$50 paint job on the highboy

[hazelnut]

I bought a 69 highboy about 5 years ago that didnt run and was full of rust for $500 from a friend of mine. It spent its life as a farm truck in Smithfield, VA and only has 56,000 miles on it. Didnt do anything with the truck for 3 years because i was getting parts together because every part of the body was rusted to bad to reuse. Ive been working on the truck on and off for 2 years. And think its time to see some paint on it Ive been sand blasting and epoxy primeing parts as i get them for the past 2 years and now its time for the paint. Only one problem, I dont have $1200 to spare on paint so im going to paint my truck with caterpiller high gloss white everywhere and leave the upper part in epoxy primer and use car paint when the rest of the truck is painted. Heres a few pictures to show what im working with.




I still have the body that came of the truck, Ill try to get some picks of it to post this week.

[Ranchero50]

I don't know, I have mixed feeling about the $50 paintjob. I did my '71 F250 two years ago (I think) using rustoleum rolled on and it's looking pretty rough. All the shine is gone fromt he paint and there is some rust discoloration coming through in places like the cowl opening. Of course the basecoat clearcoat only lasta about 6 years before pealing too.

It's so much dang work to get them fixed up that it sucks when the paint gives up too soon...

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

That's good info. I was down at the farm today and spit and wiped off the dirt and grime on mine and it still shined underneigth so maybe it isn't so bad after all.

Jamie

[jzjames]

Hey,glad you're sold on the Caterpillar. I don't doubt it holds up like you say.
Where can you get industrial paint? I wanted to get the paint that Yellow Trucking uses on their trucks. Do you think John Deere green would also work?
Be sure to post the pics.

[Madsen1970F100]

Wow, looks like you have your work cut out for you and have made utility of some interesting shade tree mechanic tools, lesser known, i.e. the bucket loader! Looks real nice and interested to see how your paint job looks....

[hazelnut]

Hey,glad you're sold on the Caterpillar. I don't doubt it holds up like you say.
Where can you get industrial paint? I wanted to get the paint that Yellow Trucking uses on their trucks. Do you think John Deere green would also work?
Be sure to post the pics.

I know sherwin willaims sells industrail enamal paint, Ive never tryed it so i cant say how good it is. Ive never tryed john deere paints, Dont know if they use industrail enamal or acrylic ? Should be on the can though. Im going to be posting lots of picks to show how it going, Not planning on scuffing and buffing except where ive got some rust repair to do on the kick panels. Thats what i like about equipment paint, need to fix a small area, buy a can for $ 7 and it matches perfect

Hay Eric thanks for looking in, Sometimes i get lucky and can use things to make life easyer on me Might try talking you into coming down for a burger and beer to be the eyes for the site to give your honest opinion on how it looks. Looks to bad we can go find a mud hole somewhere and cover it up j/k

[hazelnut]

Been doing a little bit of work on the bed this week. I bought another bed over the summer that had been blasted, primed and painted on the bottom that had been sitting since the 80s i think. Thought it would save me a lot of time of working on the bed that ive got on the truck. I sanded down the outside of the bed down to the metal in the afternoons this week and sprayed some primer on it tonight. The sides are wavy from being blasted so im going to do some body work on it next week and hope to have some paint on the bed by next friday. The floor is nice and straight so im just going to scuff it up before painting it. This bed is a 72 i think so it has the side marker lights on it, I dont know if im going to patch them now or do it later. Heres some pictures of it.

[hazelnut]

Been working on the bed getting it nice and straight in the afternoons, still have to patch the lights on the side but havent went to cut the pieces out of the old bed that came on the truck to cover them with. Ive painted the inside of the doors and put some sound deadner on the inside of them, seen a post someone made of roofing material called "quick roof" and gave it try, worked good inside of the doors. Dosent smell and comes 6" wide so its easy to get in the door with. A friend let me use his buffer so i decided to start buffing and polishing the trim so i wouldnt have to do it later, everything was going good for about 2 hours until i felt something rubbing on my leg and took my eyes of my work to look down. Thats when the driprail trim got snatched out of my hands and smacked me in the arm before i even knew what had happined and i could hear the trim spinning around in the air for 3-4 seconds before it landed on the roof. When i pulled my arms down from over my head i saw i got a nice strip on my forearm and tingling fingers and a bent up piece of trim, After i went on the roof to get it. Heres a link to the picture of my forearm, Im sure its going to feel good in the morning http://s1040.photobucket.com/albums/b40 ... C00045.jpg

[Madsen1970F100]

Holy cow! glad it did not cut you any deeper. Spinning tools are hazardous. THat bed looks great, nice find. Hope to be able to come out and see in person some day. Keep up the great work!!

[hazelnut]

Ive been haveing some problems with my bloodpressure so nothing much has been happing with the truck. Think the doctors have gotton it straight now so ive been working on the truck again and got some paint on the cab today. Painting outside with the wind is blowing 10-12 mph and raining everyday makes it hard to get a decent paint job on the truck, But when you got to get the truck on the road you got to do what you got to do. So i sprayed the cab today in bad weather for painting and hoped for the best, didnt turn out to bad. Im going to repaint the cowl because some water blew out from under the windshield gasket and messed up that area but other than that im good with it. Ill repaint the cowl this weekend when i paint the doors. The windshield has cracks in it so i didnt bother with tapeing it off.

[Madsen1970F100]

Pics look pretty good considering the conditions. Maybe I'll pay you to paint mine I still have to take care of the pitting spots along the bed seams. Keep the pics coming!

[hazelnut]

Well its been 5 months without a update, I havent really been doing anything to the truck lately because the job i was working had me working 65 hrs a week and wasnt much time left for the truck.
I started pulling whatever is left on the old cab off today before scraping it, Rust has ate the body up (why i replaced it) and need to get it out of the way and maybe get a few dollors from it for seals and rubbers for the doors im useing on the truck. I took a few pictures of the old cab to show bad it really was. The first picture shows where someone was hauling something in the bed and slamed on the brakes and whatever was in the bed come foward with enuff force to go through the bed and cab and put a 4" dent in the incab tank

Rust is everywhere on this cab. I guess the last paint job was less than $50 foam, fiberglass tape and a gallon of house paint was all it got. I guess it was better than nothing.

Truck was a plain jane with the overhead fan option.



Im going to paint the doors and fenders this weekend im hopeing. Hopefully can have a real update then.

[hazelnut]

I guess my project has been put on hold for a bit. Thursday night i had a heart attach and have been in the hospital since, Im having open heart surgery monday morning. Doctors say it will be 2 month before i can do light duty work so I guess ill be mashing ass looking at the truck for about 2 months.

[Oil Burner]

I guess my project has been put on hold for a bit. Thursday night i had a heart attach and have been in the hospital since, Im having open heart surgery monday morning. Doctors say it will be 2 month before i can do light duty work so I guess ill be mashing ass looking at the truck for about 2 months.

Whoa! Hope it all goes well, and I wish you a speedy, full recovery

[jzjames]

Hazelnut, godspeed. The surgeries are excellent nowadays. Plan on a 5 or 6 week recuperation, dont worry you will recover very well.