Charlotte - A Stock 1970 K10 Build

[Love 70 Chevys]

After taking the vinyl off, I separated the top from the bottom. There are four big countersunk head bolts that you need a large phillips head bit to remove. Kind of odd, specialized bolts. I didn't have anything to fit, so bought the correct size bit hard mounted in a 1/2" drive socket. Let the bolts soak overnight with some PB blaster and used a breaker bar so I could slowly apply torque without stripping the phillips on the bolt heads. The top foam was still in great shape. I cut a carpet remnant to the correct size and attached it to the frame using zip ties. I encased the foam in clear plastic garbage bags. So glad I found that tip on this forum! Slid on the new vinyl, inserted the old hem wires and used zip ties to secure. Poked a small hole with an awl and fed them through. It was awesome to get them just snug enough to still be able to move things around and still make adjustments before final cinching. No one will ever see the back, but I love how clean the backing of the carpet looks compared to the old burlap that was glued to the foam and falling apart. Last picture was taken before I nipped-off all the excess on the zip ties. Used a pair of channel locks on the long ties as I was cinching them and had plenty of leverage. No wrinkles at all in the vinyl due to the extra volume taken up by the carpet and all seams and edging placed right where they needed to go.

[Love 70 Chevys]

The bottom foam was not as happy as the top. It had some cancer and rot where it had been poking through a rip in the original vinyl. It was fun to fix though. Cut out the cancer and built up some new foam in layers and and glued it in. Then shaped it using a cheese grater. One I bought and one I made from a piece of copper sheet metal punched through with a framing nail. The cheese grater can only be used so much though. Then it starts to shred and pull the fibers of the foam and you lose all shape. Found the best thing to do was first snip with scissors like a hair stylist, then use the cheese grater to get the multi-slope shape and then final shape with a little sanding drum on a Dremel. The special foam adhesive left things feeling very solid and permanent, but just for good measure I reinforced it with some flexible vinyl tape. I left a note on the foam for when someone restores this truck again in the future when I am long gone. I may be a little weird, but I have done the same thing inside the walls of any house I have ever owned where I took down drywall.

[Love 70 Chevys]

Part of the reason the vinyl was ripped and the foam yucked up on the drivers side was because the one single spring that goes up and supports that area was broken. (A common problem from what I have read.) LMC makes replacement springs so I put it in and what a difference maker. Was able to reuse the original metal clip, but threw in a few tie wraps just for insurance to keep it from shifting out of place. Added the carpet remnant pieces. Kudos to the first person who ever thought of that. Makes everything so much more comfortable. One thing that threw me for a loop was that the bottom vinyl did not require re-use of the hem reinforcement wire. The top did. The bottom already had a "cord" in the hem that served the same purpose. Only problem was, I didn't know that and didn't learn this until I had the wire 80% of the way in. There was no way to go forward and no way to go back and I thought it was going to screw everything up. Luckily it it did not, was able to scrunch the vinyl until everything was evenly distributed and cut off the excess. The vinyl went on just as easily as the top. Just took my time and cinched the tie wraps a little at a time. No wrinkles and nice straight seams.

[Love 70 Chevys]

The most difficult part of this little project was reassembling the top to the bottom. I have no pictures of this, because I needed two arms and four hands just to do the job! Would have been good to do with two people, but sometimes when I want to get something done, I just can't wait. The upper brackets that bolt to the bottom are a really tight fit and can't really be deformed. One side goes on easy, and as the other side is forced into place, there is not much you can do but pinch and slide along the nice new vinyl and pray that it doesn't rip. Mine mostly bunched and puckered and once I had things wedged together well enough so they would stay, I deformed the bracket as much as I could with a pry bar and used a plastic dry wall spatula to kind of smusch the vinyl flat again. Could not get it perfect, but luckily no rips or tears and the brackets and underlying vinyl get covered by the upper flap in the end. Tie-wrapped the side flaps and was very happy with the way things turned out. Last thing was to install the cable. It needed a little mod (cutting away excess threads that bottomed out on each other) but it worked great. It's really nice to be able to adjust the seat now, but for me it will always be in the most back position, because even all the way back I wish it went further.

[notsolo]

Nice clean work on the whole truck, zip ties on the seat reconstruction is a nice upgrade from hog rings.

[53 292]

Man I really enjoy seeing the progress on this truck. I’m definitely coming back to this thread when it’s time to recover the seat in my 72!