'71 Chevy C10 LWB

[nasqar]

I did some reading online and it said to go several inches out past the area. I have a couple small dents and when I went out a "few" inches..my sander doesnt cover the "few" extra inches. I didnt know they had 36 grit paper...man that would make my life easier! I have taken the night off so I dont get to frustrated and give up totally on finishing it. I did get the new mirrors, carpeted lower door panels, new bumper bolt kit, and bowtie emblems in the mail today so it is still a good productive day! Thank you for the insight Mike...I definitely need some guidance, lol!

[Hardesty454]

Use a block after you shoot the filler primer with 80g. then use 200g. As long as the "scratches" are deep it should fill them and smooth it out nicely. orbital sanders are good for stripping paint down but after you do the body work and start primer etc, use a block for everything. Thats why you see a lot of people around here saying "Tonight I sanded, and sanded, and sanded... then I sanded some more."... it takes forever!

[nasqar]

Originally Posted by Hardesty454

Use a block after you shoot the filler primer with 80g. then use 200g. As long as the "scratches" are deep it should fill them and smooth it out nicely. orbital sanders are good for stripping paint down but after you do the body work and start primer etc, use a block for everything. Thats why you see a lot of people around here saying "Tonight I sanded, and sanded, and sanded... then I sanded some more."... it takes forever!

Holy crap, I never knew that! LOL...that explains alot. I will go find some blocks and paper tomorrow. Thank you so much for letting me know some tricks. I know I was told a 16" bar but is there any others I should get while I am out picking up the necessities?

[nasqar]

Well I had another passenger door lined up for pickup tonight but the guy texted me that he couldnt get the pics to send out and just cancelled the transaction....ugh. I have a week and a half before our town festival and I was working diligently to get the truck ready for the parade and show. I had a buddy come over tonight and we tried to pull the dent out of the door. After staring for 30 minutes, I stuck my hand in the door (since the door panel is removed) and "whacked" the area and viola....50% of the dent popped right out. Still some work to do so we make a "puller" and pulled another 25% of the dent out. The door looks "fixable" at this point but I am working on finding another door...just in case!

I will post a pic of our homemade "puller"....it isnt pretty but we made due, hehe. As I have said all along, it will never be a show truck, but we will have fun with it and learn alot of wrongs and rights.

[nasqar]

Thank you Hardesty454 and mcbassin for all the tips. It will definitely help me make this truck better then it would have been.

I found out this week that MAACO will sand, tape, and paint my truck for $600. I realize it wont be the best paint job, but for the last 7 years my truck has been outside only with primer on it so this will do my truck a world of good. I think the family will appreciate the ol' truck with some color to it as well! Hopefully by Sunday night the body will be as close as possible to being prepared for the paint booth.

[nasqar]

Made a trip down south last night to meet Todds68chevy to pick up some pickup parts...that's always funny to type...I got another passenger door, front fender badges, a factory radio and a portion of the factory dash with the radio cut out still in tact...and the piece is the same color! Thanks Todd, I really appreciate the parts and had fun in the process. My daughter loved the retro look of your truck.

I think I have talked myself into not having MAACO paint the truck, but for half the money I can buy a good air compressor and shoot it myself. I will use the compressor for many years and would have money left over so it seems logical to me.

[Todd68Chevy]

When you asked last night about me seeing your truck, I had not noticed the link to this build thread. I do not make it to this part of the forum as much as I would like to. It is always good to see where the parts are going and what guys are doing. Good luck with your progress. You are making faster progress than I am right now. Glad you had a good trip down. Always funning when I get talking and find out that someone I have never met knows people that I have known for a long time. Good luck with the truck and the festival.

[nasqar]

I got the outside of the door pretty smooth. The corner was tricky but not real bad. It will be on before dark and the truck will be ready for paint on Monday morning and will be ready for our car/truck/bike show on Saturday. I will post some pics tonight.

I got the bumper polished up pretty good for what it is. Lots of small cracks in the chrome but it's a driver, so no biggie. Sprayed a bunch of degreaser under the front suspension and might get it cleaned up tonight if I can get ahold of the power sprayer!

Tomorrow morning will be the trip to Menards to buy the wood for the bed. Wont be your typical bed floor....but it wont cost me $800+ either....and it will be removable so I can use the truck as a truck.

[nasqar]

Here is a question I hope someone can help me with. I put my passenger door on and at the top edge that meets the front fender and cowl, it doesn't stick out as far as the fender. Is this where I put shims between the hinge and body? Any help would be appreciated. I will post pics later if that will help anyone understand what I am talking about.

[nasqar]

I picked up the wood today from Menards. I finally decided on getting regular decking boards with a 2x4 frame to make my bed floor. This floor cost me right a $100 and will have boards, stain, and screws left over for other household projects. We have done a lot of woodwork around our houses and think this will turn out pretty good. It is tons cheaper then a new metal floor, will look better then a plain ol' bed mat, and will make the truck stand out when people look at it. By Friday morning, the truck should be painted, the bed floor installed, and the interior cleaned up and the vinyl dyed to match the rest of the interior. After almost 7 years, we will finally have a good looking truck....my wife is almost as excited as me. She's ready for the long and late hours to be over with and now we can go places and really enjoy the truck. The next step at some point will be the interior completely finished and then the long process of making the engine bay look somewhat original and that will NOT be a weekend project with all the wires ran everywhere.

[nasqar]

Finally able to upload some pics. Here are the pics of the finished bumper braces and the backside of the bumper. It had some rust on it so I used a wire wheel to clean up the rust and then shot it with Rustoleum to try and seal it. The bumper had a spot on the bottom that was really bent down and I used a 2x4 and "big" hammer to coerce the bottom lip to go back into the correct position.....the 2x4 will probably end up in the fire pit, lol.

[nasqar]

Here are a few pics of the original pass side door and the area during the removal process. A quick shot of my daily driver...2003 Monte SS Jeff Gordon Edition purchased off Ebay 2 years ago. My original thought was to paint the truck the same blue and put the flames on the C10 to match...still havent ruled out the flames, hehe.

[nasqar]

Throughout the years the tail lights, side lights, and other pieces have had overspray from primer/paint left on them. What is the easiest way to remove the overspray without damaging the lights or the black part of the side marker lights? I definitely want to clean these up before putting them back on a freshly painted truck.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by nasqar

Throughout the years the tail lights, side lights, and other pieces have had overspray from primer/paint left on them. What is the easiest way to remove the overspray without damaging the lights or the black part of the side marker lights? I definitely want to clean these up before putting them back on a freshly painted truck.

I'm not sure you can salvage the lenses but you might try some paint reducer. Chances are you may have a film on them even if you remove the overspray. The side markers come up all the time on the classified section if you need to replace them.

[nasqar]

I did the cheap and "easiest" way first. I soaked the lenses in really hot water and dawn dish soap. The parking lenses and the backup lenses, and the tail light lenses all came clean and look new. Not so much luck so far with the side marker lenses. Next step will involve one of the chemicals mentioned above....Updates and pics will be coming.

[nasqar]

The paint guy wasnt able to shoot the truck tonight. We will get most of the tape on it though and be ready when the "sprayer" becomes available. I bought a gallon of high build primer tonight with hardner so that mixed with the gallon of sealer primer will hopefully make the truck "smooth" for the paint. Nerves are starting to set in because of all the work I've done will really show up! I hope it isnt as bad as I fear.

[Hardesty454]

Don't worry. If your best is all you could do, that should be good enough. I'm sure it will turn out great!
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[Hardesty454]

I just noticed you asked a few questions up there. Did you get any answers on the gap questions? I don't check all the builds every day so pm me if you think I can help!
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[nasqar]

Here is the door installed. The pic shows the gap I have to fix. Hardesty454 has given me some tips to fix it! I got the cab and doors taped up last night, it was amazing that taping the windshield and back glass took me an hour to do. I had no idea that it took that long. It is going to be two-tone with black on the top and blue at the bottom and the interior will be all black when I'm done also. The materials are all sitting next to the truck....but I am pretty sure osmosis didnt occur last night while I was sleeping though, lol.

[nasqar]

I recieved the fender moldings from LMC Truck on Monday! They will make a big difference in the looks after the paint is shot.....new mirrors and bumper bolts with freshly polished bumper with the new paint will make it look good.

[Todd68Chevy]

Truck looks good. All the hard work will really pay off when you are driving it down the road and showing it off. Nice show you had with several vehicles that I have not seen before. Being a truck guy, I liked the 55 first series with the 235, 2x2barrels and air conditioning and the 63-66 Chevy short bed.

[nasqar]

Originally Posted by Todd68Chevy

Truck looks good. All the hard work will really pay off when you are driving it down the road and showing it off. Nice show you had with several vehicles that I have not seen before. Being a truck guy, I liked the 55 first series with the 235, 2x2barrels and air conditioning and the 63-66 Chevy short bed.

It was an honor to have you and your buddy show up after putting on a show of your own, then drive 50 minutes to hang out with us. There was alot of talk about your truck amongst the local truck guys. Let me know what a tank will cost me as I will probably need to just change it. I am planning on having a C10 truck gathering as a fundraiser for our annual festival. Maybe in the next couple months I can put something together as a pre-cursor to a bigger event next year. I will put you in charge of the swap meet! LOL.

Thanks for the compliments on the truck. Long way to go bro, but I'm not gonna give up.

[Todd68Chevy]

Originally Posted by nasqar

It was an honor to have you and your buddy show up after putting on a show of your own, then drive 50 minutes to hang out with us. There was alot of talk about your truck amongst the local truck guys. Let me know what a tank will cost me as I will probably need to just change it. I am planning on having a C10 truck gathering as a fundraiser for our annual festival. Maybe in the next couple months I can put something together as a pre-cursor to a bigger event next year. I will put you in charge of the swap meet! LOL.

Thanks for the compliments on the truck. Long way to go bro, but I'm not gonna give up.

Thanks for the kind words. It made for a long day but it was fun and we seen a few vehicles we had not seen before and talked to a few guys that we did know and a few that we did not. I liked the Minor and the Thames also. Our car club started a swap meet this last March in Sullivan and it went over huge compared to what I thought it would but like anything else it takes time and work. I will attend and help with it if I can but I am not sure about running it. LOL

You are closer on your 71 than I am on my 46 but little by little we will get there.

Does your gas tank have the EVAP lines on it? I have a good tank out of 72 that I think will work, I also found some tail light trim that I had and forgot about. It is driver quality but after see how nice that bumper looked I bet you can make this trim look better. $50.00 for all of it. I am supposed to be going to MI this weekend and I will be coming up 63 on Friday night if you want me to bring it with me. I may not be going because I had a issue with an evergreen bush Sunday and hurt my left eye so right now I can not drive and not supposed to be on a computer much.

[nasqar]

I have been working lots and haven't gotten to look at the tank. I will take the tank and trim, no problem. My home address is 136 E Jefferson St so you can plug it into the gps machine.

I will take the best grill assembly you have also. Mine has a lot of dents and even a piece missing. Let me know when you will be through the area.

[Todd68Chevy]

Originally Posted by nasqar

I have been working lots and haven't gotten to look at the tank. I will take the tank and trim, no problem. My home address is 136 E Jefferson St so you can plug it into the gps machine.

I will take the best grill assembly you have also. Mine has a lot of dents and even a piece missing. Let me know when you will be through the area.

We are heading up after work tomorrow (5:30-6:00pm) but I am stopping to look at a 71 and a 72 that are for sale by Clinton. I am not sure a time schedule for when we will be up your way. I will call and let you know when we leave. If you are not available then we will be coming home on Sunday evening and could stop then instead.