Ham's '48: The Repaint Project

[LarrBeard]

I went up to check on progress on the repaint job on Ham’s ’48. Butch, the old guy whose name is on the shop and who is doing the actual work, is off for his winter vacation. But, he got some work done before he left.

The bed is off the frame and has been stripped and sanded. I don’t know if he is going to reprime it or not – we’ll see when he gets back. The tailgate looks like it’s been sanded as well.

The steps and fenders have been stripped, but still need some finish sanding.

He hasn’t really started on the front end work beyond the pressure wash paint strip-off and a little touch up on a couple of places that got dinged somehow.

The big place with paint on the back of the cab is where the pressure washer couldn’t get between the bed and the cab.

[gmwillys]

You're counting the days until Butch's return, aren't you...

[bmorgil]

That thing is going to look darn spiffy! It looks nice and warm.

[TJones]

That is going to look Fabulous Larry!!!!

[LarrBeard]

We were going to head for Florida last week, but the flu bug moved in and instead of FL, we went to DR (and I don't mean Dominican Republic). But, the flu shots kept the bug to a low grade, but still miserable, case of infections and we'll get on the road tomorrow - just ahead of the ice, sleet, snow, slop and slush that make the lower Great Lakes region such an interesting place to live.

BUT, since we were delayed, I did a phone check on just how the truck was coming along.

Butch, the gentleman who has adopted my truck, is back from his winter vacation. The nice lady in the front office who knows my voice by now, told me that Butch was treating it very nicely. He got back on the job late last week and he's hitting it hard this week. About all he lets the other guys in the shop do is lift things from point A to point B - everything else is his to do.

I left the message that if there were any decisions to be made, call me.

[bmorgil]

It is always good to hear "Their workin' on it!"

[5JeepsAz]

It seems they like to keep the vehicles. But then they act like they don't remember certain stuff about them. Unless you are wrong about something. Then they know the vehicle real well. But, without them, the vehicle sits incomplete. By this logic, Butch completes your truck. Now I'm wondering if this resto deal isn't the craziest love story of all time. Not the best one. That would be Princess Bride in the movie category. But for misadventure, the resto world is a bunch of love crazed people hoarding stuff and maybe trading stuff and boom, the minute they finish the thing they are off to the next big bang. Insane world I tell ya. All I really want is my truck back, working order. So I feel your Pain with your pal Butch the slow painter. Maybe he'll finish tomorrow...

[bmorgil]

I do believe in the "Stereotypical" Automotive Body man. I truly think they are all the same. Artist to every extent. When their mind says create they are awesome! If the desire leaves so do they. However, having a few close friends who were successful "Automotive Body Men", one thing always worked. If I showed my enthusiasm, and stayed close and in contact, they always produced some great stuff!

Stay on em' you all!

[LarrBeard]

"So I feel your Pain with your pal Butch the slow painter. Maybe he'll finish tomorrow..."

Butch is one of those body shop artistes and I’m very lucky to have found him.

My wife brought me to Florida for February, so I can’t check up on things every week. But, I got a report from Heath, the guy who hauled the truck up to the Jeep Fest in Toledo last summer, on progress on the paint project. Heath does mechanical repair related to collision damage for Butch so they are fairly tight.

Once Butch got back from his Florida trip, he hit the job pretty hard. All of the finish sanding is done, we're not sure if he took the old primer down to bare metal or not, but I suspect that since the primer was stuck on very tightly, he sanded it down to suit him.

Everything has been shot with the base coat. He matched the darkest of the two or three colors dead nuts on. It’s still Tunisian Red – the original color. BMorgil helped us go through the PPG Paint Legacy Library and trace the original Tunisian Red through several corporate owner changes (Willys-Overland, American Motors, Chrysler, Fiat, etc) to a current paint code.

According to Heath, Butch called the insurance company and negotiated premium paint with them ($345/quart for paint, $365/quart for clear-coat).

The paint work on the bed is finished; it's wrapped up in paper and put into storage. Everything else has been painted - base coated and two coats of clear coat. I don't know if two coats of clear coat is the norm or not. He did a wet sand on the clear coat to take out any little dust flecks (that made it look like crap) and he is buffing it out. He wanted to take out the glass to get to every little place, but the glass is glued in and he would have had to break it to get it out, so he stopped at the edge of the gaskets.

We missed something in the original restoration and the bed was a bit off level if you looked at it across the back of the cab. Butch said he wasn't going to let it out of his shop looking like that - he didn't want to be blamed for it - so he put the truck on the frame jig. The laser said that it was about an inch out of square and he said it was my 1972 angle iron frame repair over the left rear wheel. He is going to tweak it and square it up before he puts the bed back on.

And, he didn’t like the hardware the first guy used to put fenders, steps and other pieces and parts on with. They were too long and they would eventually rust too badly to suit him, so he is redoing the bolts, fender washers, lock washers and nuts that tie things together to suit his standards.

I think I lucked out again with my selection of shop to do this work - but pure blind luck generally overcomes skill, cunning and forethought.

He should have it done about early March when I get back to Indiana. I’ll just have to wait for a nice day to bring it back home –it’s not going to come home through snow slop and calcium chloride soup!

[LarrBeard]

Well, I haven’t seen it in person as yet, but Ham’s ’48 has been moved out of the production shop over to Butch’s storage barn. It looks like it’s done. There looks like there is a clean-up job to get the sanding dust off in a few places, but those are places I clean up before show season starts.

I’ll know more in a week or so when I get back to Indiana.

[gmwillys]

Looks great!

[bmorgil]

OH MAN! It looked awful good before. It's hard to have to tell you but... it belongs inside the Seagate Center again. Your going to need that trailer and chauffeur, even if you are just in the parade. Imagine a stone slung up on US24 by a speeding 18 wheeler! Oh my!

Seriously, looking real spiffy there Larry!

[TJones]

OMG Larry that looks Spectacular!!!!!

[okiemark]

That is beautiful. Great color and I like that tag on the front.

[pelago]

way cool
well done my friend

[5JeepsAz]

LOVE it. Happy for you

[LarrBeard]

That is beautiful. ... I like that tag on the front.

Thanks for the nice comment about how the truck looks.

The paint is the original Tunisian Red and I thank BMorgil over and over for tracking down the correct paint codes from the PPG Legacy Paint Library.

Like just about everything on a truck that’s been in the family for about 76 years, there is a story behind the license plate. If you notice, the plate is cut in the shape of the state of Tennessee. ‘Way back then, there was not a federal regulation that told everyone that their license plates had to be ‘yay wide and ‘yay tall. States had a few choices they could make for themselves.

As far as my brother and I can recall and reconstruct, our dad bought the truck “… from some ole’ boy down in Mississippi… “ in late summer or early fall of 1954. Knowing my father, he was in no particular hurry to get Tennessee plates on it. (Back then, plates tended to follow a vehicle around as it was sold.) By the time he got around to registering the truck, sometime in late 1954, there is a good chance that he would have gotten 1955 plates at the Tennessee DMV office.

If you look at the plate number; 7 F/1-783 – it would break down as County 7 (Madison County) Farm truck (F), weight class (1) – light truck - and sequential plate number 783 (a fairly low number). My brother found this plate in the old barn/garage stuck up between a post and the siding. There is no doubt this is a plate from the truck’s earliest days with the family, and the story I just told makes it very possible it is the first plate my father (Ham Beardsley) put on the truck. If not the first, certainly the second!

My father passed away in 1964. I took over the truck in mid-September of that year. To add to the heritage license plate story, my brother also found a 1964 truck plate in the old building. It too is a 7 F/1 plate, and although I do not recall any other details, it is either the last plate my father put on the truck, or the first I had to purchase. I suspect if I had to purchase plates that year, I reregistered and retitled the truck, so I may have stuck that plate away when changed plates out.

AS I said, when you’ve had a truck for over 76-years, the stories pile up. That’s what Jeep stories are supposed to do!

Then, there is the dead goat heater – a story for another day.

[bmorgil]

I gotta tell ya, it is apparent "working with a dead goat" has left a lasting impression on you.

[okiemark]

Yep, I remember in Oklahoma when you could look at a license plate and tell where the driver was from but no more. Great story!

[gmwillys]

I feel the dead goat story coming back around for sure. Great story!

[bmorgil]

Ya gotta wonder what the goat was thinking GM.

[TJones]

I having been talking to the Bride about what personalized plate to get for mine:confused::confused:, and the Bride said why don't you call it your "New Wife" beings how you spend more time with it than you do with me:(:(

[bmorgil]

ZAPPPPPP! Time to take her to the movies and a meal.