One Piece at a Time - A True Friend

[kehstr]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

HA! me too.... I wish the next line were true.... "and it didn't cost me a dime.."

I think we all feel that way on our projects

[Chief5940]

Thank you Brian. He is doing a great job on it and I'm super excited to watch it all start to take shape. Thanks for following along.

Take care,
Les

[Chief5940]

So far I think we are on track to have about $30K - $35K in it. But, that is buying a lot of new parts, having the steering column and wing-windows professionally rebuilt, new Boyd Welding fuel tank, the highest end PPG paint and clear, rebuilding the bucket seats, and doing the 5.3 swap with all-new wiring harnesses. I still need to buy tires, a driveshaft, exhaust, and a radiator. It's a once in a life-time opportunity to do something like this, so I'm trying not to cut any corners that I don't have to. Thanks for following the build. Take care, Les

[Chief5940]

We're ready for PAINT! After many, many hours of painstaking prep work, Ron was ready to paint! These first few pictures are once everything was ready and taped off to shoot the inside of the cab.

[Chief5940]

April 23, 2020 - I wish I had been date stamping these posts all-along... oh well....

Here comes the RED!!! First up, the base coat on the inside of the cab.

[Chief5940]

Now for a little clear!! We are both very happy with the color selection!

[Chief5940]

Here are a few more of the inside of the cab after base coat and clear. We are using PPG paint and clear. The instructions call for two coats of each! So far, it looks great!!

[Chief5940]

Friday, April 24, 2020 - painting the outside of the cab! These first four pictures are before clear.

[Chief5940]

Bring on the shine! These are of the cab after Ron shot the clear coat! I think it looks great! He is really doing an excellent job! I can't wait to see it in person!

[Chief5940]

I bought some used window trim for the front and back windows from a guy in Canyon Lake. For the most part it is in great shape, but very dirty and oxidized.

I got out the Dremel Tool, some Mothers' Aluminum and Chrome Polish and went to town! It worked great!!! It's a tedious task, but it has to be better than all of the sanding that Ron has been doing. Plus, I actually enjoyed working on it. The verdict is still out on whether or not we will end up using this or buying new. Almost every piece has some small blemishes and dings in it, but if we can't find any new, this will work great!

[TexasLS1]

Holy crap dude that is looking awesome!!

[Kronald_70GMC]

I agree. That looks excellent!

[toolboxchev]

Whose Epoxy Primer did you use. Nice looking rig!

[Chief5940]

Thanks guys!!! I appreciate the positive feedback!!

As for the Epoxy Primer, we used Velocity.

I ended up using the top shelf PPG paint and PPG clear. We knew we wanted to use the top of the line clear from the get go, but we debated a little on the paint, because of cost. In the end, it was only a few hundred dollars difference to go with their best paint too.

[1971Stepside]

Paint looks fantastic! I can't wait to see paint go on mine. Love the red and white paint scheme. Your polish job looks good from the pics, but I know how you feel on small blemishes. After you see that perfect paint it is hard to want to use something with scratches or blemishes. I'm struggling with the chrome on my vent windows....more polishing and we will see.

[Chief5940]

If you want to have your vent windows or your steering column completely rebuilt, contact Roger Koop at 913-669-5604. He re-worked both my vent windows and my steering column and both turned out great! He can replace the rubber gaskets and re-chrome etc.

[1971Stepside]

If you want to have your vent windows or your steering column completely rebuilt, contact Roger Koop at 913-669-5604. He re-worked both my vent windows and my steering column and both turned out great! He can replace the rubber gaskets and re-chrome etc.

I have a great column, but I will call him if I can't get these windows buffed out.

[Chief5940]

Time to catch up on the recent progress and there has been a lot of it. Ron got the Boyd Welding fuel tank installed and the braided fuel lines run. We are planning to install a wood bed, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the fuel-fill neck lines up with the wood bed and doesn't hit on one of the stainless steel trim strips.

[Chief5940]

This one is kind of cool. The guy we purchased the cab from sent this picture to Ron. This is a picture of the truck we are building before the guy we bought it from took it all apart. I'm sure we are using a few other pieces from this original truck, but mainly we are using the cab.

[Chief5940]

We purchased a very nice set of Doug Thorley long-tube headers. Unfortunately, we ran into some fitment issues. They were hitting on the shifter linkage and also landing way too close to a plastic module on the transmission so we returned them and we are going a different direction. More to come on that later....

[Chief5940]

When we first tried lowering the cab down on the chassis we encountered a clearance issue. After a little studying, Ron figured out that the tail of our transmission was landing a little too high. We tried to modify the mounting block on the original cross-member and we weren't completely happy with that approach. So, Ron ordered an after-market cross-member, but when it arrived he found it to be very thin and flimsy. So, final answer...Ron went back and notched the original one and welded it up at the exact right height. Then he repainted it with frame paint; problem solved!

[Chief5940]

Ron purchased the piece of trim that goes on the back of the cab to separate the red from the white. Once he had the trim he realized that our paint line was off ever-so-slightly, so he cleaned that up and installed the first piece of trim. It looks great and really starts to show how the paint is going to pop once all the whole truck is painted and the trim is installed.

[Chief5940]

Next up, sound proofing. After quite a bit of research and reading other folks' opinions on various forums, including this one, we opted for the Killmat. Ron and Kelly installed it and it looks great!! Ron was very happy with the Killmat product and it was considerably less expensive than some of the more popular brands. Also. if you look through the glovebox you can also see he has started to install the Old Air Products A/C system.

[Chief5940]

Ron has started working on the prep-ing the fenders and doors. He has sprayed them with epoxy primer and is done with most of the body work. Luckily, we were able to get some great fenders and doors to start with. Once the body work is done, he will shoot them with primer and continue to sand and prep them for final paint.

Look closely, between the two fenders, and you will see a pedal car. Ron is building this for his grandson, Reid. It's going to be painted with the same red as the truck!

[Chief5940]

This week we got our brake pedal assembly. Completely rebuilt, with new bushing, spring, pedal, and all new paint! It is all about the details and this is one of those that could be easily overlooked, but that's not how we are approaching this build.