“Castro” my new 72 build

[GSFMECH]

Originally Posted by cj847

It appears that the aftermarket panels do not have the drain slots built into the bottom. There must be a way for water to get out of the door. The reason the doors rust out is that the factory holes (slots) get clogged allowing dirt and water to pool in the bottom of the door. At least drill as couple of holes in the bottom of each door.

I don’t have any photos of it but I notched the door bottoms to mimic the factory drains after these photos were taken.

[61_FL_Apache]

Great build!

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking good.

[GSFMECH]

Originally Posted by 61_FL_Apache

Great build!

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looking good.

Thanks guys

[GSFMECH]

Prepping for a little paint and minor body work

[GSFMECH]

My Vintage air unit turned up.

[GSFMECH]

Scrubbing and sanding the interior man that was the nastiest truck ever

[GSFMECH]

Gutted out the doors and fenders of all the trim. I had to install a right front fender cup and had to pull a tweak out of the left front fender behind the wheel. It Looks like someone ran over a curb or something because the left side cab braces were bent as well which I already repaired. The fenders are now ready for body and paint. I sprayed Ospho down in the doors and the cowl. I also had to repair rust on the right side lower outer cowl behind the air vent in the cab, but I don’t have photos

[GSFMECH]

Bondo dust flying doing body work

[GSFMECH]

FCF stuff for the vintage air turned up along with the Lizard Skin. The FCF panel is really nice and I used their bracket which mounts the vintage air unit to the toe board instead of the firewall for a little cleaner look. It looks a lot better than the panel that Vintage Air supplies. I had Lizard skin in my blue truck and it makes a big difference so I’m doing it again.

[GSFMECH]

Primed and, blocked the doors inside and outside. Blocked the firewall and sealed the gutter seam, it's ready for some ochre paint. I painted the interior, firewall, inner fenders and all the way around the truck from the lower trim down. All other paint is original

[GSFMECH]

Found a good match for the top of dash in a spray can. I also used this on my door panels and console as well and so far, it’s holding up as well as any plastic paint I have ever used. Rust-oleum claims it’s good for metal or plastic. Seems good and is a good match.

[GSFMECH]

Got the cab and doors painted. I know the speaker hole police may call me out because I cut holes in the doors for speakers. I figured since I cut the whole bottom out of these doors to save them I may as well put some speakers in them since I’m keeping the gas tank in the cab. I love the way it sounds now that the truck is finished.

[GSFMECH]

Starting to look like a truck again. The door hinges were worn out and I didn't want to go through the pain of rebuilding them, although I did buy all the parts. Repops are not very good in my experience. Anyway I took them from the blue truck which I had rebuilt back when and were still excellent. I used paint stripper and removed the blue paint and painted them ochre and installed but no pics.

[GSFMECH]

A couple more

[GSFMECH]

More fun starting now. Unfortunately, at some point the bed was hauled right side up on a trailer, so all 4 bottom corners are tweaked and a little rusty. The right side is not too bad I managed to dolly them straight and weld in some patches. The left side not so lucky as it's pretty rusty, I pulled the bent bedside off my blue truck and used what I could for patch panels. I’m really lucky to have it because from the white up it has perfect matching patina and the bed floor is fairly nice. The tailgate was really bad.

[GSFMECH]

Ongoing bodywork and rebuilding the 4 bottom corners of the bed. Unfortunately, I found the rust had gotten up into the white at the rear, so I had to patch it as well.

[GSFMECH]

Cleaned, Ospho’d and sprayed the bottom with semi-gloss epoxy. Bodywork coming along.

[GSFMECH]

Body work, primer and blocking done, also acid washed beforehand for remaining rust

[GSFMECH]

Here’s the filler primer I used.

[GSFMECH]

For paint I used acrylic enamel with a hardener

[GSFMECH]

Here’s after Painting the Ochre and the bed bottom. I painted the white after I mounted the bed back onto the truck. Undercoated the wheel tubs and painted the splash shields.

[GSFMECH]

I trimmed the rear end mounting pads, so I could slip in a 1" lowering block, that gave me 8" of drop. Easier now with no bed. QA-1 calls it a 7” drop adjusted all the way down

[GSFMECH]

It's really starting to look like something. Now onto the white. I painted black over the gray primer to mimic the black primer that came from the factory, if it gets a rock chip in the future hopefully you will see the black and match all the other chips in the paint.

[GSFMECH]

Got the white done, and the wheels on. Still need to do a little polishing on the bed in these shots. I wanted to paint the white with lacquer for ease of blending the old school way, but you can’t hardly find it any more except for in a spray can. I was able to find the correct code 521 white in a spray can, and was able to melt it into the existing white using lacquer thinner. Polished it lightly and you can hardly tell it was done, almost a perfect match.