Harold's '48 S10 LS1 Build

[Tikal48]

I spent the weekend working on some odds and ends. I primed the glove box door and door hinges. I installed it and checked the fit. The left hinge needs to be adjusted or shortened by at least 1/8".

[99 to Life]

I'm not usually a shaved kinda guy, but you did a good job on glove box. outta the million I've seen in person or have, they all have some form of flaw to them and need work. So odds are you didn't skin a perfect box cover anyway.

[Tikal48]

While I was painting, I decided the check out the paint colors that I was planning to use. I cleaned up the coils and prepped them with Plastic Adhesion Promoter. I primed them with an epoxy primer and then painted them with a silver base. The coils we then painted with Eastwood Candeez Violet, which is what I am planning for the exterior truck color, and engine block. The coil brackets were painted with the Candeez Gold. I was planning on doing some of the motor accents with it.

[Tikal48]

I shaved the throttle and choke bosses, and finished welding the holes for the steering column. I went ahead and roughed the radio opening out. I spent some time adjusting the glove box hinges to tighten up the bottom gap.

[Tikal48]

I spent some time working on the firewall. I figured that I would cleanup the look of where the cowl panel and kick panel wrapped to the front side of the firewall. I used a strip magnet to form a straight line, and put a thin layer of All Metal over the panel ends. While the All Metal was beginning to setup, I used a razor blade to follow the inner edge of the magnet. Once the All Metal was hard, I removed the magnet and sanded everything out.

[99 to Life]

looking good, so are you not using the hood springs? I'm sure you know the two holes you covered up are for the springs. Sometimes the springs make hood fitment a pain if your hood has issues. I'v seen a few trucks not run the springs.

thanks for the dash piece, got that in the mail today. With all the crap I run into its a good chance that will get used in my lifetime!

[Tikal48]

99 To Life,

Thanks, good eye! To be honest about the hood spring holes, I just plain forgot. When I replaced the firewall and cowl piece, I never re-drilled them. It's been a couple of years since I pulled the truck down, and I consider myself lucky if I remember what I did yesterday.

I saw the restoration that you did on your dash. Wow, amazing! It came out great!

[Advanced Design]

The dash looks really good! Nice catch 99. That is one of the nice things from participating here...getting help from other truck guys.

[99 to Life]

cool glad I could help, nothing worse than drilling into painted parts!, maybe you still have the holes from the backside you could drill through.

yeah my dash reconstruction I did because I wanted to really show people that just about anything can be brought back to life and its worth the effort. but as much as I really enjoy metal work, I need to get projects that are in better shape!!

[Tikal48]

Here are a couple of shots of the dash and firewall.
I hope to finish getting the firewall recess cleaned up this coming weekend.

[Tikal48]

I've been doing some body work for the past couple of weekends. God this is a slow process! I've painted the bottom of the cab and put a couple of coats of urethane primer on the firewall and dash. I figured that I would re-mount the cab and front sheet metal.

[4DSEVEN]

Great job on the dash.

[oldman3]

Looks great...Jim

[99 to Life]

looks clean

[Tikal48]

Not much progress the past two weekends. It was my anniversary, so I was spending some time with the family. I spent a little time today hanging the front sheet metal, and welding in the French headlight buckets.

I will not be using the cheap plastic internal parts that came with the French headlight kit. Honestly, they supplied sheet metal screws for the headlight adjustment. I have designed a set of steel rings to hold the headlight, and using the headlight nylon nuts and screws from an S10.

I applied the first two coats of All Metal around the buckets and fender seams. But I ran out of time for today. I will try to get this sanded out next weekend.

[FarmerSid]

Looks good! How does that all metal sand out? Heard that it can be a bugger to sand.

[oldman3]

Nice job on the install, who's kit did you use?...Jim

[Tikal48]

FarmerSid,

The All Metal does sand out slower, and has a couple of more minor drawbacks.
* It kicks off quick, so I normally mix smaller batches. I have tried reducing the amount of catalyst, but I have had one mix that never kicked off. I wound up having to scrape and sand that batch off.
* Next is the catalyst color, it doesn't change the base silver color of the filler, so its hard to tell when you get it mixed well.
*Third, it is bad about loading up the sand paper on a DA sander. I have used paint prep and acetone to clean the surface of the filler after it has hardened, but it still loads the paper. I did find that when using a 5" sanding disc on a side grinder, I could rapidly shape the filler, and it would not load up the wheel.

As for its positive points:
*This filler feathers out very nice, especially for a novice such as myself. Since it did sand out slower, I found it easy to control the contours more. There are few flat surfaces on these "AD's", so this was a blessing.
*The All Metal is very flexible. As I understand it, this is the next best thing to lead.
*Its waterproof and primes out nicely. One light coat of epoxy, and you could not tell it from the base metal.

I highly recommend it, even with its drawbacks.

I have been following your '52 project for quite a while now. I just wish that I had seen it before I went with the S10 frame. I really like the C4 suspension that you went with. It's a nice looking build. Keep up the good work!

[Tikal48]

Jim, I used the Autoloc French Headlight kit. I was not impressed with the internals, but the buckets and rings are nice.

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by Tikal48

Jim, I used the Autoloc French Headlight kit. I was not impressed with the internals, but the buckets and rings are nice.

OK, I used one of there kits, and its for sh!t. Hagan cost more, but it is better with the inside pieces...Jim

[99 to Life]

nice work and feedback on the allmetal. wanted to try that stuff out. keep it up. time is precious.

[Tikal48]

I finished sanding out both fenders around the headlight buckets. I went ahead and removed the passenger side and did some more minor touch ups.
There were some weird wrinkles under the hood lip, left from forming. I went ahead and smoothed those out. I primed the fender with epoxy primer, and applied the first coat of urethane primer.

I put the headlight trim ring in place to take a pic, and damned if one of the tabs broke off when I tried to remove it. It was barely even tack welded to the trim ring. And I had just primed them. Now I get to re-weld it, and redo the primer.

[Advanced Design]

Nice progress, looking really good!

[99 to Life]

nice attention to detail. and yah always gotta be a problem I know. thats why I named my last truck hardtimes ahahahh.

[Tikal48]

I finished priming out the drivers side fender. I have a gap between the back side of the fender and cowl. I straightened it out some with a hammer and dolly, but it looks like I will have to take more drastic matters to close this gap up. The passenger side fender fit very well. The Dynacorn fenders have a good overall shape, but still require a bit of work.

I have my grille ordered from Summit, but it is on back order. It is suppose to ship by the end of this month. Once I get that in, I can do the trimming and fitting of my lower grille support. It doesn't look like there will be much left of it. I will also rework the front pieces of my inner fenders.