1986 Chevy C10 SWB Step Side

[aotte1]

Another close-up of info

[aotte1]

Final close-up of info., hope this helps if you are looking for slots and/or history.

[aotte1]

Brake parts came today, A C Delco front pad and brake lines.
Brake pads- 19242608 Pad Kit group 5.017
Hose - 19173185 Group 4.680
Hose - 19173186. Group 4.680

Pads look like they are metallic. Hopefully tomorrow can pretty much finish up front end rebuild.

Les

[aotte1]

The body shop making some progress. The cab is almost ready for primer.
Seat is out and going to upholstery shop for new cover to be installed.

Plan to remove dash pad soon, new one is black, so will dye little vents black if can, remove them wo/ breaking them. Will install the new dash pad before installing windshield.

[aotte1]

Door jams

[aotte1]

Left door jam cleaned ready for primer.

[aotte1]

Replacement Front Suspension - front brakes today

Cleaned up the splash guards/shields, and installed them. Only One of the seals that goes on the spindle to seal the shield was reusable. So for the other shield, sealed it with some really sticky grease used on marine propellers to prevent salt water corrosion. This stuff is really sticky and will not wash off.

[aotte1]

The sticky grease

[aotte1]

Grease stuff used

[aotte1]

Next cleaned up the rotors, ceramic coated the hubs, and replaced the bearings and seals. The rotors are original and showed very little wear, only about 0.02".

[aotte1]

The rebuilt brake calipers and AC Delco pads were installed next. Thinking will wait to install the brake hoses until front suspension/cross member is back in the truck.

[aotte1]

Another caliper picture.

[jpnh]

suspension is coming out mint.-jeff

[aotte1]

It's coming together, next the center link, and tie rods. I think that will be the last to do before it is installed.

[rip2174]

That front suspension really cleaned up nice. Read back through the thread about cleaning and painting process. got the cleaning process. But unsure what you did for paint. Did you coat with a rust inhibitor and then use the ceramic paint? Are you going to topcat the ceramic?

[aotte1]

Rip,

Cleaning/ Coating Process

1). degrease the parts first, with what ever method, depending on how dirty;

2). Blast cabinet ( described back a ways) using aluminum oxide 120 grit to do final clean; ( the 120 grit provides the best adhesion surface, along with best finished surface)

3). Spray with ceramic coating, very soon after cleaning with alu oxide ( mins if possible) to eliminate exposure to moisture in air.

4). I do not top coat the ceramic coating, I use the ceramic coating because it is pretty durable for corrosion and abrasion if applied correctly. The above description is an overview of application process. It is available in a few limited colors. Need to look up brand and will post later.

[aotte1]

Rip,

A little more on the ceramic coating application process. Their is additional information on this process on page 6 of this thread, e.g. Spray gun used, blast cabinet.

Additional detail on spraying ceramic coating repeated from page 6:

1). first cleaning in tumbler for bolts only;
2). next final clean in cabinet with aluminum oxide 120 grit;
3). Immediately apply ceramic coating after final clean with touch up gun, 0.8 mm fluid nozzle size, at 18 to 20 PSI, the coating should be enough to cover item and no more, once covered do not applied second coat. Thick coating adhesion issues!
4). Lastly dry coating, full dry in air 5 to 6 day to get full hardness, it can be handled in a few hours; or if you over bake at 300 degrees F for 1 to 2 hrs it increases the abrasive hardness 1 to 1.5 points on a scale of 10 for ASTM test method, for final value of about 7 to 7.5 ( the 7 to 7.5 is close to test report on product- this is from memory??)

Les

[aotte1]

Rip,
Reread your Q, in simple English, which can be hard for me

Cleaned and then only applied ceramic coating as a final finish.

This product is very good, only found one with more abrasive protection, and it is no longer available to public and only came in silver color.

Les

[aotte1]

Jeff,

Thanks for the compliment, now only need truck back from body shop, going to be a while longer. Check this week and no progress. Next week plan to visit it and remove dash pad, R/R the little vents, etc. for reinstall before windshield installation.

Next project, start working on wood bed, following your helpful description of what you did.

Les

[BamaDave]

I am about to replace all the bushings in my control arms, so I am interested in the mod you made. There are A LOT of shims on the upper C.A. Is that what the mod was to fix?

[aotte1]

Dave,

The lower control arm mods main purpose is to add more caster to the front wheel alignment. It may indirectly effect the number of shims used to align the front end/ front wheels. The shims give you more caster too, but this mod gives you a lot more degrees of caster. What this does is change the axis of a line going through the upper and lower control arm ball joint. It move the lower control arm/ ball joint forward, thereby tilting the top of the axis back. Kind of think of it as the front forks on a motorcycle.
Why do this, more caster make the truck want to go straight as we add big a.s tires to our trucks. They will drive a lot nicer at highway speeds, with wide tires and rough highways, not tracking every rib, etc. in the road as much.
My alignment person recommends at least 4 degrees of caster, for it to drive better. Several other post are adding more then 4 degrees in the range of 6 to 8 degrees. Have not aligned truck yet, it's stranded at the paint/body shop for now. Will report my alignment number hopefully soon So, I have no feedback yet on how my truck drives, or how much increased caster this mod did for this truck.

Lots more info on this modification here, do a search on " lower control arm mod" this is how I learned and researched it. The different post will provide you some variances in how it can be done.

Note: the amount you can move LC, before you get interference with the crossmember seems to be .5 to .75 inches. It seems to vary some between trucks, not sure why? PM me if you want to know more of why I did my clearance the way I did.

Hope this helps answers you question.

Les

[aotte1]

Finishing the wood floor.

Started with flooring from "Bed Wood" , bedwoodandparts.com, Hopkiinsville, KY. I am pretty sure I worked with Lisa. They are a local company, that displays at local shows. That is where I viewed their samples. Was looking for white pine, because of its resistance to decay, and they have it. The bed is also planned to be used for light truck duty, so the white pine will work great for me. They did all the mill work too.

Waterlox" marine sealer and their marine satin finish are the products used as a protective coating for the wood floor. I have used their oil based finishes vs urethane for many wood projects over the years, hard wood floors to furniture. This will be the first exterior use. Their product is very durable, and is extremely easy to touch-up from hard use and dings. Which will be needed since the bed will be used.

[aotte1]

White Pine bed floor w/ sealer applied.

[aotte1]

First coat of satin tung oil finish.

[aotte1]

Second coat satin oil finish.