My 1967 Chevy K20 Build Thread

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by cj847

Man, that is a lot of work with a DA. I'm tired just looking at pics. How did you do the interior overhead? Thru the windshield/door, or did you stand it on its head?

It was a hell of a lot of work! I did just that…I flipped the cab on its back and went to town with the DA and the stripper wheel. I was going to just paint over it but figured that since I had the opportunity I would just take it to bare metal.


Clay

[Chaparralman1974]

12/2/2023
Cab Undercoating
I have finally finished the underside of the cab. Today I was able to get the Raptor Liner sprayed on the bottom of the cab. For the most part, this was pretty easy to do. The cleanup and prep work is 95% of things. I taped off all of the larger openings and used foam ear plugs to fill all of the bolt holes in the floor. This worked better than I could have hoped. All of the captive nuts on the floor are clean as a whistle. I will now have to let the cab sit for a week before doing anything else. But that is ok….I have plenty of Christmas stuff to get setup! 🙂

[nicklear36]

What was your tool of choice to strip the cab by hand?

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by nicklear36

What was your tool of choice to strip the cab by hand?

Hands down, the tool I used for about 80% of the stripping was the SCT from Harbor Freight:

https://www.harborfreight.com/9-amp-...gg_q=bauer+sct

This is the same thing that Eastwood offers, but cheaper.

For the other nooks and crannies, these stripper wheels for my 4" angle grinder worked really well:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Beyond that, I used my DA with 80 grit paper to give a good tooth to the rest of the metal. I did use my pressure pot sand blaster for the door jambs and the firewall where it was hard to get around all of the protrusions.

[nicklear36]

Originally Posted by Chaparralman1974

Hands down, the tool I used for about 80% of the stripping was the SCT from Harbor Freight:

https://www.harborfreight.com/9-amp-...gg_q=bauer+sct

This is the same thing that Eastwood offers, but cheaper.

For the other nooks and crannies, these stripper wheels for my 4" angle grinder worked really well:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Beyond that, I used my DA with 80 grit paper to give a good tooth to the rest of the metal. I did use my pressure pot sand blaster for the door jambs and the firewall where it was hard to get around all of the protrusions.

Thanks for these links. I just can't justify the cost of a local soda blaster so I'm gonna do my cab by hand like this!

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by nicklear36

Thanks for these links. I just can't justify the cost of a local soda blaster so I'm gonna do my cab by hand like this!

I was in the same boat! I had quotes from $800-$2000 to get it stripped down. It took a little while to do it over several weeks, but it is doable to do it at home. The SCT was phenomenal! that thing will eat through the paint in no time flat.


Clay

[clay68c10]

I also used the HF stripper tool. It works well and strips paint pretty quickly.

Nice work on your patch panels. I have a body man friend that told me "those patches are a nice starting point, but you always have to do some fitting and shaping"
Have you done any door inner bottom repair? Those really need work to make right.

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by clay68c10

I also used the HF stripper tool. It works well and strips paint pretty quickly.

Nice work on your patch panels. I have a body man friend that told me "those patches are a nice starting point, but you always have to do some fitting and shaping"
Have you done any door inner bottom repair? Those really need work to make right.

Yeah, every single patch panel has required some level of reworking in order to get them to fit up.

No, I haven't done the doors yet. I am going to have those chemically dipped as I think that would be the easiest way to get the insides cleaned out.


Clay

[loudchevy]

Nice work Clay! I just went through your whole build thread. I'm just a step behind you on getting the cab stripped down and in primer as well on my build. You got a lot accomplished over the past year! Looking forward to seeing the K10 getting put back together.

Also good to see another AZ'er on the build board.

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Nice work Clay! I just went through your whole build thread. I'm just a step behind you on getting the cab stripped down and in primer as well on my build. You got a lot accomplished over the past year! Looking forward to seeing the K10 getting put back together.

Also good to see another AZ'er on the build board.

Thanks Scott! I appreciate it!. I just sent you a PM as well.


Clay

[loudchevy]

Clay, It was great to meet you and stop by your garage yesterday afternoon and see your project and talk trucks.

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Clay, It was great to meet you and stop by your garage yesterday afternoon and see your project and talk trucks.

Likewise Scott! It was a pleasure to meet you as well. I am looking forward to to swinging by your place to check out your truck soon!

Clay

[Chaparralman1974]

12/9/2023
Epoxy Prime Applied to Cab
I believe that I have finally gotten the cab to the point where I can prime and seal the metal so that it doesn’t rust. I cleaned the metal as best I could with acetone and ensured that the entire surface had a decent tooth on it to accept the epoxy primer. I don’t have a paint booth unfortunately, so I was forced to spray this in my driveway. I have also realized that despite my best efforts, I am no painter…..I did get decent coverage, but I will have a ton of sanding to do. I got runs in the primer, and also had some dirt and crap fly into it as it was drying. I didn’t realize how challenging it would be to paint an irregular shaped object like a cab. There were some areas that I missed and some areas where I think the primer started to flash as I came back over it causing bubbles in it. It is nothing that can’t be fixed, but it will cause me a bit more labor in the future. My main goal anyway was to get a coat of primer on it so that it wouldn’t flash rust. It will likely sit like this until after the holidays before I can do anything else on it anyway.
I have decided however, that I will just have it painted. I still intend to do the body work to the best of my ability, but I found a guy local that will shoot paint on it for me. I figure that is the best course of action at this point. I think I can likely paint the smaller flatter things like fenders and such, but the big stuff I will leave to the professionals.

[Chaparralman1974]

More.....

[loudchevy]

Nice job, Clay! Good to see the cab in primer.

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Nice job, Clay! Good to see the cab in primer.

Thanks Scott! Yeah, it looks good from 10 feet away, but I am about as good painting as I am with neurosurgery....LOL

I will sand it all out and do the body work and then just pay someone to shoot everything for me. I am going for a driver and not a show car with this build so I think that I can outsource the painting and still not totally break the bank.



Clay

[72 tigger]

Looks good Clay!

[nicklear36]

Looks good! It's pretty rewarding to finish stuff by yourself at the end of the day.

[Jason Banks]

The good news is, the drum and spindle came right off the brake shoes, still stuck together. I'm going to proceed with the sandblast clean up and then I'll try to stick it the press to 'gently' separate them.

[KyleSeal]

Cab looks great. I see so many people doing extensive work to their trucks to repair floors and such but hardly any mention or show of them actually putting effort into preventing it from coming back. The undercoating looks great.

[Chaparralman1974]

12/10/2023 - 1/30/2024
Cab body work and preparing for body work on front clip
Well, the major body work on the cab has been completed! I still have to shoot a seal coat for the body filler and then another 2-3 coats of high build primer / surfacer and then block all that down prior to doing a final seal coat and then I can finally paint the cab. I have to say, that seeing the cab in this state is a bit rewarding! This was a major learning experience for me. As I have mentioned in the past, I am no body or paint guy! I ended up have to remove a bunch of filler that I applied due to the fact that I didn’t like it, or I did it wrong. This resulted in using almost an entire can of body filler for just the cab with 90% of that being removed and ending up on the floor. I have made sure that I have no filler thicker than about 3/16”. So, this meant that in some cases, I would strip the filler off, rework the metal, and then reapply the filler again. A ton of waste and rework, but ultimately I am very happy with the results. The rear style lines / body lines behind the cab were a bit of a struggle for me. I redid these about 4 times before I finally broke down and hired a body guy to come over and do it right. Getting the line projected around the cab radius was a lot harder than it looked. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not get the line straight. Rather than continue to waste materials, I figured it was best to just let a professional do it. I am happy and proud that the other 98% of work was completed by yours truly.
I have also begun the initial work on the front clip. I was going to start on the bed next, but after taking it apart, I have realized that there is just no saving it. It will be cheaper and quicker in the long run to just get a repop bed. Instead, I have decided to move on to the front clip. I had all of the parts media blasted by a local powder coater and have begun the process of getting those pieces coated in epoxy primer. The plan at this point will be to finish the primer on the cab, set it back on the frame for now, and then begin the body work on the front clip. After the front clip body work has been finished, I will do final block sanding on everything, seal it, and then it will be on to paint.

[Chaparralman1974]

Here is the disassembled bed that I have decided not to use.

[Chaparralman1974]

Here are the front clip parts that I have begun to get into epoxy primer

[loudchevy]

Fantastic progress, Clayton! Looking forward to meeting up later this afternoon.

[Chaparralman1974]

Originally Posted by loudchevy

Fantastic progress, Clayton! Looking forward to meeting up later this afternoon.

Ditto Scott! I can't wait to compare notes. :-)


Clay