Harold's '48 S10 LS1 Build

[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.

[99 to Life]

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

[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

[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.

[Sim6]

Great work!

[99 to Life]

Iv seen another guy have to cut up new fenders to fix gaps. good luck, your doesn't seem too bad though.

[big_moss]

nice progress man looks great so far