Project 69SWB

[Bomp]

Wow Man, Wow.
I skimmed through your build awhile back and was impressed then but finally got a chance to concentrate and read through the build more focused.
Totally dig your style. Like the I won't settle for anything less than perfection!
I now feel I have to order different cab corners from Tabco cause the LMC corners I put on bulge. And they sucked the whole time I was putting them on.
Picked up a bunch of tips from you and the guys leaving comments.
Dig it Man! Thanks.

[Bennett68C10]

Thanks for all the info Jimmy, I'm sure I will reference it alot when the time comes to paint mine.
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[Low Elco]

Originally Posted by ~Whitey~

thanks fellas.

Keith all I can tell you is what I've been told to do and what I've realized in the process of being told what to do. haha.

tips (not professional, but noteworthy!)

1. Make sure you clean the surface good. (I use PRE from Eastwood)
2. Light coat first, the medium coats after that
3. A good air compressor that puts out at least 11 cfm. 100% duty cycle is preferred. Otherwise plan on sanding a lot of orange peel out. With my craftsman 26 gal 4ish CFM I had to use a HVLP gun it wouldn't handle a regular paint gun... and 3/4 of the way through that roof top is was pretty much done... hence the orange peel. (not enough pressure to atomize the paint) I'm not saying you can't do it with a puny compressor, but it makes for more work.
4. Let it dry, don't rush it. Epoxy I'll let dry 24 hours before I do body work on top of it, poly I let dry overnight, and paint I won't touch it for at least 2 days after I spray it.
5. Let the sandpaper do the work, pressing harder to try to sand faster is only going to clog the paper and/or cause deep scratches.
6. PROTECT YOUR LUNGS. you only have one set... a good coat of primer or paint on your lungs will make breathing difficult for a long, long, time... unless it kills you, then you won't have to worry about it.

When it comes to the job I do it in this order.

Starting with clean bare metal... which I usually hit with Eastwood Fast Etch and then PRE

Epoxy first. I'm just spraying the areas that need body work, do the body work and sand smooth with 80grit and follow up with some 180, then I feather out the epoxy to the bare metal. This is because I don't have time to do it all within that window that you have to spray the poly without having to go back and scratch up the epoxy. I would hate to go over the entire cab, all the nooks and crannys to do that.

Poly second just on top of body work and then I'll feather that out almost to the edge of the epoxy with 220.

When all the body work is done I'll spray everything with epoxy, wait 3 or 4 hours then spray it all with poly. (2 different colors is helpful, so when sanding you know when to stop.. I use black epoxy and gray poly.

At this point all the body work for the most part is done. It's time for blocking (I use Dura-blocks) to level/smooth out the panels, if I have to put on any filler to level anywhere I'll spray those spots with poly, sand, and then cover everything with epoxy sealer and paint. I also do it all by hand, I don't have a DA... though I may get one now that I have a good compressor. Not sure.

That might be more info than you wanted, but that's how I've been told to do things and it's worked out so far. I'm sure there are other ways to go about it as I think paint/body work is a "To each their own" trade.
Sorry for the long post but hope that helps someone... that's it in a nutshell.

It's Monday, I'm sure I left something out.

This. Almost exactly what I did on yeller.
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[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by Bomp

Wow Man, Wow.
I skimmed through your build awhile back and was impressed then but finally got a chance to concentrate and read through the build more focused.
Totally dig your style. Like the I won't settle for anything less than perfection!
I now feel I have to order different cab corners from Tabco cause the LMC corners I put on bulge. And they sucked the whole time I was putting them on.
Picked up a bunch of tips from you and the guys leaving comments.
Dig it Man! Thanks.

Thanks alot Bomp, means alot. ... The Tabco's are the way to go for cab corners. Everything else from LMC worked out okay.

Originally Posted by Bennett--G4L

Thanks for all the info Jimmy, I'm sure I will reference it alot when the time comes to paint mine.
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no problem, like I said it's how I was told to do it, I'm sure there are other similar ways or totally different ways also!

Originally Posted by Low Elco

This. Almost exactly what I did on yeller.
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yeller looks great! You must done something right. :-)

[~Whitey~]

Little update. I've just been going around the cab filling in unnecessary holes and getting any other welding or clean up done before I put down anymore primer. There were a few inside the cab on the kick panels and pillars. Who knows what was installed over the years. Speakers, gun racks...

Got all the holes filled in and have been focusing on the firewall this week. Trying to decide whether to shave it or keep my stock heater setup. So far I've filled in the clutch pass through, another hole by the fuse block that was just plugged, and I still have to do the hole where the tail light harness goes through since I won't be needing that with the Painless wiring harness I bought, and I had to enlarge the fuse block hole for it. Just marked it and used a die grinder. really simple. I mocked it in there to make sure it fit.
also moved the vin plate down and put in a door vent.






Here's a couple pics just for fun. This is my crew that helps out.. or so they think. :-)

Meet Nacho, helps when it's not too cold... mainly just watches me, but gets his paws dirty ever now and then.




Meet my Grandson Jackson. He's a good boy, but gets a little bossy. ;-)



papa get to work, there's supposed to be a windshield here and I'm gonna be ready for this truck soon.



Also, since I'm moving the tank out of the cab, I'm still undecided on what to do about the filler hole. .. shave it or dummy it?

[dmw319]

those are great pics

[KSWes]

Nice job! The wiring Harness looks good. And always good to have helpers/spectators!
I'm getting ready to weld up my extra cab holes tonight if I can get my taxes done first...

[sduckworth13]

Looking good Jimmy, I have a painless wiring setup too. Thanks for the tip about welding up the hole for the factory wiring.

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by dmw319

those are great pics

thanks!

Originally Posted by KSWes

Nice job! The wiring Harness looks good. And always good to have helpers/spectators!
I'm getting ready to weld up my extra cab holes tonight if I can get my taxes done first...

Good luck! Hope you get some money back for truck parts!

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Looking good Jimmy, I have a painless wiring setup too. Thanks for the tip about welding up the hole for the factory wiring.

No problem i read it on here somewhere... can't find the thread again.
Here's one build I found that show alot of the wiring and the guy does a great job on everything.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=468335

here's a write up from Custom Classic Trucks.
http://www.customclassictrucks.com/t...rness_install/

[Low Elco]

That Nacho seems to be a vicious, bloodthirsty, brute of an animal. Now I'm afraid to go to Springfield!

Work looks good!

[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

That Nacho seems to be a vicious, bloodthirsty, brute of an animal. Now I'm afraid to go to Springfield!

Work looks good!

Thanks Low Elco... Nacho is extremely docile.. er I mean bloodthirsty!

Well I finally have some progress to post.. I was holding out for a bit because it seems I was just posting pages and pages of nothing but metal work. Well not to disappoint but I am still on the cab. Seem like I have been forever.

I rebuilt my hinges in anticipation of hanging the doors, which was a piece of cake. For the door brakes I had several sets of hinges and I just used the pads that were the thickest from each one and I now have doors that brake; which is nice. can't remember where I bought these from.. one of the board vendors, the pins where a little long so I had to cut them down.



I think adjusting the doors can lead to losing your mind, but I persevered and got them close. I started by adjusting the door side to the center of adjustment.



I had painted one of my doors last summer not really thinking ahead and sure enough even though I taped it up good I still scratched it. It's not bad, but bad enough I'll just wet sand it all and re spray it, when I paint the drivers door.


The doors where a pain to get lined up, the tops where out so this is what I did to bend them out some. Just some piled up cardboard and then I gave it a good shove. This is where I ended up chipping paint and why you sould never paint a door without hanging and adjusting it first.. LESSON LEARNED.

[~Whitey~]

You may have noticed I'm making one cab from 2.. My 69 Cab is too far gone, so I've chopped and diced all I could from it and splicing it all into this 72 cab.

The 69 cab is a little different as far as the firewall is concerned. I wanted to keep my 69 gas pedal so I had to cut out the mounting for it and I filled in all the holes I won't be using.

[~Whitey~]

Finally after filling in what seemed like hole after hole, some factory, some PO, I started working on the making the firewall look as pretty as I could by filling in all the spot welds and little imperfections.



You can see where the heater box goes, it was pretty smashed up, I had planned on cutting out that peice from the 69 cab but it was rusted too badly, so I pulled, pried, banged, smashed, cussed a few times and finally got it pretty straight though the pic does not do what I did justice.

[~Whitey~]

First down was the epoxy



I let that dry overnight and went on to filler.



I sanded around and smoothed stuff down, didn't get any pics of that, then sprayed the poly.




The heater area turned out real nice I think...

[~Whitey~]

Little bit of sanding left and I then spray another coat of epoxy thinned down for sealing. Won't post a pic of that since it looks pretty much just like the other I posted.

I got a little more orange peel than I wanted, but have noone to blame but myself.. I got in a hurry and was just laying paint too quick. I can sand it out so no worries.

[~Whitey~]

I also sealed the seams on the firewall outside and inside the cowl with 3M Fast N Firm... just forgot to take pics of that.

now to just let this dry.. while I fabricate a mount for my shop crane so I can lift the cab using a 4x4.

[Hardesty454]

Build looks amazing! Thanks for all the step by step Info on the body work, including material used. Helps us all out a ton!
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[67cheby]

looking great !

[Low Elco]

Woweeee, that looks great! If you're talking cherry picker, bolts in the cab floor forward seat holes and a chunk of chain worked great for us. You do need guys to steady it, but easy peasy. Nice work!
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[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by Hardesty454

Build looks amazing! Thanks for all the step by step Info on the body work, including material used. Helps us all out a ton!
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks alot and you're welcome on whatever tips I can give. I know I get a ton from other people on here as well.

Originally Posted by 67cheby

looking great !

Thanks Mike!
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[~Whitey~]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Woweeee, that looks great! If you're talking cherry picker, bolts in the cab floor forward seat holes and a chunk of chain worked great for us. You do need guys to steady it, but easy peasy. Nice work!
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Thanks Low Elco, I'll remember that but this is gonna be a 4x4 across the top and a one man job. It's too much trouble trying to get people over here to help lift the cab or the bed. Here a pic of the mount I fabbed up. Still gonna drill a hole through it and the 4x4 so it don't slip and I also screw some blocks the the 4x4 so the cab don't slip on it.


Will post more pics of it in action. Didn't get to do anything in the garage tonight.
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[Bomp]

Nice job on the firewall. Thanks for all the info. Added it to my paint info folder for future reference.

[KSWes]

You're leading the cab charge! I'm still tying up loose ends so I can get stuff painted and on the frame, nice filler work, looking really good!

[Bennett68C10]

Firewall turned out great, nice job
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[~Whitey~]

Finally got the cab back on the frame. My shop crane with the fabbed up mount and 4x4 worked great. Toughest part was getting it off the cab cart. My crane wouldn't roll under it so I had to jack it up and set it on blocks. haha.

I couldn't help but stare and think it's kinda looks like a truck again.