VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 paint on the 41 cabriolet finally

Love the pics, thanks for sharing.

One question about painting the final color: Are you doing the painting in a paint booth setup (pre filters, fans, final filters) or out in the open?

Good question Jim, the first batch I started in the shop but I had so much overspray that I moved into the breezeway. It's 14x20 has a drain in the floor, good lighting and during the summer there's usually a breeze from the south to disperse the overspray. I'd never get away with that in town but my nearest neighbor is 300 feet away and they're relatives. I want to get the frame and all the chassis pieces painted before the weather turns. We usually have good weather through October. Frame is striped down and going the sandblaster tomorrow.
Jay

That's interesting...I am thinking of doing the same to my '38, as my next door neighbor's house is empty and will remain empty for another six months, so now would be a good time.

My biggest concern about painting in the open is bugs, especially where I live. I can easily set up my 12x24 shed into a temporary spray booth with filters on both sides, but still need to do it right as urethane fumes aren't something to mess with. I could go with less toxic paint like acrylic enamel with hardener to speed up the drying process....

Jim, your concerns are valid. I certainly wouldn't paint without a good respirator. And I did get a few bugs (gnats). I'm using single stage urethane and it "spots in" very well. I wouldn't have panel painted this way with a metallic color because the color can change with different air pressures or the way the metallic lays. Your spray booth sounds like a good way to go if you put a breeze box or some kind of fan to draw out the overspray.
I painted my vintage GMC motorhome outside four years ago using the same brand (Matrix). It was the first single stage I had used and I liked the way it sprayed. it flowed out with a nice gloss and for a motorhome required no buffing. I did it in three days, The roof, the back half and the front half. this picture shows the "cloud" I'm creating.

The downside is the price has gone way up. Six quarts sprayable in 2011 was $150...Today five quarts sprayable is over $350. I did find better prices at http://www.tcpglobal.com/ and got the satin black ...$153, for six quarts sprayable.

Good luck with your project, Jay

Thanks, interesting....my '38's paint is Gunmetal Poly, which is metallic but not as "metallicky" as today's vehicles are...if you had to paint a metallic color, what type of paint would you use?

I agree about the color inconsistency....gotta keep mixing the paint while painting and gotta keep everything consistent...

I got a quart from TCP Global, and you are right about prices...

I have found with metallic paint it is best to mix enough paint and thinners in the 1 pot to do the whole layer and if available use a 10 qt pot with a mixing paddle built in.
Tony

Good advice Tony, the pressure pot is the way to go.

Jim your question about what kind of paint to use...I would have to say base coat cleat coat. To get the depth and best shine. However before we had that we did some pretty nice jobs with lacquer. So it comes down to what you want to spend and neither will be cheap. Two stage you will have to pay a professional with a booth. I did two clear coats a home and its a loosing battle. One tiny dirt nib under the clear and you have to re-do it. With lacquer you can do it yourself, at home. But lacquer as gotten expensive..especially the slow thinner. It's not even available in California. A friend was in Reno and wanted to get five gallons of DuPont 3602 slow thinner. He was quoted $600 for a five gallon can.
So I don't know if this helps and I'm not really qualified to answer. I spent my career in the body shop as a metal man and didn't paint professionally.
Keep us posted on your decision, Jay

Yesterday was a milestone in the cabriolet re-paint/re-restore.
The body drop!


Since my last update the end of September I had to take off two weeks to paint the house and shop...I hired some help this time, 10 years ago it took a month to do it myself.
So I got the frame blasted in town and painted just before Halloween.
Then bead blasted/Sand blasted the 120 plus chassis parts.

And got all those painted.

And the engine.


I finally got the chassis re-assembled last week and was ready for the big day yesterday.


Now it's in one piece again and this is the fun part for me, putting it back together. So far only the Fisher cowl tag and Chevrolet floor ID have been installed. They indicate the body was built at the Lansing plant and final assembly was at St. Louis in November of 1940. It was 31 years ago I removed these tags but not from this body. But that's another story.
Jay

Looks awesome--seems to have dropped on without too much trouble. Now it will really start coming together. Keep us posted.

Jim

What's the unrestored Touring Car siting outside?

The car is looking outstanding!!

This is the ONLY color for a 1941 convertible

Gene,

You have jerked my chain. The ONLY color. Dang, I have now dried my eyes feelig and feeling much better. Well, enough to respond for me and the rest of cabriolet owners who feel dissed by your flat statement.

I personally think there were several nice colors for the 41 cabriolet. Not just Cameo Cream. I remember your saying there was one in your dealer's show roo that you liked very much.

It is my understanding that Cameo Cream (CC) was chosen by Denver Mint was because it was unique to the 41 cabriolet. And only came with a black top. Even though the car they used to get all the specification was black. I think that is right.

While I like the way the red interior enhances the CC better than any other color, that is not enough to convince me to go with CC. Let me explain why I am of this opinion"

a. The CC color does not shine as well as the darker colors. I like shiny cars.

b. The places the different parts of the car fit together are more obvious with the CC. That is the space around the hood, doors, trunk, etc.

c. I don't know but I doubt the CC was the best selling color. Even though all of them (a little over 15K) were sold eventually. I think that black may have been the most popular (and produced) color.

d. The light CC makes the car look bigger. Small is cuter.

e. The wheel effect is not as good as with other colors. While the wheel discs (especially "Shark Teeth" make the wheels look acceptable they but not quite as well as they enhance a darker color.) And that is about it for my not favoring CC for my project car. It was black but while the club accepts any 41 color, I believe
black or ruby maroon have an edge. They too, are not the ONLY color for a 41 cabriolet in my book.

I think Jay is doing an outstanding job of restoring his 41 cabriolet. As JD says, it is looking outstanding; Just not the color I prefer.

Any one support me in my comments? Probably not.

Jay, I am not slamming your car. It is a nice color and you are doing an excellent job on it. I wish I could do as well.

Best to all,

Charlie

BTW: Jay, you may think again about your choice of valve cover. I think the original look to match the rest of the engine is much better. All my comments are just my opinion and nothing more. This post was prompted by Gene's kind of insensitive comment (How are the rest of us who have other colors supposed to feel after someone we respect so highly makes such a statement?).

BTW2: I just know I'm a-gonna catch hell for this post. S0 to all of you who are readily notching your arrows in your long bows, I have my shield up. Let the poison arrows fly.


BTW3: I am not knocking Jay's choice of color. The car is his. It would be none of my business whatever color he wanted to. And CC is not bad but it in not the ONLY color. That's all I'm trying to say.
.

Wow! I'm overwhelmed with the response to my post. Thanks to everyone for the kind words.
Jim, I spent all day (6 hours is all day for me now) dropping the body and getting the 26 bolts tightened down. Working alone I took it slow and kept checking. No screw-ups,thank god.
Don. the 21 490 was a mistake, an impulse purchase at the Sacramento Swap meet...I took it back this spring to try and get my money back. No takers! Anybody want it for $1,500.
Gene, My feelings exactly...but not Charlie's!
And Charlie, Thanks for your oration on the pros and cons of a yellow car...and I have to agree, you don't get the deep gloss of a dark color, all the cut lines show and the wide whites are washed out. I didn't make the color choice that's what was on the cowl tag. There's a line, a book title I think that says "All Corvettes are red...the ones that aren't are mistakes" I think that applies to 41's too, but red wasn't offered.
Thanks to all and Happy Thanksgiving!
Jay

Wow, awesome string. I think the Cameo Cream looks fine, and also agree that the maroon and black look great on this body style. Never thought about the cut lines showing on light colors, I guess my mind kind of skips over them anyway - but it's a true observation. True enough also about the wide whites kind of paling out against a light color. A bigger thing to me, I would also think the stock rocker cover paint would look a lot better / more right - but that's just me.

But MOSTLY - you have given me something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving: I am thankful that you are thousands of miles away, or else I would be talking myself into that 490 Touring car home coming home with me at that price....

Thats why cars are offered in more than one color. Everybody has different likes.
But I still perfer cream for many reasons and one is that it was not a sedan color.
My seconed choice would be maroon but it is too dark for a convertible.
In 1941 the cream stood out as a flashy color for a flashy body style.

41carguy: Where in Northern California are you located?

Hi JD, I'm about 100 miles north of Sacramento in beautiful downtown Yankee Hill (just a wide spot-n-road) Anything more than a loaf of bread or bottle of beer requires a 30 mile drive to Chico.

Okay, I pretty much know where you are at. I think that they call that part of California the "State of Jefferson". Anyway, I was hoping that you were closer to where I live so that I could stop by and see your car someday. About as far south into California as we get (which is a couple times a year) is Yreka.

Any time, Steve K and his group stopped here on their way to Turlock 3 or 4 years ago. I asked, where's that JYD? They said they couldn't get you outa Eagle Point. By the way, you ever run into Kim Novak at the Wall-Mart? I hear she has a horse ranch there. If you do say hello for me.

Ha ha....ya if I have a choice between going to California or staying in Eagle Point.....I will stay in Eagle Point.

Actually, Kim Novak lives right down the road from me. She has a fairly new house that is right on the Rogue River. We go by her house several times a week. And yes, she has been known to frequent the Wal Mart store that is in Eagle Point. Also, Patrick Duffy lives on the other side of the river from me and we can see the roof of his house from our house.

Another person of interest is Jim Belushi. He recently built a new house, (also on the Rogue River) down the road from Kim Novak. As a matter of fact, Jim built his house on the ranch were I found my all original barn survivor 1932 Chevrolet Special Sedan. When he is in the area (Jim spends part of his time in Southern California) he can be seen at the Barb Wire Grill cafe in Eagle Point.

I can't believe I haven't updated this thread since Thanksgiving. I've been working on it most every day 4 to 6 hours.
Yesterday was a milestone I backed it out into the sun and declared it done.









Well except top and interior.

Since I pulled it into the shop on may 25th last year I've logged 1,215 hours of hands on work...not counting all hours on-line and on foot chasing parts and materials. I don't even want to talk about the money we all know about that. But bottom line I'm under budget on both...So I'm satisfied, and really satisfied that I did it at age 75.

So now I close the body shop and open the upholstery shop, I'll let you how that goes...Darn cars just won't stay done!
Jay

Wow, that is awesome!!! Excellent job!!!

It's pictures like these that motivate us to do something more to our cars....

Beautiful Job! A '41 convertible is one of the few cars I'd consider selling my '50 for someday. Don't tell Charlie I said that!!

Are we going to see this beauty in Lake Tahoe this summer?

Bruce, we'll be at Tahoe for sure it's only 200 mile drive. Many of our region are attending. I'm looking forward to meeting you and other friends on Chat.
Jay