Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Us Internet friends think it looks amazing!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

[QUOTE=rgunlock;7753040]I'd been thinking to do the cab corner pieces in red, but just not finding a shade I like well enough. May do these in black also. Fender emblems I was thinking of trying to do the original colors. Going to have to figure this one out quick because these emblems need to go on the fender before the fender goes on the truck! Don't actually have the GMC emblem for the grill, so not worried about that yet.


Hey Rick. Paint is looking good. I also like the black.

If you did want a touch of color somewhere in the emblems, see color wheel below. This is a good suggested method for finding a good match for your brown. Your's is a lot lighter than mine so tougher to find a good complimenting color. Black may actually be the best.


Using the color wheel, try one of these 4 things.
1) go with a lighter color in your range. So the lighter colors in the Pumpkin -Peach wedge.
2) Go with the opposite colors in the wheel. So Peacock-Sea blue
3) Use a darker complimenting color to the left or right of pumpkin peach
So Chocolate-sand or burgundy-pink
4) Use black or white

Using the color wheel as a guide
I go to home depot or lowe's and grab a ton of those color chips from the paint department and cut out or tape up on your body color. The right or preferred color should jump off the paint. In your case a brighter color like red, yellow or blue would probably pop a lot and be very visible on the emblems.

For what it's worth. :)
Good luck!
Chris

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Looking good Rick! This truck is going to look awesome tearing down the highway...or dirt road...or driveway :lol:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks for this info Chris. For some reason, it never occurred to me to use a color wheel for the truck colors. I think this will actually help me out on choosing my interior colors. I'd already been thinking something like burgundy for the bench upholstery.

Thanks Mike. Good to see an update on your build. Just have to knock it out a little at a time.

All I'm doing lately is more sanding on the parts I repainted. While I haven't noticeably improved my painting skills, I've gotten a LOT of practice sanding on this truck :lol: I've already got plenty of pictures of that on this build!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

When I redid my 86 GMC i scrounged to find the correct orange/red for the tailgate insert and front grille emblems. I hate to say but VHT Mopar orange is pretty darn close. It is in an aersol can though.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks for the tip, and for checking out my build 86454k30. Hope it helps someone who finds this thread, but I went another color scheme on my emblems. 1st picture is off the web of what the cab corner mouldings should be. At least this is what mine originally looked like. Next pic is how I painted mine. I think it looks much better for my truck. I do still need to pull this moulding back off and do some work shaping the corners. Bought these corners some time ago off ebay and they don't really hug the corner and have left gaps to the straight part.

Also still working on the fender emblems. I've been using the method cmabolt used with a hypodermic needle. Still managed to mess up, plus didn't like one of the colors so have stripped it down again. But, managed to break off the '5'. Checked online and cannot find any repros. Only hit I found on ebay was $125, so giving gorilla glue a shot at saving me $$$.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I like it!!!!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Yep, the black is the way to go with your color, very sharp. Those are some spendy emblems hope your repair job does the trick.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Does look killer!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks guys! I agree. Checked this morning and the glue job on the fender emblem feels like it is going to hold well.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

looks awesome. good call on the color scheme

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Nice work! I like the black cab moldings.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Also, I'm starting to think I should pull every piece of good moulding I can find at the junk yards!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks guys! y5mgisi - seems like anything with an emblem is either hard to find, not reproduced, or expensive when you do find it. Or maybe just particularly if it is GMC rather than Chevy. Probably not a bad idea.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Black looks great Rick!

Chris

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Sanding, sanding, sanding... making an effort to finally finish the paint job while I have a long weekend. First shot shows why color sanding is necessary on my paint jobs! Lots of expensive clear puddling on the floor :lol:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

WARNING!!! Don't look at this post if you have a weak stomach or have just eaten! Graphic yuck-ness!!!

Back when I thought my plan was to just get this truck running and driving reliably - before things spiraled into the "since I'm in this far..." black hole, a buddy gave me a Quadrajet from his 79 Vette that he'd had rebuilt but never used. I put it on and the truck ran fine with it, but then things got out of hand with this build and the engine wasn't started for over 5 years.

I didn't mention this in my last post, but I've tried to get this truck running over the last few weeks. Ran the oil pump to pre-lube the engine and the oil coming from the rockers looked like caramel. Apparently water had leaked into it. Changed the oil and the 1st quart or so that came out was water. no pictures of that, but a strike against this old 350!

I could get the engine to run while dribbling gas into the carb using a remote starter, but it would die as soon as the gas burned up. My whole fuel system was new - tanks, lines, pump, the carb I just mentioned, etc. Since it would run some, I was pretty sure it was a fuel problem - not spark.

So, today I pulled the carb and took a look. DANG! I knew intellectually that gas sitting too long would gum up a carb, but I never would have imagined this! The accelerator pump couldn't move. The float couldn't move. This thing is so crudded up that nothing can move!

Serious lesson learned!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Holly Smokes thats gummed up.
I have a couple of those 'wash tubs' for carbs myself.

Diggin the color sanding. Taking notes.

Truck is looking great.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Wow that carb is impressively bad. Get it to where you think she will work well?

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I got a gallon can of carb cleaner, but of course only the small parts will fit into the basket. This empty solvent can fits it just right though. The color sanding will erase a lot of sins in the clear, but you still have to lay the paint down right. After I finish a couple "eh-hmm" touch ups I'll buff this out and see if it will be good enough. Didn't get quite warm enough today - hoping it will be tomorrow because I am SO READY to call the paint done!

Actually just came in from working on it to buy a rebuild kit. The crud is coming off, but you know these carbs have tunnels and tubes all through the cast parts and I have no idea whether they are crudded up or not. The carb cleaner may be loosening things up, but its not like an acid bath where you dip a part in and it comes back out perfectly stripped. But I figure for the cost of a rebuild kit I'll put it back together and find out!

Also spent some time today fishing new wire through the kick panels to install new door jamb switches for the under-dash courtesy lights and also for the dome light. Close to being done making all the wiring connections except for AC and stereo.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

When done soaking flush all the ports with carb cleaner to be sure.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Dang it, that’s a pisser who puked in the carburetor? :barf:

We’ve had good luck with Berryman's chem-dip letting that sucker soak, blow it out throughly, repeat and you’ll get the deposits out.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I've spent a lot of time since the last post creating more work for myself. I did some paint touchups that didn't turn out too well, so sanded it all back off and waiting for a warm day to try again. Also spent time trying to get that carb cleaned out. Tried a variety of things including a couple types of carb cleaner, gasoline, vinegar and Pine Sol. Turned out that Pine Sol did the best job, but I still didn't trust that I wouldn't end up with problems down the road so I ordered another carb that will hopefully arrive soon.

I did get a few miscellaneous things completed. Sorry for the bad pictures, but "fixed" the end of my SM465 shifter. Filled the slop where the roll pin holds the end piece onto the stick by driving larger roll pins into both sides, cutting and grinding. Also re-welded the rounded piece after torching for 5 minutes or so to get much of the oil and grease melted out but I guess I didn't get a picture of the end result. This really did take a lot of slop out of the shifter. The roll pins in the neck of the tranny seemed to be in good shape as well as the slots in the shifter so I didn't mess with those.

Bought a NOS horn pad off the parts board that doesn't need to be screwed onto the steering wheel, and wired in a battery cut-off switch. First one was bad, but AAW sent out a new one no problem.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Also built myself a new heavy-duty cart. I've got about a 500 lb Christmas gift to be dropped off at the end of my driveway early next week and needed a way to get it up to my shop.:metal::metal:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

That's not all gum...most of its corrosion because of the Ethanol in the gas pulling water out of the air and corroding the aluminum.