how do short guys paint roofs?

[RICH MUISE]

I guess the topic title says it all. Seriously I can't even come close to holding my spraygun properly when I'm painting a roof. I do use stepstools, but you can only reach so far. Primer coats I can get good enough...they're sanded anyways, but the paint has to be better than that. I'm thinking of rigging grab bars over my car from the garage roof if I decide to paint it home, but if I rent a spraybooth, then what? Any suggestions from someone who's been there?
p.s. I'm not short, I just may need to pass that info along to someone who is.

[wolfpupsdad]

 what 1've seen others use , is a couple od short saw horses with a couple of like 2X8's or 2x10's stretch across them to walk on

[JimNolan]

Rich,
   The guy that painted my car was about 5' 10" and he just draped the hose over his back and extended his arm as much as he could. He did a flawless job and I'm sure if he'd done a 55 chevy he could have still reached it OK. The design criteria of the 57 Ford was for a 5'2" woman to be able to stand on the ground and look over the roof, that's true. I don't think my roofline is even up to 5'. I can't imagine anyone not being able to paint the roof of a 57 Ford. Someone smaller than 5'2" could use a platform I guess. Jim

[tarheel57]

Ive done a right much painting over the years,Im only 5'7  and i found one way that helps is to remove the wheels and lower the car down on small blocks.the short sawhorse deal also works if your not spraying the sides.I have also taped everything off to the point of were i could open the doors and stand in the door stills and paint only the roof,and then paint the rest of the car separately.If you can reach it to spray the primer then you should be ok to spray the paint,your not likely to get a run in the center of the roof,so spray it wet and you will be ok.You didnt say what type of paint you are using,most people these days use Base Coat/Clear Coat which can be water sanded if it does not flow out like you like.Hope this helps,good luck!

[Lou]

Take the whole car if you can, you will not be live some of the parts people are looking for. I had a rusted Fairlane hardtop that I had bought as a parts car for my 63A and 63B restoration projects. I took what I needed and over a 2 year time span sold almost a $1000 worth of parts off the car.

[Lou]

Sorry guys this got posted in the wrong place!

[Ford_Fellow]

[RICH MUISE]

l.o.l. that's funny!

[suede57ford]

I bought a nice folding aluminum bench/stand that works great for painting roofs and working in vans.

I got it at Lowes hardware for about $40.   It is about 3 ft wide, 16 in tall, the legs will fold, and it is very stirdy when set-up.

[suede57ford]

Have you consider just lowering the car?   Just kidding

[RICH MUISE]

Pat, actually what I ended up doing for the primer was just what you did. Those folding scaffolds work great, got mine at
lowe's also. That guy painting the imperial was funny..if it were me I'd end up doing a face plant on the wet roof. And as far as lowering the car I actually may do that since my car is going to be 2 tone...lower it for the roof, raise it for the bottom. Right now I have the rear of the car on wheel dollies so it's about 4 or 5 inches higher than normal. I only have a 1 car garage so I have to move it side to side depending on which side I need to work on.

[Hoosier Hurricane]

Rich:

How about taking the wheels off and putting the brake drums on the wheel dollies?  And maybe the guy painting the Imperial has a 20 pound weight tied to his left foot.

John

[Ford_Fellow]

Putting a car on a sissier jack with a 34 inch lift sure makes painting a whole lot easier to contend with..

[RICH MUISE]

I bought a nice folding aluminum bench/stand that works great for painting roofs and working in vans.

I got it at Lowes hardware for about $40.   It is about 3 ft wide, 16 in tall, the legs will fold, and it is very stirdy when set-up.

I modified the 39" long scaffolding so that they are now 6 foot. I cut the outer channels at the center, unriveted the center piece and relaced it with 2x6's. the outer channels are just wide enough to accept the 2x6. Screwed everything together with deck screws.
Now they are long enough to spray the roof without having to move the scafolding. I was going to add a piece of angle iron to the 2x6's to add rigidity, but I'm not too heavy and found I didn't need to. Some of you bigger guys may need to do that. The height of the scaffolding is 20", but can be shortened.
gettin all my ducks in a row..hopefully will have the roof painted this weekend. Dropped the car on the rear drums sitting on the dollies, moved all of my rollaways out from beside the car, so I now have enough room on both sides. I found a place out of El Paso where I could order the clearcoat I wanted 120.00 cheaper than buying locally..and free freight. Now if it just gets here by Friday and the weather is good I should be sqirting some shiney stuff on the car this weekend.  Rich

[KnottGarage]

I sure wish I had a setup like that massive booth posted by ford_fellow. I worked at a nice restoration shop for years and didn't have one half that nice. you could paint a bus in that booth lol