C'est Bleu

With the summer weather holding out I was keen to get the chassis painted. Once that was done the pressure is off and I can do some other jobs around the place too.

I put the chassis back on its spit and gave it two coats of the same paint that I used for the cab - International Interthane 990; its a two pack polyurethane and very easy to work with. The blue is my own mix which I call Sabler.

The spit allows the chassis to tip to and fro to get all the angles but it is bloody hard not to miss bits. I went round and round it from every angle and still noticed two or three bits that need more paint later in the day.

Chassis blasting

Unusually for me I decided simply to pay someone to blast the chassis and it turned out to be a good call because the whole thing was blasted and primed in about three hours; it would have taken me weeks! especially since the existing paint turned out to be very tough.

Paul and Chris from Blast Tech NZ did a great job - really thorough. Paul recommended I made up a see-saw on two oil drums so that he could easily tip the chassis to and fro to get at all the angles

The blasting kit is all self-contained on a truck with a seriously large diesel compressor

Blasting nozzle with headlight is a great idea

Paul in action

Chris takes over for a session

As if by magic...

The pink primer is a good idea too. It allows them easily to see where they have been over the grey blasted surface without wasting paint. It's a two pack epoxy.

Bare Bones

With all the pipes out, some good weather and a decent Christmas break it was time to do the final strip-down.

I built a wooden frame that supports the chassis rails

Then off with the front axle

And finally the bare bones ready for steam cleaning, blasting and painting

The axles I will probably just clean and put them back on after the chassis has been painted. I don't really want to get involved with dismantling them all; I'm not building a 'show' truck

I'm hoping that the new-looking caps and grease nipples means that the king pins have been replaced not too long ago ?