Strode 1982 Cherokee Laredo Build

[Coryd55]

I remember that stage. Not fun. Be glad you are doing it right though. It is one of those things you don't want to have to redo in a short few years.

Take your time on paint. If you get fatigued, frustrated, etc. while shooting, take the night off. If you mess up now, you are going to give yourself lots more work to fix it or if you choose to live with your mistakes, it will haunt you forever.

If you don't get it done this weekend, don't sweat it. Quality is way more important than speed.

[suzq044]

that gold almost comes off as a wood stripe.. lol

Maybe do the dark color as the contrast stripe? gold dash, rb stripe?

[Strode]

Cory, yea I know. I'm not rushing it (with some exceptions, see below), just getting tired of it. I'll be a different person with a different attitude once I get this thing painted. I promised the wife that anyway.

that gold almost comes off as a wood stripe.. lol

Maybe do the dark color as the contrast stripe? gold dash, rb stripe?

Wood stripe wouldn't be bad. I think the gauge cluster will have the wood decal. I should learn how to paint those faux wood stripes.

I'm painting most of the interior the root beer, everything except the dash body. The dash pad is already brown like the root beer so I don't want too much brown. My wife likes it because it looks like the University of Wyoming colors.

I'm hoping I can blend something that's pleasing to the eye. A color that's subtle yet bold, refined but raw, something that makes a statement about the eternal optimism of the FSJ owner.

Part of the reason the dash doesn't look good is because I rushed it. The paint says no taping for 8 hours, and I ignored that. The tape seemed to suck the metallic right out of the brown. Lesson learned....I hope. Because the lesson will be repeated until the lesson is learned.

[WHSII]

A++

Keep it up and forget about the time line, you are doing too well to get in a rush.

[Strode]

A++

Keep it up and forget about the time line, you are doing too well to get in a rush.

Last night I was pretty bummed. I sprayed what I thought was the final sealer coat on it all, and I got runs in it. I hadn't had many problems with runs before.

I was pretty disgusted. I was hoping to spray color and clear and everything yesterday. So I had a little pity party for myself last night.

So today started wet sanding the whole things to get rid of the runs. I thought about only sanding the spots where I had runs, but decided to just do the whole thing. I'm glad I did, because I found a couple of sags that I didn't know I had. This is just a little day delay.

So I'm in the middle of wet sanding the whole thing. And I'm good with it. My wife keeps telling me I should be enjoying this, because it's what I always wanted to do. And she's right. This is not a problem. There are people out there with real problems, and I get to be doing something that I've always wanted to do.

So it's Surf Music Saturday in the shop, and I'm glad to be doing it. Long live The Ventures

[Mars]

You and WHSII are really inspiring and I'm chomping at the bit to get going on my truck.

That's really starting to look awesome.

Mike

[SJTD]

You're scaring the heck out of me.

I think I'll use lacquer.

[Strode]

Thanks, Mars. I look forward to seeing your build thread.

You're scaring the heck out of me.

I think I'll use lacquer.

LOL. Just remember: Your goal is to turn gray things yellow, then yellow things gray, then back again. And sand, sand, sand. It's therapeutic.

No, this is the stuff to use. Epoxy primer, 2K primer surfacer, and urethane enamel. The runs were operator error.

I've been taping reruns of American Hot Rod with Boyd Coddingtons shop. I've been paying special attention to the painters, and they make it look too durn easy. They don't even look like their paying attention to where the paint goes, they're just waving their hand with a gun in it.

I'm done with the wet sanding. Now I'm tearing all my plastic down and sweeping/blowing all the dust out. Then put new plastic up and hopefully shoot color tomorrow.

I'd try and get it in tonight, but I've been using water on the panels, and don't want to take a chance some water is hiding in a crack.

[Strode]

Ok. Who said "experience is what you get after you need it"?

To recap: I spent all day Saturday sanding the whole entire body/fenders/hood/doors/tailgate. I thought about just sanding the few runs and sags, but I re-sanded it all. I even sanded thru the sealer coat, and hit some yellow 2K primer (cue the foreboding music....) I thought about putting down a new sealer coat, but decided against it. The paint will cover it.......

I cleaned out the garage again: Tore down the dusty primer plastic, blew out all the dust, put down new plastic, prepped everything for final color.

Here it is, ready to go. Pay attention to the telltale light primer spots. I wish I had...


Got up Sunday morning....Todays the day! Started spraying my color, and......problems.

My paint is a metallic pearl, and it is not covering. I can clearly see the light 2K primer showing thru. I painted everything one full pass, and started a 2nd one, and it wouldn't have mattered how many coats I put on, the lighter primer was showing.

I'd mixed a full liter of paint, so I kept painting the hood and tailgate, which didn't have any light spots. But my gun was acting up, and all I was getting was orange peel. I should have just quit.

I had to wait for the paint to harden to start sanding it.

So, I call my boss this morning and see if I can get today and tomorrow off, because the weather is changing.

We talk about this project, and I find out he used to paint cars professionally. Sweet! He says he'll come over and show me his tricks and how to set up my gun. I do good when it's good, but when something is wrong with the setup, I don't know which way to go to fix the problem.

So......I spend all day wetsanding the body/doors/fenders/hood/tailgate all over again today, for the 4th or 5th or 10th time. And I have an especially good time on the orange peel from Hades that I didn't have to put down, but I wanted to use the paint I had mixed. What an idiot (I think we need to call this emicon "The Painter" )

Here it is sanded again.


And I shoot what I hope is the final, final sealer coat on it. It goes on smooth, no troubles.



(Everybody tired at look at my Cherokee in various stages of primer? Welcome to my world)

So I'm be trying once again tomorrow. I wanted to do it all myself, but if I have to sand this thing again, I'm gonna lose it. So if my boss Justin feels like he wants to spray some, I'll be tickled to watch him. I feel alot better knowing a pro is coming over. I'm tired.

[REDONE]

I envy you, no joke.

I love doing this and wish I had your facilities to do it in!

Here's to getting back that lawn chair in the middle of nowhere feeling!

[Strode]

I envy you, no joke.

I love doing this and wish I had your facilities to do it in!

Here's to getting back that lawn chair in the middle of nowhere feeling!

Thanks, I'm very grateful to have a place like this to work. I like doing this work, I'm just tired of redoing it 3 times. I'm ready for the next step, you know what I mean? When it's finally in color, I'm never gonna be depressed about this resto again. And I'm walking away from it for awhile

I do like getting things straight, and after all this blocking, this thing is straight.

[badaboom]

Keep after it your doing just want needs to happen - You will be more happy with the results.

[Strode]

Well..........it didn't get painted.

Justin came over and he tried some panels. It turns out my final sealer coat wasn't as glass smooth as I needed it to be, and it needed sanding with 600 before the color. I should have reduced it alot more. And I found out where my spraying technique was bad with this metallic pearl color.

So because of that, and the fact that I want to do some striping, we decided it made more sense to paint it all in one shot, with the body on the frame and all the panels put on.

So we painted and cleared the rest of the jambs. I'll be sanding (SANDING!) some more, and it will be awhile now before I put final color on it. I want to get the drivetrain & exhaust all in before I put the body back on.

[Strode]

I was going to keep the stock remote control mirrors. But since it wasn't getting painted soon, I decided to go ahead and try the Bronco mirror mod.

I ordered some 95 Bronco mirrors from Rock Auto. (Chinese.....sigh )

The power mirrors and the manuals were the same price, so I went power. I went to the junkyard and pulled a handful of power mirror controls and some pigtails for the mirrors.



I filled in the original holes.

[Strode]

After I mocked up some mounting spots, I decided the base had the wrong angle, because it was putting the mirrors on at an angle. So I ground the outside lower edge of the mirrors away, and trimmed the base gasket.