La Bellena

yoko

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Sep 4, 2011
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I've been lucky enough to work on Nathan's truck with a couple friends helping me , it was a very fun project and it let me go above normal insurance work that I do daily..... also I had a chance to show my younger friends how we used to work on vehicles with thicker panels and show them some old tricks

Here's some picks I took of it when dropped off (the truck was in very nice shape, and these pictures can be deceiving because of the color, there is a lot more normal use dings and dents than what can be seen)

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(I have a lot of pics and I'll add to this through the night and week!)
 
First step me and my 2 friends that helped out walked around the truck and circled obvious issues (dings, dents , rust)

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(I have way to many of these pictures and don't want to flood the thread)
 
Next step is to take each panel and spray what we call a guide coat (this is a spray able powder, or a powder that can be hand applied)

This shows us high and low spots that we didn't see before as we block sand it down

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More the next step is using a stud gun to pull the low spots and knock down the high at the same time (sorry no pictures of this but while I was busy my friend TaterTitts did a great job at this!)

Following that we used what is called a finishing glaze (this is a thinner filler not for filling deep low spots .... more for shallow spots , there are still some factory stamping marks that can be seen but I didn't want to load Nathan's truck with heavy filler)

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This side of the gate was actually very dented then hammered back into shape

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Considering the years of use in an area that likely uses road salt occasionally, the truck help up pretty well. In olden times, people used to say "Ford for the body, Chevy for the engine." With GM's motor issues lately, you can't even say that.

Great work and great thread, Yoko!
 
Anything that needed re primed was primered

Then blocked out again


Next step prep everything for paint!

(I have skipped over a lot of pictures and some steps but I'm sure you all get the idea)

A white sealer is sprayed over every panel to help me get a uniform color to start with ... followed by 3 coats of base coat in the oem color... then followed by 3 heavy coats of clear

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