Cool McCool's Garage

It’s been a month since I posted, you’d think I’d have gotten the truck painted by now, right?  Well, I’d have said so too, but I’d have been wrong.  Between work, other projects, 2 weeks camping, it’s slow going, but I HAVE made some progress, so here’s a little update of the (very slowly progressing) project.

I shot some “Feather Fill” polyester primer on the cab, box, front fenders and hood, then blocked that out, and shot some 2K primer (a high build urethane primer/surfacer) on everything.  Of course, I found a bunch of little flaws, and took care of those as well.  Now, the cab and box can be block sanded (which levels the surface and fills in minor imperfections), a “guide coat”, a very thin coat of darker color, more block sanding (which will reveal other small flaws) and more primer, then more block sanding with finer and finer grits of paper untill it’s as perfect as I can get it, should have it ready for color.

 

 

The plan is to paint the cab, box, hood and grill, and assemble those.  Then, the front and rear fenders, running boards and small parts like headlights and filler panels can be painted.  Realistically, I should be able to get all this done by the end of summer, and then assemble the truck over the winter.  So far, it’s been together than back apart at least a dozen times for fabrication and fitting of all the pieces.  It’s good to be able to finally see at least the potential of putting it together and LEAVING it together!

 

 

 

Of course, summer isn’t all about working in the garage.  There has to be time to use the other projects we’ve labored on in the past, and that’s exactly what we’ve  been doing.  We spent 2 weeks at the state park at Gun Lake, then moved to the Deep Lake State Park just up the road last weekend.

It’s a very quiet, peaceful setting on an undeveloped lake, with no electric or water.  Very different from the crowded, noisy Gun Lake park.  This all seemed very relaxing and romantic, untill we discovered the solar charger had failed, leaving the battery dead in the trailer, leaving us without water, fridge (12v controls the gas fridge) and no “Fantastic Fan” to ventilate the trailer in the 90 degree heat.  Happily, it’s not far from home so I went home and got another battery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All ended well, we enjoyed using the canoe, paddling around Deep Lake, and nearby Hall Lake on Sunday.  Late in the afternoon, the heat and humidity kept building, untill we decided being only 20 minutes from  home, we’d pack up while it was dry and enjoy the A/C.  Good decision, because the next day, Monday, brought severe storms and we lost power, but that’s another story.

Till next time,

Happy Camping!