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Good to know. My local plater coats parts in gun oil. Oiling cars, trucks, and guns. Don't judge me but that sounds fun.

Agree Lee. Eleven, right across the board... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xgx4k83zzc

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If the bolt or part is attached to the vehicle, I just spray some on a rag and apply enough to cover the part to get a wet surface and let it dry. As long as there is not a puddle it will, in my opinion, dry flat. My Camaro has gone through, and passed, judging with the Boeshield applied. It does need to be reapplied from time to time to keep up the appearance (I think any product will), especially the hood springs....give them a good dose! Also check out "Rust Prevention Magic". It seems to work good on bare metal.

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Hadn't posted in a few days. Inner fenders on the front, really kind of makes it seem finished even though we're still working. Thanks to smbrouss70 (Steven) for the photos of the emissions decal position.

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Cowl back on. Eric thinks I should keep the 76 ball on the antenna (for sentimental reasons I guess)...never gonna happen. scf100 (Stuart) swung by today to take a look and, God bless him, he got put instantly to work. We had a really sharp mechanic make a house call tonight to help us work through our brake line issues and Stuart ended up on the ground with us bleeding brakes. Unfortunately all that combined brain power and expertise and effort left the shop tonight with the issue unresolved. Gotta get a couple of new lines and try again.

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:cf: Almost done man!

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I know...but I gotta make that odometer move. I'm tired of staring at 5/10ths of a mile.

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Folks you gotta see this thing in person......wow!
The attention to detail is over the top.....

Brad is one happy and lucky guy I can tell you.....

Can't wait to see the big smile on his face when he starts rolling down the road....

Stuart

PS any car guy would gladly jump under this thing to help out.....looks as good on the bottom as the top!

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Thanks Stuart for the help and the kind words.

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Every time I check in on your thread I have to go back and just drool on how clean the work is. You're doing an amazing job can't wait to see a rolling shot.

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Thanks Jarrod. I can't wait either.

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Some day I would love to do this to my 72 CST. Nice work. Love the attention to detail.

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Thanks.

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You are giving me a serious case of undercarriage envy. I can already feel my checking account deflating. :waah:

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Well...I guess we're even then, because I'm super jealous of your flawless sheet metal.

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Since I always take The Facts of Life approach with this thread and post the Good with the Bad...I thought you'd get a kick out of this pic. We were topping off the transmission...literally minutes from putting her in gear for the first time and pulling her out under her own power when we sprang a leak in that brand new radiator core, that had taken two attempts to get rebuilt right. After staring in disbelief for a while and doing the math, considering the mess we were going to have to manage...we bit the bullet and pulled her out. Amazingly, they were able to get it neatly repaired today and the radiator was getting re-prepped and re-painted by 4pm. This is after a late call last night when the brake situation finally got solved. We went through about 5 unions, hand to bend and flare a new hard line (the main long one on the frame), and bought a new rear flex line before we got her dry and bled. In the end I am happy the frame got powder coated. It weathered that unnecessarily arduous and frustrating episode unscathed.

Even though the old girl doesn't seem to want this party to end...there is a silver lining. We needed to clean and detail the engine bay anyway, she'd gotten a little dusty of late...and I had ordered a replacement crank pulley set earlier in the week. I realized a while ago that the set I had powdered coated was from a later model and didn't allow us to run the A/C off the crank and water pump....only the water pump, which wasn't going to be a good long term solution. I just wasn't looking forward to biting that bullet either. Well there's no better time than now to make that swap too.

Maybe she drives tomorrow...maybe not. I'll keep you posted.

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Brad what did you guys find wrong with bleeding the brakes?

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Well...we just had leaks we couldn't beat. As you know the long line leaked at both ends and the flex line leaked at the back. All of my stuff came from InLine. We'd tighten leaking joints, bleed, check, leak still there, change union, bleed, check, leak still there, re-flare line, bleed, check, leak still there, change union, bleed, check, leak still there, bend new line, replace flex line, replace all unions, bleed, check, no leaks, light on, bleed, bleed, bleed...no air, no leaks, no light.

We were power bleeding it on Thursday...probably still be there if we hadn't. I don't know why those joints leaked. We basically just threw new parts at it until it stopped. Only one of the flares on the original long line looked remotely suspicious....so I'm at a loss, other than it just wanted to be a pita. And then it was just tough getting all the air out. There was not a small amount of frustration there...if for no other reason than I was freaking out (silently of course) about maintaining our finishes...no scratches, or brake fluid blemishes.

But luckily we got it done, it all works as it should and she's still shiny and nice.

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You have the 3 main ingredients of doing a build like this Brad.

Patients, Attitude and Understanding.

A great attitude will allow the patients you need to be understanding that sometimes things will not go as planed. You are taking everything in great stride. If the dog could talk, we might hear a different tone :lol:

It will all pay off and yes it is nice that the brake fluid did not attack anything.

Take care,
Tom

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:chevy:

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Today is a good day.

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Very cool :metal::metal::metal:

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Success!!!! Big congrats!! An inspiring build - thanks for the ride! Beautiful! Absolutely among the handful of the very best K5's in the USA and Canada. Rushing to have a beer in your honor. Can we start sending other rigs for you guys to restore :) ?

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It does feel cool.

Thanks Pete. I've just been trying to emulate you and others. It would not have turned out so well without all the generosity of knowledge and spirit that you and others on here are so quick to show....but we're not done. Even though today was a big step, I've still got to get the anti-rattle set in on the doors, we did a rough alignment which needs to be dialed in, and there's the whole matter of the top that'll move into the shop next week...so there's more to come before we put a period on this thread....I'm also still one decal short. I gotta start working on that next week too.

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Daylight!
Awesome Brad........you taking it to the Varsity tonight?

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No Stuart...we're gonna hold off. Eric had a baseball tourney he had to go to and we've still got some minor loose ends. First time out, we're gonna show it together. Probably the July 4th show. That's what we're planning right now.

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Congratulations on rolling up some miles! The Blazer looks spectacular. Wow, the brake lines were really fighting you. Would have been pretty stressful...

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Looks awesome sitting at the gas station with miles on the odometer.

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It was a good day. Finally got to ride in a great Blazer!

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Thanks...they did...and it was. But all's well that ends well (as they say).

Thanks. Do you think it'll start to depreciate when it rolls over double digits?

Yes it was and yes we did.

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Hell yeah! :metal:

Here's wishing you many happy miles!

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Thanks.

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The fun continues. Started breaking down the top. Ours was pretty nice as far as these things go, but still a small dip in the top. It seemed to have some asymmetry during fitment and some dissection reveals inconsistencies in the bracing similar to what's been reported on the board previously. It was in it's original finish, so all the weird stuff seems to be factory weird. Passenger side rear brace was a big block, elsewhere was was 1X2" or less. More prep/repair to come. I'll keep you posted.

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So factory tolerances weren't very precise and the tops were assembled with whatever was needed to make them fit?

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;)

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Pete's got a great quote from Paul Duncan in the very first post of his K20 Super build thread about correcting a truck "birth defect"...specifically, the lack of an auxiliary fuel tank. Eric took a little license with the top that I think is brilliant...and similarly corrects a factory "birth defect". On the single wall tops, as most of you know, there is a track that holds the top to door glass weatherstripping. There is also a lip that covers this track on the top edge, but fades out at the glass corner about where the blue arrow is in the picture below. Eric extended this lip down the vertical edge. What this does is give us more latitude in shimming the track to idealize the glass to weatherstripping fit without showing our hand...at least thats the idea.

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...a clearer view.

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What material did Eric use to extend the lip? Fiberglass? Curious to see how this shakes out, seems like a good way to go.

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Short strand fiberglass. We had several conversations over the preceding months about how to attack the top from a materials standpoint. I was leaning toward SMC specific stuff. Eric was more open minded and philosophic. I think he got a kick out of the fact that when stripping the top he found a factory fiberglass repair. And honestly the top does match the truck in the sense that it appears to be a Friday afternoon hodge podge. It looked pretty doggone good with the factory finish, but underneath the wood bracing was variable, different parts of the SMC don't seem to match in color or texture, and it had a fiberglass repair...all par for the course. Regardless, with any luck it'll all just end up a good story about a nice top.

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What a drive this morning. Out before 7am, cool and clear. Took her to the alignment shop (we hadn't missed it by much with a tape measure)...then a nice shake down. She started the morning with 11 miles and now sits in the garage with 40...and she looks too good in there. I think I gotta paint my garage now.

PS Those guys at the alignment shop sure were nice to let me hover. They didn't even give me friction when I (uh-hmm) suggested that I should drive it up and down off the lift.

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I'm jealous that you're driving yours already, and I'm just starting my restoration. Hoping to have it out this time next year.Nice job !!