My Half A$$ Studebaker Rebuild

[Topper2011]

I decided on using the middle bumper as each one of them had issues.



I cleaned it up with some #0000 steel wool and polish. I tried some aluminum foil I had seen recommend before. It's not perfect, but decent and the chrome is less crazed than my original one at the top of the picture. The last one with the Socal AAA sticker is slightly bent, so that remains #3. The inside is pretty rusty, so I think I'm going to just wire brush it and paint it with some encapsulate.

[Topper2011]

Well, after sanding and priming and filler ad nauseum, I've called it quits on my limited body skills and for better or worse, paint it.



I have a lot of respect for those with the talent that can do a good job, sadly, it's a talent that escapes me. I am talented in having a short attention span and short on patience. Paint really cannot hide shoddy bodywork and this car is definitely not short on badly done body work.



I did coat the rusty backside of the bumper with the ACE Rust Stop.



Doesn't look too bad from 50ft away. How does the back panel attach to the trunk lid? I'm thinking slapping 30ft of 3M double sided tape and hoping it stays put the first time I hit the road.

[Daan]

Well, after sanding and priming and filler ad nauseum, I've called it quits on my limited body skills and for better or worse, paint it.



I have a lot of respect for those with the talent that can do a good job, sadly, it's a talent that escapes me. I am talented in having a short attention span and short on patience. Paint really cannot hide shoddy bodywork and this car is definitely not short on badly done body work.



I did coat the rusty backside of the bumper with the ACE Rust Stop.



Doesn't look too bad from 50ft away. How does the back panel attach to the trunk lid? I'm thinking slapping 30ft of 3M double sided tape and hoping it stays put the first time I hit the road.

Flex Seal fixes everything

[Topper2011]

Flex Seal fixes everything

Actually, I plan on using it in the corners of the fenders as there some sort of rubber plug there. I'll have to post a picture of what I took out.

[Daan]

Actually I was gonna ask something about painting the bumpers, my rear bumper is straight but the back side is all rusty and the chrome is all peeled off the license plate area... so now that I saw you treated yours, I know I can do mine the same way. Thank you!

[caesar]

Topper2011, if you are not familiar with 2K high build primer surfacer, check it out before throwing in the towel. It will give you ' high build' and easy sanding. It could do wonders for your body work. Be aware that 2K products require a good mask/respirator for lung protection.

[Topper2011]

Topper2011, if you are not familiar with 2K high build primer surfacer, check it out before throwing in the towel. It will give you ' high build' and easy sanding. It could do wonders for your body work. Be aware that 2K products require a good mask/respirator for lung protection.

Yes, I've been using the POR-15 2K brush able primer, but it left way too many brush marks that took forever to sand out. I am now using U-Pol 2K spray cans. Definitely using a respirator during this process. Weird that the trunk lid was "thirsty" and took a lot of primer and paint. I did try to get a light colored primer since the base coat is light as well. It still took a lot of coats to alter the color and I can see spotty coverage. Guess rattle can painting is like that. Now I have respect for taggers, they get great results from rattle cans.

[RadioRoy]

Now I have respect for taggers, they get great results from rattle cans.

Great results at vandalism, you mean?

[Topper2011]

Great results at vandalism, you mean?

Only in their skill with a rattle can compared to mine, of course I don't encourage vandalism. I can't count how many times we've been sent out to take care of graffiti on our facilities. I ended up putting labels on our equipment stated "Your prices go up each time we have to clean this up"

[jclary]

Like anything, spray painting is an art. It goes better with experience, but even with experience, there are parameters to be observed. A well-adjusted spray gun is set up to a pattern width and requires adherence to a set of nozzle sizes that take into consideration the viscosity of the paint and the speed of the passes as the paint is sprayed with an application standard of a 50% overlap between passes over the substrate.

Generally, a rattle can is a compromise where the paint is passed through a tiny orifice with mostly a round spray pattern and mainly applied in a pattern controlled by distance and pass speed. It takes much practice to control the target distance and speed well enough to lay the paint on without causing runs (too slow arm speed), at an uncontrolled distance (too close or too far) with a steady enough arm speed not to cause streaks and runs. Most of us, (including me) frantically wave the can and either pile up the paint or streak it as we blast away. With a spray gun, you can choose different nozzles for controlling flow capacities, and use the atomizing air adjustment to control pattern width at a specific distance. IF you have a pressurized vessel for the paint, you can set up a flow rate at a specific pressure to suit your speed of application and then adjust the pattern and atomization.

For a rattle can, YOU have to adjust your application skills to what capacity is built into the can! (Not much) I have had some fair success with a rattle can but not often. But, when you need to get paint all over something to protect it, it is cheap and convenient.

[bensherb]

It's looking good from here Roland! With a lot of practice nice results can be achieved with spray cans. I don't have a pic, but a friend used spray cans for a beautiful finish on his yellow Model A street rod (full fenders).

Here are a couple of mine I did a few years ago. Herbie is 100% painted with
Rustoleum spray cans, stripes, numbers and all, but, it is easier if you're not working with high gloss.


Also, 100% painted with Rustoleum spray cans, including pinstripes, wheels and engine. High gloss appliance epoxy (semi gloss on engine). Small parts are also easier. But, practice makes perfect when you can't afford a real paint job.

[Topper2011]

It's looking good from here Roland! With a lot of practice nice results can be achieved with spray cans. I don't have a pic, but a friend used spray cans for a beautiful finish on his yellow Model A street rod (full fenders).

Here are a couple of mine I did a few years ago. Herbie is 100% painted with
Rustoleum spray cans, stripes, numbers and all, but, it is easier if you're not working with high gloss.


Also, 100% painted with Rustoleum spray cans, including pinstripes, wheels and engine. High gloss appliance epoxy (semi gloss on engine). Small parts are also easier. But, practice makes perfect when you can't afford a real paint job.

Wow, those turned out really nice!

[Topper2011]

The left rear fender has a pretty big rot hole I wanted to fix. Actually, I'm avoiding doing the floors.



I'm not surprised since it had a lot of dirt in there.

[Topper2011]

I've got to put some filler on the top edge. I didn't conform it correctly and I have a bit of a hard edge at the seam.





There is some rubber packing in the corners of the rear fenders and I'm thinking since I have two cans of spray in Flex-seal....... Any suggestions?

[Topper2011]

Well, I'm a horrible panel beater and just made the nice fender contour worse. Now it looks like it has hail damage. Lead to the rescue!




A lot easier to do off the car, although the lead runs like Mercury when heated too much, but cools fast and becomes pasty.



After filing, I found some low spots, not bad enough that I couldn't use some polyester filler.





Not too bad. Just glad I don't do this for a living, I'd starve.