'69 C10 - Black on Black

[Kronald_70GMC]

Looking very good! Keep up the good work.

[sfont66]

Wow!, very nice! Looking forward to seeing more pics, and assembly.
Also I’ll say it again, I am envious of the paint booth.

[TA_C10]

Sweet!

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by Kronald_70GMC

Looking very good! Keep up the good work.

Originally Posted by sfont66

Wow!, very nice! Looking forward to seeing more pics, and assembly.
Also I’ll say it again, I am envious of the paint booth.

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Sweet!

Thanks guys. It feels good to have the most time-consuming portion of bodywork done. Many hours repairing rust, welding random holes shut, filling, sanding, and finally painting. Makes the rest of the bodywork look easy. It's funny how on every TV show they just show a little bit of sanding and then all of a sudden it's painted. It takes hundreds of hours to do a quality job on a vehicle.

[1971Stepside]

That looks sweet! Can't wait to see it sitting on the frame.

[MDPotter]

The reassembly process has officially begun. We set the cab on the frame and started installing as many items as possible - brake pedal assembly, parking brake assembly, brake booster assembly, fuse block, interior heater box, wiper motor, dash pad, and heater controls.

Almost had the fenders and doors painted, but I'm a hobbyist at best when it comes to bodywork and this is a black truck so I'll be sanding out some imperfections and redoing those parts.

[Kronald_70GMC]

Looking sweet! Keep it up

[1971Stepside]

Woot! Cab is back on. Looking great

[Woodnears]

MDPotter, I saw what I think was your post on the SPI forum. Looks like a nice build you have here. I may have to reach out to ya when I get this far along, I'm currently stripping paint so it may be a bit. The first question I have going into this part is can SPI base be tinted to any color? lets say I want 503 green paint, can that be achieved with SPI white base and just mix to the 503 code? You went the hard way and just chose black! lol. Good looking work!

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by Woodnears

MDPotter, I saw what I think was your post on the SPI forum. Looks like a nice build you have here. I may have to reach out to ya when I get this far along, I'm currently stripping paint so it may be a bit. The first question I have going into this part is can SPI base be tinted to any color? lets say I want 503 green paint, can that be achieved with SPI white base and just mix to the 503 code? You went the hard way and just chose black! lol. Good looking work!

I'm on that forum too, so probably! SPI doesn't mix or tint basecoats, they only sell a few colors. I don't know anything about mixing paint, but if you need a certain color you'll have to go to your local paint supplier. We thought black would be a timeless color and it will no doubt look good when done, but it does make me want to bang my head into a wall sometimes.

[rodstored-72]

..... "Makes the rest of the bodywork look easy. It's funny how on every TV show they just show a little bit of sanding and then all of a sudden it's painted. It takes hundreds of hours to do a quality job on a vehicle.".....

MD, well, it would go by faster if you through a couple of sponser breaks in between the hours....

seriously it is nice to see a milestone be met & a sense of accomplishment , as always... nice job!! and waiting to see what you get done next...

[Ol Blue K20]

It's looking great so far. Keep up the good work

[Snake72]

Paint looks phenomenal bud! If I could go back, I'd use SPI primers and paint. Keep up the good work, the assembly is the fun part

[Low Elco]

Great Progress! Always good to hit a milestone. Looks terrific, Keep it up!

[MDPotter]

Finally have the doors and fenders and a few small parts painted. Only a couple minor blemishes - they came out great. Also have the core support set and radiator installed. Unfortunately we've had to redo the exhaust though - we had a conflict with the cab.

[TA_C10]

Looks good man! And that is "exhaust on the outside of frame" problems Better than first world problems...

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

Looks good man! And that is "exhaust on the outside of frame" problems Better than first world problems...

We thought we had it figured out, but routing on the outside of the frame takes a little more planning and test fitting than inside where you can use the frame as the guide knowing that no part of the cab or bed drop lower than the top flange of the frame. Not so on the outside! I noticed yesterday after reinstalling that section that the bend over the axle is now too high and will hit the underside of the bed. It won't be a big deal to fix, it's just more time.

[68Gold/white]

Originally Posted by MDPotter

We thought we had it figured out, but routing on the outside of the frame takes a little more planning and test fitting than inside where you can use the frame as the guide knowing that no part of the cab or bed drop lower than the top flange of the frame. Not so on the outside! I noticed yesterday after reinstalling that section that the bend over the axle is now too high and will hit the underside of the bed. It won't be a big deal to fix, it's just more time.

I guess you didn't want to cut away any of that cab piece for exhaust clearance???

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by 68Gold/white

I guess you didn't want to cut away any of that cab piece for exhaust clearance???

Why didn't I think of that?! That would have been way easier.

[sfont66]

That looks great!,the doors are so straight, and the black is just awesome! you should be proud, nice job, can't wait to see more.

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by sfont66

That looks great!,the doors are so straight, and the black is just awesome! you should be proud, nice job, can't wait to see more.

Thanks!

[68Gold/white]

A good friend of mine had a 66 C-10, LWB, (this was back in the 80's...)underside essentially the same as a 67-72. I had been under my 68, at that time, working on something, got an idea about routing exhaust out the back. Bends in pipes are restrictive, and a pain to make correctly

He's a legit machinist, and can fabricate ANYTHING...
I said, Why not make a couple of bends, just behind the headers, and run the pipes straight out the back,outside the frame, put the mufflers where they need to be????
He says, what about over the rear end???
I told him to calculate how far down the extreme movement of the suspension will be, put the pipe above that. The rear coils are only going to compress, so far (his rear coils were stock)
I visit him in a few weeks, and he's got the system installed on his pickup, exactly as we talked about...he was thrilled!!!
Back then, the only good sounding, good flowing mufflers were the Sonic turbo mufflers. Don't remember who made them. They were maybe 18" long. He complained they were a little loud, and he bought 2 more of those mufflers. Had 2 mufflers on each side, running end to end. Sounded real nice, but still pretty unrestrictive. THat 66 had a SBC 400 in it, ran incredibly well!!!

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by 68Gold/white

A good friend of mine had a 66 C-10, LWB, (this was back in the 80's...)underside essentially the same as a 67-72. I had been under my 68, at that time, working on something, got an idea about routing exhaust out the back. Bends in pipes are restrictive, and a pain to make correctly

He's a legit machinist, and can fabricate ANYTHING...
I said, Why not make a couple of bends, just behind the headers, and run the pipes straight out the back,outside the frame, put the mufflers where they need to be????
He says, what about over the rear end???
I told him to calculate how far down the extreme movement of the suspension will be, put the pipe above that. The rear coils are only going to compress, so far (his rear coils were stock)
I visit him in a few weeks, and he's got the system installed on his pickup, exactly as we talked about...he was thrilled!!!
Back then, the only good sounding, good flowing mufflers were the Sonic turbo mufflers. Don't remember who made them. They were maybe 18" long. He complained they were a little loud, and he bought 2 more of those mufflers. Had 2 mufflers on each side, running end to end. Sounded real nice, but still pretty unrestrictive. THat 66 had a SBC 400 in it, ran incredibly well!!!

We weren't confident enough in exhaust fabrication when we did my dad's 64 C10 so we took it to a local shop and that's how they ran it. But now I see why they insisted on having the truck all put together - so they know all of the obstructions and what they are working with.

[MDPotter]

It's finally starting to look like a truck again. We have the doors, fenders, grille, and bumper installed. We spent a lot of time fitting the grille and the fenders - they're all aftermarket so of course it didn't go together as nice as factory pieces. After slotting the grille brackets about 1/2" and doing some hammer and dolly work on the grille, it's all in place and looks decent. We put on the hood to test fit as well. Pretty happy with how clean the engine bay is.

[MDPotter]

We've also been assembling the interior - wiring is all in place as well as most components but we had to order a few little parts that kept us from installing the radio, gauge cluster, and glove box. We had some heat shield/sound dampening left over so we used that up on the back and floor of the cab and laid the carpet and installed the seat belts as well. Wing window frames are stripped and epoxied. Also reapplied epoxy to the hood and cowl in preparation for bodywork. Lastly, bought a reman power steering box since the old one was leaking.