Bahama Blues: Extensive camper work has begun

[Hank_]

Well the moment of truth is getting near as I prepare to shoot paint on the bronco this weekend. I will have to take some time off this week as I get ready for paint. I have been blocking and sanding for the last couple weeks and I am so sick and tired of it. I am very fortunate as one of my clients (I handle warranty claims for Ford dealers) is going to let me use there down draft paint booth this weekend. That means I don't have to clean and prep the garage and the paint will get baked on so I should be able to reassemble it late Saturday hopefully. If anyone reads this a quick prayer for good old Henry that this thing goes smoothly would be appreciated. So pics to come either this weekend or Monday.

Henry

 

[Crawdad]

Good luck Hank!

 

[allenfahey]

Are you nervous That is awesome they are going to let you use the booth! Just to fire up a booth costs quite a bit of money for the bake cycle and the run time for an all over. (1 million BTU's in the bake cycle$$$) Your paint job will turn out 100% better in a booth. You will have a cleaner job as a result and if they have a good drier for the air lines the clear will look better too. Access to a gun cleaner and a place to dump the waste is a bonus too.

Good luck with it and if you have any ?'s give me a call.

 

[Hank_]

Are you nervous That is awesome they are going to let you use the booth! Just to fire up a booth costs quite a bit of money for the bake cycle and the run time for an all over. (1 million BTU's in the bake cycle$$$) Your paint job will turn out 100% better in a booth. You will have a cleaner job as a result and if they have a good drier for the air lines the clear will look better too. Access to a gun cleaner and a place to dump the waste is a bonus too.

Good luck with it and if you have any ?'s give me a call.

I already sent of bunch of your posts regarding paint quantity and type of paint to the painter who will be helping me. I have your phone number on speed dial if anything comes up. Your a great resource and are always so helpful with the paint questions. Thanks

Henry

 

[ckuck]

wow hank great build

 

[englewoodcowboy]

Awesome build Hank!

 

[Miker]

Good luck with the paint job! Sounds like you have done plenty of the all important prep work.
Pics for us when your done!

 

[Hank_]

So I have been busting my ass all week trying to get ready for paint. I finished shooting primer around 5:00 yesterday afternoon and loaded up all the parts and the bronco and headed over the dealership. I dropped the bronco off last night because we were expecting rain. I was back at the dealership at 8:00 this morning. I guide coated all of the parts and block sanded all damn day. The painter at the dealership asked if he could shoot some parts because he was all done with his work for the afternoon. I said YES and thanks for asking. So he started putting parts in the paint booth and shooting paint. I have to say I am glad I stuck with the Bahama Blue. It is unlike any other blue you see around. Here are some pics front today. Got both fenders, the tailgate and the underside of the hood painted today. Tomorrow we will paint the grille, top of hood, doors and body. The guys at the dealership we so nice and very helpful. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am to have this great place to work and great guys helping.

Waiting for its turn.

Andy cleaning the parts.

Priming where I sanded through.

Shooting color.

Cleared and drying.

I will have more pics tomorrow and then install of panels next week.

Henry

 

[Stutsmo]

That color ROCKS! You must be one happy guy. Looks real good man, I'm excited to see the finished Bronco!

 

[BluebroncoNC]

Awsome!!!!

 

[boonz28]

Very nice!
My '71 was origionally Bahama Blue from the factory. I think you made a great choice sticking with that color.

 

[englewoodcowboy]

Bahama Blues: Some paint is on!

Awesome color! Awesome job, I'm just a big old picture whore so I always like them too.

 

[Blue Bastard]

Bahama Blues: Some paint is on!

Is it dry yet? Looking forward to some pictures been following this tread since the beginning


Blue

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

 

[allenfahey]

Looks great! Did you have enough paint? Did you get to do any of the painting?

 

[Hank_]

Looks great! Did you have enough paint? Did you get to do any of the painting?

I ended up using the water based PPG paint that they mixed at the dealership. The paint covered great. Could have used just one coat but used 2 coats on exterior panels. Andy was very good at estimating the amount of paint needed to paint the vehicle. The nice thing is if I ever need to they can reproduce the same color. I did not paint but I was back at sanding today. My thumbs were bleeding from all the sanding this week. Andy asked if I wanted to shoot some base coat when we pushed the body in the booth but I was covered with sanding dust from head to toe and did not want to take the chance. I swept the shop and emptied all the trash barrels so when he was done spraying we were able to leave. Today we finished the rest of the bronco. I have to work on my hard top and get it ready for paint before fall. When it is ready Andy said he would be happy to paint it. He wants to paint the inlay of the grill and the tailgate white too so that will be fun to do come September. Here are a couple more pics of the paint. We left the bronco in the paint booth to finish baking and I will head over next week to pick it up and start
the fun task of putting it back together. One cool thing was Andy was having fun painting it because he really liked the bronco. Usually paint shops just paint a panel or two of boring cars. He said working on this got him enjoying painting again. I can't thank him enough. I could have never gotten it done this weekend without all his help.

Doors turned out great.

Better pic of fender.

Love the look of the hood.

Grille will get some white this fall.

Henry

 

[allenfahey]

I noticed the driers in the booth and wondered if you used water. I have been using Spies waterbourne for the past 6 weeks or so. Coverage is great and it lays out very flat. In Spies you spray the first coat on 8" away with 75% overlap very wet and it is covered. Then spray another coat 12" away for the metallic orientation. The only draw back is it's a little harder to see if there is a color issue because it goes on a different color and when it dries it changes. My brother uses PPG water and said alot of their colors covers like solvent an takes longer to spray than solvent. I sprayed a yellow Jeep last week in Spies and it only took 3 coats and it would have been 1 1/2 or 2 if I used a white underneath. Solvent would have been 5-7 coats. I never want to go back to solvent!
Why are you waiting till fall to 2 tone the grill? Why didn't he spray the white before the blue and clear? Just curious. I think the same white for the grill would look good on the flares.
The parts are looking great, I'm sure the tub will look great too . Be careful assembling it!

 

[Hank_]

Why are you waiting till fall to 2 tone the grill? Why didn't he spray the white before the blue and clear? Just curious.

It was more of an after thought by me. I got to looking at all the blue and Andy mentioned the white grille. I will try to be careful on reassembly. Looking forward to seeing it all in one piece again. Hopefully pics will be coming next week of it back together.

Henry

 

[Unknown]

Henry, that paint looks beautiful!

 

[Hank_]

Henry, that paint looks beautiful!

Thanks Randy. How is your project coming along. Did you get your gears yet?

Henry

 

[Unknown]

Thanks Randy. How is your project coming along. Did you get your gears yet?

Henry

Yep, all set. Went with the 456's in hopes they will give me the magic when the 5spd thing happens - someday.