1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl

[70 cst]

Great project! I'm in to watch the progress.

[cericd]

Looking good. Are those Hankook's blackwall on the opposite side?

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by 70 cst

Great project! I'm in to watch the progress.

Thanks for joining!

Originally Posted by cericd

Looking good. Are those Hankook's blackwall on the opposite side?

Good question, I'll let you know when I get them mounted Thursday

[Graham57a]

And just like that we have paint. I did the backs in semigloss black first and then did the fronts in argent silver so I got overspray on the black through the slots like the factory. My only question is are the hubcaps supposed to be a perfect paint match to the wheel? I was a little confused when I threw one of my caps up there to find out it was a completely different shade. Any thoughts?

[GAc10boy]

Not sure if it’s supposed to be dead on but i imagine that fresh argent and 50 year old silver isn’t going to match. Haha

Caps look killer! Can’t wait to land a set.

[Graham57a]

Here's the ditzler card for 1968 quoting argent silver. Looking at this 68 chevy brochure pic it looks correct but my hubcap looks darker. What do you guys think?

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by GAc10boy

Not sure if it’s supposed to be dead on but i imagine that fresh argent and 50 year old silver isn’t going to match. Haha

Caps look killer! Can’t wait to land a set.

True, I guess I expected the cap to be lighter then the new paint haha. Either way I'll rock it

[GAc10boy]

Originally Posted by Graham57a

True, I guess I expected the cap to be lighter then the new paint haha. Either way I'll rock it

[Graham57a]

We reached two major milestones yesterday. Got our bench seat with a huge thanks to Rusbuilt. I need to put the cover back on but the color match is perfect. This was the old seat out of my old green 68 chevy, even has November 1967 date stamp on the foam. And picked up a little mig machine and plasma to start the rust repair! Now where to start...

[hewittca]

Looking great so far. I love the preservation approach. Those wheels/caps are going to look awesome with some white line tires! For some reason to me, the 67/68 GMC in this color combination is one of the best looking combos from the 67-72 era. I forget who's truck this is, but it's one of my favorites.





Here's a photo I found of an all original '68 GMC wheel/cap. The colors look the same to me. I agree with above, your cap has probably faded compared to the new Argent on the wheels.

[cericd]

When you painted the caps was it out of a rattle can or a gun? Did you prime the wheels first? Basically what type of paint/primer was used?

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by cericd

When you painted the caps was it out of a rattle can or a gun? Did you prime the wheels first? Basically what type of paint/primer was used?

Caps are original paint. I primed the wheels with a standard gray primer I had on the shelf and I used 2 coats of VHT Argent Silver wheel paint to finish it off

[GAc10boy]

The seat is gonna be killer! And I'm super envious over the new Miller goodies. That should help a ton.

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Looking great so far. I love the preservation approach. Those wheels/caps are going to look awesome with some white line tires! For some reason to me, the 67/68 GMC in this color combination is one of the best looking combos from the 67-72 era. I forget who's truck this is, but it's one of my favorites.





Here's a photo I found of an all original '68 GMC wheel/cap. The colors look the same to me. I agree with above, your cap has probably faded compared to the new Argent on the wheels.

Dude that truck is sweet!! If you can find out who owned it I would have a ton of questions for them. Probably the closest match I've seen to options/color/stance that my truck will have when its done.

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by GAc10boy

The seat is gonna be killer! And I'm super envious over the new Miller goodies. That should help a ton.

Thanks man, I'm pretty excited about them. Just trying to figure out where to start haha. I think I am going to do the firewall first and then jump to inner rockers, cab corners, outer rockers, and kick panels to get the cab done. Then I'll move to the front sheet metal and core support. Save the bed and tailgate for last

[hewittca]

I honestly can't remember where I found those pics. I think it was from a random ad I found somewhere.

The pic of the wheel came from here: https://chuckbro.smugmug.com/Cars/1968-GMC He has quite a few detail pics of his original 503 green GMC.

[GAc10boy]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Looking great so far. I love the preservation approach. Those wheels/caps are going to look awesome with some white line tires! For some reason to me, the 67/68 GMC in this color combination is one of the best looking combos from the 67-72 era. I forget who's truck this is, but it's one of my favorites.





Here's a photo I found of an all original '68 GMC wheel/cap. The colors look the same to me. I agree with above, your cap has probably faded compared to the new Argent on the wheels.

This looks like one of c10king's (Rene) trucks out in Cali. Look him up on IG, Andrew. @c10king

If it's not his, I bet he'll know whose it was.

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by GAc10boy

This looks like one of c10king's (Rene) trucks out in Cali. Look him up on IG, Andrew. @c10king

If it's not his, I bet he'll know whose it was.

Just sent him a PM, thanks!

[Graham57a]

I started cutting out some of the bad metal tonight. I started with the firewall, once I got the bad metal off I used a wire brush and phosphoric acid to treat the rust. I'll paint the inner structure with por-15 before I put the new piece on. I also tried to leave the top and bottom of the 1 in the grease markings so I can try to put it back once I'm done

[Graham57a]

Got the passenger side rocker removed. It was basically molded with fiberglass, rags, and bondo haha. A couple before pictures showing the factory seem sealer

[Graham57a]

I ended up taking a cut of wheel and cutting the whole assembly in three pieces. Made it much easier to remove. Here is what I found under both the front and rear inner structures. I treated all surface rust and bare metal with more phosphoric acid to kill all rust. I'll paint both areas with por before putting the new outer rocker on

[Graham57a]

Last few, I think this old girl shed ten pounds getting rid of this thing haha. It was crazy all that fit inside one rocker panel. Also the tab that holds the bottom of the front fender had a gnarly split in the steel so I'll make sure to weld that back up. And finally I thought I was kinda cool the og rocker still had some factory primer on the back side.

[Graham57a]

Picked up the wheels today and my last two hubcaps showed up in the mail. Hoping to mount them up tonight

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by cericd

Looking good. Are those Hankook's blackwall on the opposite side?

Chris, the Hankooks are blackwall on the opposite side

[cericd]

Cool. Thanks. I may run those on mine once I get the wheels refreshed.