No this is not a rerun of an old western movie. But it is a rerun of how to paint a station wagon at home with basic tools. So I don't highjack another thread, I decided to answer Bill busterwivell in my own thread. I'm sure much of this has been written before but I enjoy telling how I did things as a shade tree mechanic. First off, I bought my 1955 Chevy wagon as a ready to drive parts hauler because it had a fresh red paint job and was roadworthy. Yea right! What began as cleaning up the new paint by removing runs and dust particles got slightly out of hand. I soon had the wagon down to it's original primer, under the GM ugly pea green. As I removed the shiny red paint and layers of primer, I also removed bondo, fibreglas, and rust. There were screen wire and beer can patches among other things. Since this is about painting my wagon, I will skip most boring body work details, other than say my 210 handyman wagon now appears to look more like a Nomad Mini-Van. This was in part because under the body work the rear wheel wells were built up with more bondo and patch panels of unknown origin. I found it easier to replace the quarter panels. In doing so I went one step further. I used 1955 Nomad patch panels simply because if I couldn't find a nice Nomad I'd build one...... sorta. Using that same mentality, my wife wanted a mini van. By blacking out around the windows and painting the wagon to simulate a 1955 Bel Air I ended up with a Nomad Mini-Van Bel-Aire wannabee. Yes, there are lots of things that do not look like a Nomad. But for the most part many called it a Nomad even before I started the conversion. To add to the confusion I sort of copied my interior in the 1957 Bel Air style except for the 70's T-Bird bucket seats and 1959 Impala steering wheel. Some people follow a theme. I followed the junk yard and my parts pile. This included swapping to power disc brakes and a Nova rearend. As things slowly progressed my driver became a major project taking several years of part time work to complete. In truth I did use rattle cans plus my new compressor with spray gun as I worked one area at a time. Working six days a week, 12+ hours a day, plus honey doos, meant I could only spend a few hours on the wagon at a time. Therefore I'd do some bodywork and shoot it with rattle can primer out in my drive way. Illinois gets humid and cold at times so I had to cover the bare metal and small amounts of body filler as I went along. After I was happy with my body work I chose a calm warm day and used my spray gun and compressor to recoat the whole wagon in brown acryic enamal primer in the driveway. Next I used red Krylon enamal in spray cans to paint the inner doors and jambs. Very close to the Corvette red I used on the rest of the wagon. When it came time to finally paint the wagon I moved my 1939 Ford to my recently finished wedge shaped garage addition behind the main two and half car garage. By the way there was also a Model T and 1933 Chevy in that front garage, one in front of the other. To make them fit I had to remove all bumpers and overlap the bumper brackets. How to paint your wagon in a home garage. I built my faux paint booth by making a 2X4 framework in one half of the inner garage. Over this I stapled thin cheap paint drop clothes. I sealed the 16' door. I made an inlet duct of cardboard boxes in the opened doorway of the front side walk in door, adding a box fan to draw fresh air in. Eventually turned off that inlet fan ! At the rear I created a similar duct box with another window fan to draw paint fumes, paint, and air out into the neighbor's yard. (He never knew) Before and after painting the wagon, I could shut the walk in door to keep bugs and dust out. Our back side yard was all grass. In front of and on the other side of the garage was cement. No other homes close. I wet down everything nearby outside and the garage floor. Made sure it was a calm low humidity day. First I painted the white. This incuded the roof, tailgate, and lower rear sides. Having only painted a few other older cars using only a 1 HP compressor, I was happy to only have to paint half a wagon at a time. The roof was the largest single area to paint. I actually moved the wagon outside after about a week to check my work. Then I covered the white parts with paint drop cloths, newspaper, and masking tape. Contrary to all warnings I used plain newspaper when I needed to cover smaller parts. Then I painted the flat black window area, mini-van style. I pushed it back inside, tac ragged it a million times, and painted the Corvette red on. By the way, the white was called Nisson Super White. The whitest white at that time according to my friendly NAPA guys. Without looking it up I believe I used acrylic urathene. This was back in the early 90's. The few runs or imperfections were left to dry several days then everything was rubbed out using various rubbing compounds. It's amazing what you can do with rubbing compounds and hours of rubbing. Nothing fancy like they use today. The same paint has been on all these years. But after I traded the wagon the new owner had it pin striped, ghost flames, and a clear coat with coarse metalflake added. I had replaced the original narrow 210 side stainless with new Bel Air stainless which is wider and indented. I had painted the long indented area white. The next guy had it painted black, which I don't like. I had painted all inside garnish trim and the dash with Krylon rattle can paint. So some parts actually were painted in the driveway using a cardboard box as a windbreak and spray cans of paint. Not the most professional paint job in the world. But for the most part been on there since the early 90's and got our share of trophys, ooh's and aahs'. Parked at the local burgur barn or Wally World it looks okay to us. Besides if I had a $5,000+ paint job we'd never parked it under pine trees and others at campgrounds and other places. Trying not to brag. I did everything from mechanical work, apholstery, paint, etc. except rechroming the bumpers. Even polished all of the original stainless and put the windows back in with the help of my wife. For us these cars are our hobby. Not a way to support our neighborhood bodyshop. I suggest people do everything they can on their own and farm out what they can't. But at least do part of it. Also roam those salvage yards rather than roaming catalogs.
Rear view of 1955 Nomad and regular handyman wagon. An original 1955 handyman would not have the Bel Air type tu-tone paint job. Only the roof would be another color. Also mine has a 1987 Escort third brake light and Buick tail lights. The center 55 Chevy is a Bel Air 2-door.
We used to meet that couple at Daytona every year for years. Last I know they were trying to sell their Nomad. Must have sold it. Needed some work and had rust around the drip edge rain gutter. Normal for these. For some strange reason mine was all filled level with white caulk then painted red along with the rest.
CAT, you wagon looks great and there is tremendous satisfaction in doing as much of the work yourself or with you doing the vast majority of it. Everyone who does body work and paint at one point were newbies and they learned by doing, some with training, some by the old lets just see if this works method. Start small, work your way to the bigger project, and it is amazing what any of us can accomplish if we just take the chance. Equipment can be rented, just make sure it goes back in as good a condition as it was when you rented (or borrowed it) or that avenue will dry up quick enough.
Correct Safari. To me this has always been a hobby to learn things and spend time staying out of jail. I do realize some people have jobs where they don't have the time or can't get grease under their fingernails. Sometimes it makes more sense to farm out jobs than miss work to do it. Also many just can't do some things on old cars. But I feel there are lots of things we all can do if we just try. Some are lucky enough to have friends in the business so they have no excuse for not watching and learning. Sometimes a few beers or a pizza will bring helpers to show us the right ways to do things. Anyone can do apholstery or paint. And the real cost is the disassembly, sanding, repair, and reassembly. Anyone not handicapped can do that. Even spending time at the paint and body shop watching helps make it seem like you contributed. Many shops will let you help. Whether we buy or build a car the main thing is drive it and enjoy it with others. Trophy cars are like trophy wives. They look nice but the expense is not worth it.
Good tips Cat! I love the KISS principle. Well, since you Tri-Five guys are all in here, here's a few rare goodies: H $ H Classic Chevy Parts http://hhclassic.com/ Real Bowed Headliners, and all interior parts: https://www.lebaronbonney.com/index.htm And this is more than AWESOME. Almost every body part for the Tri-Fivers from US-made and licensed repro tooling! These guys shop out a lot of the production, and assemble it, under SEMA and Hemming's rules: They even have the glass, weatherstrips, etc. and the prices aren't bad. http://www.goldenleafautomotive.com/main.php http://www.goldenleafautomotive.com/product/product_list.php?make=chevrolet And I found their downloadable catalogs to be amazing: http://www.goldenleafautomotive.com/catalog/catalog.php Now, if you've got a lot of money, you can have the whole body shipped to your front door, from their sister company: http://www.dynacornclassicbodies.com/classic2.html They private brand too, but one 30 year bodyshop pro (My Friend Pete?) who makes DIY videos from his Dallas, TX bodyshop claims these guys are the best in repro panels. Pete also runs South West Rod and Custom. He makes custom office desks from car front ends, custom paints guitars, anything that stands still long enough. His wife is probably a saint. His flicks should be rated "R", but if you don't let the language get in the way, he's a DIYer' friend: DIY Auto School Youtube site: https://www.youtube.com/user/diyautoschool South West Rod and Custom shop: http://www.swrnc.com/ Check out his Latest and Previous Projects: http://www.swrnc.com/latest.asp http://www.swrnc.com/previous.asp EDIT: He installs the floor pan in this 1968 Mustang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIpnlK4XcvE The tools he uses and the technique to get done solid is really good stuff.
Thanks Stormin' Norman. It's amazing what's being made for the old car hobby. Sure better than digging thru junk yards and swap meets for bent, rusty, worn out parts to replace bent, rusty, worn out parts.
I haven't dealt with all those guys Norman but I have had some personal experiences dealing with H&H. They were good to deal with. Used them on a '57 Del Ray we had and on the '55 we still have. They set up a big display at Crusin' the Coast every year!
Hey, Cat............it ain't braggin' if you can do it, and you can! Yes, we can all keep learning. I did kind of the same set up for painting in my shop, but I used PVC when I wanted to primer my dump trailer. It's made from a 68-72 Chevy longbed, was a trailer when I bought it, and had the extra gas tank doors on the sides. I bought my Miller Mig welder and learned on that trailer. I filled about a hundred drilled holes in the top rails. That went well. I tried to stitch weld the holes from the gas doors. You can look at the trailer and tell which side I did first, but, it's just a trash trailer. I sprayed my first primer job on that trailer. I'm much happier now that I have my son-in-law who paints. Anyway, my PVC idea worked well. I, like you, used BIG pieces of painter's plastic draped and taped over the PVC. I built a box and tacked air filters to the front and back, and put an exhaust fan on it that blew overspray out of the shop. I was proud of myself when I was done, because I got better at skills as I went. The PVC was all taken apart (I hadn't glued it) and stored in my shed. The next time I wanted to paint a number of parts, this genius decided to use the PVC framing, and hang parts outside on a calm day. I hung all the parts up on the frame, and my son-in-law was painting them. The genius in me didn't factor in the fact we were at over 100 degrees that day. As the paint was drying so nicely in the sun, the PVC started bowing from the heat, and, eventually it all came carshing down. So much for that plan, but I learned something again. Your wagon is beautiful. I'm working when time permits to get my 56 210 door sedan on the road. It is my second favorite tri-five. My most favorite is a 56 Handyman, but I couldn't find one. Is this hijacking?
No it's not hi-jacking. You're painting tri-five Chevys and you mentioned handyman wagons. My first welding experience was on my first old car, a 1931 Model A. The firewall was full of extra holes from the past. At first I accidentally made larger holes out of small holes but after I learned to work around in a circle I closed the holes back up. I remember using a lot of grinding discs. I also learned that the insulation added behind the firewall is flamible. Maybe you saved me some work. I have two of those cheap vinyl pole shelters outside my garage on a cement slab. They have metal poles. Since my garage is so full of important junk I was thinking about painting my old panel truck under a shelter. I was going to use PVC pipe to help support painters thin plastic tarps for sides. Some call them drop cloths. I'll bet they would warp here in the heat too.
