Don't forget the tailgate!

We are ready to spray the tinted box liner and then reverse mask to spray the exterior - but had to put a hold on it to get the tailgate repaired, stripped and primed! Sometimes parts get missed and have to be sprayed afterwards, but this can result in slight color or texture differences - so I wanted to get it repaired and ready to spray with everything at once.

Below is the box ready to get the box liner application (fenders will be removed first!)

Here's the Bed Liner kit we'll be using, from Pro-Form. Kit comes with  tint-able texture, 

hardener and a specific gun - not unlike the old "Body Schutz" guns we used to use 

to spray rubberized undercoating.

After pounding out the damaged edges of the Tailgate I laid it out on the cement floor to ensure it was straight and level. Took a little tweaking with some 2x4's under one side and some well-placed hits with the ball-peen hammer in the other, but it came out pretty damn close.

Once that was done the cracks and separated edges came together and I ran some weld across them:

The welds where then cleaned up and brought flush with the panel - 

After removing most of the original paint and as much of the surface rust as possible with the pneumatic stripper, I sprayed on a few coats of Metal-Ready, an anti-rust metal preparation product that turns rust (Iron Oxide) into a black inert substance (Iron Oxite). I've used it for years and even did some testing for the company (PRO15) a few years back (which can be searched for in my blog).

If you're as old as I am, you'll remember when MAACO advertised a $149 complete paint job. I'm not sure how they did that even back then, but I do recall paying about $300-$400 in materials to paint cars about 25 years ago....now, the materials you see below, almost everything needed to paint this truck, amounts to nearly $4000.00! A gallon of automotive base-paint alone is $450 and a gallon - and that's not counting your clear, hardeners, reducer, sealer, primers and - in this case - truck box liner. 

Other small pieces that will need to be painted with the truck's exterior are sitting on top of the grille shell, which will be painted last as it's white.

Once the color is finally on, we can get the fun part -  

cleaning the shop and detailing all the parts that make a vehicle a driver!

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SO. CLOSE. TO. PAINT.....

This is a long-weekend here in Saskatchewan and we had planned to finally get some paint on the  project - on the inners (inside cab, door jambs, engine bay, under the hood) specifically, as well as to spray the inside of the box with tinted box-liner....but you know what they say about 'best laid plans...'

Last week I went into my main paint supply house Walkers Automotive, in Saskatoon SK., whereby me, and my main-man Dan, the Walker employee I've dealt with for so many years, tried to find the paint chip and code for the 56 IH truck we've working so hard and long on. No luck though, so I said I'd go back and look hard for a code on the truck,  go online and do some research or at least, bring back a sample from the truck for which to paint-match.

Once back at the shop I noticed this faint - very faint - grease pencil mark on the firewall....after some neck craning, wiping it down with some light-solvent and shining light from all-different angles, you could barely read: "Blue 46".




So, back to the great internet I went and as per my last posting, I found the paint chip on a color page from 1956/57. I emailed this information, along with a link to the color page, to Walkers Info-line email address with a note to Dan to mix up a gallon of base, plus the box-liner material for me to pick up in order to paint the next weekend.

On Friday I bust my ass sanding and spraying the FINAL coats of primer so we can sand it out in 400 and seal and paint inners on Saturday. Saturday rolls around and no call from Walkers...Uh Oh.. Saturday morning I call them at 8:00 am and find they open at 9:00 AM on Saturdays. I call at 9:00 AM...and find that my-man Dan is taking a RARE Saturday off.....not a good sign. The underling is on duty. Shit.

I've dealt with this guy only once before, about 5 years ago.....and it was unsuccessful to say the least. Another bad omen. I ask him to check to ensure my paint is mixed and ready to pick up. There's nothing on the shelf he says. I tell him to check the email. He can't find it - of course. I resend it to show it was sent. He gets that one but says no one ever got the first email. Fine then, I ask if he can mix it up today. He says he'll try and starts with the excuses...there's only 2 of them on today, it could get busy. Since they close at 1:00 PM - I think: he's got nearly 5 hours, so I'm hopeful but not holding my breath....it is the underling I'm dealing with here after all.

Sure-enough, 4 hours pass and the underling can't do it: can't find the matching codes, too many blues, too many decisions, too little brain power.  Par for the course with this guy. Why couldn't Dan have been there? Why didn't they open my original email? Why didn't I call all week to check. Ya, that's it, it's MY fault....or that's what the underling implies....

So, we spend the weekend getting everything ready, down to the very last item. We'll be ready to walk-in and spray - assuming we get the paint.

Final dry-sanding with 400 grit

A sample of the original color - albeit 61 years old. A little faded perhaps, but it matches damn close to one of these chips (42105). We'll add a little yellow, a couple drops black, or maybe some trans-oxide yellow, which is a pre-mix of blackened-yellow and didn't exist in 1956. we're so close I can almost taste it.  

Of course it should've been partly blue today (inners) and completely painted next week. But now it'll be painted first week of June. Then the fun part begins - repairing, restoring, painting and installing the hundreds of parts that attach to the painted body. 

The FUN part. 

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