'65 Chevy C10 Long Fleet Retrospective Build Thread

[theastronaut]

Thanks guys!

CVA59, I've driven it three times and it's not that bad, although I'm used to driving a classic car daily so I'm always on my toes anyways.

Here's some more details.

Polishing the bumper and splash pan bolts. Chucked the bolts in a drill to smooth them out. Held the drill (running) against a pnumatic grinder with a 120 grit flap wheel to rough shape the bolt and get the imperfections out.




After grinding.


Moved up to a 320 grit flap wheel, same process.


Switched to wetsanding (still chucked in the drill) using a soft sanding pad with 500 grit wetordry paper. Starting to get a hazy shine.



First step on the buffer using green (i think?) compound. Almost there.



After buffing with white compound, hand polishing with Wenol metal polish, and installing it on the bumper.


License plate bracket installed. Still needs to be spaced down.


Bracket adjusted and wired, tag installed.


Final buffing and cleaning.


Hood finished up.


A few random parts installed:



The wrong mirror base gasket came in with no time to order another before it's first car show so I had to put the mirror on without it.



Door jamb plugs.


Had to take the steering column back apart to fix the turn signal contacts in the new switch.

[aggie91]

This is amazing work. Are you doing all of it in your garage including the painting? Truely amazing!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by aggie91

This is amazing work. Are you doing all of it in your garage including the painting? Truely amazing!

Thanks! I painted the outside outside of the cab and the bed in a friends paint booth, the rest of it was sprayed in our shop after I built an air dryer for our air lines. I've got a single stall in the back of our shop that I work out of. Kinda cramped but it works for now.
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[firenuttz]

i cant even begin to grasp the amount of awesome work done on this truck, you sir have a true vision

[fryer1979]

That is absolutely outstanding work! Hard to believe this is your first restoration, your attention to detail, and tenacity for perfection rivals those who have done this for years. For my own vehicles I've never been a back to stock kind of guy, but I really enjoy seeing them done like this, and really enjoyed reading through your thread here. I can't wait to see more pictures as you get this project wrapped up, and I will bet the owners are floored at the final project (I know I can barely believe what I am seeing). Again, congrats on a job superbly done. If you think about it and have the time, please pots up some of your other projects in the "Alternative Tinkerings" section here, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to watch other vehicles get similar treatment.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by fryer1979

That is absolutely outstanding work! Hard to believe this is your first restoration, your attention to detail, and tenacity for perfection rivals those who have done this for years. For my own vehicles I've never been a back to stock kind of guy, but I really enjoy seeing them done like this, and really enjoyed reading through your thread here. I can't wait to see more pictures as you get this project wrapped up, and I will bet the owners are floored at the final project (I know I can barely believe what I am seeing). Again, congrats on a job superbly done. If you think about it and have the time, please pots up some of your other projects in the "Alternative Tinkerings" section here, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to watch other vehicles get similar treatment.

Thanks! I'm currently working on a 1955 International and will post the progress on it over there as time allows.


Here's a few pics of the truck outside for the first time, and driving it to it's first show. I'll have to get some more pictures of it next time we take it to a show for the owners as these are all I have of it finished.

Couple shots of the interior almost finished. Stayed at the shop every night for a week til 10pm working to get it ready for it's first show. Stayed up til 3:30am Saturday morning doing the final detail. Went home, slept til 6:30 and went back to the shop to drive it to the show. Longest week of my life!








The owner and me, holding a best in class trophy.

[yote1234]

awsome detail. you do great work . you will be very busy!!!

[theastronaut]

I came across this shot of the truck when I was on Facebook today while looking through an album of our local Downtown Father's Day Car Show.

[198plus]

Absolutely some of the nicest work I have seen.......I'm really impressed.

You should be proud !!!!!!!

[MBEXHAUST]

Very nice work.

MB

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by 198plus

Absolutely some of the nicest work I have seen.......I'm really impressed.

You should be proud !!!!!!!

Originally Posted by MBEXHAUST

Very nice work.

MB

Originally Posted by shrunken66stroker

Sick detail on this one. I hope I have the patience to come close on mine. Great job!

Thank you guys!! Shruken, you definitly have the ability!


1965 again?

[shrunken66stroker]

Sick detail on this one. I hope I have the patience to come close on mine. Great job!

[theastronaut]

If anybody is interested, here's a few links to the albums on facebook that I used to keep up with progress on the '65 as I worked on it. There's about 520 pics total, alot of them are ones I posted here though so you'll see some duplicates.

Part 1:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...0c0bd74&type=1

Part 2:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...144d6ae&type=1

Part 3:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...7c3bbab&type=1

[dean jendro]

WOW!!
Nice work my friend. Thank you for all the beautiful detail in your build pictures. I will be able to reference many of them in my rebuild process.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by dean jendro

WOW!!
Nice work my friend. Thank you for all the beautiful detail in your build pictures. I will be able to reference many of them in my rebuild process.

Thanks! Glad the pics will be a help to you!

Originally Posted by litew8

Awesome work This thread hasn't recieved nearly enough attention considering you and your father's attention to detail! Also, not sure if there is a correlation between your fender emblems not aligning straight - but, on 71' C10's, the passenger's side emblems were crooked from the factory. This is how a person can distinguish an original over an aftermarket. Must have been the stamping at the factory. Keep up the good work and future success!

Well, considering that the fender extensions were cut up (about a dozen cuts) and reshaped to fit better, it didn't suprise me that the emblems didn't sit exactly level. That's a neat detail about 71's that I'd never heard, I'll have to look out for that at car shows!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

AMAZING DETAIL ON THE BUILD...This has got to be one of the finest stock restos I have ever seen..

[Alan's Classic]

Crazy detail. You set the bar really high.

[Iron-Butt]

looks like the bar was set really high. Great work and a very nice truck.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

AMAZING DETAIL ON THE BUILD...This has got to be one of the finest stock restos I have ever seen..

Originally Posted by Alan's Classic

Crazy detail. You set the bar really high.

Originally Posted by Iron-Butt

looks like the bar was set really high. Great work and a very nice truck.

Thanks alot guys!!


I spoke with the owner of the truck last week and they may be forced to sell the truck sometime next year. I'd really hate to see them have to let it go after keeping it in the family since it was only a year old, and being their dad's truck, and their son's first car, and all the stories and memories tied to it. As much as I'd like to own it, there's no way I'd be able to afford to buy it from them to keep it close to home and make sure the truck is kept up like it should be. I'd hate to see it sold and somebody modify it from the way it is, or go somewhere far off and never see it again. After spending many thousands of hours and ~5 years (I'm 24 so that's 1/5 of my life!) working on restoring it, I've got kind of attached to it!

[MalibuKasey]

that would be a horrible horrible thing.

[McMurphy]

Just read this post.
I am both happy and sad to read this took 5 years. Sad that it is such a large part of your life spent on it and then they may end up selling it... but happy because I know I can slow down and be patient with mine (that I just started)

I only get 2 ~maybe~ 3 years to work on mine depending on where I get posted after this duty station.
Awesome awesome work, congratulations!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Just read this post.
I am both happy and sad to read this took 5 years. Sad that it is such a large part of your life spent on it and then they may end up selling it... but happy because I know I can slow down and be patient with mine (that I just started)

I only get 2 ~maybe~ 3 years to work on mine depending on where I get posted after this duty station.
Awesome awesome work, congratulations!

The five year time frame was from the start date to the time it was completed and not the actual amount of time I spent working on it. It took that long because I learned as I went, I was also in tech full time for the first two years of the restoration, and the owners had health issues arise later on and needed to take a break in the restoration that lasted a year. I would think that it would still take well over a year working full time to bring another truck to that level of restoration. Even once a body is painted and back on the restored frame, it takes a ton of time to get all of the parts detailed to a high enough level of quality to be able to install them. If the parts aren't available as reproductions, you have to search for original parts or make it yourself, as seen with the kick panel tag and rear bumper splash pans on this truck.

It took me a solid half week to figure out how to reproduce the body tag and nail down the process once I found what I needed to make it. And after making the first one and installing it, it got wet and the graphics streaked so I had to come up with another one and make it more durable. Finding the rivets to attach it took quite a few hours of driving around, searching the local fastener shops (had to order it-more waiting), and then finding the correct longer mandrel for the nut-sert tool because of the deeper depth of the threads in the riv-nut. I could have used shorter depth riv-nuts but the threads would have been visible and not have looked as correct. Of course there's no way I could have charged for all of that time and still have a clear conscience, so I only charged for the time it took to make the second tag and install it; about an hour. You don't make any money money that way, but I wouldn't feel right charging for nearly a whole week to research, make, and install a kick panel tag. And it would have driven me crazy to leave the old faded tag on there since it wouldn't be up to the standard of the rest of the truck. Maybe one day I'll start making and selling them to recoop some of the money I didn't make during the time it took to figure the process out.

The rough draft of the repro graphics and the original faded tag.




The first tag.



The second tag.




I hope that explains a little bit of the reason projects like these can take so long.


.

[SFTorange]

Now I just need to talk you into building an id plate for me!

Looks great.

[propanemudtruck]

I read this whole post, from a link from your targa top camaro to the other camaro site link back to here! All your work is top notch and you're the most honest and fair professional I've read about or seen in this industry. Nice work!

[Dustin07]

Originally Posted by SFTorange

Now I just need to talk you into building an id plate for me!

Looks great.

I was just thinking that as well. maybe you won't make money off that first one you sold for THIS truck, but now you have as skill that many here may be willing to pay you for that hopefully will be easier to reproduce
You did amazing work with this truck, definitely very inspirational. thanks for sharing-