49 GMC Five Window

[e015475]

Well after two years and about 600 hours of hard labor, I'm out of paint prison!

Rolled the truck into a rented paint booth last Thursday and painted it Friday. A local body shop in Mesa, G5, rents their booth. It's about 40' long, which let us paint the cab on the truck and the bed in pieces all at the same time. Chris, the owner at G5, says it was built with the idea of painting buses, but seemed ideal for what we wanted to accomplish. Chris and the folks at G5 were very easy to work with and very helpful. This photo taken about 5am on paint day. Still have the same old crappy phone - please forgive the 'artifacts' in the pictures.


Here's the truck in the booth with the bed hanging from every stand we could find, including a couple of step ladders to hang the bed sides with a piece of conduit through the rolled edge.

Another view-

We sprayed from about 8 am to about 5 pm with an hour off for lunch (thanks Whataburger for keeping your AC at 72F, but you need to work on keeping your iced tea dispenser full). Three coats of base followed by three coats of clear. The truck had been done about two weeks prior, but temperatures in Phoenix were bumping 120F in the mid afternoon, so we waited for the weather to cool off a little to 110F (it wasn't much, but it did make a difference). When we started spraying in the morning it was in the high 70s, but in the middle of the afternoon it hit about 110F. You've not lived until you've been trapped in a metal box in the middle of Arizona in the summer! My guess was it was about 120F in the booth most of the afternoon. I can't recall a time where I drank more and peed less. Wyatt, my body guy, sprayed while I mixed paint, moved the step ladder so he could reach the roof center and kept the air hose from getting tangled. Wyatt started at one end of the booth and by the time he got to the other end, it was time to start the next coat. It was brutal. We used the slowest reducer possible but there is still a hint of orange-peel, but since it will be cut and buffed anyway, it is fine. The new Iwata gun was fabulous - the paint gravity feeds from a bladder and will spray at any angle. Very easy to keep it loaded with paint - no drips or spills. Controlling sweat dripping onto the panels was our biggest problem.

Can't say enough good things about Wyatt's (Tichenor Coach Works in Mesa) ability, attention to detail and consistency. Highly recommended.

Here's the truck un-masked but still in the booth-


And the rest of the parts...........

Took about six trips to get everything back home - didn't want to damage anything. Here it is back in the shop at home.

I didn't want to risk damaging any paint, so I've stored the painted parts in the living room. My wife is a very understanding and patient woman. The only comment so far, with just a hint of sarcasm, was "I really like how you've redecorated my house.' The hood will have to be color sanded and buffed before it can be reinstalled, so that's the next priority. Need to finish the gas tank install and hang the rear shocks before I can assemble the bed on the truck. Worried a little about grand kids in the house - thinking abut some police barricade tape, but that might push the wife over the edge!

If it ever gets cool enough to turn the air off and open the door, here's what the neighbors will see from the street at night.

Never get tired of looking at the engine bay.........

I'm going to take a break from the truck for a week or so. Monsoon season is just about here, and the humidity will make it pretty uncomfortable in the afternoon in Wyatt's shop in a week or two and I should be able to convince him to come help me cut and buff the truck in the air conditioned shop in the afternoons.

Was puttering around at Wyatt's waiting for the temps to drop for the booth and had the doors of my wife's MG TD blasted and found this. Wyatt is teaching me how to make a new door skins on the English wheel so I think I'll work on the MG for a week or two then jump back on the truck.


With regards, Phil

[joedoh]

gorgeous!

[mongocanfly]

Absolutely agree^^^^...colors look great...always feels good when you get this close

curious though..do the rear tires need swapped side to side...from what I see they look directional..

[Advanced Design]

You are doing great work and the truck is coming out very nice. Impressively large paint booth there too!

[e015475]

Good catch Mongo. Will reverse them

[mongocanfly]

I'm liking the seat foam mods...

[iowaboynca]

I just realized that your rotors are right next to the diff...interesting. gotta love british engineering, always a different approach to things.

Man I want to try a C4/IRS install on a project...they just look so cool!

[e015475]

I'd read somewhere that the Jag IRS is an American design the Brits bought and at one time in the 1960s it was even considered for the Mustang. It is basically a Dana 44 differential.

It seems that every proper hot rod plastic kit I built when I was a kid and a lot of the custom cars in the magazines had a Jag IRS. Nowadays there's a lot better rear end solutions out there than the Jag, but for me it is all about the nostalgia.

The inboard discs were all about reducing the unsprung weight at the wheels. but I'd heard they'd actually moved them outboard in racing applications because of the heat load on the diff. The later production versions of this IRS actually have the discs outboard. On the inboard design, the heat eventually cooks the output seal and it leaks.

More to come on the seats as I get the riser installed and the seat fitted so I can see where I'm at.

[e015475]

Finally got the seats in for the trial fit of the foam.

Here's the support for the seat welded into the cab. The middle of the seat riser was pretty badly rusted so I cut it out so I can slide stuff under the seat. Thinking about making a door to cover it up.



Here's the front of the seat- it's 6" tall including the wood base

[IMG][/IMG]

The bottom cushion slopes back to 4.5" at the back



The back cushion has 2" of hard foam at the bottom that tapers to nothing at the top



Both the bottom and the back cushion will get additional soft foam. The bottom cushion will get 1" and the back will get 2"
I'm 6'3" and about 240 pounds and here's a picture of my torso in the truck - this is with 2" of soft foam in the back cushion. I couldn't feel anything hard at my shoulder blades with 2" of the soft foam on the back cushion

With the door closed, the height of the seat seems right. I have a pretty large steering wheel from a '59 Eldorado Cadillac and belly clearance wasn't a problem. No tilt wheel just a straight column.

Installed the Camaro gas tank after fabing some straps out of 18g sheet stock
Filler neck will be under the license plate on the roll pan

Snagged this emergency brake handle at the local forklift junkyard. Will try to extend handle another 6" or so to get it looking a little more proportional to the gearshift lever and mount it on the floor next to the shift lever. Should I have any safety concerns about an emergency brake lever that just goes over-center to engage the emergency brake?



Finished up the metal work on the grill slats and polished them to make sure i had all the tool marks out of them before they go to the chrome plater this week. (propped up on a cheap HF flashlight to show the reflection from the fluorescent lights) I bumped out the dents with a hammer and dolly, sanded them with 180 grit, then 320 grit and finished them with the buffer.



Wyatt's polishing lathe is a beast and commands respect.



My luck with chrome shops runs hot and cold, so this time I decided I'd prep my chromed parts myself. Wyatt recently had some work done at the shop I'm going to take the '49 grill to, and it turned out decent for what he had to work with. My hope is that if I give him my grill nearly ready to plate, he'll expend the hours he'd normally spend just straightening it in making it perfect. I talked to the plater and he was good with any prep work I wanted to do before bringing the grill into his shop. Fingers crossed.



I don't want to spend the time to get every square inch of the grill perfect, so I'm planning a trial fit to make sure I've got good metalwork everywhere you can see as you approach the truck. Color sanding the grill surround and installing tomorrow so I can trial fit the grill before it goes to the chrome shop.

Regards, Phil

[oldman3]

That's going to be one slick ride...Jim

[ChuckDriver]

Looking good!

[e015475]

So where was I? Oh yea.

Sold my 1980s GM truck seat a couple of months ago after the wife had a hissy fit about the upholstery I'd selected. Had to admit I didn't much care for the workmanship or materials selection either.

Decided to go back to original but with foam instead of springs. Here's the seat frame with birch plywood installed to accept the foam. Upholsterer called today and said the first attempt at seat foam is ready to try (he's done this many times but wants me to try it to see if its comfortable for me)

Hung the Jag diff for what I hope is the last time. Shimmed the rotors to center in the calipers and filled the thing with gear oil. Plugged the hole in the cover with a slug of aluminum held in with JB weld and hope this doesn't turn around a bite me.

Had the shortened half shafts welded and balanced after I verified I could shim them for correct camber.

Built some radius rods to plant the Jag IRS - salvaged from a sandrail upgrade five years ago - don't ever throw anything away!

Decided not to use hood springs so I needed a prop rod. Made this out of chromolly scraps. Truck is being cut and buffed - almost done but I need the rear end together so I can hang the bed

Had a nice painted grill I was going to have plated, so I took it apart and sent it to the stripper. Came back with copper strike on it so now I'm wondering if it was a painted grill to begin with. In any event, history tells me that the more prep I put into the parts before I send them to be plated, the better they turn out, so I'm bumping the grill parts with a hammer and dolly and filing the part to get them as perfect as I can. Here's some tooling marks in one of the slats. The brown stuff is copper and shows the low spots.

Here it is after bumping and filing

Another eight or so hours to finish them all

That's about it for now. Will report how the seat foam turned out next time

[joedoh]

this is looking amazing, your patience is enviable.

[e015475]

Well I'm running out of money, so patience will have to do!

[oldman3]

Nice update, truck is looking great...Jim

[LEEVON]

Nice build! I just did the same exact thing with my 50 seat, very happy with the results. Only complaint is that it's pretty upright, thats more inherent to the frame though. I'll put some updated pics in my "popeye" build thread.

[joedoh]

that polisher is a beast!

[e015475]

Got the grill slats and uprights back from the plater. The results were top-shelf -Thanks Pete! (Diversified Metals in Phoenix)

Here's the slats and end pieces


The GMC logo front badge


Assembled with some stainless #10 screws and loosely mounted into the truck


Another view


There's only two body parts that are reproductions on this truck - the side aprons between the running boards and the bed, and the inner fenders. Both have been a pain in the a$$. The passenger inner fender has the mount holes for the grill, but the passenger doesn't, so I have to pull the grill off again and drill them, and I hate drilling on freshly painted parts.

Rant over, but to anybody reading this and contemplating repop body parts, do whatever you have to for obtaining originals.

Weather here in Phoenix is gorgeous now. More shop time with the door open to the fresh air.

Phil

[e015475]

The color sanding and buffing is finally done and I'm starting assembly. The bed is on and I'm planning on hanging the rear fenders this afternoon. The running boards went out yesterday to get bed liner sprayed on the treads.

I should be able to push it out onto the driveway in a couple of days and get some photos of it to post. (my wife is complaining about all the dust from sanding and buffing that gets tracked into the house, so it will be nice to have it out of the shop to clean the floor)

I took advantage of some of the Black Friday sales and ordered the glass, instruments, radio, Newport wiper motor, bumper, RnD radiator and a bunch of other stuff. I also ordered upholstery samples so I can finalize the interior materials selection.

I've only been working on the truck a couple of days a week since July, but now that the paint job is nearly done and I have lots of parts, progress should accelerate. Will post more photos soon.

Phil

[e015475]

I also have a build blog over on the talk,classicparts forum. It is a couple of iterations ahead of what I usually post here.

If you're interested you can check it out here-

https://talk.classicparts.com/thread....22045/page-10

Phil

[joedoh]

thanks for the link!

[e015475]

Here's an update.............

Rolled the truck out of the shop to do a little cleanup after the color sand. Still needs a little adjustment and I'm not comfortable pulling the hood all the way into the latch yet.


Installed green welt that seemed to match the paint color well - picked up out
door vinyl at the local fabric store and had it sewn into welt


Put the running boards on and they seem to fit ok. Had the treads done in bed liner - we'll see how that works out.


Was going to make a front apron, but went ahead and bought a repro. Spent a couple hours getting it flat and will have to reweld some of the tabs, but I suppose it is quicker than building one.


Grafted a 30 ohm sender to my Camaro gas tank pickup tube so my original style gas gauge will read correctly. Will flare the pickup tube in -6 AN to tie into my fuel system.


I'm very attracted to shinny objects (they say this is because of human's innate attraction to water, but I'm pretty sure it is bourbon on ice with me) Here's some shinny stuff........


Installed a new stainless hood strip.....another hour of rework to get it to fit (was an inch too long) and a trip to the hardware store to buy a metric nut to fit the mounting stud. (it shouldn't be metric, but if it is, why not throw a metric nut in the box with the part?)



Starting to think about what to do with the interior. I have a 57-58 Cadillac steering wheel and column I'm going to use. The steering wheel was pretty cracked, having seen the Arizona sun for many years. I epoxied it back together, but I think I'll be chasing cracks forever on the rim of the wheel. Since it is so skinny anyway, I thought I'd wrap the rim in leather then select the rest of the interior colors to compliment it. Got these samples but don't really like any of them. Going to build a factory radio 'facade' for the dash to fill the hole - the stereo system will use a tablet or phone for a head unit.


Here's the rebuilt gauges in the dash.


Next step is to get the linkage all working with the bear claw door latches. Looks like the only way to get the door locks to work with the bear claws is to convert to electric actuators. I'm working on a scheme to be able to unlock both the doors with the key on the passenger side or from a key fob. Waiting for the brown truck to come with my electric lock actuators.

Best wishes for 2018

Phil

[Advanced Design]

Beautiful! Gauges came out nice too.

[mongocanfly]

agreed with Doug. ...gauges are sweet...I also like that fenderwelt..that turned out nice...

[lower50's]

Boy you have done an amazing job!!! The IFS/IRS on bags should ride like it's on a cloud. I bet your getting excited to drive it. I see your sand rail has KING shocks any pictures of it? What year MGTD does your wife have? This is my dads that I inherited last summer. Keep up the good work.