Fashionable Fever! - 1969 Chevy C10 Build

[ryans69chevy]

Here is a better pic in the daylight. The armrests turned out pretty cool as I used the wood that went under the wheel tubs so they had a nice routered curve already to them.

[ryans69chevy]

Got my passenger side fender ready for primer! Actually I left it at the sanding the bondo with 80 grit stage. This is my first so my plan is to take it to the body shop and have them let me know if I should have done anything else to make it better. I'll probably have them do the rest and prime on this one.

[72 tigger]

Really cool swing! I like it

[ryans69chevy]

Wow it's been awhile since I had a chance to work on my pickup. I've had a big change in my life which needed a lot of time so I couldn't get what I wanted done on the pickup this summer.

I did manage to finally remove one of the trailing arm brackets that a po cut into and the only way to fix it -properly- was to remove the old and install a different one. I gotta say those rivets were a big PITA. I had to go buy a bigger chisel to get them out!

[ryans69chevy]

I got the area grinded down how I want it I just need to take a flap disc to it and shape the metal a bit. I still have to drill another hole for the 6th hole in the bracket which is going to suck.

I also finally got the holes drilled out for the exhaust to run through. I need to sand down the area around the holes and weld in the 4" sch. 40 pipe I got to reinforce the holes.

I'm getting closer to installing my Dana 60 that I've had sitting in the garage for over a year now. I need to get that in since the frame is front heavy so it's a bugger to move. Whenever I want to move it I have to put my weight on the back end or else it will raise up off the jack stands it's on.

[ryans69chevy]

Got the rings welded in for the exhaust. Turned out pretty cool. I wish I knew the tolerances of metal for warping though. I played it safe by only welding about 1 1/2" - 2" at a time since I didn't want anything to tweak. So you can really tell all the starts and stops of the weld which I'm not a fan of. I guess no one will really see it. I tried clamping some clamps onto the pipe for some heat shrinks, but there wasn't enough pipe to grab on to. I also couldn't get my gun in some places on the front side of the crossmember between it and the pipe. Not sure how people do that... I guess if I would have put the pipe flush with the hole on the front side and had it all stick out the backside I could have gotten it welded all around.

[ryans69chevy]

I got the Dana 60 installed finally! It's been sitting in my garage for over a year now! Installed my new 3" drop springs with new Monroe coil over shocks and the drop shock mounts. Feels good to get that part done.

Ran into a little problem with the rear tracking bar. The one they sent is just a bit too long. I got one that mounts from the frame to the back of the trailing arm basically (but on the rear end differential). I'll have to call the company and see what I should do.

Now I need to figure out my rear sway bar. Then it's probably time to get a new fuel tank and mock that up. I want to get one for a '69 camaro and have the spout fill behind the license plate. Not interested in drilling into the bed.

[ryans69chevy]

Here is a pic from the back...

[ryans69chevy]

I started back up on my drivers side outer fender. Not sure why this portion of fender was all smashed in. All I know is it's gonna be a lot of work to fix it. I got the spot welds drilled out and cut the piece out so I could hammer the dent from the back. It was all dented in where it still shows dirty paint.

I actually got the piece pretty well straightened out. I also had to straighten a bit of the outer fender since it too was bent in the same spot. I got to the point of welding it in, but my welds are forming/creating lots of spatter and are turning out very porous. So that's taking a lot of time to figure that out. It's almost like my tank is empty, but my gauge is reading 1000 psi. Tomorrow I will investigate it further. It would be nice to get it all put back and maybe lay down a layer of bondo.

[ryans69chevy]

I figured out my welding issue! When I changed out the wire to .023 i didn't push the wire feed cable all the way in so the gas wasn't getting to the gun. Easy fix just felt pretty dumb.

Got the piece welded in. Looks a lot better than before and I won't have to do to much filler. I have to buy some weld through primer before I can reweld the spot welds on the overlap.

Since I have my welder out I also cut down my adjustable stabilizer bar in the rear to fit. I called Spaker Racing who built the rear end and sent me the bar as well. I guess they make the bars a little longer in case the mounting points changed (if I was going custom).

[ryans69chevy]

Started on my drivers side inner fender. Have the typical rust on the bottom lip where it attaches to the radiator support. I searched a bunch of threads and couldn't find anyone fixing these. It seems a lot of people just end up buying new ones. I decided to try and fix it since I got more time than money right now. Didn't turn out too bad. Had to make a new piece out of 20 gauge cold rolled.

[ryans69chevy]

Got it all welded and grinded down. Still need take my drill and clean the rest of panel with roloc discs so I can lay down some bondo.

This repair took me quite a long time. The whole time I was thinking how people can afford to pay a body shop to do this stuff. I feel that I have an addequate amount of the right tools to get the job done. Not sure what the body shops would be using to make it go faster. A lot of time I'm waiting for welds to cool before making another pass. I realize a lot of people probably just buy new panels instead of spending the money to fix the old stuff. Would love to spend a few weeks in a body shop and see how they do this stuff!

[68Gold/white]

Body shops are all about profitability!!! Those old inner fenders would of never even gotten a whiff of a chance to be repaired!!! First eyeball that saw much rust on them, they'd be in the scrap pile, although yours were not all that bad.
Job well done!!! I have a pair that don't even have the lip on them, they are rusted about 3-4 inches above where you welded yours to!!! I've wondered HOW to repair those!!!

[ryans69chevy]

Getting closer...

still on the drivers side inner fender. I'm starting to realize why people just buy the new ones. Still have the passenger side to do which is worse!

[ryans69chevy]

Got the drivers side inner fender prepped to go to the body shop for primer. It's not perfect, but I guess this is an original fender so I left some of the imperfections in it from when it was stamped.

[ryans69chevy]

Just got a few parts back from the sandblaster. Wow that works slick... put the parts in the pickup - bring them to the sandblaster - pick up the parts a few days later! I'd maybe do this more if I had the money, but then again it takes some of the enjoyment out of this hobby. I will get more sandblasted when I run into more parts that are too tough to clean up with an angle grinder.

I spent $150 to have these parts sandblasted. Does that seem like a decent price? I guess I thought so. Not sure what the going rate is though.

Just have to straighten some of the corners of the wood bed crossmembers and fix the battery tray where it's too far rusted. Then I can have these parts primered.

[ryans69chevy]

Since the weather was nice tonight I managed to strip off much of the paint on my wheel tubs. They had a lot of road tar that got kicked up which I had to chisel off, but underneath it was nice metal. The tar actually saved these things!

I also hammered a bunch of dents out and straightened the lip on one of them.

[ryans69chevy]

Today I moved my cab from my parents house to my house which is about 30 miles. It went pretty good actually. It took most of the day. Had to get it strapped down really good for the long haul. Next time I'm going to get an enclosed trailer though. It was a bit nerve racking with all the other people on the road.

Now I can take the cab apart once again and redo again since the work I did in high school isn't that great. I'll call it a learning experience...

[ryans69chevy]

I had to cut out the huge divits left by my angle grinder when I took apart the bed. I wasnt planning on using these tubs so I was a little sloppy when I cut all the bolts. I decided these tubs weren't that bad after hammering all the dents out. So I got some 18 gauge sheet metal and welded new metal in.

I know bondo could have fixed this, but since i didn't want to risk the bondo cracking when I go to bolt the tubs down I decided to weld in new stuff. It turned out really nice. I'm slowly learning new methods of welding to make it so it looks better and that I don't have to use so much bondo. I learn a lot of these ideas from this site.

Then I had to redrill the holes for the carriage bolts and took a square file to make them nice and square. Didn't take any time at all!

[ryans69chevy]

Laying down some bondo. One panel at a time... hopefully after the bodywork is done it will go a little faster...

[Kronald_70GMC]

Cool work man! Loving that swing too! Im following along.

[ryans69chevy]

Holy smokes I finally got a wheel tub ready to go to the body shop! Still have many more pieces to do...

[ryans69chevy]

Nice day out so decided to be in the garage finishing up the other wheel tub. I think I might start on the cab now. I'm kind of sick of sanding filler. This cab is going to need a bit of metal work before the filler gets applied. Hopefully I'll have another update soon, depends on the weather I suppose.

[ryans69chevy]

Well I gutted the whole inside of my cab today and started to figure out what I'm going to do to fix all the problems with it. The doors were really tough to close. I think I figured out part of the problem...

[Kronald_70GMC]

Originally Posted by ryans69chevy

Well I gutted the whole inside of my cab today and started to figure out what I'm going to do to fix all the problems with it. The doors were really tough to close. I think I figured out part of the problem...

Wow some people should just stick to what they know! Talk about lipstick on a pig Its all good though, nothing that cant be fixed.