VEHICLES > PROJECT CARS/TRUCKS
Mazda B2600 paint -Turning a 'sow's ear into a silk purse' the Earl Scheib way!
goodfellow:
This was a last attempt at saving an "old friend". I've owned this truck since new in 1988, and I love it, but I didn't want to go broke; hence the "Earl Scheib" approach.
I've debated just getting rid of it, but it's such a rare piece these days and such a great 4x4 that I decided to give it one last shot at a life. Yesterday I replaced the front calipers and changed the oil, and now it's time to clean it and get it ready for some metal work and paint. Not a show paint job, but a driveway special done under an awning next the machine shop. It will get cleaned with the pressure washer from head to toe.
The OEM paint job will get sanded and we'll put some paint on the truck. I have plenty of Ford Red and Black Valspar paint in stock and it needs to be used up. What better way to do that than to respray the truck on the cheap.
The interior will get vacuumed, shampooed and cleaned as well .....
... while the exterior will stripped of decals and rust, and the inner fender wells will need some new metal welded into the rust holes.
The rear bumper will get rebuilt on the cheap ......
... and the engine compartment will get a good de-greasing and cleaning
That's the project for the rest of this month and early October. Then it's full-on Jag time --
Wish me luck!! -- Onward --
goodfellow:
It needs a lot of love. Everything is rusty, but some of the fasteners are still workable.
Surprisingly the radiator and condenser are in pretty good shape!
The front bumper is a mess -- rusty fasteners are holding it together; which means I'm not even going to try to take it apart for cleaning and painting. I will wash it, clean it, sand it and paint it as one piece.
I used a solvent-based wax remover to get off the plastic oxidation, and then washed it with soap to open up the pores.
I then sanded it with 320 and called it day
This is Earl Scheib rattle can all the way -- The new stuff from Krylon has the primer and adhesion promoter already mixed in the paint. It's supposed to be the new choice for plastic and metal.
While is was at it I also removed the rear bumper -- totally rusted underneath, but I'll weld in a new section. Welding surgery will begin tomorrow.
Otherwise the rear looks OK
All masked up and ready for the plastic coat. I stuck with original colors -- gray for the plastic and black for the metal bumper itself.
Looks passable and will make a big difference in the look of this old truck
Done for today!
goodfellow:
The rear bumper on this thing is totally gone. Time for a redneck rebuild. First I needed to dissect it to see what was still salvageable......
.... apparently not much!! -- LOL -- RUST & RUST!!
The lower tube was totally gone, but the heavy steel frame mounting brackets were OK -- so I cut them out and cleaned them up with a grinder. Thank God for plasma cutters !!
At the end of two hours this is what was left -- upper tubes are OK, lower totally gone.
Lots of rust to grind, but this thing is still salvageable. You just can't find an OEM bumper for a 1988 B2600 anymore.
Now for the rebuild -- I thought I had a few drops of 3" steel tubing left, but they went bye-bye to the neighbor last year for two fence posts. They would have been perfect; time for another plan. Thanks to our old friend Bob (Heiny57) I'm in possession of a wide assortment of angle iron that he kindly gave to me after he finished a job in my neck of the woods some years ago. I decided to use 2-1/2" x 1/4" angle iron to fab up a new lower bumper. Heavy duty for sure, and it will be stronger than the OEM tube.
Thanks again for the steel Bob -- it comes in handy for these type of redneck engineering jobs.
I'm going to use the angle iron to make a box and use the box as the lower tube. All I have to do is mod the round profile on the mounts and make them square to receive the angle iron.
Time to weld and to take that rounded tube mount and make it square
All tacked in place
Done -- I put some black oil based primer on the bumper because of all the old rust spots. Tomorrow I'll grab a couple of Rustoleum Hammered spray bombs and give it a nice black hammered finish. For now the oil based primer needs to dry overnight.
Not a perfect rebuild, but with that heavy boxed angle, it certainly is more heavy duty than when it came from the factory.
goodfellow:
Made short work out of this one today. I needed to remove the toolbox, bedliner, sick-on decals and finally get at the rust in the wheel wells.
The toolbox has been on this thing since 1988 -- I put it on a week after I took delivery. Amazing that it still looks good and hasn't cracked or sagged. It, along with the bedliner were purchased at the local Montgomery Ward auto center at the time. Ahh, the good old days!!
Amazing what blows in under the liner in three decades -- LOL
One of the mounting holes for the box is rusted. I guess I didn't use enough silicone to keep the moisture out. The other three points were perfect.
Decals come off easy with a good heat gun -- even baked on and hardened stuff like mine.
Finally I was able to get the car into the garage and put it up jack stands to tackle the rust on the right-hand side. Pretty bad on one the section where the inner fender meets the floor pan.
The inner fender on the other hand looks great -- that fender liner sure did its job.
Bottom part of the floor pan and the fender well is totally rusted through
Just hitting it with a body hammer made a huge mess -- Rust and more Rust!!!
I cut out the most offending area and made a new 18ga steel patch.
Tacked the patch in, then stitch welded it up and went on my way -- no grinding or blending. Just the patch and the welds; that's good enough for this Earl Scheib job.
I put some self etching primer on it and a few coats of black paint, then after it's dried overnight, I'll throw on a thick coat of sealer and undercoat.
The whole patch job took two-and-a-half hours -- DONE. Tomorrow I'll patch up the other side.
Just call me Earl Scheib Junior!! -- Earl used to advertise that he'd give you $10 free metalwork with a paint job. I guess this metalwork is worth about $10 a side. -- LOL
goodfellow:
Managed to stay the course and complete the driver's side. It wasn't as bad as the passenger side, but it was a lot of smaller patches and hence it was much more "fiddly" to deal with.
First the interior was cut out with the plasma torch and a new patch fit over the hole.
The exterior was riddled with small rot holes that ate into the double wall. I cleaned them and sprayed with rust eater, the welded small patches over them.
Finally I sprayed everything with bedliner paint and undercoat. Once it's cured I completely goop it up with a tar compound
Per Earl Scheib, that takes care of the $10 dollars of "free" metalwork per side. I can now start to sand, fill and prime as necessary.
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