68 Second Chance

[landarts]

Got up early on Thanksgiving and started to knock off a few items from the To-Do list before throwing the turkey in the smoker.

Items left to do on truck (items in RED done):

• Get marker light and headlight installed
• Get seat tore down and ready for the replacement seat cover
• Remove gauge bezel, touchup needles with fresh paint and install new bezel
• Remove heater controls and install new sliders, while it is out I will soak all cables, clean out heater and replace vent tubing if needed
• Remove bed bolts so I can slide back bed and repair passenger side cab corner
• Once that is done I will use the color match paint to shoot the cab corner and fender repairs
• Install hood hinge and hood
• Finish CLR treatment on hood and driver side of body
• Finish buffing hood and drivers side
• Get wheels cleaned up and source one more hubcap
• Remount front bumper
• Go through brakes, make sure all is good and safe

While I was pulling out the gauge bezel and disconnecting the light switch I thought this would be a good time to see if I have lights. Pulled the switch on and off and no light. Lucky me I have another brand new switch in one of my American Auto wire kits for the K10. Grabbed it out of the box and plugged it in, we have lights. So I moved on to pulling the heater control panel to fix the broken slide levers. Then pulled out the old cassette player radio and speakers mounted to the kick panels.

Once I had the heater controls, gauge cluster and radio out, I removed the glove box lid and glove box. This gives me access to the dash pad that was in really bad shape. This time I tried a different method of removal. I used a small air reciprocating saw to cut the metal band on each sides of where it is bolted on. This allowed me to spin it lose from the top and ended up being the quickest dash pad removal I have ever done. All in all it took about 10 minutes to get it out of the truck.

With everything removed it was time for another round of cleaning, cleaning items that have never seen daylight in over fifty years. I mixed up so window cleaner from concentrate in a spray bottle and hose it down to soak for a few minutes. After about three to five minutes I soaked it down one more time. Filled a bucket full of hot water and a few microfiber towels and starting scrubbing it down. Now the truck is ready for the interior to go back together.

Pict 1 - Interior before tear down
Pict 2 - Close up of dash area
Pict 3 - Dash area all cleaned up and radio delete plate installed
Pict 4 - Door all scrubbed down

[landarts]

Heater control out of the truck and ready to tear down. I had purchased an Old Air product repair kit for the heater controls. The kit is nice that the new sliders are made out of steel and not pot metal. The kit also come with a black vinyl overlay for the face plate and another printed vinyl sticker for the (Def, Air Fan and Heat) words on the control panel. I decided I would scuff it up and see how it would come out with a couple of coats of Satin black. I proceeded to scrub it with a gray scotch bright to feather out the rough areas and create a rougher surface for the paint to stick to. Wiped it down with wax and grease cleaner and laid down a few coats of satin. I like how it turned out nd I think it will make a nice refresh look with all of the other new items going into the interior.

[landarts]

First item that will need to go into the interior is the dash pad. This is where it comes to stand still until I get this color item figured out. the pad on the left that is Dark Blue came out of my 69 K10. The pad on the right is one I purchased from Truck and Car shop (Medium Blue). The pad on top is the pad that was removed from the this truck.

So I remembered that I had a can of Medium Blue dye from OER that I had used on the FIXRUPR build. I took the old piece of pad from the truck and cleaned it up with wax and grease remover. Then did a few coats of Adhesion Promoter and then sprayed a couple of coats of dye for comparison.

After spraying the Medium Blue I am at a lost for the correct color for the pad. The light pad is not the right one and the Dark Blue pad is way to dark and the tone is not close. So I thought I would pull off one of the visors and compare. The sprayed upper section portion of the pad is a pretty good match to the visors. But it is obvious that that is not what the color was originally in the truck. Possibly I will try another color from SEM or OER and do another spray out.

In the mean time I will be putting the heater controls back together and marching forward on items on the list, especially getting the bed bolts off so I can slide back the bed to repair the passenger cab corner.

[landarts]

Went with the SEM Shadow Blue color. It was the closest to the original dash pad and had some picked up for the K10 build.....win win. Also finished up painting the needles on all the gauges, so that will be ready to go back together after buffing the plastic gauge lens with cleaner wax and a red foam pad.

While I was waiting for the spray to dry I started tearing down the seat to get it ready for the new seat cover. Power washed after stripping off all the batten and burlap. I noticed that the bottom bar and a little of the lower brackets had some surface rust. So I will treat with Rustoleum Rusty Metal primer. Then follow up with some satin black paint to freshen it up. The bottom of the seat brackets and about six inches of the upper arms show and the rest is covered up with the seat cover. I will replace the cotton batten and burlap with new materials. The drivers side of the lower bench has had the springs replaced at some point. They were installed correctly but just a little to high compared to the other springs. So I took measurements and went ahead and made adjustments to make those match in height. There was one or two small spots where I will cut out the foam and replace with new foam. Once the new burlap and batten material goes down it should be level.

[landarts]

Was able to get the gauge cluster wrapped up today. Painted the needles yesterday, changed out a few bad bulbs and did some general cleaning. Today I took the gauge lens and worked both sides with a Micro Mesh kit. Started with the 3200 grit cloth and pad and worked up to the 12000 grit. After that was done and wiped down with a micro fiber towel I used McGuires Cleaner wax on both sides and the Groit's buffer with a foam/micro fiber pad. This really brought the lens to life and made it very clear. Put it all back together with a new gauge bezel.

Worked on getting the seat ready for the new cover. Had a bunch of surface rust to take care of and paid attention to the exposed areas that needed to get new paint. Most of those areas have been treated with Rustoluem Rusty Metal primer and will get two coats of satin black. Picked up the rest of the supplies today to rebuild seat batten and burlap.

Also was able to get the bed jacked up and 4x4 beams placed underneath so I can get to the repair on the cab corner. Cut into the cab corner to get back to good metal and also looked over the plan of attack for replacing corner and rear cab support that is rusted at the bottom of support. More pictures to follow on that repair.

[landarts]

Was able to get a few coats of paint on the upper seat frame. Removed the lower seat sliders and gave them a good scrubbing to get all the hardened grease of the sides. This evening I will put them in a tub of Oxalic acid to relieve them of the surface rust. Will probably paint the lower section that can be seen of the mounts and clear the upper slide portions and re-grease.

Will be cutting back the lower portion of the right passenger rear cab support where rust has destroyed the mount and cab corner. This should be a quick fix once I get metal all cleaned up and ready for the new support section then I can further cut and fit the cab corner to work with body lines. I will be using a 4.5" angle grinder with a diamond blade made for cutting metal, also a small air reciprocating saw, sharpened air hammer and possible the spot weld bit I bought.

Pict 1 - shows the surface rust on the seat mounts
Pict 2 - picture of the type of blade I use to cut metal with, have been using for over a year now and only cost $14
Pict 3 - My Porter Cable grinder with the metal cutting blade

[Chevys4life]

How did you learn to weld so good? Did you just learn from doing it on your own or did have a mentor to help you along.

[landarts]

Originally Posted by Chevys4life

How did you learn to weld so good? Did you just learn from doing it on your own or did have a mentor to help you along.

I would not consider myself a good welder. I bought a 120 volt Lincoln welder years ago and took advice from someone I knew about getting the right type of gas hookup for it. Practiced a little bit and grind a lot. When doing the welding on these trucks its not really welding like welding a bead. It is spot welding in short burst. Couple of key items I found that really help are, make sure the metal you are welding is clean, your ground is good and temp and speed settings are matched for the thickness of metal. I weld all my repairs with .025 flux core wire.

I also guess it also helps that I am not afraid to try and do something I have never done before. I do the research, ask a lot of questions and try to use the best tools I can afford. There is one tip that I always remember from multiple people is "If it sounds like bacon popping you probably have your settings right" . I have also watched a few videos on the interweb about proper penetration and what to look for in a weld. Again I am just a hobbyist that enjoys building these trucks. If I had to take my trucks to others to get the work done I could not afford it and the challenge is something I embrace. Just like on my "Fixrupr Build" I painted the entire truck with basecoat / clearcoat, that was the first time I ever painted a vehicle.

[Chevys4life]

Thanks for the reply on the question that I asked. What I find out a lot on this site is that the majority of these guys are car and truck guys that are willing to learn on their trucks, make mistakes and learn as they go along. This is a very motivation site with guys like yourself showing these things to novice like myself. I saw your other site The " Fixrupr" build and read all of the your comments pertaining to that build too!!!! Again.......keep up the good work and congratulations on the new skills you have acquired by being willing to learn something new that is totally gratifying after it's done by you.

[Low Elco]

Lots of good work! Clean ol truck!

[landarts]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Lots of good work! Clean ol truck!

Thanks! Very much appreciated.

[dmjlambert]

Thank you for all these great pictures, explanations, and product names. I am following this and interested in how it turns out. It looks great. This thread is good for my education.

[landarts]

Stopped off at Home Depot on my way home for work to pick up a 17 gal. storage bin the black ones with the yellow lid. I wanted to try something that I read about on one of the vintage bicycle forums. Quite a few of the members use Oaxlic acid to remove rust from whole bikes and it does not harm paint or decals. The acid is used for bleaching wood among other items, it is very cheap to buy like $18 dollars for 5 lbs. and you use bout a tablespoon per every gallon. I also walked down the aisle where paint and chemicals are. I noticed a Rustoleum Rust Remover spray gel and thought I would also give it a try.

Got home and mixed up about 10 gallons of water with the Oaxlic acid and dropped one of the seat supports into the storage bin and put the lid on it. Then moved over to the work table to try out the Rustoleum product on the other seat support. I laid down a piece of painters plastic on the table and sprayed down the seat support, then took a disposable chip brush and brushed the gel like substance around to make sure I got into all areas. Then I wrapped it up loosely with the plastic and went into get some dinner.

I remember on the Rustoleum product it says it works in 30 minutes, so after dinner I unwrapped the seat support and was surprised of how well it worked. Took it over to the garage sink and rinsed off really good with hot water and scrub brush. It looks like a little cleanup work, get it wiped down and start spraying some color on the mount portions.

I will report also on the other support once I pull it out of the Oaxlic acid bath.

Pict 1 - Rusted seat supports
Pict 2 - What it looked like after opening up the plastic
Pict 3 - After rinsing the item clean

[landarts]

Not to much to report today. Here is a shot of the other seat support that I put into a tub of Oaxlic acid. It has been in the tub for about 36 hours and almost 100% of all the surface rust is gone. I will be using this method going forward on items that I dont want to sand blast. It is cheap, simple and very effective in my testing. The mixture of about two tablespoons per gallon if water will last along time. The really big advantage is that it does nothing to paint or decals.

The other picture is showing the top portion of the seat frame cleaned up and repainted with three coats of gloss black. After I finish painting the lower portion of the seat sliders I will put it back together and rebuild the burlap and batten areas before installing the new seat cover.

[landarts]

Started to finish putting the heater control assembly back together that I painted and cleaned up a few days ago. I was at the point after the new arms were installed, to finish I still needed the knobs installed. The kit came with a set of black plastic knobs and I was thinking I would rather put the old ones back on that are a resin type knob with a chrome finish. I had two sitting on the table and I thought I remembered another one being in the box of items I cleaned out of the glove box.

As I was looking through the box I grabbed an envelope and the plastic casing that held the actual manual and protecto plate booklet for maintenance. I figured I would look through the stuff to see what else I could learn about this trucks story. What I found out is that the owner bought the truck in Clovis California on July 11th 1968 at Hallowell Chevrolet. I also found out that the owner was born in 1921. There were several other papers that helped understand who they were and just a little bit more of the trucks back story.

One thing that surprised me was how the vin number was punched out with little holes on the Protecto plate booklet. I had other trucks that have the booklet but do not remember seeing that. Now I will need to pull others out of the cabinet and check them out.

[Chevys4life]

That's nice information to have for your trucks!!!

[CG]

Such a great thread. Very informative … Thanks!

[landarts]

Today I am working on multiple items since all of them are needing paint or rust removal. To start of with I was able to get the bottom half of the bench seat cleaned up of the minor surface rust and prepped for primmer and paint. Two coats of Rustoleum Rusty Metal paint and three coats of Gloss black on bottom half. Since this is a 67-68 hinged seat the two bottom ends are exposed metal that are not covered by seat fabric.

While that was drying I pulled off the floor sill plates since I received my order from RockAuto for the ACC carpet kit I ordered a few days ago. The sills are rusty and will get a spray down with the Rustoleum rust remover gel and wrapped in plastic to do the job. After they come out about 30 minutes later i will clean up in the garage sink and scrub down with a brass brush and then go over them a few times with Never Dulz chrome polish. They will not be perfect but they will look much better than they have in a long time.

I grabbed the new 5" round mirrors I purchased from Truck and Car shop and a few items I would need to get them ready for paint. Took them into the house to get them one step closer and avoid the paint smell for a bit. I proceeded to scuff them with a green Scotch-brite pad and taped them off with some masking tape. Had to use a sharp X-acto knife to get the cuts really good around the mirrors. Then I started to think these are not going to be easy to paint because of the shapes and angles. So I went into garage and found a scrap piece of dowel and cut a few lengths and hot glued it to each piece so I would have something to hold onto and twist around while painting each one. Took a piece of scrap plywood and drilled a few holes to hold the dowels and hot glued a few sets of little feet on the bottom so the dowels would go through a lock in securely. This turned out to work really well and I am not sure how else it could of been easier. When they have a few coats of white on them and cured up I will scuff them up a little bit to try and match up the patina on the truck. If it does not go so well I will scuff and paint again.

[landarts]

Originally Posted by CG

Such a great thread. Very informative … Thanks!

I am glad if anything I put on this build could help someone. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Chevys4life

That's nice information to have for your trucks!!!

Yes it really is and it really makes me think about the time and how life was in the trucks back story. One of the bits of history that was in the glove box was all the places they took the truck on vacations, the paper work from the boat that they had and an old savings book with manual entry's.

[Chevys4life]

I hope they turn out the way you want them.

[landarts]

Originally Posted by Chevys4life

I hope they turn out the way you want them.

Thanks!

Here are two photos of the mirrors in process of getting them ready for the truck. After the mirrors had a few coats of white and some time to dry I decided to start with the patina process with one of the 5" mirror heads. I used a green Scotch Brite pad and worked a few of the area's on the outer rims. There is still a few areas that I need to work to be where I might want it to look like. It will also get an overall wipe down with the Scotch Brite then I will use the same compound and polish like I did on the fender and passenger side to give it a patina clean look.

The other two photos are the before and after shots of the seat supports I soaked in Oaxlic acid. I am very satisfied with the outcome and will be using this mix whenever I can. Now I just need to do another good scrubbing and prep for paint. The last picture I took one of the supports and altered the image in Photoshop to show the areas I will be painting with Gloss black.

Photo 1- mirrors after a few coats of paint
Photo 2- mirror head being worked with Scotch Brite pad
Photo 3- seat supports before Oaxlic acid bath
Photo 4- seat supports after bath
Photo 5- just showing with Photoshop image saturation adjustment how the areas I will paint black on both supports

[Chevys4life]

Thanks for sharing the images!!!

[landarts]

Got into working on the cab corner replacement. Had to jack the bed up even higher than what I had done a few days earlier. Need to get full access to area where the cab corner metal is spot welded to the floor support. I found a few more scrap 2x6 blocks and doubled them up, jacked it up even more and slide a few on top of the 4x4 beams I already had under the bed rails. Really want to see if I can do this without removing bed all the way. If it just does not work out then I will grab the bed remover beam I built and get it off and onto the bed cart and out of the way.

This will be my first time doing cab corners and a learning experience. From what I can tell there are three parts that will need attention. (Cab Corner, Rear Floor Support and the actual Cab support) For the cab corner it looks like I will use about 50% of the reproduction part, Floor support will only need about 20% of the part and for the cab support again about 20%. The cab corner section I would not attempt to reproduce, the floor section and cab support I possibly will be fabricating those myself. I do have all three of the parts as reproductions in my garage, for the later two I can easily make patterns off those and make the repairs properly. I always like the challenge of doing something I have never done on these trucks and figuring a way to do it that works for me. All parts will cleaned well, wiped down with grease and wax remover and primed with weld through primer before any welding. After the repair I will seam seal every possible spot I can touch and coat the under side with 3M undercoat. Hopefully this will make a sold repair that will hold up with time. I also intend to make a clean out hole in the cab support.

In the first picture below you might wonder what the white piece of paper taped to the window is for. I use the paper for many reasons, to help me stay on track with what needs to get done, notes about items to check on, items that I need to order and most of all to remind me why I do this. If I am not enjoying myself get out of the garage and go do something else. I also have a project management excel sheet that I made up a few truck build ago that I track all expenses including consumable items like sand paper, body filler, fluids, used parts that I have hoarded away, tools etc. This way I really know how much I have into the truck give or take a few dollars.

Back on thread #26 I posted a To-Do list - here is an update an few more items added.
Items left to do on truck (items in RED done):

• Get marker light and headlight installed
• Get seat tore down and ready for the replacement seat cover
• Remove gauge bezel, touchup needles with fresh paint and install new bezel
• Remove heater controls and install new sliders, while it is out I will soak all cables, clean out heater and replace vent tubing if needed
• Remove bed bolts so I can slide back bed and repair passenger side cab corner
• Once that is done I will use the color match paint to shoot the cab corner and fender repairs
• Install hood hinge and hood
• Finish CLR treatment on hood and driver side of body
• Finish buffing hood and drivers side
• Get wheels cleaned up and source one more hubcap
• Remount front bumper
• Go through brakes, make sure all is good and safe
• Get new mirrors painted
• Mount mirrors - last item so there is more room in garage
• Order rear passenger floor board support patch that tucks into cab corner
• Cut and install section of floor board support so cab corner can be finished

Photo 1 - showing the mess I made and how high the bed needed to go up to access the area.
Photo 2- shows the first cut done with reciprocating saw, to reveal floor support Photo 3- shows in red where I will make the final cuts and transfer to repop part for repair
Photo 4- shows the part of the floor support missing, the metal remaining is good

[landarts]

Well gearing up for the weekend work on the Second Chance project. Have two orders showing up, one with some additional repair panels and another with another seat cover to compare. If the one that shows up is what I think it will be then the other will be returned since they already issued me a return label and number at their cost since the web image was not even close to what was sent. I will post a side by side picture later for comparison.

I will be working on getting the cab corner finish the cut out and match up the parts from the repop pile. I order a rear floor patch panel that I figured after I ordered that I did not need as I remembered from the K20 build I had some left over repop cut offs that might work. Bingo the last portion to the rear of a inner rocker outer floor piece was not used. Everything up to the B pillar was used and the rest cut off and saved. So I will be mating up the part today after work and possibly using it or use it to make a template and fab a piece off of it. This small piece turns down and ties into the inner rocker and cab to form the floor corner, without it you lose some strength in the corner and have no cab floor corner to hide stuff in. Once that goes in I can get the lines for the repop corner piece and rear cab support portion cut and fitted. One other item that I kind of dread doing but I think is necessary for safety reason during this repair is removing the functional gas tank, to close for comfort. Sparks and welding next to a tank just don't mix well. Should not be so bad since everything else is already out of the cab.

Once this area is completed the fun begins with the 2K spray can of matched paint. If this turns out the way I hope it does this will open a big door in bringing these trucks back to life without having to do a complete paint job. But to be able to afford to fix a few problem areas and still have a truck that looks decent and retains some of its history in the paint area.

Pict 1 - Here you see what is missing in the floor cab corner area
Pict 2 - Here is a inner rocker outer floor picture, red lines is the area missing from the floor

[Chevys4life]

I can't wait to see what it looks like and keep up the good work. I was looking at that gauge cluster again and that turned out really nice.