R-model cab resto report

[Vladislav]

A bit of update.

The cowl lower reinforcing plank installed, panel seams covered with polyurethane sealer, the inner side of the floor sprayed with sealer and painted black.

[Vladislav]

The engine side of the firewall covered with spray sealer and painted grey metallic as it was from the factory. To be true factory paint was matt but I made it gloss. Looks good on my mind and seems easier to remove dust or dirt. 

[Vladislav]

13 minutes ago, mowerman said:

Ok I gotcha plus I’m sure you enjoyed all of it

That's almost true. Also I like to go through such job since I'm not a body guy and would like to set up new skills.So far I can say I like this kind of work and seems there's field to apply some engeunity to. Thanks for the comments.

[Vladislav]

Finally the time has come to put the cab the floor side down. I.e. in its normal position.

The rest of old green paint was sanded off the rear wall (where I didn't blast it because of the cab was laying on its back at the blasting time) than covered with primer.

The next step was a sign of light in the end of the tunnel when the roof got painted.

[mackey58]

Looking good

[j hancock]

Still see that shade of green quite often if I am on Rt 91 and 89 north to Canada.

 

Smaller scale is easier to move around.

 

[Timmyb]

Vlad, outstanding work! 👏 

I like the roof supports. How are they fixed in? 

[Vladislav]

On 3/25/2020 at 7:20 PM, j hancock said:

Still see that shade of green quite often if I am on Rt 91 and 89 north to Canada.

 

Smaller scale is easier to move around.

 

Wow! That's funny. i never knew the guy shared his tiny scale sculptures on the net. Seems not difficult to figure out which truck he used as an origin to built the model.

[Vladislav]

On 3/26/2020 at 12:19 PM, Timmyb said:

Vlad, outstanding work! 👏 

I like the roof supports. How are they fixed in? 

Timmy,

That's a good question. I spent some while figuring the best option to fit the strips.

The matter was the roof had a kind of pocket at the rear and the front, a space above say rear wall top edge and windshield frame top edge. I bought a piece of 6x60mm steel stripe, just common construction steel, and bent it to put its rear end standing on that "shelf" of the rear wall top. Than it was bent following the roof curve getting off its surface gradually from rear to the front. I mean when you put the rear end in place the stripe gets as lower off the roof as further to the front making a gap. It was nearly 100mm of the gap at the front end. That way if you force the front end towards the roof and finally having all the stripe contacting it you have to apply sufficient impact to it, something like you can apply with both your hands. The roof gets supported quite well at the time but you need to lock the front end some way. For that I cut the stripe so you can pass the windshield frame top and drilled two holes near the front end. Drilled threads in the holes and cut two steel squares (shims?) off a piece of the stripe stock. Drilled two holes in each shim. Than when you force the support stripe to get place at the front you use pry bar to get it higher than the windscreen top, put the shim to its bottom side and onto the windscreen and attach it to the stripe end with two screws. Releasing the stripe you get its front end landing on the windshield frame top and applying tension to the roof sheet. 

When I bent first stripe I managed its curve to apply maximum force to the roof where it seemed to be needed. Spent nearly 40 minutes for the 1st stripe and than 20 to duplicate it for the other side. The 1st picture shows a test fitted stripe with just a piece of steel to lock the front end in place. The 2nd one was made after all was assembled by the final design.

I also added two cross braces to support the center. Drilled holes in the stripes, put screws with blind heads in them and welded over. Sure ground off the excess. Than when the stripes were in place I was able to put braces onto the studs (former screws) by means of holes drilled and attach with nuts. Put plastic shims between the braces and the roof sheet to compensate the thickness of the stripes.

[Vladislav]

Now we are getting closer to the end of the story.

Door openings were double primered because of weld spots applyed to the sills for attaching the rocker panels. Than seam sealer was layed and the openings painted.

[Vladislav]

The time for the final paint has come.

The cab was supposed to get stripes. Doors were painted much earlier as I liked to experiment with the color scheme and to have time to change it if dislike. They turned out well to my taste and I put them on the running truck. This time I had to remove them off there and put onto the cab being needing to correspond the stripes painted on it.

To the time we arrived to the paint shop with the doors the painter applied a layer of silver base coat on the cab were the stripes were expected. After the doors were on and the gaps managed we applied plastic masking tape making countours for the future stripes. The matter of the tape was to cover the silver paint. After it was done the painter would mask everything excepting the areas supposed to be painted red. He than applied red base coat on them, went for drying, mask them up and remask the areas supposed to be painted gold. Put gold paint there, dry up, mask and remove all masking from areas supposed to be green. When green is applied and dry he would remove all the masking from everywhere and apply clear coat. There's a point the base metallic coats must be covered with clear coat no later than 48 hours. So not an eternity to play with colors and masking tape. That time my paint buddy did fine. He put silver in the evening and we started putting masking the next noon. He than went through red and gold down to the night, applied green in the morning and clear coated everything the next day. So all in all it took nearly 40 hours.

I was invited to watch the result one day later. It was definitely a thrilling moment.

[Vladislav]

In a couple of days the paint got relatively hard so I was able to took the cab from the shop and transport to my place. Made a couple of pics before putting it inside the shop. It will reqire polishing since stripe edges make clear coat uneven but I was going to do it much later when all the paint is set wery well. I had no hurry with that, plenty of work over the chassis and engine was planned ahead.

[mrgumby]

Wow nowadays very few people actually paint stripes like the old day now they just use stick on stripes.  Nice work 

[Vladislav]

3 minutes ago, mrgumby said:

Wow nowadays very few people actually paint stripes like the old day now they just use stick on stripes.  Nice work 

That's true. I made test attempts with vinil tape but it looked ways off from what I was liked to achieve.

Thank you for the comment.

[mackey58]

Man shes gonna be well built and a beaut when done .like  the step by step pics 

[david wild]

I like your SUV, guys in Kiev had them, fun to bomb around in 

[Vladislav]

28 minutes ago, david wild said:

I like your SUV, guys in Kiev had them, fun to bomb around in 

That's what brings me money. Those Kiev guys might be knowing me, I used to sell some parts that way.

And you're sure right - fun to bomb around, especially in a forest or a swamp.

[1965]

All of it looks very good!

[j hancock]

The stripes look Great!

[mrsmackpaul]

As usual Vlad, love your work 

Thanks for sharing 

 

Paul 

[Vladislav]

7 hours ago, j hancock said:

The stripes look Great!

The idea was to keep SGT general appearance but put some improvements to it since the original look was too simple when you up close to the truck. That took me to make spacings between the stripes and add the second raw of them. I also switched to metallic since I like metallics. Still afraid the final result will be too bright when all the body parts together regardless I made a few real size color tests before ended up with the combo and smoothed yellow and red to less contrast grades.

[mrsmackpaul]

Can never be to brite Vlad, Im sure it will be quite impressive when done

 

Paul

[85snowdog]

On 3/31/2020 at 4:27 PM, Vladislav said:

The idea was to keep SGT general appearance but put some improvements

It looks amazing Vlad. I really like how you kept some of the SGT appearance . Just for the simple fact I remember seeing those trucks on the road. They always stood out. We actually called them Slime Green Trucks. So I really like how you changed the color slightly and added metallic . 

These old trucks all have a story to tell. And by you keeping some of the SGT general appearance , you help keep that part of the story alive. Then with your changes, you just add to the story.  

You're doing a great job Vlad !  look forward to seeing more progress.

 

 

There  would't  be a world tour with it by any chance.       

[doubleclutchinweasel]

We had St-Germain move some equipment from Canada to here a few years back.  One of the drivers gave me this calendar.  It's a bit out of date, but I keep it up on the wall just so I can look at those "Slime Green Trucks", as you call them!

 

[Vladislav]

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

And you can always feel "back into 2016"