ClusterTruck; because that’s what it is

[clay68c10]

First I needed to strip the front edge and see what I'm dealing with. None of it looked bad from the outside.
Luckily, the back side if the hood makes it clear where the holes go. It's a double wall so the inner holes were still there.
I used my square and a "precise" eyeball and marked the locations.
Then I grabbed one of my smallest drill bits and made a starter hole. I figured (correctly) that the little guy wouldn't grab and tear. I could feel it want to get off center sometimes, but it didn't have enough flute to grab sideways.
Now I could look from the back side and verify that I had the hole centered, and if not, which direction I needed to go. All the holes were very close.

[clay68c10]

At this point I was ready to enlarge the hole.
First I carefully used a thin stepped drill. It worked ok initially, but when it caught on the uneven back side the tip broke off. No bueno. At least it didn't harm anything.
Next up was a thin tapered die grinder bit. I used it in my drill vs a die grinder. That gave me better control and it didn't want to bounce around like they sometimes do in thin material at high speed.
It ended up being the best tool for the job, hands down. It didn't cut too quickly, it cut evenly, and it didn't catch. The only thing it did on the thicker weld globs was cut slower because the material was thicker.
Success!

[ryans69chevy]

That color looks so good. Pickup is coming together nicely. Where did you get that sound deadening/heat shield material? I found someone local I can get dynamat. Im looking for a product to put between my roof panels since I have the roof skin off. Was hoping to find a product for both sound and heat.

[clay68c10]

Originally Posted by ryans69chevy

That color looks so good. Pickup is coming together nicely. Where did you get that sound deadening/heat shield material? I found someone local I can get dynamat. Im looking for a product to put between my roof panels since I have the roof skin off. Was hoping to find a product for both sound and heat.

Thanks!
I bought my sound deadening directly from siless. They had and may still have free shipping. I’ve heard good things about their products.

[loudchevy]

Good progress. The die grinder bit in the drill was a great solution for those holes.

[clay68c10]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Good progress. The die grinder bit in the drill was a great solution for those holes.

It sure worked better than just drilling. Especially if you were redoing closed up side trim. That could go south pretty quickly.
If I can save someone else that hassle then I’m happy.

[clay68c10]

Now that the trim holes were located again, the hood went to the blaster. I had some $ scraped up and frankly was sick of the work it took to strip these panels. I had just finished stripping the fenders and really thought about the flat surface of the hood and how I could possibly mess it up, even with the fairly low heat generated by the stripping tool. Also the edges and braces would be a ton of work. So it went to the media blaster. I’m going to do the same with the bed sides and floor.
There was some ancient hail damage uncovered. Must have been from the white paint days since I couldn’t see it in the red version. Dave got the hood in skim and got after it. I’ll have to get a shot of it sanded out and flat.
That’s his laser straight Chevelle in the background. I’ll be helping him out with that. It’s getting a built 6.0/T56. Should be a fun one.

[clay68c10]

I’ve been wanting to learn more techniques for block sanding the skim coat so I started working on the front fenders. It is definitely a good bit of work and does require some technique. The long semi rigid blocks really do work. The use of powder guide coat really takes relying on the “calibrated hand” to determine how flat the panel is out of the equation. If there is a low spot, you will absolutely see it. The only places you really need to feel are the curved body lines. Those are more tricky and I got them close, but let the pro get them that last bit.
It took several hours for each fender, but they’re straight and flat now. Next step is high build and more blocking with guide coat.
These pics are from about the 80% done point.