Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Great project! I'm in to watch the progress.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Looking good. Are those Hankook's blackwall on the opposite side?

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Thanks for joining!
Good question, I'll let you know when I get them mounted Thursday

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

And just like that we have paint. I did the backs in semigloss black first and then did the fronts in argent silver so I got overspray on the black through the slots like the factory. My only question is are the hubcaps supposed to be a perfect paint match to the wheel? I was a little confused when I threw one of my caps up there to find out it was a completely different shade. Any thoughts?

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Not sure if it’s supposed to be dead on but i imagine that fresh argent and 50 year old silver isn’t going to match. Haha

Caps look killer! Can’t wait to land a set.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Here's the ditzler card for 1968 quoting argent silver. Looking at this 68 chevy brochure pic it looks correct but my hubcap looks darker. What do you guys think?

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

True, I guess I expected the cap to be lighter then the new paint haha. Either way I'll rock it :metal:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

:metal::gmc2:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

We reached two major milestones yesterday. Got our bench seat with a huge thanks to Rusbuilt. I need to put the cover back on but the color match is perfect. This was the old seat out of my old green 68 chevy, even has November 1967 date stamp on the foam. And picked up a little mig machine and plasma to start the rust repair! Now where to start...

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Looking great so far. I love the preservation approach. Those wheels/caps are going to look awesome with some white line tires! For some reason to me, the 67/68 GMC in this color combination is one of the best looking combos from the 67-72 era. I forget who's truck this is, but it's one of my favorites.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/gallery/...50/001_37_.jpg

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/gallery/...50/002_40_.jpg

Here's a photo I found of an all original '68 GMC wheel/cap. The colors look the same to me. I agree with above, your cap has probably faded compared to the new Argent on the wheels.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Cars/1968...MG_1644-XL.jpg

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

When you painted the caps was it out of a rattle can or a gun? Did you prime the wheels first? Basically what type of paint/primer was used? :)

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Caps are original paint. I primed the wheels with a standard gray primer I had on the shelf and I used 2 coats of VHT Argent Silver wheel paint to finish it off

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

The seat is gonna be killer! And I'm super envious over the new Miller goodies. That should help a ton.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Dude that truck is sweet!! If you can find out who owned it I would have a ton of questions for them. Probably the closest match I've seen to options/color/stance that my truck will have when its done.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Thanks man, I'm pretty excited about them. Just trying to figure out where to start haha. I think I am going to do the firewall first and then jump to inner rockers, cab corners, outer rockers, and kick panels to get the cab done. Then I'll move to the front sheet metal and core support. Save the bed and tailgate for last

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

I honestly can't remember where I found those pics. I think it was from a random ad I found somewhere.

The pic of the wheel came from here: https://chuckbro.smugmug.com/Cars/1968-GMC He has quite a few detail pics of his original 503 green GMC.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

This looks like one of c10king's (Rene) trucks out in Cali. Look him up on IG, Andrew. @c10king

If it's not his, I bet he'll know whose it was.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Just sent him a PM, thanks!

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

I started cutting out some of the bad metal tonight. I started with the firewall, once I got the bad metal off I used a wire brush and phosphoric acid to treat the rust. I'll paint the inner structure with por-15 before I put the new piece on. I also tried to leave the top and bottom of the 1 in the grease markings so I can try to put it back once I'm done

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Got the passenger side rocker removed. It was basically molded with fiberglass, rags, and bondo haha. A couple before pictures showing the factory seem sealer

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

I ended up taking a cut of wheel and cutting the whole assembly in three pieces. Made it much easier to remove. Here is what I found under both the front and rear inner structures. I treated all surface rust and bare metal with more phosphoric acid to kill all rust. I'll paint both areas with por before putting the new outer rocker on

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Last few, I think this old girl shed ten pounds getting rid of this thing haha. It was crazy all that fit inside one rocker panel. Also the tab that holds the bottom of the front fender had a gnarly split in the steel so I'll make sure to weld that back up. And finally I thought I was kinda cool the og rocker still had some factory primer on the back side.

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Picked up the wheels today and my last two hubcaps showed up in the mail. Hoping to mount them up tonight :metal:

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Chris, the Hankooks are blackwall on the opposite side

Re: 1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl
 

Cool. Thanks. I may run those on mine once I get the wheels refreshed.