"Crewcab Jake" the 84 to 74 conversion

[N2TRUX]

With all the components cleaned, lubes, painted, and modified it's time for the next step.
I will drop these off with Jaimie Villalobos at Cypress Upholstery to have the webbing replaced. We found a color that will closely match my interior pieces.
Once hes done I will add texture to the housings where necessary and dye to match

[Low Elco]

Great lookin' cleanup work! Go Ken Go! Is Jake gonna stay flat, or is he gonna Get shiny one day?

[Crcrft78]

Out of curiosity, does the yellow or blue on the seatbelts stand for anything? DS or PS...?

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Great lookin' cleanup work! Go Ken Go! Is Jake gonna stay flat, or is he gonna Get shiny one day?

Thanks. Hes come a long way, but we have so very far to go. That includes a lot of bodywork that needs to be done. Until then, he stay satin . Eventually he will have a glossy coat. I'll speculate that to be around next February.

Originally Posted by Crcrft78

Out of curiosity, does the yellow or blue on the seatbelts stand for anything? DS or PS...?

There is an L and R stamped on the brackets, but I'm not sure if the colors have a significance or not.

[N2TRUX]

I dropped the seatbelts and door panel inserts off at Cypress Upholstery for Jaime to work his magic.
While I was out, the weather shifted and a rain storm blew in. Consequently my plans to primer the plastic went away. The dye is really sensitive to humid conditions and I don't want to risk paint blush.

[N2TRUX]

In the interim I needed a project so I shifted my attention to the bumper I recently bought. I ran across a deal on a new but no longer needed rear bumper.

[N2TRUX]

I took a moment to mock up the license plate box. I had previously located a set of nuts and bolts for the box, light, and plate. I wanted to mount the assembly in place and check on bolt length.

I found a couple that needed trimming so I placed a flat washer over them a cut them with a cut off wheel.

[N2TRUX]

With the plate box and license plate mounted up I did a final check before tearing down for paint. I scuffed the powder coating with Scotch Brite and wiped it with brake cleaner before paint

[N2TRUX]

In the past I have painted the box bright silver. I decided to keep it satin black for now to tie in with the satin sheen on the truck. A couple of coats of Krylon and it was good to go.

[Wikid61]

The black will allow the tag's silver to stand out more, almost floating alone for a 3-D look. On a side note I see these 2x4's made into stands both of make shift work bench & under the truck's wheels. What are their lengths? Thank-you.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by Wikid61

The black will allow the tag's silver to stand out more, almost floating alone for a 3-D look. On a side note I see these 2x4's made into stands both of make shift work bench & under the truck's wheels. What are their lengths? Thank-you.

I have always sprayed the box bright silver to emulate the factory look. This time i decided to stay satin black. I'll try it for a while to see if I like it.

The wheel stand was my first attempt. I will have to check the length since its been a while since I built it.

[N2TRUX]

While the box was curing I went to work on the back of the bumper. Yeah I know its a bit anal, but I really hate how the back side of the bumper looks after it's been in the weather. The thin areas of plating quickly discolor and are prone to rust.
To prevent that from happening I clean the surface thoroughly and scuff it down with a fresh pad of green Scotch Brite.

[N2TRUX]

After another wipe down and a blast of air to clean up debris. This was followed by a few layers of primer. I'll let this cure over night before scuffing again

[N2TRUX]

Tonight Chris came over and gave me a hand hanging the rear bumper. I have never had a rear bumper installed since I owned the truck but I had a feeling it might not be a bolt on deal.

[N2TRUX]

Due to the short bed conversion the brackets didn't exactly fall in to place. Its positioned a bit to high, and needs to tuck in but the leaf spring hanger are preventing that. We moved it around a bit and locked the brackets down

[N2TRUX]

We hung the bumper and played with the position a bit more. We got it as close as we could for now. When we get back from C10 Nationals the frame rails will be stripped again to hand the Ridetech 4 link with coilover. We will make necessary adjustments and get the position correct at that point.

[N2TRUX]

I pulled the bumper off of the brackets and set it aside. I scuffed the brackets and hit them with a couple coats of Krylon to cover our install scratches.

I flipped the bumper over and scuffed it down again. It got several coats of bright aluminum paint and left to dry.

[Dads79GMC]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

I pulled the bumper off of the brackets and set it aside. I scuffed the brackets and hit them with a couple coats of Krylon to cover our install scratches.

I flipped the bumper over and scuffed it down again. It got several coats of bright aluminum paint and left to dry.

Probably a good idea there. I may have to do this myself.
Mike

[N2TRUX]

It's been a hectic week so let's get caught up. I needed a set of bumper bolts to hang the bumper, so I ordered a set from Summit Racing. Turns out they were wrong so I bought a set locally at Outback Truck parts.

They had what I needed, but I wasnt satisfied with the full finish. I spent some time polish the heads. While I was at it I did the same for the plate box bolts.

[N2TRUX]

With the bolt heads polished I could do final assembly on the bumper. I bolted the license plate to the box, then put the box in place with the new bolts.

[N2TRUX]

Chris came by and helped me hang the bumper. Once we got it squarely in place I installed one of my tailgate bands to see how it looked. I started with the narrow Cheyenne band to see if I liked it now that the bumper was on.

[N2TRUX]

It seemed a bit to plain with the sidemolding to enhance it. I decided to put the early Silverado band on see which one I liked best.

[N2TRUX]

So I'm still undecided which band to run for this show. No matter what, the final decision wont be made till I put the trim on. Until then which one do you prefer?
Top or bottom?

[N2TRUX]

Another view

[Wikid61]

The large insert overpowers the area. Small band is subtle.