1971 K20 Rat Rod Resurrection

[ThreeQtr]

Nice work.
On the paint, maybe post a question in the bodywork section and ask about wetsanding off the flat black. Pick an area to sand. If it is just rattle can paint and underneath doesn't look good you can shoot it again.

[chewiebarker]

Good suggestion ThreeQtr I am going to pick a spot and try it this weekend.

[chewiebarker]

I was able to paint up the hubcaps after straightening them as best I could. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not trying to build a show-car, just a reliable driver. First I painted them the same silver color as my wheels. I also painted the front inner grille this same color.

After a couple of layers, and days of drying, I started taping up the caps so that I could paint the black spokes and the black center (while leaving the bowtie trim as silver).

[chewiebarker]

Then I painted several layers of Rustoleum flat back.

Also, to convert the front caps from 2wd to 4wd - to make room for the Spicer hubs - I used some tin snips to cut out the center of two caps. I kept the bowties, in case I can use them at some point.

[chewiebarker]

I am not completely satisfied with the way the black paint came out. The tape allowed some bleed through, thus the lines aren't as sharp as OEM. I will try to clean them up with a razor. I also test fitted the front caps on my wheels. They came out pretty good but need to have their edges cleaned up and rolled.

[chewiebarker]

I really do like the silver and black combination though!!

After looking at the silver bowties, I was debating leaving them such, however I did decide to go for painting them blue. This meant getting the tape out again. I pressed it really hard against the caps this time to try and prevent bleed through.

[chewiebarker]

Here is the final result. From 8 feet, they look really great - however, due to bleed through the lines are not as sharp as I would like. Also, although I did what I could to remove all the dents on the caps, some are still pretty lumpy. I am not sure how to fix this...perhaps sanding? Not sure what can be done. I really like the color combination and think they will look great on my steelies of the same silver color. I still have to finish the front caps and paint them.

Overall, they are not good enough for my liking...but I spent a lot of time trying to get these right, and will just live with them a while before attempting again. They are a huge improvement over what I had to start with.

[chewiebarker]

Duh, I just realized that I can re-use the Bowties that I cut out of centers as templates to re-spray the various layers of paint. That way I can ditch the tape and get sharper lines. Duh. Don't know why I didn't think of that when doing it the first time. Now to pick up a badly molested cap on the cheap to cut up for a spoke template!!

[Cobalt964ruf]

good looking hubcap resurection

[unclefreddy]

Originally Posted by chewiebarker

One more discovery. It looks like the transmission radiator is pretty badly deteriorated by rust. I seriously doubt fluids are circulating in it at all - or that they are cooling much. I will look for a replacement but I have been told it is not O.E. so I have no idea what to look for in terms of a replacement. One thing is sure...I will spend some more $$$$$$$...

That rusty condenser looks like some of our old ice box condensers. Someone finally found a good use for them !

[chewiebarker]

Ok. So, I got a little discouraged with my attempt to restore the outer grille and waved a white flag in this post: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=631623

However, I am a determined little bugger, so I decided to NOT quit. Today, I tried the oven cleaner approach on stripping the anodizing.

[chewiebarker]

Easy-Off (yellow cap) on the grille for 15 minutes. Cost was under $6.

[chewiebarker]

Then rinsed it off and washed with soap and water. The Easy-Off actually removed a lot of the staining and disoloration that resulted from the prior attempt with the drain cleaner. It also removed all of the black paint that was still on the grille around the headlights. Already looked better!

[chewiebarker]

Then, based on what I found here and elsewhere, I picked up some buffs and polishing compound from HF. It was important to get compounds appropriate for aluminum. The GREY compound is a more aggressive compound - the package states "fast cutting" and is the first step in polishing the grille. Per the package, and what I read online, it will actually cut into the metal, removing scratches and little chips.

The BROWN compound is a tripoli compound and is appropriate for general polishing and is not as aggressive as the grey. I might skip this, and instead use the WHITE compound which is specifically for polishing aluminum to a high shine. But depending on the oputcome of the grey, I might do this tripoli as a second step. White would then be the third.

Finally, in the package with the white, is a redish compound called, JEWELERS ROUGE which the package states will bring all metals to a high luster of jewelery quality. This would be the last step, although with aluminum it is probably not necessary. I will see how good it looks after the white.

Everything in the pic cost less than $25.

[chewiebarker]

I am now optimistic, as after only a brief pass of a buff loaded with grey compound the polishing created a finish, on a strip of the grille, good enough that my reflection can be seen in it! This was literally only after 1 minute of polishing. The difference was immediate!

[chewiebarker]

I will finish polishing up the grille in the morning. Can't wait to see how good it will look once I get through all the steps! I will post final pics when complete.

[rusty76]

I'm waiting to see the finished results. Gives me hope for my tailgate band.

[chewiebarker]

Well, thought I would finish in the a.m. but it took a lot longer than I thought. Here is the update. I took a long time with the grey compound because it was working to clean up the grille. Here are close up pics of how it looked after the grey compound cutting.

[chewiebarker]

That was post washing with soap and water. It looked much improved, however if you look in the second pic you can see little black spots/pits where I imagine debris has peppered the grille (mostly on the lower portions). Also, it appeared to me that the spots became more prominent by using the grey compound. It was as if the little pits were filled in with compound.

So...I decide that perhaps I should scrub ther grille at this point with a mild abrasive. I used Bar Keepers Friend, which is used to clean stainless, and a sponge and cleaned up the whole grille with small circular motions. Doing this actually created a kind of brushed aluminum look and effectively diminished the appearance of the tiny pitting.

In the first pic, in order to show the difference pre and post scrub, I left one portion of the grille unscrubbed. I think the difference it is fairly clear in the pic.

[chewiebarker]

The scrubbing gave the grille a really uniform tone (see above), and helped smooth the entire surface more uniformly. In the last pic however, you can still see the small spots/pits when really up close (6 inches or so from the grille).

I even thought about perhaps leaving this brushed look, as it was really nice...but I didn't.

[chewiebarker]

So, because the pitting was still there, and I had the Brown Tripoli compound, I decided that I would re-cut the grille with the Tripoli even though I could probably have gone straight to the white. The Brown was described as for general purpose polishing or metals including aluminum. This was repetitive perhaps of the grey (which was more aggressive) but since this was my first time polishing anything, and there is a technique subtelty, I figured perhaps I could get it better by doing it again with brown.

After the brown polishing, which worked very well, I noticed that soap and water didn't really clean up the compound much. So, going off instructions again, I used some Acetone and paper towels to wipe down the now shiny grille. WOW! The grille really brightened up! Here are the pics of the post cleaning grille. This is much improved over where I started.

[chewiebarker]

Note on the above pics, I did not polish the headlight surround, and in fact scratched it up with a 3M pad. This is because I will be painting that area black. Also, I did not polich one of faces of the grille because, as I have a 1971, I will be painting that strip/face black as well per OEM specs.

Below is a close up of the grille which shows that the tiny pits are still there (though now whitish rather than black, which is better I think). I can't feel them, the surface is very smooth, but they are visible when very close up. Perhaps I should have sanded the grille before this whole process to attempt to get rid of them. Not sure whether it would have helped. Not going to do it now as I have too much time in to this as it is.

TIP: I ended up picking up a 6" biffing wheel from Lowes for a few dollars. This is because the 3" and 4" wheels I got from HF were not able to reach deep enough into the groove on the grille without causing my drill to rattle off the grille. The 6" wheel gets all the way into the back of the groove to polish it up.

[chewiebarker]

I am part way through the white polishing. I will update again when I finish that and paint the black sections. I hope to finish it by this weekend as I would like to assemble the inner and outer! I refurbished the inner grille a few months back and will post pics of it when I mate the inner/outer! Thanks for reading!

[chewiebarker]

Getting taped!

[Cobalt964ruf]

very nice work