desertdatsuns.net

Here are some pic of what is going on with grimace

Look'n good Gene! That hood looks smooth as glass. Looks like this painter knows what he is doing. You must be getting excited!

thanks dale. i saw that azhitman/greg posted about needing a painter and i responded to his post, i hope that he sees my pix and gets back with me to let me know if he wants to use same guy. my painter has done various types of cars and is not to expensive. he is always looking to work on different cars. he is gonna be working on a 70's corvette next

so i have a snug top fiberglass shell that is gonna be painted the metallic silver and the painter made a suggestion about adding a roll back sliding roof onto it since it sags in middle or come up with a bracing to resupport it flush. he has the sliding roof on his madza mini truck canopy but his has side windows and mine does not, he says it will bring some light into the bed interior that he is doing as well when i open it at car shows so that way people can see inside of it . or he will continue with the cab roof design on the top of shell. thoughts please

I'm not a camper shell guy. But either a sliding roof or solid roof sounds ok. Make the decision that you will like the best.
I'm sure either will look good.

Dale: this is the snug top shell I'm using it used to be on my 620kc but i sold it w/o shell

so the painter got with me today and the center of roof on shell is sagging due to age and being out in the sun prior to me getting it the 1st time, when i found it the shell was sitting on a mazda truck in a junkyard here in hell/phoenix so initial thought was that we would brace it up from the inside but it is double layered fiberglass and inside is fine, its the outside that is damaged and it is really textured by whoever decided to paint it with white house paint and it was originally red, but whoever painted it they did not prep/sand it and looks like they painted it outside under dusty/windy conditions so the painter says it will a lot of time/labor/materials to get it smooth to paint and he would be afraid that the way the streets are here in phoenix which are very crappy that it might recrack the shell top that would be repaired with resin/fiberglass bondo. i have seen his work before during and after so i trust his opinions so it might be best to rethink the rollback ragtop as previously considered. i have thought about scrapping the idea of using that shell and buying another since it does not have side windows but i have to check on prices before we go any further. i might used it on my datsun bed trailer instead if i find another 1 at tom's camperland here in phoenix where they have a variety of new and used shells

so went to see how my painter guy and his family are doing during this pandemic and they are doing good, with the hot temps over 100+ i don't expect him to bust his ass and over do it on my truck, but today he started working on the snug top shell by cutting out the roof section for the canvas rollback sliding ragtop and i got some lexan to use as side windows and he cut the sides for them to be installed as well. as soon as canopy is painted then its time to wrap the underside with crushed velvet material prior to installing lexan/ragtop. can't wait for it to be done.

tailgate painted now all that is left to do is paint the canopy metallic silver then clear everything 1 more time then cut n buff and do the interior, install sliding ragtop and lexan windows

Sounds good Gene! Its been so long, hope you are able to get it finished and drivable soon.