'65 Chevy C10 Long Fleet Retrospective Build Thread

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by collins10672

semi gloss (satin) black was used behind the grill,frame,suspension components,inner front fenders.this is one nice truck i must say you have done a wonderful job of restoring it.

Thanks! It makes sense that the grill shell background was painted semi gloss. I've just never seen an original paint truck to see what they came with originally.

[theastronaut]

More final assembly details.

We cut new green tint glass for it and blasted the regulator track. New glass tape to hold the glass in place.


New inner and outer wipes.


Rear edges curved and flattened to fit behind the glass run channel.


Glass installed.




Inner door panel and handles installed.


Polished screw heads.



New handles.


Aftermarket (ugh) mirrors didn't fit the shape of the doors at all. The base was straight instead of being curved to match the shape of the door.




The edges also have alot of distortion that wasn't polished out.


Hairline scratches that need to be buffed out.




Ground the edges down to match the shape of the door skin.




Ground all the distortion out of the edges.


Sanded smooth, ready to be buffed.




After buffing, compared to a straight out of the box mirror on the right.






The other step plate installed.


Buffed the driver's side door lock. Before and after.




Reassembled.



Driver's side door panel, handles, and arm rest installed.




Radio intalled and wired.



Wetsanded and painted the underside of the hood with low gloss black enamel.












Latch and radiator seal installed.


Latch detail.


Turnsignals installed with new wiring harness.


Had a pair of tailgate hinge bushings made from UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weigh polyethylene). UHMW is self lubricating, is soft enough to keep the paint from chipping inside the hinge sockets, and hard enough to keep the tailgate in place. They fit tight enough in the hinge socket that they won't rattle either. Much better than the original metal bushings.





Had to enlongate the holes for the tailgate hardware.



Tailgate installed.







Polished and cleared tailgate chains. Applied Duragloss Rubber and Vinyl dressing to the chain covers.




I didn't weld the bed cross sill in so I could adjust the tailgate gaps. Adjusted the bedside in at the top to even out the gap after this pic was taken.



Had to repaint the bumper so I thought I'd test fit it and the splash pans before I shot the paint.




The driver's side top edge curled in towards the bed too much. Had to fix that.


Marking the bumper brackets for the splash pan bolts.


Smoothed and polished all of the bumper bolts.


Splash pans and bumper brackets painted and installed.




Wetsanded and buffed the bumper.





Bumper installed.

[CVA59]

WOW! Your work is simply amazing!! You have on super fine truck. I would be scared to death to drive it. With my luck i would get t-boned the first time out.

[alwaysbroken]

oh my oh my. thats a tone of detail on there. looks great. you must have lots of patients.

[jimmydean]

Incredible detail. Wow.

[1/2Dozen]

excellent work! looks great

[mikesC10]

Thats one sweet resto!

[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

[shrunken66stroker]

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

[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?

[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.

[litew8]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Test fitting the emblems, had to slot out the mounting holes to make them level.

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!

[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.