Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Great work as always Bruce.!!!!!

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Wow! nice e-brake setup!

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

It was an interesting day yesterday
It almost felt like I was at a car show, showing off a new project to the crowds

I rolled the frame out to the driveway to clean up the shop and it seemed every 15 to 30 minutes some one was coming over or stopping their cars to look or ask about the truck, with plenty of thumbs up drive bys.

I would have never thought that a frame without a body would draw this kind of attention. I did get the shop cleaned up with plenty of enjoyable interruptions (smile).

Thank you, thank you all that have posted your compliments, encouragements, and interest in this build. With plenty of hours spent in the shop trying to put this project together it’s definitely a help in moving it along to completion and appreciated.

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As the frame is rolled back into the shop and covered up to prevent dust and dirt from gathering on it I’m looking forward to seeing it again with the cab and sheet metal on it. Hopefully not to long a period of time (smile) Thank You

Enjoy Your Build

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

* honk honk*....sweet looking frame Mister:lol:

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

nice e-brake setup... love the detail in the postings too...

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

well deserved attention....looks good in the sun :chevy:

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Back to working on fit and fair
A good thing to do for me before sending it off to body & paint and finding it later in final assembly.

The door window frame was tilted inboard on both doors with almost no gap for the weatherstripping and the frame was just clearing the cab opening on the top edge.

Broke the window frame loose at both ends and tilted it outboard at the top to obtain about 3/8 inch gap for the weatherstripping and lowered both ends of the frame approximately 1/8 inch to give added clearance at the top edge.

I’ve seen on OEM factory doors where the clearance between the forward upper corner of the window frame was so close to the cab opening that it would chip the paint in that area.

Some of the pictures below are from the LH door and some from the RH door, both doors required almost exactly the same amount of rework.

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A tip that Ill be using in the future, when putting in new weatherstripping and the gap for the weatherstripping is good around the door. The door may be hard to close because the seal is dry and grabbing the door especially at the front edge. As the door closes it not only compresses the seal it needs to slide on it a small amount. A light coat of some kind of lubrication (and I mean light) to the seal area will help it slide and compress the seal. Generally some kind of silicone lube will work and I would never use a water base item. There are some weatherstripping lubricants/dressings from the factory that will work but they seem to be extremely expensive.

Enjoy your build

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Wow! Great build... don't know how I missed it before.:smoke:

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Great info. I am at the same stage on my build.

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

were those aftermarket doors? nice work

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Yes there aftermarket doors
Triplus doors, for part numbers check out (post #135) on page 6 of this build thread

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

most guys aren't happy with aftermarket but it looks like you made them work nicely... thanks.

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

very nice work!....as usual :chevy:

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Nice progress Bruce.!!

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It just fits with some hangover
Reminds me of my belt on my pants (smile)

I have a 4 foot by 8 foot flatbed small utility trailer that Ill be using to transport the cab to body and paint and it just fits.

I made some stands out of some scrap metal to set the cab and radiator support at the same height or relationship as if the cab and support was on the frame mounts, this sets it up so I can set all the fit and fair of all the panels.

Still need to make some minor adjustments to fit and fair but I think I’m just about as close as I’m going to get it to factory fit requirements. There’s going to be some areas that are not going to fall within tolerance and I’m just going to live with them (it’s not a show truck) (smile).

A tip that you might find of benefit. Some people have trouble getting the aft end of the hood to sit down flush with the cowl and fenders. Try loosening the three bolts on the hinge to fender on both sides and have someone push the open hood up. You’ll see the hinge go up in the front and down in the back on the fender a small amount, tighten the bolts in this position. Be ready to adjust the hood forward the above adjustment will move the hood aft and you’ll probably need to, for hood to cowl clearance.

A few tie down straps over the cross boards and its ready to go down the road, it will probably be an interesting sight that you don’t see every day.

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There are a few things I want to do before sending it off to body and paint but not many, so I guess I’d better get out there and find a body and paint shop that I want to do the work. It’s almost ready. Yes the grill will be removed before going to body and paint it’s just there to check fit.

Enjoy your build

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Looking really good. That is a funny sight!

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great job bruce, amazing work so far, getting closer everday!

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The marriage is complete
I’m upgrading the headlights to halogen and using relay wiring to give them plenty of power.

Bringing the two wiring harness together into one. All the parts that Ill be using are listed in the first picture.

Attachment 621723

The LMC relay wiring harness looked out of place with the yellow wire loom cover. I cut the yellow cover off of the wire runs and panduited the two harnesses together and ran them thru the wire crossover protector. Then added some black loom protection over the rest of the wires. The LMC wiring harness just plugs into the stock harness without any cutting or splicing of the wires.

I found a larger horn in some of my parts laying around and decided to mount it where the external voltage regulator would have been mounted. The external voltage regulator is not going to be used instead I’m using an alternator with a internal regulator and a conversion jumper on the wiring harness.

I’ve found that splined rivnuts work pretty good for grounds. I install some ¼ - 20 splined rivnuts in the places that I wanted the grounds. Will install some ¼-20 bolts in the rivnuts to protect the threads from sandblasting & painting.

The wiring harness is ready to install after all the sandblasting and painting.

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Still looking for some one to do the body and paint, had one come over to give me an estimate and have another two next week coming over. Maybe Ill be able to find some one that can do it for the price I want to pay.

Enjoy your build

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

sweet

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Paint prison. Not looking forward to that. Like i mentioned before, whatever estimate on time they give you, TRIPLE it. Whatever estimate on money they give you, double it. lol.

There is SOOO many horrible stories on paint. The more you say "go ahead and take your time" Just you will never see your truck again.

Do you have any metal work to do, or strictly body and paint?

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Trying my best to eliminate the pit falls & problems and not be one of the horror stories (smile)

All the cutting and welding are done, all that’s left is sandblasting, body & paint.

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Great looking job Bruce, good luck on finding the right painter, I would get some references before I sign up with someone I didnt know

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Wow I read through the whole thread amazing build with great detail your such a inspiration i always wanted to restore my truck and you make it look easy haha. But i might do it sometime soon. Keep it up

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

Packing it up and moving it out to the next stage of the build
Made the decision on a body and paint shop to do the work.

A day I’ve been looking forward to and a day that I’ve been dreading. The truck is as far along as I can take it in my small shop and want the body & paint done by a shop more knowledgeable and capable than me. Where every build is different there are plenty of things that are in play regarding how the final outcome will be (will this be a whore story or smiles all around experience). I lay down some of the things that I’ve been thinking about and what I’m trying to do so that all will workout well for this stage of the build.

What I’m looking for is not a low end body & paint nor a high end custom, somewhere in between. This is probably the hardest thing to get both the shop doing the work and me on the same page with expectations of the end job being the same. There are going to be flaws in fit and fair of panels and some that I would like the shop to address or at least make less obvious and others that I don’t want them to waist time and cost on.

As I went around to many body and paint shops looking for estimates and some one that wanted to do the work, I found that many are not set up to do this kind of work or have experience in doing it. It’s totally different than driving the truck in and saying paint it. The few shops that would give some kind of estimate never came out and looked at the project and always came in with that big but (you never know what your going to run into until we get it into the shop) and they would do it on an open ended by the hour job and their estimates was just a ball park figure (where they came up with their estimates I don’t know) I prefer not to have work performed in this manor (what I would consider a possible open ended money pit). I ran into estimates from Ill paint anything you bring in for 3k to 20k plus at custom shops.

As fare as I’m concerned this puts the responsibility on me to eliminate or know what repairs will need to be done and to what extent. One of the most common areas that hidden rework can be found on our trucks is the cab rocker area. It might be that it’s just the outer rocker panel that needs to be replaced or the rework could carry into the floor supports and floor panel (a big difference in time and cost). I made the repairs to this area on my truck myself as you can see in this build, but if I didn’t repair it my self I would want it figured into the estimates. It’s time consuming to evaluate the repairs needed and to what extent. But in my opinion I believe it’s my responsibility in a body off rebuild (figuring this out in body and paint in some shop is just going to cause problems in time and cost not to mention an unpleasant experience). With the build being completely apart and more than a casual look you should be able to inspect all the areas with some sanding and screwdriver poking to find the hidden rework areas.

I finally found one shop that would come out and look at the project and give an estimate plus worked out some logistics. The owner has three shops in the area and they deal with high end europium cars to customs, plus everything in between, of course their primary work is coalition repair. The owner has some custom cars and has just picked up a 54 GMC cab over that he’s going to build as a car hauler (yes I did let him know about this forum and that it might help in finding some information in building his car hauler).

Some of the logistics and how where working them out
The shop picked up my trailer with all the panels and transported to the shop.
The shop will break it down and send all the parts that need media blasting out.
The parts back from media blasting will get a coat of epoxy primer.
Ill go into the shop and apply the seam sealer (I like this part, it keeps me involved and helps reduce the cost)
Ill be applying the undercoat to the cab and fenders as they are ready in the shop (plan on using Herculiner bed liner for the undercoating)
The inside of the cab and all the hidden areas will receive the finish paint.
Cab and forward panels transported to my shop and I will load it on my frame for the best fit and fair that I can do. (Recommended by the shop to help prevent problems that could arise in going from my stand to the frame).
Cab and frame transported to the shop where the external body and paint will be done.
Ill be going into the shop and helping with the color sanding and polish (another part that keeps me involved and helps reduce cost).
When all the body and paint is done transported back to my shop for final assembly by me.

The final color has been picked, its GM 505 green. The final paint might be a waterborne paint if one can be found to match if not a more standard finish will be used (this is a stock color for this truck, used during the time it was built). I found a web site that has the crossover codes for different paint manufacturers (of course the paint color chip on the web site isn’t a good representation of the color). Took a screen shot of the web site and posted it below with the crossover numbers.

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A hot topic by some is what is the cost? I normally try to stay away from cost of parts because there can be such a wide price that can be paid for the same item or work. There’s always the one that says you paid too much for that or you got a steal for that, otherwise I cheated the shop or got cheated. I prefer not to look at it in this manor and I came up with a budget for the work 5K to 8K for body & paint and 1K for media blasting. As it always seem to me as time goes on (or I grow older) the price of things go up past my expectations, this is one of those things I wish didn’t happen but it appears the way of things (smile). Posted below is the estimate for the work

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My end goals for this part of the build is
A body and paint at least as good as the truck had from the factory and probably better (I don’t think that the factory body and paint was that good in that time and with the newer paints it isn’t not to much to expect)
This part of the build done in approximately 3 months
No unexpected costs cropping up (definitely causing a not so pleasant experience)
I want the body and paint shop to make a profit and not loose money or find it to aggravating so that they want to do this kind of work (there are few places that even consider doing this kind of work and we can’t afford to loose any)

Now that I’ve left you with a wall of text to read and no pictures I think you can get an idea of where I’m attempting to go in progressing this build and hope you find it a good read. Wish me good luck on achieving my goals.

I would have taken a picture of the parts being towed to the body and paint shop but know that it just wouldn’t be seen right by some with a ford truck towing the parts (smile).

As the body and paint progress Ill be taking some pictures and posting them hear along with progress reports and any thing I think might be interesting. It left my shop on Monday the 23 of Aug, expecting it back at body and paint shop after media blasting in two weeks.

Enjoy your build

Re: It’s Just A Pickup
 

nice information for all. Thanks for keeping us up to speed. Best wishes on good progress by the shop.