i finally made some visible progress on my 71

[RedZ71]

now that my 2001 is paid off, ive finally taken to getting some real work done on my 71. a few weeks ago, i picked up a couple grill inserts locally (one ok, one poor). i cut some patches out of the poor one, and epoxied them into the ok one, and made a useable grill.

while i had all the front pieces off, i sanded and masked the black area aound the headlights, and sprayed some flat black. i dont know why i didnt take somne closeups, but in the hi-res, it looks pretty darn decent!

(hi-res) http://www.z71silverado.com/1971c10/truck/dsc06375.jpg

when i got it:


earlier this morning:


and just a while ago:


next couple of weeks im hoping to pick up some side mirrors, 80s style rally rims, and hopefully a straight bumper!

[see ten]

Noticeable improvement!

[5150]

Looks Good!

[RedZ71]

my garage door opener promtly failed after i put it back in the garage, right after i took those pics!! im not sure ill be able to talk the apt manager into calling maintenance in for today, that this is (IMO) an emergency.

now that im getting to the "presentable looking phase", and being that im a year or more away from living in a house (with the notion that a full frame-off restoration is my goal), im a little bit kicking around the idea of just bondoing up my rust holes, and spraying it [some-color] right in my garage.

if im just going to be sanding it all back down again anyway, replacing the bent and rusted panels... why not? any part i bondo over rust, would just be candidate for full replacement (or appropriate cutting/patching) when i finally do the restore.

im so far out from having a proper garage to work in... i cant see a house in my future at least until 1 year after congress gets the immigration thing all worked out (long story short, my wife has been here 18 years since she was 4yr old.. no papers, [you fill in the blanks of the hard road we have ahead]. but until then, id really like my truck to be more than just a mismatch-greens rust bucket.