Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Well at least it wasn't a total waste! Looks good from here! You probably mentioned before, but what color are you painting this truck?

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Yep, but glad to say its almost done. Now its time for block sanding!

Thanks! Not sure that I have mentioned color before because it still isn't decided. I've been leaning toward a medium brown with copper highlight, but haven't really settled on a shade or specific color code.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Gotcha. It's tough. If I might just suggest something, whatever color you pick, time will be more friendly to it if you pick a factory color. Even if you two tone it. As long as you pick factory colors, the truck will remain timeless. Custom colors make a truck look custom and is rarely a timeless look. So what happens is after 5-10 years or so, the truck starts looking like an old, washed up, once nice, has been truck. While that's not true in every occasion, in my mind, it's not worth the risk of going custom colors. Just something to ponder on.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Medium Brown with Copper. Sounds awesome! look into House of Color root beer
but of the shimrin base coat as apposed to the true candy's
http://www.kolorhouse.com/hoc-kbc07-q01.html

There's some really nice browns that are on the Acura's and Audi's as well.

Good luck, I think I changed color choices about 4 or 5 times. Truck is looking good by the way.
Chris

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I feel much the same way about it y5mgisi. There is a member on this site, TexasJeff, with a truck called Ol' Brownie that is 1980 Dark Camel. In pictures, the color looks perfect but I don't know how well it transfers to seeing it in person.

You're suggested color looks right on Chris, as if you are reading my mind :lol: I've still got a couple months of block sanding ahead of me, giving me plenty of time to change my mind a few more times! Thanks for the suggestion on Acura and Audi. I think I really won't feel good until I find a real vehicle in a color I like that I can see in person, or pick something that looks good in pictures and hope that it looks as good on a test panel.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Well, on the more conservative side of things, I used a production color so in the event that I have a fender bender it can easily be fixed/re-painted. That is the advantage of using a readily available production color. Disadvantage is three stage paint jobs usually have more wow factor.

This is the fun part. I look forward to seeing it all painted up.
Chris

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

That HOC brown is pretty sweet though.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Yes, THis one is texasjeff. It looks incredible in pics.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1287575081

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Looks good! :metal: I think you are on the downhill run now. Pretty soon you'll be driving it!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks Greenlee. I'm just hoping to be driving it before the end of the year since there is still a lot to do on it.

Made a little more progress this weekend working on getting door edges to match, fender-to-door, door-to-rocker, etc. Been under the weather though, so haven't finished. We have President's Day off Monday so hopefully a better update then.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Ok, I seriously hate it when my "selective OCD" kicks in. Or maybe it was growing up hearing "if a jobs worth doing, it's worth doing right" about 39 gazillion times :lol: Any case, I couldn't live with the gap on the front of the driver's side door. This job made me really nervous, but I ground the edge of the door to create a gap. Since I went through the fold on the edge of the door, I had to weld it back up. Came out pretty good, but there is one low spot that's still bugging me, and a couple that could use just a bit more grinding. Door may have to come back off for the 15th time for just a little more tweaking. One lesson learned - get the doors to fit to satisfaction before doing the filler work. Now I'm going to have to redo along the front and bottom edges (I beat the bottom flat to match the rocker's profile).

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Also I'd mentioned before that I noticed stress cracking around the upper hinge on this door when I first hung it after getting it into primer. Dealt with that since I had the door back off. It was worse than I expected. The drilled holes are my attempt to "terminate" the cracks, although in the pictures it looks like I didn't quite hit the tips of the cracks. I also needed them to get a pick in behind and pull the metal back out flush. The finish grinds don't look that good. This is a tough spot to get to with the grinder and I was worried about thinning the metal any more than necessary. If anyone knows of anything I should do to reinforce this area, please chime in.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Two things. First, i have never seen a square with cracks in that area. Second, If im honest, you are inspiring me to NOT be a perfectionist on my 78. (If i ever get back to it... This new house has proven that it will be insanely time consuming and expensive!)

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

So my wife came out to the shop to tell me it was time for me to start the grill for beer can chicken (one of my specialties). I was showing her my progress and she ran her finger down the edge of the door and said "isn't this a little wavy?" I assured her that it was just her imagination. Then I executed a bit of CYA by saying that this was a work truck, not a show truck and nobody is going to be checking the gaps that close! :LOL:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I am beat from taking doors on and off all day, but I'm pretty sure I can live with the gaps now. Here's the before & after on passenger door. Just had to build up the edge a bit in about a 6" spot. Never mind the ding in the fender - despite how handy those bent screwdriver things for backing off drum brakes look, they should NOT be used for prying up the edge of a door! If you see no difference between the before and after, please don't say so - let me think I made a difference :lol:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Looks great! Good for you for going all out!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks! You made my day.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

There is nothing wrong with doing it the "right" way if you have the patience

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

One thing is for certain. Upon completion, you will not have any defects that stare back at you and bug you. Fixing a problem now might take a day or two vs a problem staring back at you every day for years. Its just hard not to be short sighted some times. So its nice to see someone like yourself take time to do it right.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Got a question, are you taking the doors off by yourself? how are you supporting the door when unbolting it? Thanks! Truck is looking great!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Yes SR, I am taking the doors on and off by myself. Here is my handy door mounting buddy - goes to show that my OCD really is selective:lol: Helps a lot that the doors are just empty shells right now.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I think the gap definitely looks better. I'm pretty certain mine are gonna take a lot of work to get anywhere near as good as yours.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks Nick! How's the kitchen remodel coming along?

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Getting there.

Meanwhile, Mustard waits patiently...

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Any progress? Also, I have a couple questions for you.

When you are priming, what grit are you sanding with pre prime?

Once it's sanded, how do you prep it pre prime?

What kind of paint gun are you using and what are you doing to dry the air from your compressor?

I'm hoping to get to a point before to much longer where I can start piece priming like you are, so I would like to dial in my habits ahead of time.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

No new progress. I was out of town on vacation so lost a couple of weekends on the truck.

I am NOT the best to give advice on anything to do with bodywork and paint, but I'll try to answer your questions, even though those answers may be embarrassing to me :lol: I'm hoping that these products are actually more forgiving than the impression you get from reading a lot of threads on this site.

The gun I'm using is a Central Pneumatic Professional that my dad gave me. I'd guess this is Harbor Freight. Comes with 2 tips, 1.4 and 1.8. I thought I was using the 1.8 for the epoxy primer, but your questions got me to look at it and I've been using the 1.4 tip - go figure :lol: Seems to be working fine, but I think I'll change to the 1.8 tip for future primer spraying.

As far as sanding before primer, most of mine has been sprayed over bare metal which got that way with 80-grit. If I'm spraying over Rage filler, I've been sanding the filler down to 220 grit before spraying the epoxy. If I'm respraying an area that has already been primered, I'm scuffing it up with the purple 3M scotch pads. I don't honestly know whether or not that is going to provide enough "texture" for the new coat of epoxy to stick best, but seems fine so far.

You are supposed to be using a wax and grease remover compatible with your paint "system" prior to spraying the primer. I've been using mineral spirits - bad me! Actually, in most areas all I've done is blow the dust off with the compressor. At this point, the epoxy seems to have gone on fine - hope my laziness doesn't come back to bite me.

I'm drying my air with a setup I purchased from Eastwood. I do make sure I drain the water from these as well as the compressor before spraying.

One thing I've learned is that this is not nearly as daunting as you'd think if you do too much reading & thinking. Once you've done it a time or two it becomes pretty routine. Do make sure you know how to disassemble your gun and have the laquer thinner, brushes, toothpicks, etc. all laid out ready to clean the gun when you are done spraying. I watched several you-tube videos on cleaning the guns before doing it the first time myself.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Excellent! THanks for taking the time to answer my questions! I'm hoping that when i get to that stage in my build that i will have similar thoughts to yours. I'm hoping to at least have the new bed for the 78 painted this summer.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

You may recall that I got a Vintage Air system as an early Christmas present. The idea was to get it test fitted, drill all holes, etc. during the winter on days too nasty for bodywork or spraying primer. Well, I've procrastinated about as long as I could on that :lol: Now I'm going to bore you with a bunch of pictures!

Since I'd filled/covered all the original holes in my firewall I needed to know where the block off plate was supposed to sit so I could use it as a template to position the under dash unit. Couple of members were kind enough to provide pictures of how theirs mounted. I just needed to know the position of the top right hole. Marked it, drilled a small hole and ran a sheet metal screw through it. Then I was able to hang the unit from one corner of the mounting bracket knowing it "should" be in the right spot under the dash. Then wedged the other side up so the unit was level left/right.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I was concerned that the ducting for the passenger side defroster (that one staring right at you in previous post) was going to interfere with the glove box if I didn't get the unit located correctly, so I hooked that vent up.

Then it was on to surgery on the glove box. Using the template that came with the kit, marked the cuts on both sides, cut them, then cut across the bottom to finish it up. The kit comes with a bunch of s-clips. I started using all of them, but it just seemed like way to many for what was needed. Dragged out the instructions and found that 15 are needed later so back off they came. Only 4 are needed for the glove box modification.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

The new back fits on pretty snug with just the 4 clips. I've stuck the old back on top for one picture in pretty much the original position so you can see that I only lost about 1.5 inches of depth. Then mounted it up. Turns out there was nothing to worry about. The duct work comes up right behind the really shallow area on the driver's side of the glove box. Door shuts nicely.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do the glove box mods all over again. I hadn't noticed before, but the "hinge" for the door is just a plastic strip extending down (and part of) the box. It's shot! Going to have to get a new one.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

With that little exercise out of the way, time to finish mounting the unit. Drew me some level lines from that screw I put in earlier. Cleaned the primer off a couple of spots and welded the supplied mounting bolts right onto the inside of the firewall. The magnets worked pretty well for holding the bolt in place, but the actual welding under the dash was quite a feat for this fat man - please ignore the booger welding :lol: It ain't gonna show anyway!

Carefully measured and drilled some new holes on the mounting bracket.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Then the unit had to be leveled front to back. Instructions say to block it up, which was easier said than done given the slant of the floor under there. Then mark the position of the holes in the front mounting bracket. Note - there is a good flat spot on the bottom of the unit where the drain is to get a small level in there.

Now drilling the holes is a whole nuther matter. Fortunately, I remembered a gift I'd gotten many years ago and never had a use for until now - a right angle drill. This contraption just fit up inside the dash area to drill the holes.

Also used the supplied spacers, but had to grind about 1/4 inch off of them. They would have sat flush on the firewall if I'd been bolting through it, so needed to remove roughly the thickness of the firewall metal, a flat washer and the head of the bolt. I guestimated on this step :lol:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Finally, the big test that I hadn't given much thought to. Could I reach back up in there and get nuts on them bolts with the unit in place? Turns out, just barely, and I would not have been able to if the dash wasn't a bare shell with all those access holes. Turns out having a ratcheting box end wrench comes in real handy for this.

With those 4 mount points, the unit appears to be in very solid. I'd considered welding a piece to the bottom of the rear mounting bracket and welding another bolt for it to the firewall, but I don't really think it will be needed.

The final picture is with me sitting on the truck floor holding the camera about level with the bottom of the dash. Not much of this unit is going to show when you are sitting in a seat.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Nice work! :metal:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks Greenlee! Next up is the scary part where I drill a bunch of big holes in my nice firewall for hoses.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Good work Rick! I wish I could say I was making progress on mine!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks Mike! Guess the day isn't going to get any nicer today so I better git to it. You'll find the time or motivation - just got to push yourself some days :lol:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

If you run out of fittings for the a/c lines I have a bunch left over ill try to get a picture of them soon. For some reason my kit came with double or triple of what I needed.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks Boynton. Since I ordered the fancy chrome bulkhead connector, I've got a ton of extra fittings also. Unfortunately, there are no alternate fittings for the suction and liquid lines coming off the evaporator (under dash unit), or the heater hose fittings for that matter. They want to go through the firewall holes assuming I had used the block off plate. Not really lending themselves to going sideways toward the bulkhead connector. Just got back online to see if anyone has described how they dealt with that.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I made rubber lines for the inside For the heater hoses and the a/c lines. Its kinda tight in there but I made them where the just fit. I did have to make one with a loop to get where it needs to go.