Bringing the '65 back to life

[racecougar]

Laying it on today.

[racecougar]

Dad whipped up a backing plate for the power steering box today...


...while I blocked out the cab and doors.

[racecougar]

I got over to the shop early this morning, and we spent the day prepping, then painting, the cab and doors. The outside of the passenger door and the power steering box plates received a coat of primer, while the outside of the drivers door and the cab received the first coat of satin black. They'll get the second coat after work tomorrow. I can't wait to see this thing buttoned up with glass, weatherstrip, trim, etc.

[racecougar]

We shot the second coat on it tonight. This was taken just after I finished spraying. The gloss tones down significantly once it dries.

[TJ's Chevy]

VERY nice!

[Ta2Don]

Sweet!

[dwcardfan]

Looking good!

[Bomp]

Wow, making major progress.

[racecougar]

Thanks everybody!

Look what's sitting on four tires for the first time in 18 months. Excuse the poor photo quality and the fact that the door isn't closed (new door seal and no latch installed yet).

Shot another coat of primer on the inside of the passenger door today, too.

[racecougar]

Installed the rear window on the cab, then shot the first coat of black on the inside of the passenger door today.

[Ta2Don]

Rolling forward!!!

[racecougar]

Another day, another coat...in 98* (112* heat index) weather, and with the lighting in that part of the shop not working. :/

[Ta2Don]

I feel ya about the heat!!! We had the same temps today...

[roOstersan]

This is a great build thread... Nice work racecougar! I'll follow along

[msg]

Looking great! Hoping to get there myself one day.

[racecougar]

Thanks guys!

After replacing a light fixture and a few bulbs in the shop, we blocked the outside of the passenger door and threw another coat of primer on it this morning.

[racecougar]

Swung by the shop early this morning and shot the first coat of paint on the passenger door.

[racecougar]

Just shot coat number dos.

[racecougar]

Thanks to this hair landing in the last coat, I went back to the shop today, sanded the door, swept the shop, used a new gun, wore a welding hat, blew any dust/loose hairs off my arms/shirt/etc, and shot another coat...during which, a hair fell off my arm and into the paint. Livid doesn't begin to describe my mood at the moment.

[racecougar]

Another aggravating day over at the shop. We started looking at/disassembling the steering columns to see what parts we'll use, what we need to get, etc., but I need to do some research. We're trying to use a '72 auto column with parts from the original '65 manual column, to eventually operate a cable shift 4L80E. Not exactly sure how that is all going to work yet.

After setting that aside, we were going to put the door strikers on the cab, however a hour long search of the entire shop proved fruitless.

All said and done, about all that was really accomplished today was the installation of the driverside door limiter, and even that isn't totally complete. :/

[racecougar]

Fourth times a charm? Hopefully. We split it along the chrome trim and just shot the bottom half, as the top half looked great. I don't see any hairs in this coat.

[Captainfab]

That looks familiar

Originally Posted by racecougar

Dad whipped up a backing plate for the power steering box today...

[racecougar]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

That looks familiar

It oughta.

Good news all around today. Dad scored some 15x7's in 5x5 that match the rear 15x10's. He mounted a pair of tires from one of my parts cars on them, and we stuck them on the truck today. We also installed the passenger side door, found the door striker plates right where they belonged in a box in the back room (not sure how we missed them before) and bolted them onto the cab, and I probably chased paint out of the threads of 100 holes.

[dwcardfan]

Looking good!!!

[Ta2Don]

Looking great… all that work will pay off in the end...