2 for 1, My son's first Square Build

[maxxxy]

Looks sweet!!!
Where did you relocate the firewall wire harness to?

[aggie91]

We are going to hide as much of the wiring we can. Most of that will be done when we start putting it back together. The engine harness will go thru the firewall directly behind the intake manifold to hide it as much as possible.

[aggie91]

Well it was basball last night for my other boy, Owen. He got to pitch last night for the first time, he usually is the catcher. He can throw hard, but needs work on his consistancy. He'll get better...On Sunday I was also able to finish Owen's go kart project, now he has something to do while Korbin and I work on the truck. Owen did alot of the welding on this frame and will do the grinding and finishing before I paint it. I will be painted red like Korbin's truck.
[IMG]http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii263/karlk91/51108AC2-8945-4536-93A9-A27E15AF7467-5884-00000CCFDA98DC41_zps9d024c5c.jpg[/IMG

Korbin has baseball tonight so most likely no progress on the truck tonight either. I might be able to get a little done after his game, but not anything post worthy...]

Here is where we go to Sunday:
Got the majority of the new trans hump done and seam seal applied on the underside. I used Eastwoods brushable seam sealer. Looks ok, it will be covered with Raptor liner anyway..


Got it put in on the floor and started to layout the rest of the floor, yes it was done once before, but I did not like it and tought it was not the safest set up for Korbin to be driving...This will look much better and is alot stronger for the seats to bolt to. I also did a better job with my welding this time.

[Moostifer]

love coming back and checking on the progress! may have to steal that steering wheel! my old Grant is very dated, as is the rest of my truck.

[aggie91]

We went down to Aggieland to watch the annual Maroon and White game on Saturday. We had such a great time. We will do that next spring too.

Sunday, I got some time out at the shop. Owen came along and helped a little and rode his go kart some too while we where there. He loves that thing!

Got tired of working on the cab so I worked on the bed a bit. I mounted up the sides and the front panel and smacked out a couple of dents. Then I moved to filling in the rear stack pocket holes and capping the ends. I ran out of time to finish out the ends so for now they are just tacked in place. There are a bunch of holes that need to be filled on the sides, but they are not in bad shape. Here is a couple of pics of the end caps...

[aggie91]

I've been in training class for work the last 3 days. Went out to the shop last night for a short time. Finished welding in the caps on the ends of the bed rails and rough ground them. Started filling holes in the sides. I need to make patches to fill in the front stake pockets. I will do that tonight and finish welding up holes. One fender requires some patch work and a few large low spot dents along the top, but otherwise the fenders are in good shape. I turned my focus to the bed since I was just tired of working on the cab. I'll mostlikey work on both this weekend. Need to start moving crap out of the shop. We have to be out by the 30th...

[76stepside01]

Looks sweet! what are you going to do for tailgate latches?

[aggie91]

Tailgate latches will be hidden completely. I'm holding out on those until we get it painted...sorry....

Well I am trying to order parts for this truck. Wheels and tires are #1 right now and it seems NO ONE has the front wheel we need (want). Korbin wants the Eagle Alloy 225, 20x10 for the rear and 20x8.5 for the front. The 5" backspacing (+8mm offset) is out of stock in AE's system and they will not tell anyone I talk with when to expect more. The 4.5" BS I can find, but we want that extra 1/2" for clearence. This sucks...

[aggie91]

I still have not found the wheels Korbin wants. The BS we want for the front seems to be unavailable at this time.

We had to move out of the shop we have been in for the last year. We moved out this weekend and it is amazing that we have most of it put away but very little room to work on anything. Here is a shot we took as the last mock up before we do body and paint work. We will bring the rear down about another inch or so, but overall we are happy with the stance.



I have a few pieces to make for the trans tunnel and then it all comes apart for the last time. The rear fenders are real bad, the right side is the worst to much work to straighten out and get right. I ordered new fenders from Classic Parts and Classic Industries. I would have gotten both from Classic Parts but they did not have the RH fender we wanted, So I split it between the two companies. Should start seeing some parts today and tomorrow then fenders next week. Now that the truck is at home, we can work everyday if we need to.

[JRANGER]

looks awesome! Good work so far!

[trout]

So what happend to she fleet side jw ?
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[aggie91]

The fleetside needed a lot of work and was going to be very time consuming. We were given two stepside beds that at first glance were better then the fleetside so we went that direction. Turns out the fenders where almost as bad as the fleet, but the replacements for the stepside fender are less expensive. Now we are to far into the stepside to turn back. Its growing on Korbin and there are not as many stepsides in this body style getting redone.

[trout]

Makes scence
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[aggie91]

I forgot to update the thread on Tuesday...

We got two shipments of parts in Tuesday for the truck. I ordered new replacement fenders for the stepside bed. I ended up getting them from two different sources since the first place (least cost for the fender) did not have the right side fender I wanted. Not all stepsides from 81-87 had marker lights in the rear fenders. The right side fender has no marker light and no fuel fill door so I would not have to do any filler plates and welding on these new parts. I only found the right side fender available from one place. The left side is also a no marker/no fuel door fender and seamed to be available from multiple places.

The fenders are both made in Tiawan by the same company. There is a CK on the label, for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the company right now. I will post that later....The parts are nice with a good E-Coat on them. There are some tooling marks on them, but nothing a little Slick Sand and blocking won't take care of.

The Left fender came in first, I boutht it from Classic Parts (http://www.classicparts.com/) and was deliveried by Old Dominion Freight. They did a good job handling the part with no damage to it. The part was stapped to the pallet in the picture with the manufacturers double thick cardboard wrapper around the fender. On top of that was a white cone with a note in red letters stating " do not stack anything on top". The driver was cool and called me when he was close to the house and waited about 20 minutes for me to get there from work. I unwarped it and inspected it before signing the paper work and he asked what I was building. Here is the fender:

and the tag inside on the fender:


The right side came in a bit later that day and was delivered by UPS Freight. He too had to wait for me to get there from work...This fender came from Classic Industries (http://www.classicindustries.com/). It was packaged differently from them. They had it in a large double walled box with large bouble wrap around the fender inside. There was a small crushed spot on one corner of the box but no major damage to the fender. You can sort of see the damage in the picture, the edge of the fender where it bolts to the bedside and the step is rolled under a bit. I think it will take only a light massaging to get right, but should not require any filler to be used, other wise the fender was in the same shape as the other one with only a little Slick Sand and blocking to make it right.

Also on this order, I got the front bumper. It was stamped by Golden Legion and was double boxed. The manufacturer has their double walled wrapper around it with a layer of bouble wrap on the bumper. This was put inside a sturdy double walled box by CI and shipped to me. It was perfect, no marks at all. The chrome looks good and smooth with no noticable tooling marks in the steel. Very happy with it.

I stuck it in Korbin's room as a surprise for him when he got home from school that day:


That's it for Tuesday's update...I will update later with what happened yesterday...

[C@rnut001]

Those parts are looking good, now to get them all together...LOL. Hopefully the quality of the foreign parts is better than it used to be. Good luck getting more together and thanks for posting the pictures. It is always fun to get more parts in for a project and you guys are doing a great job on your son's build!

[aggie91]

Thanks, Cornut!

The CK on the tag stangs for COBRA KING. I like the fenders. The Left side needed just a touch of hammer/dolly work. The Right side needs a bit more, but nothing too bad.

[aggie91]

I sanded out the e-coat on the Left fender this weekend, looks to be a good part. One coat of epoxy primer and two coats of Slick Sand and some blocking, this part should be paint ready without any problems.




Doing this really highlighted the tooling marks in the e-coat. The Slick Sand and a bit of blocking will take care of all of it.

I'll do the Right fender this week...Took off most of Mother's day. I did get out in the garage late in the evening and Kristi (my wife) came out and helped a bit on the truck. She wants in done for Korbin and has offered to help anyway she can. I did a most of the remaining patches on the cab. I have one or two more and the cab seam to finish, then it can be put in epoxy primer.

Got baseball tonight with Owen, do if I get to the truck, it will be late...

[aggie91]

Just got off of the phone with Tommy Lee (ksbrktracer) at tnt-motorsports. He is a great guy and made sure I was getting the wheels that we wanted for this truck. He is working to get them here before Korbin's birthday. Should have the rears next week and then a few weeks later for the fronts.

[aggie91]

Here is a quick update, we got the tires in yesterday. Korbin sent me this pic since I am traveling for work this week. Still waiting on the wheels. All 4 are Toyo Proxes ST II's, 255/40R20 Fronts, 313/35R20 Rears.

[Claytona08]

Love the look of those tires. That is the same tire just in a different size that I plan to run on my 84.

[aggie91]

Got a break in the action from work so here is a quick update on what we got done over the past weekend:

I finished the metal work and most of the body work on the front fenders and the damaged rear fender was repaired. I also converted my garage into a make shift booth with plastic and duct tape...

Got all the fenders, the steps, and the front inner fenders in epoxy primer on Sunday Morning.



I'm no Alan Hobbs, but I am happy with my results so far. I had not sprayed paint out of a gun in more than 13 years. First time with a HVLP gun and was real happy with my results. I used PPG's Shopline products, they laid down real well for the 2 coats of epoxy. I let all that cure for a few hours, had one minor booboo in the second coat of one rear fender, so I blocked out the bad spots before shooting Slick Sand over all the parts.

Shot the Slick Sand late Sunday afternoon and let it all dry to touch that evening before moving things around to get the truck back in the garage for the night. Very happy with that stuff, it was my very first time using it and it laid down well. When I get back, we will start the first pass of blocking the parts. The rear fenders should be good to go after one round, but the front fenders are going to need more work in the blocking stage. One of them has an area that needs more filler work that I noticed before the Slick Sand was shot, but I did not fix it first....Anyway here is what they looked like when I finished:

[SCOTI]

Did I miss what the final decision was on wheel choice? Nice job pop....

[moregrip]

looking great brother!

[77ChevySharkBite]

I've been following the build since day 1!

But at work I'm not able to see all the pictures so I have to wait till I get home, beautiful work fellas! Korbin is definitely a lucky guy to have a father to help him out.

Keep up the awesome work, it's looking BEAUTIFUL!!!

[aggie91]

Thanks guys!

Not sure we ever really said what wheels exactly we chose. I'm going to hold off and let Korbin post them up when they come in. The fronts are going to be the kicker at this time. We hope they come in before his birthday.
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