July 01

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	Old Red

		May, June, July 2001

Since February, progress has been slow. The spring/summer months also short on funds, have resulted in slow but quality progress on Old Red.

The cab had its rain gutters trimmed off. This detail cleans up the lines of the cab. The process is to cut them with a power saw, not all the way around, just a foot or so. Then stop, grind smooth and weld the top to the cab. In the orginal design, the rain gutter provided the seam for the two parts. Tip: In cutting the gutter off, don't cut the whole thing, or the top comes loose and will probably be misaligned.

Next, the floorpans were rusted through, so I bought new ones from Pickups Northwest. This included the undercab braces. A bit more sheet metal and the whole rusty mess was replaced with new metal.


	Cutting / Grinding / Welding / Final result is inspected by Jim and Effie

Back at the frame, the months of weathering of the POR15 proved that this paint can hold to rusty steel, but has a poor resistance to the elements: rain and UV. I had oxidized badly. So, despite our planning, repainting of the running gear was needed. Back to CJ Auto.

The gas tank was removed and prepped with scotchbrite. All the running gear was prepped by a thorough scotchbriting, then blown clear of dust and masked. This process took about 3 hours of dirty, sweaty work.

The plan was to shoot over the POR15 with Dupont Chroma base/clear. After the base went on, Jeff and I went to dinner with Virginia. Over the food and rest, Jeff had the bright idea to shoot the base with Chrome Illusion. The effect would be great. Back to CJ to check out the color chips and choose a color. It turned ou that the one that looked best with the final color and the frame color was the one we used on Old White trim detail: gold to magenta.

The result was exceptional. This flip paint will be used on the engine and probably on the graphics.




		Slick results of the flip paint on the running gear and gas tank


	Updated August 10, 2001 Email to: tuku@tuku.com