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chevynut
04-03-2015, 08:35 AM
Got my frame on my rotisserie and it works great. I made some custom mounting arms to hold a frame since I didn't want to use the standard adjustable arms because it would hardly fit in my shop that way. It's already 20 feet end to end with the frame on it. These will work for our C4 frame welding too. I tried to leave enough room on each end so the painter can easily access the ends of the frame.

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While I was at it, I added a couple of jack handle holders to the rotisserie. I had modified this rotisserie by adding the jacks so I could adjust the height a couple months ago, but didn't think to add a place to store the handles.

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I'm now wishing I wouldn't have done so much priming and sanding years ago when I "finished" it. I sprayed the frame with epoxy primer, shot it with Slicksand, blocked it, then shot K36 over it. Since then I've welded some plumbing brackets, grounding points, and other things to the frame and I've had to grind it to bare metal in a few places. I wish I'd just left it in epoxy until all this was done, but live and learn :cry:. I didn't expect to have to do so many small changes to it.

I finished all the welding and have blocked and hand-sanded the entire frame again. I've been sanding out the chips in the primer, feathering the places where the primers were ground away for welding, and I should be ready to start re-priming it soon. I have bare metal in some places where I sanded through as well as where I intentionally ground the primers away.

My dilemma now is do I shoot the bare spots with epoxy, Slicksand, or K36? All of them are approved for use over bare metal. I feel like I should shoot it with epoxy first but it's going to go over the K36 and I'll have all of the primers "sandwiched" in several spots. I don't want too much buildup either. I may just go with the K36 and call it good, and fill any small imperfections with 2K spot putty. It's funny how you get more picky after the first round of filling and sanding. :)


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I've been trying to contact my painter to work out a schedule for getting it into his shop. I have plenty of other stuff to do if I have to wait for him to get to it.

Rick_L
04-03-2015, 05:30 PM
Personally I would hit all the bare spots with epoxy primer, then I'd come back over that with K36. You do this because epoxy has the best adhesion to bare metal.

Just because a product is "OK" for direct to metal doesn't mean it's the best.

If you spray Slick Sand direct to metal - you really need to spray epoxy over it. Slick Sand is porous, unlike epoxy.

If you were doing collision work or flat rate restoration work, well you might want to cut a corner. But not on yours.

How can you have too much buildup if you're spraying on bare metal? And after all since you're using primer surface, you're going to sand it and feather edge the spot repairs, right? And why would you use Slick Sand for this? Its purpose IS buildup.

Changing the subject, how are your rotisserie jacks working with weight on them?

chevynut
04-03-2015, 08:27 PM
Rick, I might go ahead and spot the bare metal with epoxy for the reasons you stated. However, I think by the time I get the primer, paint, and clear on the frame it's going to last longer than me. ;)

Like I said, I wish I had just epoxied the frame and kept it like that for these past few years. It would be so much easier to deal with now. I think I asked about how to handle this before I did it, but it seemed like nobody understood what I was asking. Anyhow, it is what it is.

The jacks work great with the frame on the rotisserie, but that's not really much weight. The whole frame is only about 275 pounds or so. The body should be more like 600 pounds, I think, and I still don't think it's going to be a problem but we'll see. When I put the body on it, I'll have different arms to hold it, which I still need to design and fab. I have an adjustable centering setup and mounts that slide on it, but there are no provisions for attaching the body. Since the body is a lot shorter than the frame it won't be as big of an issue concerning the length. The nice thing is I'll be able to almost roll the rotisserie under the body sitting on jackstands, then raise it up where I want to for working on it now that I have the jacks.

chevynut
04-04-2015, 07:12 AM
I picked up some Upol 2K spot putty yesterday and was kind of surprised that it's polyester. The Evercoat glaze is also polyester. So that means I should have no problem spraying Slicksand over the top of the K36 if I wanted to, I guess. I thought the spot putty would be urethane-based.

Rick_L
04-04-2015, 08:01 AM
Most 2k spot putty is just body filler with more solvent/less solids. Same stuff once cured.

chevynut
04-08-2015, 01:25 PM
Well this is sure taking longer than I expected...like everything else :(. While disassembling the frame I noticed my swaybar ends were really close to the coilover springs which are larger in diameter than I planned for. They're 600 lb/in for the BBC. I was going to address it some other way, but instead of that I cut my swaybar mounts off and made some different ones and welded them on. They're a different design than what I do on my customer's C4 frames because I did it this way first ;). I gained enough room that I feel comfortable now. My front swaybar clamps are from a Camaro and they're not adjustable.

Also, since I was going to shoot some epoxy I decided to finish up the work on my firewall so I could shoot it too. Well, that required that I finish my brake and clutch setup that was partway done. I had to remove it all, weld up the linkage, weld the backing plate to the backside of the firewall, and then I could finish the firewall. In doing so I discovered that the firewall was warped more than I thought it was due to the installation and welding it all around. So out came the shrinker (stud gun) and I got it pretty straight. That also required that I remove my A/C evaporator for access, since that area was caved in a bit. The stud gun works wonders on these places. The firewall is now flat and tight, no oilcanning. A skim coat of filler or a coat or two of Slicksand of will finish it.

So now I'm FINALLY ready to start shooting primer. We're getting granite installed Friday so tomorrow I have to work on the tearout of my counters too. :(

chevynut
04-09-2015, 04:15 PM
Before shooting epoxy on the body and frame I decided to apply some 2K Evercoat seam sealer on the body in several places, to replace the sealer I took out long ago. I planned to shoot some epoxy today but I got too busy with other stuff, like getting shipping set up for parts for 10 more frames, 10 seat mount kits, and a bunch of hydroboost adapters. I was completely sold out of everything and had to set up a new CNC laser supplier which I've been working on for about 3 months :p.

So if the granite installation goes well tomorrow, I plan to shoot the epoxy followed by some Slicksand on the weekend. I think I'll have the frame ready to paint in just a few more days. My painter sent me e-mail last weekend and said he'd call me on Monday...but he didn't say which Monday. :)

The good thing is that in the meantime I've made quite a bit of progress on getting the body ready too. :)

chevynut
04-13-2015, 07:44 PM
After working all weekend on granite, faucets, and painting I finally got the epoxy shot today. I shot the frame in bare spots where I welded or sanded through. Then I shot the transmission mount and the firewall. Tomorrow I plan to shoot Slicksand on the firewall and a few places on the frame. Then I'll follow up on the frame with K-36 for a final primer coat.

Gotta get ahold of my painter to see what his schedule looks like. ;)

chevynut
04-16-2015, 03:59 PM
Got the Slicksand done on the frame and firewall a couple days ago and couldn't get to it until today to sand it. I've found that there's no way you can sand the stuff in the 2 hours they claim, but it sands really nice after a day or two.

I spent at least 4 hours sanding the frame for the second time today, and a couple hours on the firewall. I love my firewall, but it's a huge pain in the rear to sand. :(

Next comes the K-36 and some finer sanding to get to a finished surface ready for paint.

chevynut
04-19-2015, 05:10 PM
Finally got the K36 shot today after doing some more sanding on the frame, firewall, and transmission mount. It's funny that every time I go over it I find more little stuff, and the defects get smaller and I get pickier. :)

Tomorrow I'm going to go over it and and it again, and probably spot fill it with 2K spot putty. After I sand that down it's going to get shot again with K36 and then the final sanding. Hopefully I won't sand through too many places again. We're spraying a white DBC base before the orange base so I don't know that small sand-thrus are that big of a deal as long as they don't go to bare metal.

chevynut
04-21-2015, 07:28 PM
Holy cow, I spent the ENTIRE afternoon sanding and filling tiny defects on my frame. It's about as good as it's going to get now. I need to touch it up with K-36 one more time and sand it with 320 in those spots tomorrow. Then I need to shoot a thinned coat of K-36 over most of it and sand it with 600 grit....then it's done. :)

The more I worked on it the pickier I got. It's probably better than it needs to be now...it's just a frame and few will ever see it. :p

I got ahold of my painter and he didn't have a lot of good news for me. He has a Maserati from TX that he has to finish by July 18, and he's going to be busy with that. I told him I would like to get the frame in for one day of painting if he could squeeze it in. He said he should be able to do that. I told him I'd let him know when I have it completely ready, and he can tell me when to bring it over. I need to haul it on the rotisserie on a 20 foot trailer.

I plan to have him paint the frame, transmission support, radiator support, and one of my curved paint panels so I can use it to go look for my final accent colors. I don't want to push my luck so I'm not going to try to paint any more than that for now. I mentioned I might bring a load of parts over before the body if he wants to break up the work a little more. There's a lot of under-hood parts to paint.

I have a lot of work to do to get the chassis built before I want the body painted. I might even try to run the engine before the body's on, if that makes sense. I'd ideally like to bring the body home and set it on a completed frame.

If it turns out he won't be able to paint the frame anytime soon, I have to come up with a Plan B. I may do it myself and borrow a friend's booth, or have another guy I know with access to a couple of paint booths do it. He works for a large garage that paints semis and is their lead painter.

Progress is progress. :)

chevynut
04-25-2015, 07:23 AM
It's finally ready for paint! :)

I sprayed the last of the K36 to touch up some spots yesterday and sanded the entire frame with 600 grit. Never thought this process would have taken me 3 weeks to do but I did have a lot of distractions. I also did a lot of work on the firewall and built some Eldorado seat mount kits. I probably took the frame to a higher level than I needed to. I found myself using spot putty on tiny pits, scratches, and other defects that nobody will see. But I'm happy with how it turned out and I'm sure I won't regret doing it. It's about as good as I think I can make it.

Called my painter last night and told him I can have it over whenever he can schedule it in. We think it's a one day job for the frame. For now, it's going into my new shop until I take it to him to shoot it. I told him I would take care of any buffing/polishing I wanted to do so he didn't need to worry about that as he has a deadline on the Maserati he's working on.

Here's the firewall. All I have left is the bottom of the car and dash area and the body will be ready for final sanding. But first I plan to finish the console and other interior fab work. Not sure how I'm going to do that and assemble the chassis at the same time. :p

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chevynut
04-28-2015, 09:06 PM
Moved the frame into the new shop today...what a bitch. I have recycled asphalt outside and the rotisserie just sank into it. I pulled it over with my truck and muscled it into the new shop. I really need to get some bigger wheels on it or I'll never get the body loaded onto a trailer.

I also cleaned out the old shop...what a mess. I have been sanding and spraying primer for 3 weeks. It's still not really clean, but it's a lot better than it was!

Now I'm just waiting for my painter to schedule my frame in. I think I'm going turkey hunting for a couple of days. :)

chevynut
05-13-2015, 02:15 PM
Got a paint schedule!

My painter called and wanted me to bring my frame over Thursday, 5/21. However, I have a lot of relatives coming in for the wedding and a lot of stuff to get ready around here so that wasn't a good time for me. So we agreed that I would take it over on Tuesday, May 26th and we'll paint it then. My brother will still be in town and he can help me with the final prep work if anything is needed. He suggested I leave it there for a couple of days for the clear to harden so I should have it back home by that Friday.

Woohoo!! COLOR!

carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)
05-14-2015, 05:20 AM
will be great to see paint on it, exciting for you I'm sure. :)

rockytopper R.I.P 5-13-2017
05-14-2015, 07:09 AM
Laz I knew you were building a trailer queen when you posted pics of your new shop LOL. I ask myself will he drive that new beauty out of his shop on recycled asphalt. Probably not considering the effort he is putting in to make it perfect. Good luck with the paint, once that is decided on its all down hill from here. Can't wait to see it shine!!!

chevynut
05-14-2015, 09:21 AM
Laz I knew you were building a trailer queen when you posted pics of your new shop LOL. I ask myself will he drive that new beauty out of his shop on recycled asphalt. Probably not considering the effort he is putting in to make it perfect. Good luck with the paint, once that is decided on its all down hill from here. Can't wait to see it shine!!!

Yeah I wish I my driveway was paved, but it's probably 200 feet from my shop to the pavement and it would probably cost $10K to pave the whole driveway, much more for concrete. The car will be driven ;)

rockytopper R.I.P 5-13-2017
05-14-2015, 10:54 AM
My drive way is a 1250 feet long limestone gravel road and I cross over 2 cattle guards to reach pavement. I can't even afford recycled asphalt which would greatly reduce the dust cloud that covers my cars everyday.