C2:67 Conv Top- My Paint Booth

[Gerard F.]

Well this project is taking a little longer since I figured to restore the convertible top frame prior to installing the top. The rear bow and the front header were pretty easy. Here's the front header in my paint booth:


I figured I'd use the street parking area in front of my house.

This is what the front header looked like before cleaning:


Here's the tools and chemicals used to prep the header for painting:


Once you get the adhesive off, the wire wheel on a drill is the piece-de- resistance. Here's how it looked after cleaning. Most rusty spots were brought to bare metal:


Then out of the paint booth and then joining the rear bow hung from the garage door rafter:


Having fun, but going slow on this one.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Gerard F.]

Re: C2:67 Conv Top-But Bow#3 PITA

They sure put tough tack strips on these original top frames. The strip on Bow #3 was like a mastic impregnated fiber, unlike the replacement fiberboard ones I'm replacing them with. The Tack stip on Bow#3 had to be chiseled off:


After 1 1/2 hours with a 1/4" wood chisel, I got the tack strip off:

And 10 minutes with the wire wheel preped Bow#3 for painting:


But I ran out of time today, but tomorrow's another day.

Having fun,

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Tom D.]

Only one bottle of Rolling Rock?

or did you enjoy one for each step in the process?

Anyway, good work! And thanks for the multiple photo links.

Tom D.
4889

[Barbara S.]

Re: C2:67 Conv Top- My Paint Booth

Jerry. I like seeing that green oxide primer, but where's the beer?
Tony

[Rick S.]

Re: C2:67 Conv Top-But Bow#3 PITA

When I did my top last year, I had the same hard time getting the tack strips out so I used MGD. It made the job more pleasurable.
Rick

[Chuck S.]

Cool...A Horizontal Flow Booth!

Hey, Jerry...I didn't know you could get lacquer thinner in quart cans!!! Inflation is about to force me into five gallon denominations.

BTW...it doesn't look like you have a disposal problem in your area, but for those that live in town, better be careful about taking your automotive paint waste down to your municipal hazardous disposal site. My bud and I take turns taking his shop's paint waste down the the recycling place...not a truck-load you understand; just a couple of gallons. You have to take a copy of your water bill to identify yourself as a taxpayer, and they record your address.

Well, after making one trip down to the site, I have the "Chief Inspector" (nice card) at my door telling me "a friend" told him I was painting at my home. "Noooooo...Yer friend is full of 'ca-ca'...That stuff will kill you if you don't paint in a booth with proper respiratory protection". (Of course, we know that stuff in the spray cans won't kill you unless you're spraying it into plastic bags and breathing the fumes. )

He hassled me for a half hour anyway just to insure his trip wasn't wasted. I learned from him that you can't change your oil in your driveway in this town unless it's an emergency repair. Once I had eliminated my neighbors as vengeful informants, it dawned on me that I was "ratted out" by the city disposal place.

Just remember what they say..."No good deed goes unpunished."

[Gerard F.]

Geez, I thought CA was bad

But they take the empty rattle cans in the normal garbage. If you go to the dump, they even take latex paint (5 gallons at a time, waste oil), even computers and batteries, but you have to separate it.

But for oil based paint and lacquer you have to wait for one of these hazardous waste events.

No hassle on painting in the street. (Of course it helps to be City Engineer .

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Chuck S.]

Re: Geez, I thought CA was bad

Shoot...If I had thrown it in the trash, I would have been fine; they never check ANYTHING you throw in the trash. Old oil filters (against state law), paint, solvents, dead bodies, whatever...no problem; they never check it. But try to do something right?...bend over and take your licking.

It seems like the objective of having municipal hazardous waste disposal opportunities is to keep people from dumping bad stuff over their back fence or down the sewer...it seems counter-productive to try to catch people at related crimes; they want to have their cake and eat it too, so to speak. Of course, they don't expect you'll put together that doing the "right thing" causes you a giant PITA.

This town was one of the first in Texas to prohibit smoking in restraurants; and then, they extended the no smoking ban to ALL PUBLIC PLACES. As a non-smoker, that really didn't bother me too much...in fact, I rather enjoyed it. But, when these guys began to tell me I couldn't work on my car at my house except for emergency repairs (maximum 15 minutes I think), then it became very personal. I'm beginning to think about moving back to east Texas where Republicans rule.

[Verle R.]

Re: Geez, I thought CA was bad

Chuck,

Which liberal part of Texas to you live in?

Verle

[Chuck S.]

Re: Geez, I thought CA was bad

Far, far WEST Texas; that part closest to California. I don't know if that has anything to do with our "problem", but it's the only part of Texas that's run almost exclusively by Democrats, and remains habitually frustrated that they have so little impact on what happens politically in Texas.

[Mike G.]

Tack Strip Installation

Gerry: When I attempted to install the "correct" pressed fibreboard tack strips that my friend Tom C. in Hemet had recommended, I encountered a serious fit problem --they were just too wide to be forced into the bow with reasonable pressure. Solution: I belt-sanded them down to about a .005" interference fit and then used a C-clamp to persuade them in. For added holding strength, I first laid in a bead of 3M 8008 weatherstrip cement.
Those puppies aren't going anywhere soon...

[Dave Suesz]

One legal way to dispose of leftover paint...

Is to brush it on someting, like a junk car. You can scrap something with a bad paintjob, it's liquid paint that'll get you in trouble.

[Gerard F.]

Re: Tack Strip Installation

Mike,

Funny I was just in the process of installing the tack strips when your post came across. My fiber strips were from CC but probably from Al Knoch. I pre-painted them and here's my install method:


There were a little oversized but if you jam them in with a wood block and hammer they compress and fit tight, and will never come out. I didn't use any glue as the originals were not glued, but pressure fit.

On Bow #3, I measured the tack strip (51") and the bow slot (51 7/8"). The I marked the center of each, and then started in the center as shown in the picture. I'm being careful on the measurements, as once you get them in you have to destroy them to get them out (like the originals)

Having fun, but ran out of Rollin Rock last night.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Terry M.]

West Texas is that part with the liberal

80 MPH speed limit

[Chuck S.]

Re: West Texas is that part with the liberal

That's just east in the scrub brush (only when it rains) no man's land on the fringe of Republican Texas...On I-10 between Van Horn and Fort Stockton. Driving west from, say Houston, my horse, and all passengers, are generally pretty hot and tired by then...I can't see myself flogging ole Bessie at 80 mph coming into the home stretch!

But, I'll bet the DPS occasionally stops a guy out there...if they raise the limit to 80 mph, that means you can go 100+ mph, doesn't it?