Build thread for the 72 GMC, finally. Thanks John!

Are you beginning to hate bodywork like I hate bodywork, yet?

Looks good from here, though!

I'm super excited!

SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:

Are you beginning to hate bodywork like I hate bodywork, yet?

Looks good from here, though!

Yes. 

Granted this is the fun part and the color is laying nicely with just a few exceptions, and I have two kids helping. 

I was able to finish the cab today as well, but no pictures because it's stuffed in the tent pretty good. The hood still needs attention on the top, just a couple more coats. The bed is not done at all, but no worries. I have a couple of runs to take care of but everything else looks pretty good.

Say it with me:

"Five years from now, when this is peppered with door dings, rock chips, and blow-by residue, how much am I really going to care about these wee imperfections?"

A question: 

I wonder if I should have put seam sealer on stuff. I never actually did buy any, and it's likely a good idea. I can always put another coat of yellow on the sealer. Thoughts?

Yes. Seam seal. Scuff the 2k pretty good prior to application. 

Im lost....I thought the truck was going to be aqua-blue. When did we go with matte yellow?

NOHOME said:

Im lost....I thought the truck was going to be aqua-blue. When did we go with matte yellow?

It's regular yellow, just have to wet sand

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Yes. Seam seal. Scuff the 2k pretty good prior to application. 

Ok, but I already painted the inside of the cab. Do I sand the paint off to use seam seal in those areas and then repaint or can I apply over scuffed paint and then paint again?

Ew

The new header section above the windshield appears to have a lazy eye. I'm going to need to fix this. I didn't see it before color. 

Booooooooo

In reply to tuna55 :

Don't overthink it. If the area is already painted, and you are going to put carpet or panels over the panel anyways, then simply use tape to keep the seam sealer in bounds and apply as needed.  Why bother to paint over what wont be seen? Function over form.

NOHOME said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Don't overthink it. If the area is already painted, and you are going to put carpet or panels over the panel anyways, then simply use tape to keep the seam sealer in bounds and apply as needed.  Why bother to paint over what wont be seen? Function over form.

It will not be covered, that's why. I'm thinking kick panel and certain places in the cab corners specifically. 

Those runs are just gone after twenty minutes of light careful sanding with 400 grit. Nice. 

Some wet sanding questions. 

The SPI perfect paint job specified sanding basecoat with 1500 grit. Fine

Then they specify sanding clear with 800 grit, then more clear, then "grits of your choice".

Why 800?

What choices?

Are you doing single stage or Bass clear? The answer changes for both and I have much more experience with bass clear

I have never seen a base-clear paintjob that was not sprayed  wet-on-wet. Meaning that the base color is sprayed  first and then the clear is sprayed on top within like an hour to 12 hours later. Other than de-nibbing some bugs and dirt, any sanding  to the basecoat would be to repair an issue and only local.

Because you were not clear-coating the parts as they were painted, I was under the impression that you were doing a single-stage paint system in matte yellow.

Off to SPI's website for educational purposes. Those guys know what they are doing with home spraying.

Pete

Someone on the SPI forum pointed out that I was misinterpreting the instructions for the perfect paint job. Apparently the last coat of base coat goes on without any sanding afterward. I am not sure how you manage this without any orange peel issues. Anyway, from there you put on clear. You sand after a few coats of clear, for some reason with 800 grit, and then you put more clear on and don't sand anymore after that. The next thing to do is buffing. I had thought there was more wet sanding as a last step after base coat, so that's my mistake. Apparently the only sanding done on the base coat is if there is an error, like there was with my runs.

And yes, this is base, clear. 

Well I spent another couple of hundred dollars of rough things or various types, styles and grits.

I think this weekend's goal is to get everything in basecoat including that repair to the cab over the windshield. I just don't have the time to do it all at once. The tough part will be to get that door in epoxy with enough time before basecoat. Then I'll clear everything and assemble the truck on the next weekend.

I learned that I was wrong, and Pete was on to something. Apparently I erred by waiting so long between base and clear. I've not seen that written anywhere as important. That means I need to redo all of the work I've done, at least on the outside panels.

Well, that's not what I wanted to hear. 

There may be a ray of Hope here, I was able to connect with Chad, the paint jobber, and he and I chatted for a bit.

The primary reason for doing a clear coat on top of a just barely dry base coat is to avoid having the clear coat be absorbed into the surface and causing a potential color mismatch. There really isn't another issue. So here's what we're going to do: 

I'm going to clear coat the bottom of the hood the inside of the fenders and the inside of the doors, the back of the cab, and the inner fenders entirely. I am then going to reassemble the truck, scuff the entire exterior with an 800 grit foam sponge, put one good layer of Base coat on everything, and then clear the entire thing all together as one item. That actually saves me a lot of effort and time. I just need to buy shims and bolts and such