife and then holding my phone over his body so she could say her goes the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Flying home afterwards I asked myself do I really want to keep taking the kids skiing knowing this might happen to them sometime? Hell I didn’t know if I wanted to put ski boots on again myself. Then I got to thinking about all of the good times we have skiing together, and how sitting on the chairlift is one of the few times we can have a conversation with no distractions. It made me realize I sure as heck don’t want to take that joy away from either of us and to me, that far out ways the risk, so instead I do my best to teach them as much as I can about how to be safe in the mountains and more importantly how all it takes is one mistake or missing one detail for things to go bad.

With my new shop being downtown I see so many drug adicts and that scares me too… I’d much rather introduce the kids to a healthy lifestyle (even if that means possibly getting hurt skiing / biking) so they are more likely to hang with good people and avoid the drug scene, and learn to make good choices in life.

My dad and grandpa let me work in the shop with them at a very young age age. It scared the **** out of my mom / grandma and truth be told I shouldn’t have been running a saw that young…. But they taught me how to do things safely and were very strict about that. That experience created such a strong bond between us I wouldn't change it for the world even if I had lost a few fingers ( I may be loosing one to dupuytren's anyways). I must have been 4 or 5 and grandpa had an old electric motor on the bench. I remember cranking the spindle in reverse and got one hell of a shock.. to this day I still remember a motor in reverse becomes a generator.

Your grandson is picking up far more than you may realize working in the shop with you…. Their young minds are like sponges and they seem to soak up far more than we expect. After you are long gone he’s still going to remember working in grandpas shop as a kid. That’s special and enjoy every minute of it.

Thank you for sharing Grant.

I know we can't keep them wrapped up in a bubble, but I sure would like to. I am also under the belief that if we keep our kids busy and interested in things, they won't have time nor the desire to explore those other not so pleasant things in life such as drugs. At least that's my belief and one I hope to continue practicing with my grandchildren much like we did with our son, who I couldn't be more proud of.

That being said, like in my examples prior, risk avoidance is something I have probably given more thought to than most. Some of it due to my career and some of it due to the accidents I have unfortunately had to witness or see out in the back-country between snowmobiling, dirt bikes/ATV's and now Jeeping. Like you, I feel that the more I learn, the more questions I have and the realization that there is more I don't know. I tell my wife I feel like I'm getting dumber by the day because I learn one thing and all it does is trigger a dozen more questions that I don't know the answers to.


What people don't realize is that nearly every accident has antecedents leading up to them. Most of the time removing or altering only one of these antecedents is enough to ward off the accident. I have seen this take place time and time again both in the workplace and out playing. Much of the time we have been able to steer clear of such behaviors, but there have been a few times I could see multiple events leading up to the accident that if only one was removed or altered the accident never would have taken place.

In my younger years growing up on the farm, I wasn't the safest of children/young adult, and the things I did such as climbing up a hay baler while in motion or climbing over a train coupler while the train was in motion because I was too impatient to wait for the train to pass so I could check on the cattle in the pasture, those are behaviors that I was thankful enough to not become injured from, but also ones that I am not proud of nor would I condone. Those were in my young and dumb days before I learned such behaviors could maim you or kill you to death.

I am glad to hear you had a great relationship with your father before his passing, I hope you are able to have fond memories and keep his spirit alive as you share those with your children and others.

 

[ntsqd]

I've mentioned this before, and I'm no closer to figuring out how he did it. I spent every summer with my grandparents from 1st grade to 11th grade. My grandfather always had some part of the current shop project(s) for me to work on. But I was out there and we were working on the project(s) together. My dad was handy and had his various projects over the years and while I learned from him grandad was much more handy and I learned a lot from him.

Shortly before dad passed I put together a trip that he'd been wanting to do for years. The Mojave Military Road. Given dad's physical condition I didn't think we should go alone, so I asked some friends if they wanted to come along. We ended up with 3 generations of fathers and sons, 8 people, 4 rigs, with a father and a son in each truck. That wasn't planned, it just worked out that way and that made the trip even more special. Quite likely the best time that I'd ever had with my dad. We made some good memories on that trip. My stepmom told me later that he talked about that trip for months after we got home. I wish that we had done more trips like that.

 

[aka Larry]

Just so I can learn something else, why didn't you just remove that cowl panel to do the body work Mike?

 

[zmotorsports]

Just so I can learn something else, why didn't you just remove that cowl panel to do the body work Mike?

Basically it was a time call Vincent. It was much more labor intensive to remove the entire cowl vs. bagging the Jeep.

 

[zmotorsports]

I would wager that others on this forum can relate.

 

[aka Larry]

Basically it was a time call Vincent. It was much more labor intensive to remove the entire cowl vs. bagging the Jeep.

I guess the design is a little different on my JL vs. your JK. Four bolts and mine comes right off.

 

[zmotorsports]

I guess the design is a little different on my JL vs. your JK. Four bolts and mine comes right off.

I'm not sure on the JL/JT platform, but on the JK's the center cowl is just four screws and the wiper arms and it's off, easy peezy. However, the side cowl pieces are integral to the fender/quarter panels so much more involved to remove and then you have to worry about scratching or chipping the paint. This was much less invasive, and I don't have to worry about causing more paint damage upon reassembly.

 

[signcrafter]

I'm not sure on the JL/JT platform, but on the JK's the center cowl is just four screws and the wiper arms and it's off, easy peezy. However, the side cowl pieces are integral to the fender/quarter panels so much more involved to remove and then you have to worry about scratching or chipping the paint. This was much less invasive, and I don't have to worry about causing more paint damage upon reassembly.

Mike, I don't have much if any experience with hammer and dolly, or body work besides fiber glassing and bondo for custom car stereos back in the day. But for hammer and dolly you need to get the dolly on the back side of the panel right? Were you able to do that? From the pictures it looks pretty closed off. Is the concept to put the dolly on the dent to push that outwards and then hammer around the pushed in dent? Always been impressed by artwork body guys can do. Fairly easy to make speaker pods and center consoles out of wood and fiberglass and finish them smooth but making a dented or wavy metal panel flat and smooth again takes much more skill. I've thought about getting a quarter panel or hood from the junkyard just to play around with but never seem to have the time to "play". LOL. I did piece together a decent set of used body hammers and dollies, most of them are martin and snap on. Even started to restore a few of them and planned to use them someday.

 

[545_days]

Mike it's good to see you working with the grandson in your shop. FYI, you can find child size PPE on line. Get him in the habit of wearing ear and eye protection now and he is far more likely to actually use it later as he grows up and really needs it. It will have become as habitual to him as wearing seat belts.

 

[BSWS]

I would wager that others on this forum can relate.

I just saw that last night. It made me think a little. It seems like every guy I know has got to the point of paying people to do things for them. I'll be 70 soon and I don't think I'm close yet. When any repairs or maintenance are done with my own hands I sleep better.

 

[jbmatth]

I just saw that last night. It made me think a little. It seems like every guy I know has got to the point of paying people to do things for them. I'll be 70 soon and I don't think I'm close yet. When any repairs or maintenance are done with my own hands I sleep better.

I was having a discussion with a friend a few months back where another person was getting bids for some work on their house, they were beating up the contractor (a friend of theirs) on the price. I just looked at my friend and said, wow, it must stink to have to pay someone to do that. We both laughed, being able to fix things myself has paid back many times the amount I've spent on tools.

JB

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, I don't have much if any experience with hammer and dolly, or body work besides fiber glassing and bondo for custom car stereos back in the day. But for hammer and dolly you need to get the dolly on the back side of the panel right? Were you able to do that? From the pictures it looks pretty closed off. Is the concept to put the dolly on the dent to push that outwards and then hammer around the pushed in dent? Always been impressed by artwork body guys can do. Fairly easy to make speaker pods and center consoles out of wood and fiberglass and finish them smooth but making a dented or wavy metal panel flat and smooth again takes much more skill. I've thought about getting a quarter panel or hood from the junkyard just to play around with but never seem to have the time to "play". LOL. I did piece together a decent set of used body hammers and dollies, most of them are martin and snap on. Even started to restore a few of them and planned to use them someday.

Scott, you are correct, the concept is to get the dolly behind the panel and then depending on the dent you either hammer "on dolly" or "off dolly" depending on whether you need to raise an area or lower a surrounding area. Access behind that small corner cowl is pretty restricted, but if you look at the picture immediately after the badge removal you will see a dolly with a long stem or handle on it. That is what I used to reach in behind the dent and then by hammering "off dolly" I was able to raise the lowered part of the dent.

I'm far from a pro like Robert, aka @MP&C , but I've done quite a bit in a former life when I was building street rods and restorations so I can hold my own, but I'm still always trying to learn and improve my skillset. That being said, one thing I have found when trying to show someone is that beginners tend to overpull or overwork the metal and raise it too much above the parent material. They are so anxious and excited to get to the body filler stage that they then fight the highs and usually end up having to knock them back down. Take your time and get the metal as close as possible so only a very, very thin skim coat of filler is required. You don't want much at all. Everything I've read is no thicker than 1/4", but I always shoot for much, much less.

Where the metal has already been stretched from the dent, there's going to be some filler, so the key is to keep the metal lower than the parent material very slightly, only enough for a small skim coat of filler, and then sand down to where it is "almost" flush. Then switch to finer paper and refine the scratches. Where I'm not a body shop rushing an insurance job, I always try to put a coat of epoxy primer down over 80-grit scratches for the filler to have not only a mechanical tooth, but also a chemical tooth for adhesion as well as corrosion protection.

Then the next day I will begin my filler work. Let the filler cure, then sand with 80-grit to where it is close and switch to 180-grit and refine the 80-grit scratches. Then I will use a glazing or icing filler to fill those scratches as well as the 80 and 180 scratches to the surrounding areas and finish that out with 320-grit before going to primer.

When I first started out back in the 80's I learned by going very coarse in the beginning to knock things down quickly, that was just the way people did it, like 36-grit. However, I found you then have to worry about filling those 36-grit scratches or they WILL come back to bite you in the ***. Maybe not right away, but a month or a year down the road you'll see those puppies come right through as everything shrinks back. When the high build primers came into the scene they all ranted and raved about being able to fill 36-grit scratches, and they would, initially and for a while. PPG had a K200 (yellow) back in the day that was almost like spraying liquid body filler, but I got bit doing a complete for a guy and had to end up going back six months later and refinishing several sections where the scratches pulled back and were visible. I think what was happening was the heavy primer was actually bridging across the course scratches rather than getting into the valleys of them and filling them. Then as the sun beat down on the paint and all of the solvents finally flashed off, the primer shrunk.

Since then I quit using such coarse paper and start with 80 and refine scratches from there all the way up to 320-grit before I even think about mixing up some primer. I also don't use the high build primer very often. Very seldom in fact. I prefer to get the body work nearly perfect so the primer is only needed for scratch refinement and uniformity. I have sprayed some of the polyester high build primer from Evercoat and actually quite like it. Being catalyzed it is more liken to body filler than actually a 2k primer surfacer. I will use that if I need to level out a large panel or area before going to a standard 2k primer surfacer. I then will use the epoxy primer slightly reduces as a sealer before going to basecoat as I feel it gives just that little extra adhesion and corrosion protection, especially if there are any areas where I cut through the primer.

Sorry for the long drawn-out explanation Scott. Hope it was helpful and you maybe you can avoid falling subject to some of my similar earlier mistakes, but I would suggest grabbing a panel from a salvage yard and practicing not only dent removal, but also filler applications, sanding and priming all before moving on to something that really matters.

I've been blessed with a lot of work over the years that really helped me refine much of my skills long before I tackled our first high end street rod build. Our 1940 Chev coupe was my first high end job and I was thankful I had painted a half dozen or so before tackling that one. Our '40 coupe was riddled with bullet holes and large sections of body were taken by rust so this was a true test.

Funny story, we were at the UVSC (Utah Valley State College) in Orem, UT, long before it was UVU (Utah Valley University) and there were about 400 cars there for a state invitational car show. This was around 2001 before my dad passed (2002) and once we arrived and got the car setup, I got the lawn chair out for my dad to sit in and he was just grinning ear to ear talking with people as they walked by. My BIL and I decided to walk around, and we bumped into Hondo John who is a world-renowned custom painter here in Utah. I was a nobody back then just dipping my big toe into the custom world with my first build, hell I'm still a nobody , but Hondo John had 3 cars he had painted in that show. An 80's El Camino, a 1940 Studebaker Pro-Streeter and a 1934 3-window Ford coupe. All absolutely beautiful works of rolling art with flawless paint and body work.

As my BIL and I walked away I told him I thought the 1934 Ford 3-window was going to win best paint award and he thought it was going to be the El Camino. The El Camino with those long quarter panels were perfectly flat and the paint looked about 3' thick so I conceded he may be right. As we were standing around and they were announcing awards, we received a People's Choice award and then they got to the big daddy awards such as best 30's, best 40's and best paint. Hondo John's won best 30's, we won best 40's and THEN they announced the best paint award and I was blown over when they called my name. I was in shock, my wife gave me a big ole' hug and to see the grin on my dad's face was something I will never forget. As I was walking down from grabbing the award Hondo John came up to me and congratulated me and shook my hand. I will never forget that event.

All with this car, built by a complete nobody and his first attempt at building a street rod.




Then a few years later I had the opportunity to build this one for a client and it turned out even better than our '40 coupe. I was quite blessed to have been able to build another 2 cars for this same client.



After building a couple more cars for this same client, I did a stupid thing in 2008~ish. I told him I was getting out of building custom cars and diving all in the sand dune pond. He asked why and I stated that cars are great to build, but so much can be hidden and with a tube chassis such as a sand rail or quad, nothing can be hidden. EVERYTHING is right out in the open for the whole world to see and I really wanted to see if my workmanship was good enough to hang in that world. While we did well with the sand dune toys and we made a name for ourselves in the local duning community, I can't help to think that I shot my d**k off by telling my client I was no longer building cars. What a dumb move that was as he was a great client and great guy. He had money but didn't flash it about nor boast about it. Just a great guy who allowed me to collaborate with him to build a couple of amazing projects.

Sorry for the detour and trip down memory lane.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike it's good to see you working with the grandson in your shop. FYI, you can find child size PPE on line. Get him in the habit of wearing ear and eye protection now and he is far more likely to actually use it later as he grows up and really needs it. It will have become as habitual to him as wearing seat belts.

Thanks and yes, we have eye and ear protection for him. I'm working on getting him used to wearing it when I'm doing anything with flying metal sparks, etc. He's a little reluctant on the goggles, but he's coming around. I have his ear muffs hanging right over the workbench where he can grab them.

 

[zmotorsports]

I just saw that last night. It made me think a little. It seems like every guy I know has got to the point of paying people to do things for them. I'll be 70 soon and I don't think I'm close yet. When any repairs or maintenance are done with my own hands I sleep better.

Agreed. I was hoping others would find that video as enlightening as I did.

I was having a discussion with a friend a few months back where another person was getting bids for some work on their house, they were beating up the contractor (a friend of theirs) on the price. I just looked at my friend and said, wow, it must stink to have to pay someone to do that. We both laughed, being able to fix things myself has paid back many times the amount I've spent on tools.

JB

While I don't expect everyone to have the same skills many of us do JB, as I'm sure there are others that have skills that I don't possess. But one thing that has always bothered me, is that there are some of those who don't know something but they sure beat up on those that do in terms of pricing or what they read on the internet, making it sound as though they know how to do the task, but just don't want to be bothered or worse, actually doing the job is beneath them, which is why they are hiring it out. I can do without that attitude for sure and I've been known to kick a few of them to the curb and refuse to work on their vehicles if they come into my shop with that attitude.

 

[zmotorsports]

Upon arriving home from work last night, I thought I would get the cowl wet sanded and prepped for paint.

I started over the primer with 400-grit to flatten everything out and ensure no scratches were visible.


I then switched over to 600-grit and sanded the entire cowl section. While this isn't a "show job" by any means, if it's worth doing it's worth doing it right. So to check that it is flat and will reflect the light well, I like to flood the panel with water as it really shows any defects long before paint ever hits the panel. Here you can see the small panel is flat and smooth as glass with no visible signs of any work performed. You can barely see the blend area between the primer and the original paint about mid-way in the panel, but the panel is flat and producing a nice reflection.


Dried and checked that there are no missed areas. You want everything sanded/scuffed with no shiny paint remaining or you will have adhesion issues.


Once determined that there were no missed spots, everything was unmasked and blown off. Many prefer dry sanding but when it comes to final sanding, I prefer wet. However, it is paramount that all water is blown out of nooks and crannies as the last thing you want is a mist or droplet of water flying out of a crack or seam when painting. By keeping the body work small and confined, the primer thickness thin enough to not have a lot to remove yet thick enough to prevent any cut-through's, I really shouldn't even need a sealer and can go right to a color blend followed by clearing this small cowl completely.


With the cowl ready for paint, I wanted to also repaint the A-pillar light mounting brackets while I was at it. They were originally powder coated and while the coating has held up well for the 15-years they've been on our Jeep, they have began to fade, so a refresh of color is in order.


The light mounting brackets and hardware will get a coat of SPI epoxy primer prior to paint and clear.




Thanks for looking.

 

[signcrafter]

Scott, you are correct, the concept is to get the dolly behind the panel and then depending on the dent you either hammer "on dolly" or "off dolly" depending on whether you need to raise an area or lower a surrounding area. Access behind that small corner cowl is pretty restricted, but if you look at the picture immediately after the badge removal you will see a dolly with a long stem or handle on it. That is what I used to reach in behind the dent and then by hammering "off dolly" I was able to raise the lowered part of the dent.

I'm far from a pro like Robert, aka @MP&C , but I've done quite a bit in a former life when I was building street rods and restorations so I can hold my own, but I'm still always trying to learn and improve my skillset. That being said, one thing I have found when trying to show someone is that beginners tend to overpull or overwork the metal and raise it too much above the parent material. They are so anxious and excited to get to the body filler stage that they then fight the highs and usually end up having to knock them back down. Take your time and get the metal as close as possible so only a very, very thin skim coat of filler is required. You don't want much at all. Everything I've read is no thicker than 1/4", but I always shoot for much, much less.

Where the metal has already been stretched from the dent, there's going to be some filler, so the key is to keep the metal lower than the parent material very slightly, only enough for a small skim coat of filler, and then sand down to where it is "almost" flush. Then switch to finer paper and refine the scratches. Where I'm not a body shop rushing an insurance job, I always try to put a coat of epoxy primer down over 80-grit scratches for the filler to have not only a mechanical tooth, but also a chemical tooth for adhesion as well as corrosion protection.

Then the next day I will begin my filler work. Let the filler cure, then sand with 80-grit to where it is close and switch to 180-grit and refine the 80-grit scratches. Then I will use a glazing or icing filler to fill those scratches as well as the 80 and 180 scratches to the surrounding areas and finish that out with 320-grit before going to primer.

When I first started out back in the 80's I learned by going very coarse in the beginning to knock things down quickly, that was just the way people did it, like 36-grit. However, I found you then have to worry about filling those 36-grit scratches or they WILL come back to bite you in the ***. Maybe not right away, but a month or a year down the road you'll see those puppies come right through as everything shrinks back. When the high build primers came into the scene they all ranted and raved about being able to fill 36-grit scratches, and they would, initially and for a while. PPG had a K200 (yellow) back in the day that was almost like spraying liquid body filler, but I got bit doing a complete for a guy and had to end up going back six months later and refinishing several sections where the scratches pulled back and were visible. I think what was happening was the heavy primer was actually bridging across the course scratches rather than getting into the valleys of them and filling them. Then as the sun beat down on the paint and all of the solvents finally flashed off, the primer shrunk.

Since then I quit using such coarse paper and start with 80 and refine scratches from there all the way up to 320-grit before I even think about mixing up some primer. I also don't use the high build primer very often. Very seldom in fact. I prefer to get the body work nearly perfect so the primer is only needed for scratch refinement and uniformity. I have sprayed some of the polyester high build primer from Evercoat and actually quite like it. Being catalyzed it is more liken to body filler than actually a 2k primer surfacer. I will use that if I need to level out a large panel or area before going to a standard 2k primer surfacer. I then will use the epoxy primer slightly reduces as a sealer before going to basecoat as I feel it gives just that little extra adhesion and corrosion protection, especially if there are any areas where I cut through the primer.

Sorry for the long drawn-out explanation Scott. Hope it was helpful and you maybe you can avoid falling subject to some of my similar earlier mistakes, but I would suggest grabbing a panel from a salvage yard and practicing not only dent removal, but also filler applications, sanding and priming all before moving on to something that really matters.

I've been blessed with a lot of work over the years that really helped me refine much of my skills long before I tackled our first high end street rod build. Our 1940 Chev coupe was my first high end job and I was thankful I had painted a half dozen or so before tackling that one. Our '40 coupe was riddled with bullet holes and large sections of body were taken by rust so this was a true test.

Funny story, we were at the UVSC (Utah Valley State College) in Orem, UT, long before it was UVU (Utah Valley University) and there were about 400 cars there for a state invitational car show. This was around 2001 before my dad passed (2002) and once we arrived and got the car setup, I got the lawn chair out for my dad to sit in and he was just grinning ear to ear talking with people as they walked by. My BIL and I decided to walk around, and we bumped into Hondo John who is a world-renowned custom painter here in Utah. I was a nobody back then just dipping my big toe into the custom world with my first build, hell I'm still a nobody , but Hondo John had 3 cars he had painted in that show. An 80's El Camino, a 1940 Studebaker Pro-Streeter and a 1934 3-window Ford coupe. All absolutely beautiful works of rolling art with flawless paint and body work.

As my BIL and I walked away I told him I thought the 1934 Ford 3-window was going to win best paint award and he thought it was going to be the El Camino. The El Camino with those long quarter panels were perfectly flat and the paint looked about 3' thick so I conceded he may be right. As we were standing around and they were announcing awards, we received a People's Choice award and then they got to the big daddy awards such as best 30's, best 40's and best paint. Hondo John's won best 30's, we won best 40's and THEN they announced the best paint award and I was blown over when they called my name. I was in shock, my wife gave me a big ole' hug and to see the grin on my dad's face was something I will never forget. As I was walking down from grabbing the award Hondo John came up to me and congratulated me and shook my hand. I will never forget that event.

All with this car, built by a complete nobody and his first attempt at building a street rod.




Then a few years later I had the opportunity to build this one for a client and it turned out even better than our '40 coupe. I was quite blessed to have been able to build another 2 cars for this same client.



After building a couple more cars for this same client, I did a stupid thing in 2008~ish. I told him I was getting out of building custom cars and diving all in the sand dune pond. He asked why and I stated that cars are great to build, but so much can be hidden and with a tube chassis such as a sand rail or quad, nothing can be hidden. EVERYTHING is right out in the open for the whole world to see and I really wanted to see if my workmanship was good enough to hang in that world. While we did well with the sand dune toys and we made a name for ourselves in the local duning community, I can't help to think that I shot my d**k off by telling my client I was no longer building cars. What a dumb move that was as he was a great client and great guy. He had money but didn't flash it about nor boast about it. Just a great guy who allowed me to collaborate with him to build a couple of amazing projects.

Sorry for the detour and trip down memory lane.

Thanks for the "long drawn out explanation" Mike. I'll always take all the advice I can get to soak in so no need to be sorry. Beautiful cars Mike and love the story of your Dad being there to see you get the award!

 

[signcrafter]

Agreed. I was hoping others would find that video as enlightening as I did.




While I don't expect everyone to have the same skills many of us do JB, as I'm sure there are others that have skills that I don't possess. But one thing that has always bothered me, is that there are some of those who don't know something but they sure beat up on those that do in terms of pricing or what they read on the internet, making it sound as though they know how to do the task, but just don't want to be bothered or worse, actually doing the job is beneath them, which is why they are hiring it out. I can do without that attitude for sure and I've been known to kick a few of them to the curb and refuse to work on their vehicles if they come into my shop with that attitude.

The best is when someone watches a video or heard from someone about a repair or whatever you may be talking about and they throw their opinion and advice in when they have zero experience on the subject besides what they saw in a video on youtube. You can usually tell pretty quick they have no experience and just repeating things they heard. It's one thing to have a discussion on a topic but the ones that like to speak up like they are an expert because they watched a video of guy doing a repair are interesting.

 

[ScepterToad]

Thanks for detailing the paint project Mike! Good information to have!

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks for detailing the paint project Mike! Good information to have!

Thanks Keith. Hope it was helpful and not overwhelming. And this is just how I do it, not saying that is the only way to do these types of repairs or paint work in general.

 

[545_days]

Thanks and yes, we have eye and ear protection for him. I'm working on getting him used to wearing it when I'm doing anything with flying metal sparks, etc. He's a little reluctant on the goggles, but he's coming around. I have his ear muffs hanging right over the workbench where he can grab them.

They also sell little kid sized safety glasses. They are much more comfortable than goggle's.

 

[steves_001]

You did yourself proud with those hot rods! Beautiful work!

 

[zmotorsports]

You did yourself proud with those hot rods! Beautiful work!

Thank you. I enjoyed building them and sure learned a lot in the process. I would like to build another couple of cars before I'm six feet under, but those will be retirement projects. I have a couple of projects bouncing around in my head that I would like to build with my grandchildren.

 

[zmotorsports]

The weather looked a bit better yesterday afternoon than earlier in the day so I decided to mix up some epoxy primer and reduce it about 25% to use as a sealer and while it was going through its induction period with a few stirs I went about masking everything up.

With the epoxy primer in its induction period, I masked the backside of the light covers to keep overspray off the inside.


I can't remember if I've shown this or not in the past, but a way to simplify such masking, just over shoot the masking tape and then take a sharp razor blade and cut "onto" the edge which produces a very nice and crisp edge in which to paint up against. I have also used a file on some metal parts in the past with good results, but a razor blade creates such a nice crisp edge and is so quick.


I wrapped a couple pieces of square tubing in masking paper to act as an anchor to hold the lenses so they didn't fly off the table when sprayed, then used back folded masking tape to adhere the lenses to the weighted tubing.


Same with the small spacers for the driving lights, just back folded masking tape to adhere them to something weighted and provide a standoff so they don't stick to the paper and create a mess when you want to remove them. Plus it provides some lift up off the table for a better gun angle.


After the primer was ready to shoot, I sprayed the light brackets and spacers and while it was curing for a bit I went to masking the Jeep off. No need to spray a sealer on this as I didn't break through the primer anywhere.


I was originally only planning on getting the small brackets in primer last night and then let it sit overnight and spray it the next night, but by reducing the epoxy primer slightly to use as a sealer, it speeds up the dry time. Plus the wife just called and was barely leaving work so I figured I may as well knock out the whole thing and be done with it. Here I'm mixing up the last of the DBC9700 paint that I had, so I hadn't better screw up as I'm out of paint. I also add just a little bit of activator to my paint once reduced to give it a little stability. Basically, I turn it into DBU paint that used reactive reducer.


First coat of black sprayed on the spacers. You can see the light brackets hanging on the sides of the table which were sprayed next.


The first coat of black was quite light and just on the primer. Here the second coat of black went on as a medium wet coat and I went out just a little past the first coat. Being a solid, black and knowing it's a perfect match, I could have just sprayed the entire small panel and been done with it, but I like to blend to ensure a good match, plus it's a good practice to stay proficient at as I don't paint much these days.


With the base coats applied, I cleaned out my gun and mixed up some clear. When shooting a solid and going straight to clear, many times I won't clean my gun quite as good as it doesn't matter if a little color gets in the clear, however, where I am spraying the light covers and don't want them "tinted", I tore the gun completely down and did a thorough cleaning before spraying any clear. Here is the first coat of clear on the parts.





More to come.

 

[zmotorsports]

Continuing on.

I let the first coat of clear flash off for about 30-minutes and followed with a second coat. The light covers really turned out great, much better than I expected as they were a bit rough.


This was the first coat of clear and just getting ready to lay down the second coat.


Second coat on the light mounting brackets.


Second coat completed on the spacers.


Just before bringing everything back inside the shop.



Stay tuned for a few more pictures.

 

[zmotorsports]

The last of the pictures from last night's painting.

After the last coat has flashed off for about 15-minutes. The depth and clarity really show well here. Almost flatter than the OEM finish. I had hoped for just a little bit of peel to match the original finish, but the clear laid down pretty flat.




I was cleaning my mixing cups and gun when the wife arrived home from work so it was perfect timing. You can see my mixing cups have a little bit of "history" behind them.


I sure like my little baby Iwata gun for small detail jobs like this. My Iwata 400 would have worked, but at pressures and lower fluid volume, this little detail gun really produces a nice atomization.


I went back out later after dinner and unmasked the Jeep.


And unmasked the light covers.




Thanks for looking.

 

[ScepterToad]

Man that turned out nice Mike! Well done!!

 

[signcrafter]

Looks great Mike! I'm guessing it's not often someone says they were hoping for a little orange peel when they are painting. LOL. In the picture of the first coat of clear it looks like a little peel can be seen. Is that fairly normal and the second coat smooths it out a little better? I don't know much of anything when it comes to paint.

 

[zmotorsports]

Man that turned out nice Mike! Well done!!

Thanks Keith.

Looks great Mike! I'm guessing it's not often someone says they were hoping for a little orange peel when they are painting. LOL. In the picture of the first coat of clear it looks like a little peel can be seen. Is that fairly normal and the second coat smooths it out a little better? I don't know much of anything when it comes to paint.

Thanks Scott. Yeah, I usually don't want orange peel, but the OEM's seem to always have a little so if trying to match, you really don't want it perfectly glass smooth or flat. A custom job? Ab-so-frea-kin-lut-ly you want it flat. When doing a custom job, I will add just a little reducer to the last coat of clear, approx. 10%, and that really flattens the clear out and makes it almost like glass.

On this job I did not reduce the last coat. With the older PPG clears, DC2000, DC2020 and DC2021 I would make my first coat of clear a tack coat, meaning a little faster and movement with about 75% overlap. The first coat would actually almost look "splotchy", but the second and third coats really flowed out nicely. The problem with those clears, besides the cost jumping up 7%-12% every time I purchased it, they also cut back on the solids, so more coats were required and if that first coat was put on as a medium wet coat it would sag or run. Then the dilemma is that it seems like every time a wet coat is applied, you open yourself up or expose the surface to small contaminations, dirt nibs, dust, etc. so more coats can work against you. When I was doing show jobs, I would put 3-4 coats on the vehicle, let it cure for a few days, wet sand with 600-grit and then recoat with another 2-3 coats. That would provide adequate mil thickness for a good cut & buff session. That last coat was where I would add the 10% extra reducer to really flatten out the clear.

Since using the SPI Universal Clear for the past half dozen years or so, I have found an initial tack coat is not necessary as the SPI clear is a higher solids clear than the PPG. In fact, it is more like the PPG clears of the late 80's and through the 90's before they starting pulling back on the solids. With the SPI I had a little learning curve, or relearning curve more accurately. I found that you want that first coat a medium wet coat and then the key is give it proper flash time before applying the second coat. A good 30-minutes is best. THIS is where I see people really botch up everything they've worked so hard to do prior. They rush the clear and stack the coats too close together.

I was guilty of that early on as well. I would touch an area on the masking paper and if it felt like it was tacky or even barely stringing up, I would move forward with the next coat. It bit me a couple of times. I then started looking at the clock and walking away for a good 30-minutes before even thinking about the next coat of clear. Don't look at it, don't walk around it, don't even breath around it, just walk away, otherwise you'll talk yourself into thinking it can accept the next coat and next thing you know it's running on the floor of the shop. Don't ask me how I know.

With the SPI, two good coats and there is enough mil thickness for some cutting and buffing to remove any dust nibs or even texture if needed. The application can also determine peel. Too dry, too close with the gun and too much air pressure can induce a little more texture than wanted and the subsequent coats won't hide that peel once it's there, they will magnify it, so how it applied is very critical. In this application that second coat of clear really melded into the first nicely and flattened out nicely. The picture maybe makes it look a little flatter than it is or maybe it's the lighting, but there is a slight peel to it and it seems to match the fender and hood pretty close, if anything maybe the OEM finish has just a slight amount more peel than what I just fixed, but if you don't tell anyone I won't.

I think I showed the rear driver's quarter panel repair I did on my Jeep about 5 or so years ago, I actually have a YouTube video of it on my channel as well, but it laid down with the perfect texture to match the OEM. All I did was run a polisher over it and no need to sand. That is what I'm hoping with this cowl, just to breath over it with the polisher and some compound.

Again, probably much more explanation than you were looking for Scott, but hope it's helpful.

 

[signcrafter]

Again, probably much more explanation than you were looking for Scott, but hope it's helpful.

I'll take in anything someone wants to type when it comes to learning something Mike. Thanks for the explination.

 

[zmotorsports]

I'll take in anything someone wants to type when it comes to learning something Mike. Thanks for the explination.

Listen to me pretend to think I'm a painter Scott. I thought I had put those days behind me.

I'm sure there are some real painters here that can chime in and give their feedback as well. I'd be happy to hear it as I too want to take in anything someone will share and I can gain all of the knowledge I can.

 

[ntsqd]

Wanting some orange peel sounds like a be careful what you wish for scenario.

Reminded me of the lathe that a guy I used to know worked on. It was in an isolated climate controlled room, which was inside a climate controlled building at LNL Nat'l Labs. NIST couldn't measure it's error when first installed in the 70's. His project needed a very specific surface finish that resembled egg-crate foam on a tiny part. So they built a coil into the tool holder and deliberately vibrated the cutting tool!