Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Thanks! Yes, he painted his at his house and he plans to paint this one there as well.

I'm sure he wouldn't mind you stopping by. Send him a text of hit him up on here when you get ready.

Thanks for the reply.

Les

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Looks great! Pretty is expensive.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Last Saturday, we spent about 3-4 hours at Southwest Classics in Arlington, Texas. We purchased our Dakota Digital instrument cluster, a new bed w/ wood floor kit, new handles inside/out, all new LED lights, headliner, door panels, grill assembly, upper and lower body trim, wiring harness, front and back glass, new carpet, and much, much more! All in, about $14,000! OUCH!!!

We also test fit the bucket seats and welded washers and nuts onto the bottom of the cab for final install of the seats later.

Ron adapted the old vent panel to accommodate the four A/C lines coming into the cab for the Old Air system. We plan to run them up inside the fender and keep the firewall clean. So far, so good!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Ron has been busy finishing up the work on the firewall and getting all the holes we aren't going to need welded up and smoothed over. He re-sprayed the whole cab again with epoxy primer and then the grey primer. He's been blocking it down and identifying any areas that need additional attention, and getting it ready for the feather-fill primer. It is really looking GREAT!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Ron has continued to work on the finer details of the bodywork and is on the 2nd coat of feather fill. He found a couple of small details that he wants to address before he starts putting the color on.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Ron assigned me the door panel rebuild. We purchased new black door panels, and the metal, wood-grain panels from Southwest Classics in Arlington, Texas. I also purchased a set of old door panels from them because the small chrome strip isn't available aftermarket. Before I took them apart, I used my Dremel tool and Mother's Aluminum and Chrome Polish to give the chrome trip pieces a long-overdue cleaning. Then I removed the chrome, touched up a few hard-to-reach places with the polisher, and started re-assembly. The only real detail part was drilling holes in the new panels for the wires on the back of the chrome trim strips. This was easily accomplished by drilling three small holes in each slot and then using the running drill-bit to connect the three holes. Everything went together great! The new panels are a little lighter-weight than the originals, but the quality is still good.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Super nice build so far! Gonna be sweet to see it all together.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Looking good! Ive got the same green door panels sitting at my dad's somewhere. Might have to go the same route as you depending what shape mine are in.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

This truck is turning out awesome! Reading through the build to the rolling chassis reminded me of the process to get to that point on mine.

Oh, and i got to say i can't read the name of the build thread "one piece at a time" without singing johnny cash :lol:

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

HA! me too.... I wish the next line were true.... "and it didn't cost me a dime..":lol:

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

I think we all feel that way on our projects

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Thank you Brian. He is doing a great job on it and I'm super excited to watch it all start to take shape. Thanks for following along.

Take care,
Les

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

So far I think we are on track to have about $30K - $35K in it. But, that is buying a lot of new parts, having the steering column and wing-windows professionally rebuilt, new Boyd Welding fuel tank, the highest end PPG paint and clear, rebuilding the bucket seats, and doing the 5.3 swap with all-new wiring harnesses. I still need to buy tires, a driveshaft, exhaust, and a radiator. It's a once in a life-time opportunity to do something like this, so I'm trying not to cut any corners that I don't have to. Thanks for following the build. Take care, Les

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

We're ready for PAINT! After many, many hours of painstaking prep work, Ron was ready to paint! These first few pictures are once everything was ready and taped off to shoot the inside of the cab.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

April 23, 2020 - I wish I had been date stamping these posts all-along... oh well....

Here comes the RED!!! First up, the base coat on the inside of the cab.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Now for a little clear!! We are both very happy with the color selection!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Here are a few more of the inside of the cab after base coat and clear. We are using PPG paint and clear. The instructions call for two coats of each! So far, it looks great!!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Friday, April 24, 2020 - painting the outside of the cab! These first four pictures are before clear.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Bring on the shine! These are of the cab after Ron shot the clear coat! I think it looks great! He is really doing an excellent job! I can't wait to see it in person!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

I bought some used window trim for the front and back windows from a guy in Canyon Lake. For the most part it is in great shape, but very dirty and oxidized.

I got out the Dremel Tool, some Mothers' Aluminum and Chrome Polish and went to town! It worked great!!! It's a tedious task, but it has to be better than all of the sanding that Ron has been doing. Plus, I actually enjoyed working on it. The verdict is still out on whether or not we will end up using this or buying new. Almost every piece has some small blemishes and dings in it, but if we can't find any new, this will work great!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Holy crap dude that is looking awesome!!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

I agree. That looks excellent!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Whose Epoxy Primer did you use. Nice looking rig!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Thanks guys!!! I appreciate the positive feedback!!

As for the Epoxy Primer, we used Velocity.

I ended up using the top shelf PPG paint and PPG clear. We knew we wanted to use the top of the line clear from the get go, but we debated a little on the paint, because of cost. In the end, it was only a few hundred dollars difference to go with their best paint too.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Paint looks fantastic! I can't wait to see paint go on mine. Love the red and white paint scheme. Your polish job looks good from the pics, but I know how you feel on small blemishes. After you see that perfect paint it is hard to want to use something with scratches or blemishes. I'm struggling with the chrome on my vent windows....more polishing and we will see.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

If you want to have your vent windows or your steering column completely rebuilt, contact Roger Koop at 913-669-5604. He re-worked both my vent windows and my steering column and both turned out great! He can replace the rubber gaskets and re-chrome etc.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

I have a great column, but I will call him if I can't get these windows buffed out.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Time to catch up on the recent progress and there has been a lot of it. Ron got the Boyd Welding fuel tank installed and the braided fuel lines run. We are planning to install a wood bed, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the fuel-fill neck lines up with the wood bed and doesn't hit on one of the stainless steel trim strips.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

This one is kind of cool. The guy we purchased the cab from sent this picture to Ron. This is a picture of the truck we are building before the guy we bought it from took it all apart. I'm sure we are using a few other pieces from this original truck, but mainly we are using the cab.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

We purchased a very nice set of Doug Thorley long-tube headers. Unfortunately, we ran into some fitment issues. They were hitting on the shifter linkage and also landing way too close to a plastic module on the transmission so we returned them and we are going a different direction. More to come on that later....

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

When we first tried lowering the cab down on the chassis we encountered a clearance issue. After a little studying, Ron figured out that the tail of our transmission was landing a little too high. We tried to modify the mounting block on the original cross-member and we weren't completely happy with that approach. So, Ron ordered an after-market cross-member, but when it arrived he found it to be very thin and flimsy. So, final answer...Ron went back and notched the original one and welded it up at the exact right height. Then he repainted it with frame paint; problem solved!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Ron purchased the piece of trim that goes on the back of the cab to separate the red from the white. Once he had the trim he realized that our paint line was off ever-so-slightly, so he cleaned that up and installed the first piece of trim. It looks great and really starts to show how the paint is going to pop once all the whole truck is painted and the trim is installed.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Next up, sound proofing. After quite a bit of research and reading other folks' opinions on various forums, including this one, we opted for the Killmat. Ron and Kelly installed it and it looks great!! Ron was very happy with the Killmat product and it was considerably less expensive than some of the more popular brands. Also. if you look through the glovebox you can also see he has started to install the Old Air Products A/C system.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Ron has started working on the prep-ing the fenders and doors. He has sprayed them with epoxy primer and is done with most of the body work. Luckily, we were able to get some great fenders and doors to start with. Once the body work is done, he will shoot them with primer and continue to sand and prep them for final paint.

Look closely, between the two fenders, and you will see a pedal car. Ron is building this for his grandson, Reid. It's going to be painted with the same red as the truck!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

This week we got our brake pedal assembly. Completely rebuilt, with new bushing, spring, pedal, and all new paint! It is all about the details and this is one of those that could be easily overlooked, but that's not how we are approaching this build.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Lovin' every post guys! I sure hope someday we locals can get together with our completed trucks and get some quality cruise time in. I'd imagine you'll be taking this beauty back home with you when its done Chief, but before you do I'd really like to see it in person. At Ron's current pace he will be done with your truck way before I will... time will tell. :chevy:

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Thanks Brian! It is really coming along nice!! Ron is GREAT!!!

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

More prep work!! Ron has been getting the fenders and doors ready for paint! They are looking great!!! I believe all of these have been primed and are on their second coat of feather fill.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

Ron got the new brake system installed; completely rebuilt brake pedal, new brake booster, and master cylinder, and all new braided brake lines. It all looks awesome!!! He also put in all new parts for the windshield washer and wiper motors.

Re: One Piece at a Time - A True Friend
 

The hunt for headers that work with the Dirty-Dingo motor mounts and the 5.3L Vortec engine and 4L60 transmission continues. These new headers are hitting in the same place as the Doug Thorley headers. So, I think Ron is going to order a part to relocate the shift language and we are going to go back to the Doug Thorley headers.

Also, he sand-blasted more of the miscellaneous parts and got them all painted with the correct black paint.