73 gmc short Sierra Grande C1500

[Jaysonb]

New hood fit up. Now it's apart to start priming, and painting the front end.

[Dads79GMC]

Looking great!! Did you end up dropping the rear a bit?

[Jaysonb]

Originally Posted by Dads79GMC

Looking great!! Did you end up dropping the rear a bit?

I still plan on it, but haven't got to it yet.

[Jaysonb]

Slow but sure progress on this old girl! The front end is getting painted tonight, I have the vent windows apart, blasted, painted, and the new seals put in one of them. The firewall insulation pad is in, there are still a few retainers to install there. Had to send the new engine harness back to get reworked a little, I'm hoping to get that back before the fenders are ready to install, as I hate leaning over new paint.

[Jaysonb]

The hood and fenders turned out pretty good, a little more dust than I like, but it will sand and buff nice. I'm kinda chicken to lay the clear on nice and slick this time of year, the shop is heated, but the service door has to be cracked open when the exhaust fan is on, and it sucks cold air in. I guess a little peel is easier to sand out than a bunch of sags, and runs!!

[Dads79GMC]

Yes!! Looks great!

[Jaysonb]

Hood and fenders mounted up!

[flashed]

That looks great ,love the color too.

[Low Elco]

Maaan, that's gonna be gorgeous. Nice work.

[Jaysonb]

I finally got the ac condenser put together, and installed! The last time I worked on it, I was lacking sleep and after putting it together wrong 3 times, I gave up. With that in, I thought I would see how some of the shiny stuff fit. Not bad at all. I have to repaint, and spiffy up the grille a little before that goes in. I decided to go with a color matched bedliner, instead of black, but I think that will be last on the still pretty long list of things to do.

[Jaysonb]

I also tightened the tilt up, cleaned and painted, and installed the steering column. Does anybody know where that wire goes.......

[MrFinland]

Wow! It looks amazing!

[Jaysonb]

Originally Posted by MrFinland

Wow! It looks amazing!

Thank you Sir! I am enjoying watching your build, you guys are doing top notch work!

[Jaysonb]

It blows me away how much they get to rebuild the vent windows! I was nervous about trying it after reading about how difficult they are to rebuild. There are a few high end specialty tools that make the job pretty easy. A plastic pry bar, and a mini bar clamp. I'm not in a huge hurry, and it seems to take about 25 min.

[Jaysonb]

All cleaned up and ready to go as soon as the glass frames dry! Very easy to rebuild these.

[MTCK]

Great work! Appreciate the intel on the vent windows. I’ve been tripping over a junkyard set for my crew for two years that need a rebuild and dreading doing it.

[Jaysonb]

They were a piece of cake!

[Jaysonb]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Great work! Appreciate the intel on the vent windows. I’ve been tripping over a junkyard set for my crew for two years that need a rebuild and dreading doing it.

I just drilled out the 2 rivets that hold the top of the hinge to the frame so I didn't have to mess with the hinge rivet, then used 1/8x1/8 rivets to put it back together, and they are hidden in the door. I did use the vise to clamp down on the hinge rivet to tighten it up a little. 1/8"x1/8" rivets for the post seal as well.

[Dads79GMC]

Great info on the windows Jayson, they look amazing as does the rest of the truck. Mike

[Dads79GMC]

What was your impression of the door panels when you popped them out of the box for the first time and put them on the truck?

[MrFinland]

Originally Posted by Jaysonb

Thank you Sir! I am enjoying watching your build, you guys are doing top notch work!

Thank you sir! Nice to hear that someone follows our building thread. We try to do so good that we don´t later harm.

I would like to see live your truck and Mike´s truck and talk about your guys building them, but "a little bit" too long distance between us. This writing is so slow because I know so bad English. But these pages (67-72chevytrucks.com) are a good English language lesson for me.

I really appreciate your skill in making a trucks. Continue to do the same thing.

[cochino12]

Damn! Truck is looking great!!!!

[Jaysonb]

Thanks guys. Mike, when I pulled the door panels out of the box I thought, wow, very thin, light, and flimsy. But they seem to fit perfectly, the woodgrain insert is metal, and very nice, so I think once they are fully installed they will be fine, a little self adhesive mass backing might go along way also. I would buy another set.

[LT7A]

This truck is coming together beautifully! An idea to consider on the bedliner. Difficult to color match the metallic paint because the different material and finish is going to throw the light differently. And being a gray in lieu of a "color" you will probably need to darken it up some to get it to match. What do you think of doing a non-metallic gray a couple of shades darker than the paint? It would be clearly not be the ubiquitous black, but still look purposeful. In my line of work sometimes a "near match" doesn't look nearly as good as a purposeful shift in shades.

Regardless, dig the truck. Same color as my first square.

[Dads79GMC]

Originally Posted by cochino12

Damn! Truck is looking great!!!!

Adam, thanks again for the NOS body panels!!!!