Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Spray Painting

Spray Painting

It is not unusual for someone to spend $10K on a paint job for a Hot Rod or a Street Rod or a restoration… Can you imagine spending that much? I can’t, not in a million years.

The last truck I restored I painted with a roller brush, one of those white spongy ones. It turned out OK. I followed the directions in Hot Rod Magazine and it worked. I’m surprised they even printed the article because they have paint advertisers who charge big bucks for their products. Now that was a real act of courage if you ask me… I bet the editor caught hell from the accounting office.

Anyway the editor is at it again….This time he explains how to use Rust-Oleum to apply a flat black primer finish followed by a clear coat. I am going to try this with the $15 dollar sprayer and $10 dollar installation hardware I had to purchase to hook up the air hose. Imagine that… $25 total and I am up and running with a portable sprayer that works. I tested it with some water from the rain barrel and it made spray…

I think I will practice first on some old fenders I have been working on and a couple of hoods out in the machine shed. I need to practice a little before I try it out on the Studebaker. Can you imagine that the sprayer equipment and the paint will be less that $50.

Before you warn me about wearing a respirator be advised I know all about that and will make sure I’m wearing the proper safety equipment.

Today Linda and I went to Madison and had lunch and went to Barnes and Noble and Gander Mountain and Wall Mart. It was a nice day. When we got back I went and got a hair cut and worked on my flathead engine.

There is one I just put on a test stand and forgot how the cylinders were numbered and what the firing order was. So I went out to the pole shed where I have a truck with a flathead that runs and wrote it down with a paint pencil on a scrap piece of sheet metal. The cylinders are numbered… oriented from the drivers seat beginning on the right cast iron head, front to back, 1,2,3,4 and on the left 5,6,7,8. On the distributor cap I wrote the firing order also in white marking paint.

This is always a bit confusing to me and I can attest that it gives others problems as well. Several years ago I got an engine back from a professional builder and the firing sequence was out of order. The motor ran and I didn’t notice but a friend of mine did and got things straightened out.

When I get my tractor back with the log loader I will lift the body of the ‘40 Ford Tudor Sedan onto the frame. Once I have all the stations marked on body and frame I will begin work on replacing the floor. I’ve never done the procedure before and it should be high adventure.

Maybe I’ll ask Linda to give me a hand….then again maybe I won’t. Everybody seems to especially like the blogs about her… I don’t understand people’s tastes all that well, but interest has been high on the last couple of entries. This one should cool things back down.