Rusty Fifty One

It’s been a bit of work but Bessie is finally startin’ to look like a real hot rod!

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Started out with “Sky Blue” but it was WAY too smurfy.
The remaining powder is going to a friend with a white/black on blue 1960 Impala.

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So a second batch of powder was ordered. Sterling Teal Micro Pearl. This stuff kicks ass! It looks a bit blue in some of the pics but it’s almost an exact match to Tiffany blue which is probably why it’s called Sterling Teal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Blue

Color comparison.

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Process shots.

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Tire prep.

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Mounted and balanced.

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Caps.

Odd but whateves…

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Ready to dance!

Got some work done on the exterior. Greg and I spent the better half of a f’ing hot day basically wet sanding the exterior with CLR and Scotch-brite and then re-buffing it with chrome polish. Still needs a bit of work and I plan on repeating the entire process several more times but its getting there. Looks nice with the shine and a some reflections happening in the paint. …the dark green is the original Juniper Green.

(will update w/pics of the tailgate asap)

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I think I’ve finally settled on the door art and overall concept I’ll be going with!!
Its been on my mind since I got the Bessie and I could never settle on any one idea until recently. I decided that I wanted a St. Louis City or Missouri State Parks theme with a slammed and rodded twist. The USDA logo is real but I have no information for US National Forest vehicles in MO so that part is made up but its based on the layout of the 1950’s logo for the USDA Hotshot Fire Crew of Angels National Forests in California.

Well, here it is…

1950’s US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Mark Twain National Forest (Missouri), Utility Crew 13, Truck #2 …the ‘govt. use only’ part will go on the bed side just behind the cab.

(this is me, freehand on a Wacom tablet with Photoshop and time to burn)

Got bored over the weekend so a couple friends (Brett and Greg) came by and we went to work making Bessie a patina’ed two-tone.

Its hard to tell cause the photos came out so bright but we took a power sander and a ton of paper to the top after we painted it. I’ll be working on it a bit more each day over the next couple weeks.

Finished painting and decaling an oil bath filter that I converted to take a dry element.

After a four month hiatus to attend to family issues, my buddy Greg and I got the oil pan on and removed/replaced the copper oil line that goes thru the block and main water jacket. Unfortunately the push rod cover gasket set came with a couple crushed spark plug seals so we didn’t get to fire her up as planned. Called NAPA and they came thru for me with a couple new cork plug seals. Need to wait for them to get shipped out to the local store tho. Hopefully it’ll happen by next week.

Also been painting the panels as I’ve had em off. The color is actually New Ford Gray from AutoZone.

Not using the Thriftmaster decal, instead I’m going to cut a stencil and spray it on as it would have been in 1951.