squirrel's 57 Suburban

[JOES66FURY]

I like the turquoise, it looks great on old cars....couldnt imagine putting it on anything new tho...

[squirrel]

The grille, bumpers etc that I have are painted (they will be white as original), and I don't really want to spend the bucks to get them plated right now.

[Mr4Speed]

I like the white around the windows like the one in the pic. I can see how if it didn't have some kind of two tone treatment it might look really short and really tall.

[Scott Liggett]

Good color combo. I have no opinion on how much of the top to paint. I like it either way. Do what you think looks the best.

[squirrel]

I'll probably do whatever is easiest to paint

[squirrel]

I decided to go with the white roof only, and divide it just below the drip rail. I sanded the top with 400 this morning, and shot it. We'll see how it looks after it dries. A big bug landed right in the middle of the roof as soon as I started painting, but you need a scaffold to see the middle of the roof, so that's not a big deal.

I wrote a post yesterday but somehow managed to lose it. I got the doors all in primer, and did the first block sanding with the long board...they don't look as good as I'd like, so I may spend some more time on them, the pass side door needs more filler in several places. I used a half a gallon of primer on them already just priming them twice yesterday. That stuff is expensive, too.

I also spent some time sandblasting, and got almost all the parts done. I still need to finish the pass front seat frame, and the underside of the hood.

[squirrel]

work work work. After painting the roof, I installed the front door hinges and test fit the doors. They fit ok, not perfect...the top frame is in in some places, out in others, and there isn't enough clearance between the door and the jamb at the back for my liking. But that stuff is kind of hard to fix, so I'll just leave them as is and see how it works. The fit will change when I install the weather stripping, too.

Today I sanded the front floor, and shot the charcoal paint there and on the upper dash and rear sill.

[squirrel]

I spent yesterday sanding the rest of the inside, getting ready to paint it. My fingers are worn out, literally.

[NightShifter]

Large Barge...

Moving very quickly & looking good...

Fingers or no fingers.

[squirrel]

thanks! I need a large barge, for hauling all those robots around.

I can't wait to see how it looks with the masking off

[squirrel]

I uncovered it...and I'm happy with the paint inside. There is a little bit of orange peel, and quite a few small defects showing through, and a few sags in one corner, but overall it looks nice.

And I started again on the doors, I blocked them with 180 and they are getting pretty straight. I'm satisfied with them, I'll put more primer on then sand with 400 before painting them.

[Beagle]

those pics do a lot better justice to the color. Great progress!

[squirrel]

thanks!

I worked by fingers off again...sanded the outside yesterday and this morning, and masked it, then waited for the thunderstorm to go away. I sprayed the turquiose on. First coat (pictured) went on nice, second coat was pretty dry on the pass side and firewall, but not too bad on the driver side. Must be my lousy spray gun technique, or something. I wondered what to do about it, then decided to just dump some more paint on it, since I had mixed up too much paint anyways. I did that, and it helped, but it's still kind of rough. I can wait a day and sand it and shoot it again, or wait a few years and sand and buff it. I guess I'll wait till it dries and see how it looks tomorrow in the sun.

[DanStokes]

Looks OK in the pic. If you used hardener (guessing it's enamel?) you can block & buff it in a couple of weeks, maybe sooner. W/o hardener, it'll take a while. Either way, it looks pretty darn good to me. Wish I had your energy!

Dan

[NightShifter]

Looking at that tape job I'd have to say you've done this before... many times... Looks good.