D-Day is Friday, Oct. 12

[ChevLoRay]

After 8 years and having spent my "truck" money to help my kids, I'm finally getting my truck painted. It goes on Friday. The paint and body work will be done by a 24-year old "kid" who is self-taught and good. He does metal work and built his own english wheel. He's made fenders for several motorcycles; his paint is flawless. The prep work is meticulous. The best thing about this whole project is that HE WANTS to work on MY truck.


It's gonna be nice. I'll be posting pics of his work as time goes by.

[67_C-30]

Congrats! I'm glad you decided to do it afterall!

[stllookn]

Do you get to help?

[Boog]

Well good. How long does he estimate it will take to do it? He is doing the body and paint and you will be putting the bright work back on? You're going with the gloss black or flat black? Either one with those wheels will really stand out.

[72armyswbtruck]

D-Day -1, can't wait to see the truck when your done

[ChevLoRay]

All side trim (brightwork) will be removed, holes filled. Marker light holes and stake pockets filled, too. I will be keeping the trim on the tailgate, but doing a handle relocation and using the lower tailgate trim in place of the 3-piece upper trim, to keep a theme going (it'll look stock, but slightly different). Using a stock grille shell (for the moment) but want to add the billet insert that LMC has for the 69-70's. It'll have chrome bumpers, fore and aft. Windshield/back glass will retain their S/S moldings. Door handles will remain (toyed with a set of doors that a guy has that are set up for solenoids). Right now, I'm keeping the tank in the cab.

The body will be gloss black. It will have flames that start out white, fade to yellow, then orange, then red. The wheels are powder-coated red, with police caps and hot rod trim rings. The seat? Right now I have a '98 Tahoe 2-nd seat that is tan leather. If I keep it and use it, I'm gonna have it dyed black. Interior will be black. I may go with a 99-up pickup seat, maybe in grey, to coordinate with the black. The 88-98 seats are what I want but the one I really want is in my '96 GMC (40/20/40).

The engine is probably going to be R&R'd. The front cap comes off for the painting and that would be an ideal time to swap in a crate motor. Looking at the 290-horse 350, from GMPP.

No, I can't help. That would jack up the price, but he says it should be done within 3 months. His family has a detail shop, at their home, and that is where he works. This keeps his overhead low, I suppose, as long as mom and dad don't mind...and they don't.

The painter/bodyman just acquired a "project" that has a 67 front cap and cab, mounted on a Blazer chassis. the stepside bed is cut down to fit the chassis. Once he works his magic on it, it should be sharp, too. His plan is to do the body of the concoction in suede black, and to flame it with a camo pattern, instead of traditional colors. Should be neat.

[Boog]

Yea! She's goin in !

[ChevLoRay]

Jim, it's in his hands, now. This kid (okay, he's grown, but less than half my age) said he'd do it for free, if he could. He's that much hooked on doing this kind of stuff. Hearing him talk about his process for blocking and sanding and making sure all the components are aligned is music to my ears.

I think, for the flames, that Goodmark's style is what I like best. That way, the white to yellow to orange to red won't cover too much of the black on the hood. Having them start down the fender and go over the wheel openings and overlap onto the doors, just adds icing to the cake! I toyed with the idea of flaming the roof, from the edge of the windshield rubber back just about 1/3 of the roof, but I don't think I will.

Sir Michael's has the tailgate handle relocator that I'll be using, but I don't want to put a skin on the tailgate to cover the hole that will be left. I think my man can handle making the cover for the hole, just fine.

He says he will take pix during the process to document his work and so I'll have an album to display at shows. Yeah, shows. I couldn't be more excited if I tried.