"BUILD: 1970 C10 LWB--->SWB “Jumping Cholla”

[Shifty One]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

And never let go! Needle nose pliers work best to remove them.

Or have a friend that is an absolute magnet lead the way, and clear them out for ya!

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

And never let go! Needle nose pliers work best to remove them.

After a lifetime living in the AZ desert and 20+ years of mountain biking, I have actually found either a fork or a metal comb to be essential in getting cholla out! I hate that plant and wish it could be totally erradicated from the face of the planet! LOL

In all seriousness, Scott you are doing a fantastic job and at a record pace! That is going to be one sexy truck when you are done!



Clay

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Chaparralman1974

After a lifetime living in the AZ desert and 20+ years of mountain biking, I have actually found either a fork or a metal comb to be essential in getting cholla out! I hate that plant and wish it could be totally erradicated from the face of the planet! LOL

In all seriousness, Scott you are doing a fantastic job and at a record pace! That is going to be one sexy truck when you are done!
Clay

Thanks, Clay! Progress has slowed a bit the last month, but I'm getting ready to jump back in and make some more progress.

[rodstored-72]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Thanks, Clay! Progress has slowed a bit the last month, but I'm getting ready to jump back in and make some more progress.

LOL!! I see what you did there! ... agree nice progress!

[Stickman]

LOL , cholla, hate it and great work by the way.

[Tip70]

Nice work! Trucks turning out great!

[loudchevy]

Progress is slowly moving along. The holiday season is definitely taking up garage time and I've been NOT looking forward to cleaning the cab up and getting the last bit of 50 year old crud off the C10. My 700R4 (snowman) is back in my garage with its new 2wd output and a fresh rebuild with all the goodies. I was just going to get the builder to swap outputs but he tore it open and found a few things to upgrade so might as well do it now than later.

First thing I wanted to do was build a new cab stand to replace the quick and easy wood cart I built a few months ago to work on the rockers. This version is made of some 2" square tube and bolts to the cab mounts. It's much more stout than the wood version. I left an extra foot on the end rails so I could lift the front firewall and use the rails as a pivot to stand the cab upright to gain access the the bottom of the cab. With this new stand I can rotate the whole cab 90 degrees by myself. I just throw 2 pallets on the ground and tilt it back. Worked out perfectly.

I started scraping junk off the bottom yesterday and got a decent amount done and cleaned up. I only took a pic of the results of the first 20 mins of scrapping. In some spots the crud was 1/4" thick.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Tip70

Nice work! Trucks turning out great!

Thanks!

[loudchevy]

Slow moving the last month or so on the C10. Been stripping old paint from the cab, core support, and wheel wells. It a slow dirty process using a SCT and a hand grinder. I got the majority of the cab, core, and wells cleaned up. I didn't remove all the interior paint on the rear cab and ceiling. It's really not in terrible shape so I might just sand it and spray my primer over it. All the other smaller and hard to reach areas of the parts will be cleaned up with a sand blaster. Overall there is zero to no rust on the cab (all of the rust was removed when I did the rockers and adjacent floor). I plan on spraying this myself (it will be my first paint job) and I wanted to get the wheel wells cleaned up so I use those as practice before spraying the cab. Once primed, I'm gonna hit the under cab with some Raptorliner. I saw Chaparralman1974's cab with the raptor sprayed on and it looked great so I'm going to run with it as well. After cleaning up the core support, I removed the "pinch" folds on the top rail of the support. I cut some of the material out and hammered down the pinch for a nice clean look. I hope to get the cab in primer/raptor by the end of the month.

[loudchevy]

Here is a couple pics of the cab.

[clay68c10]

Nice work. My hands get tired just looking at those pics. That is a tough job.
I may do the core support pinch smoothing too.

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by clay68c10

Nice work. My hands get tired just looking at those pics. That is a tough job.
I may do the core support pinch smoothing too.

Thanks, those pics contain hours and hours of work.

The core support shave was super simple. I always hated seeing those pinches on the top rail when looking under the hood of these trucks.

[raggedjim]

Nice work, I have a core support that I want to remove those from also. I'm also thinking about lowering the support ribs in the front to allow me to use a filler panel between the support and grill.

[Stickman]

Nice work, makes my back hurt looking at some of the pics !

[loudchevy]

Progress update....Spent the last 2 weekends stripping body panels and parts. Last weekend I started on the front quarter panels and cowl. I picked up Harbor Freight's sandblaster to get all the hard to reach areas that my 4.5" stripping disc and wire wheel couldn't get. It actually worked very well. I used the fine media from Tractor Supply after putting it all through a strainer to remove some of the larger chucks to not clog the nozzle. I got the wheel wells, cowl, and the fenders all stripped and then spent hours sanding those and the core support to get ready for some Epoxy primer. I plugged the antenna hole and some 16 other screws holes that he PO had put in the sides of the cowl (I think they had dual CB antennas mounted, but that is just a guess). I also filled the holes for the trim molding on the front fenders. I'm not a fan of trim molding on my trucks, I always rip them off when I get a new truck. I actually have all the pieces for this C10, but they're all beat up, dented, scratched and the black paint is faded. I also got the seat sliders, hood hinges, and front core/grill brackets blasted and cleaned up too.

The cab still needs more work. I have some areas to still clean up, holes to fill weld, and sanding lots of sanding.

[Chaparralman1974]

The truck is looking great Scott! I am looking forward to seeing it in person. Are you going to raptor line the inner wheel wells? I am thinking about doing that on mine.


Clay

[loudchevy]

After spending Friday night and all day Saturday cleaning parts, Sunday (yesterday) was time to prime. I had never used a paint spray gun before so this is my first attempt at painting. I'm not gonna lie I was pretty nervous about it. My wife had a good point while I was telling her this, she said "If you mess it up, just strip it all down again LOL" I started out with the wheel wells to "practice". I am using the A610 LVLP spray gun. I've watched hours of YT videos of people using this LVLP gun with success, so I figured I would try it before I dropped a ton of money on a HVLP gun. I was really surprised how easy the process way. First coat went on wheel wells great! I gave it 30 mins of flash time and applied the second coat. I think I didn't add enough hardener to the mix, because the second coat on the outside of the wells took forever to dry. While I waited for the outside of the wells to dry, I got the core support covered in 2 coats, making sure to add just a little extra hardener in those mixes. The core dried faster than the wells. Overall I was super happy with how the 3 pieces came out and it gave me the confidence to continue learning the new skill of painting. I burned through 2 quarts of the Eastwood Epoxy for just these 3 parts. More epoxy is on the way!

Next parts to paint will be the fenders and cowl. Then I'll do the cab. I wanted some easy practice pieces before doing the cab. I know it will be a challenge to paint with all the surfaces in different planes

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Chaparralman1974

The truck is looking great Scott! I am looking forward to seeing it in person. Are you going to raptor line the inner wheel wells? I am thinking about doing that on mine.
Clay

Thanks Clay!
Yes, I was hoping to get the raptor sprayed on the inners yesterday, but the outside of the wells took to long to dry and I ran out of time.

[MySons68C20]

Looking great very nice work!!

[Shifty One]

Excellent! Lesson: Don't fear the paint gun!

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by MySons68C20

Looking great very nice work!!

Thanks!

[loudchevy]

Originally Posted by Shifty One

Excellent! Lesson: Don't fear the paint gun!

Not anymore. Grip it and rip it

[Shifty One]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Not anymore. Grip it and rip it

Hell yeah!

[nicklear36]

That's a lot of paint stripping Great work

[loudchevy]

Tons of progress the last few weeks. This past weekend was a great feeling of accomplishment. Along with the wheel wells and core support, I now have the front fenders, cowl, and cab in epoxy primer. The bottom of the cab still needs primer and Raptor liner, but that will have to wait until next weekend. It was a pretty good feeling enjoying a few beers in the garage staring at the grey cab. I still need to strip the hood and both doors, but I'm pretty happy right now. The cab and fenders are really straight pieces. The primer definitely shows where the dings are in the sheet metal but the 50 year old steel is in very good condition. Hopefully it all comes back together with minimal filler.