Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

Just to annoy Kev, (he loves me really), I picked up a couple of pine staircase bannister rails from B & Q yesterday evening for 3 quid each & sawed them in half to experiment with. The bed's sitting too high at the moment & the fuel tank's nowhere near right, but something like this?

[Manky Monkey]

I like the gloss finish on the cab, but there are some definite high spots that would need rubbing down & re-spraying, but might be hidden by flatting it back to a satin finish. Sprayed the bonnet section in green today, so will try matt lacquer & Scotchbrite pads on it over the weekend.
-2 & far too cold to do anything in the garage this afternoon. Feels like snow's on the way.

[flc]

I like the green, got a very pleasing look to it

[Manky Monkey]

Mr Olds tells me it was originally surplus War Department paint, left over from round 2 of the World War.
It was apparently used in aircraft interiors & fuselages. Self etching to use on aluminium so ideal for LandRovers when they went into production, (they used ali' body panels cos it was cheaper than steel at the time). Also used by BSA & various commercial vehicle manufacturers. Most lathes, mills etc from the 50s were painted the same colour.
So it has a nice vintage feel about it I think. I do more steam fairs/country shows/classic meets than I do custom shows & would like to think the Pop's not so in yer face that it couldn't sneak into the commercial vehicle line-up at a couple of them. 

[dobber]

I really suffer with dry hands in the Winter. The joints of my fingers split open in the cold weather. Common complaint among Posties. So painful -feels like a million paper cuts. So rubbing down paintwork ain't much fun.

Been there, had that - try working on a dairy farm in winter!

This is the answer - has to be the intensive protection version though!

try wearing latex gloves with a barrier cream or something similar in and keep doing while working. be soft as a young uns bum in no time. one mate said he slept in them and cured his almost  straight away.

[Clive]

one mate said he slept in them

How did he fit in a latex glove??

[Manky Monkey]

  No Popping for a few days. It was my birthday on Saturday, so I took the weekend off. Back at it tomorrow to mark out the wooden bed for my mate to cut various holes in it.

[dobber]

one mate said he slept in them

How did he fit in a latex glove??

he always had a strange way about him!   but his skin was so soft.

[the coppersmith]

seen this today elsewhere

[trev]

i think the bed would look better over the rear wheels,just my personal thing.

[Manky Monkey]

Entirely understandable matey. Not possible on mine though, partly cos the bed would have to be raised off the chassis & would end up almost as high as the rear window & partly because the suspension moves quite a lot & the tall tyres would foul on the bed unless it was even higher. I think a lower bed emphasises the tall tyres, which I like.
Spent some time this afternoon crawling underneath the back of the Pop, marking various recesses on the wood, needed to clear obstructions so it can sit down flat on the chassis. I needed a stubby pencil to get in between the chassis & bed to mark it, but didn't have one, so nipped round to the local shop. £2.50 for a kids' writing set, just to get the pencil. No wonder so many youngsters are illiterate. Then I found the plastic tray the pieces were in wouldn't come out of the case. They'd actually made the opening smaller than the things in it. Brilliant. Had to cut my new pencil case up to retrieve the pencil.
By the time the bed's sat on the chassis & the tank's sat flat on the bed, the filler cap will be more or less level with the bottom of the rear window.

[Manky Monkey]

Had to snap my new pencil in half to get it between the chassis & the bed. Luckily it came with a sharpener.  
Also tried a few paint finishes on one of the bonnet sides.
Gloss, straight from the aerosol on the left.
Gloss with matt aerosol lacquer on the right.
Top middle is gloss flatted back to satin with a fine Scotchbrite pad.
Bottom middle's flatted then sprayed with matt lacquer.

I think I like that most. It softens the colour a little & flatting it would remove the orange peel effect of spraying aerosol paint in a cold garage, as well as hiding the various imperfections. I hope. I don't want to weather it. Not keen on the fake patina thing, but quite like alternate finishes, rather than the normal gloss.

[Manky Monkey]

I plan to keep all the interior surfaces gloss, (engine bay, cab & steel pick-up bed), & all the exterior panels satin or matt. Hopefully that'll show the matt's deliberate & also make it easier to wipe off oil spills, grubby finger marks in the cab etc.
Still got to finish some areas around the door shuts & sills & paint them too. The doors still need a lot of work around the window frames, but can be done off the cab later.

[Manky Monkey]

Phil the carpenter came round this afternoon & took the wooden bed away to drill some holes & route some recesses in it.
Cleaning up the door openings & sills. The sills aren't structural like a modern monocoque bodyshell, they're just a closing panel between the A & B pillars, so I'm just adding a skim of filler to smooth them out. The pillars have 2" x 1" box section steel inside them with feet welded to the bottom which bolt to the chassis. 8 bolts hold the cab in place.
Spring's on it's way. 10 degrees in my garage this evening & light enough to work till 5.30/6pm.

[Manky Monkey]

For those that've asked, yup, still working on it almost every day. Didn't leave the garage till 8 this evening. I've flatted the roof back again, down as far as the swage line, to remove the orange peel paint finish & will add another couple of coats once it gets a bit warmer.
Still messing about with the door openings.
Seriously thinking of farming the fabrication work on the door tops out, just to get it done. I want to put proper U channel window runners in, up both sides of the glass & across the top. Pops used a flexible plastic "Furflex" U channel, clipped to tabs inside the door window opening, but I haven't had much luck with it & would prefer fixed channel. I've also got some 1940s American Ford interior trim I'd like to modify to suit. The edges of the doors need trimming back slightly too, which might separate the outer skins from the frames.
I've spoken to Simon the local pinstriper, about sign writing the doors for me & want them done before it's back on the road, so need to get them sorted & sprayed first.
Nothing much to see, but it's creeping onwards, slowly.