Roostre's 1967 C20

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by tim_mc

Wow! Great job...having recollections of when I did the same to my cab. Good stuff!

Thanks! This is a ton of work, but I should have a decent truck to drive around when I'm done. And I've never done body work before, I've always been more in the mechanical side of things, so this has been a learning experience.

[Roostre]

Today I spent time paying for past sins. My younger self thought this truck would look good with the badges black. It does not. Luckily, I didn't do any surface prep and used cheap spray paint, so it comes off with some elbow grease and acetone. One of the pictures is before and after of the side badges. They aren't perfect, but not much on this truck is and they're better than black.

Also today I ground down my welds for the cab corners, scuffed and cleaned around them, and smeared bondo over them. I went thick knowing I'll sand most of it off. I'm not a professional and actually have never done this before, so it may be a real mess, but most of these seams will be hidden by the box and I think the visible parts will smooth out fine. There's a picture of the back of the cab in all its bondo glory.

I did paint the hood latch and grill support as well. Who doesn't love fresh paint, even if it's a quick shot of unseen components?

[HO455]

It's certainly looking better and better with every post. Good work!!!

You may find this video helpful.

https://youtu.be/hzFdMNH8By8?si=7_aouogf3bohLfF-

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by HO455

It's certainly looking better and better with every post. Good work!!!

You may find this video helpful.

https://youtu.be/hzFdMNH8By8?si=7_aouogf3bohLfF-

Definitely getting closer, thanks. I'll check out that video as well.

[Roostre]

I did not feel like sanding today. So I turned my aftermarket low hump floor into a high hump. The floor had a stamping in it that looked close enough to follow for a cut. I cut out the hole, then bolted the cover in place with the 2 original holes still in the firewall. I marked the rest of the holes, drilled them, and welded some 5/16 nuts in place.

While I was at it, someone had torched a hole out of my high hump cover, so I cleaned it up and used some panel adhesive to glue a patch in place. Once it sets, I'll do final shaping with a grinder.

On to pictures.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Nice job on the rust repair.....

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Nice job on the rust repair.....

Thanks. I was looking back at what I've done and it has been quite a bit of work. Hopefully the end is in sight.

[Roostre]

I didn't do anything major today, just spread seam sealer around where my patches and new panels are to get ready for interior painting. I'm just going to rattle can the floor to protect it a little more, nobody will see it.

I also had my son help me lift the seat back in there. The seat that came in the truck isn't original, I think it's from a square body. The old floor had holes drilled to mount the seat, but I don't really want to drill extra holes in my new floor. We set the seat in place and marked where the mounting brackets rested on the floor. I made some measurements and drew up some plates that will allow use of the stock seat mounting locations. I'll have the plates cut out of 1/4 inch steel and then weld them to the bottom of the seat. It will be much better than drilling holes in my nice floor. Pictures are of where the seat rested in comparison to where the mounting holes are.

It was really cool to be sitting in the cab on the bench seat again. It really added some incentive to keep going. I'm going to finish up the back of the cab then put it and the front clip back on the truck and paint it all at once. I'm toying with the idea of getting it running around this fall and finishing paint next spring. We'll see what happens.

[Roostre]

I did some sanding this afternoon. I knocked the body filler down with some 60 grit on hand blocks then came back with 180 grit on a DA to feather it out. I'll go over the body filler with some 400 grit then call it good enough, most of it won't be visible. I need to get some 100 grit for the DA to really get after the old paint. Then I can go over everything with 180 before primer. The plan still is to paint the bottom, back, and inside the cab before it gets put back on the frame.

My 7 year old son came out and wanted to help. We quickly found out that he doesn't like to sand. So he cleaned up the high hump and bolted it back in so I can tip the cab on its back and paint the bottom of the floor. He did a really good job, and I caught a picture of him working away.

[lil hoodlum]

Originally Posted by Roostre

I did some sanding this afternoon. I knocked the body filler down with some 60 grit on hand blocks then came back with 180 grit on a DA to feather it out. I'll go over the body filler with some 400 grit then call it good enough, most of it won't be visible. I need to get some 100 grit for the DA to really get after the old paint. Then I can go over everything with 180 before primer. The plan still is to paint the bottom, back, and inside the cab before it gets put back on the frame.

My 7 year old son came out and wanted to help. We quickly found out that he doesn't like to sand. So he cleaned up the high hump and bolted it back in so I can tip the cab on its back and paint the bottom of the floor. He did a really good job, and I caught a picture of him working away.

That's awesome that your son wanted to help you out.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by lil hoodlum

That's awesome that your son wanted to help you out.

Yeah, I'm very glad he wants to help. He had just turned 3 and was with me on the last drive down the lane before I pulled the cab. He remembers it and regularly talks about wanting to ride in the red truck again. That's probably more incentive for me than anything else!

[Roostre]

More progress was made this afternoon. I flipped the cab on its back and scuffed the bottom of the cab. Then I primed it. Once the primer drys, I will paint it. I'm just going to use rattle can red. Nobody but I will see it, and it just needs to be protected from the elements and close to the right color.

Once that's done, I'll flip the cab back up and put it on its dolly hopefully for the last time. I'm then going to rattle can the floor. Then I'll tape everything off and shoot the back of the cab and the door jams the body color.

Only one picture tonight of the bottom of the cab in primer.

[Roostre]

The bottom of my cab is painted. Two coats of satin poppy red. I have no idea how close that is to the rest of my paint, but I'm the only one who will see it. Well I guess me and you strangers on the internet, so do me a solid and don't tell anyone I painted the bottom of my cab with rattle cans. Actually, talk away. It won't matter as the rattle can bottom of the cab is completely overshadowed by the rattle can roof!

The brackets for my seat are due tomorrow, so hopefully once the bottom has 24 hours to dry, I can flip the cab back over and onto its dolly. I'll weld the seat brackets together before I paint the floor inside the cab so I don't scratch the paint test fitting. Not that anyone will see that paint either, but a scratched floor would bother me.

[lil hoodlum]

It's coming along nicely!

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by lil hoodlum

It's coming along nicely!

Thanks. It's getting closer all the time.

[Roostre]

As I said in an earlier post, the seat that came in my truck is not original. I think it probably comes out of a square body truck, but I'm not sure. The first picture shows the mounting tracks of the seat. Anyway, the old floor had some holes drilled into it that the original mounting holes for the seat were bolted down to. I did not want to add holes to my new floor, so I set out to make some adapters to use the original seat mounting holes. I set the seat in the cab where it needed to go, and took some measurements. From those, I drew up a front and rear plate and had 2 of each cut out of 1/4 inch steel, shown in the second picture.

Once the plates showed up, I bolted them into the floor, shown in the third picture. I set the seat in the cab on the plates, and tacked the seat to the plates, shown in picture number four.

I unbolted the tacked together parts, took the seat back out of the cab, and unbolted the tracks from the bottom of the seat so I could weld them together without worrying about burning up my seat. I welded the plates to the tracks, shown in picture five, and then painted them.

After the paint dried, I bolted the tracks back onto the seat and lubed them up really well. Now the seat is ready to go back in once I get the cab painting done and get it back on the truck frame.

[Roostre]

Over my lunch break, I rolled my cab out to wash it before I start on scuffing and painting the rest of it. I think this is the first time it has been in the sun since 2021.

[raggedjim]

Nice work, are you going to paint it all yourself?

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

Nice work, are you going to paint it all yourself?

Thanks! Yes, I am going to paint it all myself. Right now, I'm just painting things that should be protected but aren't seen with spray paint because I don't want to mess with mixing paint and cleaning up the mess for places that won't be seen. Most of the stuff I'm painting with spray paint doesn't have any factory paint on it, so if it doesn't look great it's still better than it has been for almost 60 years. Specifically, I'm painting the bottom of the cab, the inside floor, and the inside of the front clip panels. I hope to mix up some paint and paint the outside of the cab and door jams this week. Then I will put the cab and front clip back on the frame and paint the whole outside of the truck in one shot. I've painted farm equipment and individual car body panels before, but never a complete vehicle so it should be an experience.

[raggedjim]

Sounds familiar, I've painted hoods and fenders but never a whole vehicle. Always a first time!

Good luck, Rg

[Roostre]

And here I was thinking I was done fixing rust holes covered with body filler. Then I looked closer at my driver's side fender. I cut and ground out the rot and it's sitting in weld-through primer. I'll make and weld in a patch another day.

On the plus side, at the beginning of this project, this would have really annoyed me. Now I thought that's no good and grabbed the cut off wheel. This type of patch is no longer a big deal for me. Is that personal growth?

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

Sounds familiar, I've painted hoods and fenders but never a whole vehicle. Always a first time!

Good luck, Rg

I'm actually kind of looking forward to it, having never done it before. I hope I can get the whole thing painted yet this year before it gets too cold, but we will have to see if the fall weather and my schedule cooperate.

[Roostre]

I went out over lunch and put a second coat of spray paint on the interior floor of my cab. It flashed off enough that I couldn't resist pulling the masking off. It looks OK, and certainly good enough to protect the surfaces that won't be seen anyway. Hopefully this evening I will be patching the driver's side fender hole that I found the other day. Then I'm off to scuffing the door jambs and exterior of the cab to maybe get it painted this weekend.

I just realized that the back of the right fender can be seen with it's second coat of paint in front of the cab in the second picture.

[Roostre]

Over the weekend, my son and I pulled the other half of the truck out of the shed to get it ready for the cab once it has been painted. We cleaned all of the parts out, and washed everything. I painted the frame under the cab with some rust barrier that I had, since the cab wasn't there. Because this truck originally had a flatbed, someone had painted the back half of the frame at some point. That paint appears to be holding up well enough that I'm not going to worry about painting it.

Now I'm looking at the things that should be done before the cab and front clip goes back on. I've already removed the shocks and ordered new ones for all around. I want to replace the brake line going to the back axle. It is not original, and was routed strangely. I can do that with or without the cab on it, so I really need to get back on the painting before the weather changes.

This box was a trailer, and the spare tire was mounted to the front of the box. The paint there is bad, so I'm going to spray the front of the box at the same time I do the cab. I really need to get back on the paint job. The cab has the first round of sanding done. I need to come back with some 200 grit, then I'm going to mask and spray some high build primer.

Picture is of the freshly painted frame and bad box paint.

[Roostre]

I've been fighting a cold all week, so no work on my cab until today. I was finally feeling a little better, so I finished scuffing the parts of the cab I'm painting red, and masked the parts I don't want red. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to hang plastic in my shop, clean the cab, and maybe shoot some primer. No pictures, hopefully I will have some once I start priming.