On the home stretch!

Words cannot express the sheer magnitude of the delight and exhilaration I am feeling now! It also doesn’t do justice my sore arms, weird grayish boogers (don’t worry, no pictures), and obnoxious headache I woke up with this morning. After an arduous couple weeks of taping, prepping, priming, sanding, priming again, sanding more, the last 2 days we dug in. The cold weather this past week set paint back, which was frustrating, but Saturday morning early, we worked hard to get ready for the final stage. Brad touched up and re-sanded more primer spots, and I wriggled my way back into the truck to re-tape everything that had come loose, dipped down, or pulled away. (cold weather is such a pain) We also tag teamed prepping and painting some parts. Brad started heating them with the torch, and then I think he got bored and told me to continue. I always knew he was heating the metal for paint adhesion, however I never knew it was to remove water from the metal too. Insane! It is like a weird science project. As soon as you put the torch to it, water pulls out of the metal. I was mesmerized. Brad got to painting while I wrapped the heating up.

Taped and half primered

Primer Down

Red Smog

On Saturday, our upholstery guy came up, ready to go! Unfortunately, we weren’t prepared for them. Originally paint should have been done, but we couldn’t paint below 60 without too much risk, so unfortunately, we held them up a bit. They did bring up all the stuff though to get going, and worked on the templates for the custom design on the interior wall panels. My brain wasn’t so helpful on coming up with designs, and we pretty much gave him free reign in a semi-neutral pattern. In case the truck name/design ever changes, then we don’t have to swap out interior. Genius, right? So anyway, they worked up some pretty spectaulificar patterns. They didn’t even yell at or karate chop me when I randomly walked by all stalkerish like and took pictures. It was nice to see all the stuff ready to go for install. I know they came with the idea to get it done, but obviously….that just wasn’t going to work. So we will be seeing them very shortly!

Prepping

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. UGH. Mixed feelings hit me Sunday morning. One, I was really tired. No sleep for 3 or 4 days can get ya. Two, I really, really don’t want to go roll around in the dust. Three. OH MY FREAKING HIPPOPOTAMOUS THE TRUCK IS GETTING PAINTED! Obviously you can see which one was the most excited. So after a lame speedy breakfast, we hit the shop.

My job, I was told, was to just go around and quickly scuff everything. Here is a scotch pad, and get to it. Not but 3 minutes it, suddenly my “scuffing quickly and lightly” became, sand to smooth perfection all the door jams, window crevices, curves, underside panels, and pretty much anything that didn’t have a flat surface. Really? Somehow, I think he knows these things in advance, but doesn’t want to tell me until I’m already in. This was significantly different and more time consuming. I have 2 hours to get allllllll of that done? UGGGGH. Just keep picturing the truck painted.

We sanded and smoothed that truck, which honestly is a terrible job for me in a hurry. I’m very tactile (like the person who touches everything when I’m at the clothes store, and twirls my hair because it’s silky feeling) So any mild imperfection really is difficult to move on from and I end up taking more time that probably needed. In the back of my mind I just want to tell myself it was getting wrapped anyway. While I finished up the last of the sanding, Brad blew off the truck and we grabbed some tack rags (oh that almost killed me) and wiped down the truck. Have you ever touched those things???? I can’t do sticky anything. It kills me. Truck wiped. Time for primer sealer to get mixed.

Most of the time I feel  I’m relatively important. Aside from these well written, thought out, and edited news updates that probably qualify for a literary Nobel prize, I do have a lot that I handle. But when assigned the task of watering the concrete, I began to question my value being handed a job like the kid you want to be engaged, but don’t have the time to babysit their work. I know my parents did it to me…. Turns out watering concrete is actually extremely needed, especially when painting without a booth.  So I watered, Brad prepped spray and did one more walk around. It’s GO TIME!

Primer sealing the window edges and door jams

Primer Sealing Body

Round 1- Primer Sealer DONE

Respirators are sexy, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. They look good, feel great, and are a treat to breathe through. Ok maybe I’m exaggerating a hair. Mine didn’t fit for crap and it felt like it was pull my lower eyelid down so that wasn’t real pleasant with chemicals flying willy nilly in my general direction. Brad rocks his like a champ though. Good for him and his big neck.

Primer sealer down. One light headache. Now we wait. Quick one hour break. WRONG. The Summit Brand Primer sealer would have taken 6 hours to cure on its own at our temp. I was all for it, but Brad didn’t seem to want to paint in the crappy light at 9 pm. What a baby. Instead, the light and blast heater became mobile. I pushed a tire lift around really, really slow to heat up the sides of the truck. For almost 3 hours this continued. I did manage to squeeze in a few Spanish lessons on my phone, get in a mini workout, and plan my grocery list for the next run in.

Once the sealer was dry enough, Brad got to it. At least with the paint, he could just do laps around the truck. So I would go walk a lap, come in and water the dry spots on the floor, go walk a lap, then check on the floor. Finally, just after dark, the truck was done. Whew. Brad works quick. I know it killed him to not be in a paint booth where he had better control of the elements, because Brad’s a perfectionist with his work. He doesn’t half ass things. I just repeated my new mantra….it’s gonna get wrapped. Just get the damn thing done.

She’s allllll done! Paper comes off Tuesday!

Laying down the paint.

It was a long weekend, but we both fell asleep knowing that the truck was painted, the dust could finally be cleaned up for good (uuuuuugh laundry every day and cleaning daily is not my idea of awesomeness), and we could get moving on assembly. What a feeling.