American in Austria 83 Build

[LT7A]

It seems that if you have a low spot that is about 1/8 deep by 12 in diameter that just filling it would be fine. If it was a quarter or 3/8 deep it seems that would be more of a concern. My concern is if you pop it back up and get everything smooth, is there a chance that you could bump it and it would pop back down. So I would finish it in whatever its most stable position is. There're definitely guys on here that know more than me about this though.

However, I will register an opinion on the drip rails. I had my first Square in the 90s and drove it for a couple years after pulling the drip rails and never noticed the difference. I'm sure that there is a difference since I agree GM thought it was important to put them on. But I do live in Seattle, and it was a daily driver, and rumor has it that it rains here. I think I got used to opening the door letting some drips fall on my arm and then hopping out. FWIW, I'm pulling the drip rails on one of the Squares I have now too.

Nice to see your progress. Thanks for posting.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by LT7A

It seems that if you have a low spot that is about 1/8 deep by 12 in diameter that just filling it would be fine. If it was a quarter or 3/8 deep it seems that would be more of a concern. My concern is if you pop it back up and get everything smooth, is there a chance that you could bump it and it would pop back down. So I would finish it in whatever its most stable position is. There're definitely guys on here that know more than me about this though.

However, I will register an opinion on the drip rails. I had my first Square in the 90s and drove it for a couple years after pulling the drip rails and never noticed the difference. I'm sure that there is a difference since I agree GM thought it was important to put them on. But I do live in Seattle, and it was a daily driver, and rumor has it that it rains here. I think I got used to opening the door letting some drips fall on my arm and then hopping out. FWIW, I'm pulling the drip rails on one of the Squares I have now too.

Nice to see your progress. Thanks for posting.

So I tried pulling as much of the "dent" out as I could but it was difficult to use the puller since the roof is so flimsy. It was more just pulling up tiny little spots instead of sections. So I decided to leave it be. The deepest part of the dent is just less than 1/16" and that is only a 2"x2" section. The rest of it is only around .03"-.05" deep(using a feeler gauge). I have basically the entire roof evened out at this point. I need to go over 1 or two spots again with filler to get it ready for some polyester surfacer and then high build primer. I believe with those two last steps the roof will be perfect.

Once the roof is done with normal filler, I can move onto a few more sections. (specifically the back of the cab and the cab seam I welded up. I already went over that welded seam with some fiberglass filler).

Thanks for any input guys.

[44boggers]

Hi guys,

Making some progress on getting this truck straight, so after all the metal work was done to the best of my ability I shot the truck with 3 coats of epoxy followed up (1 day later) with three coats of slick sand (poly primer). Then the block sanding began!! I just finished the first round of block sanding and it is getting very close to being as flat as possible. There are still some very slight low areas, but one more round of poly primer should take care of it.

This next round I will only block sand the roof, windshield frame, rear of the cab and inner door frame of the cab. The rest I am going to wait until I prep the fenders and doors and set the bed on to make sure all the lines are straight and line up. Well actually I need to get the doors and fenders lined up properly and see where my gaps end up.

Once that is all together I will then block the doors, fender and cab all in one in hope of making it look seamless so to speak.
Till next time.

Paul

[44boggers]

Painted up the AC delete cover with the same base/clear as the body. I used my mini gun on this one and I am very happy, barely any orange peal. Ill let it cure out for a few days or a week then cut and buff it (got a few dirt nibs in there), then mount it up.

I am using the original air resistor which i didnt really want to do. I guess there is a non air resistor for a chevelle but being in Austria its not very easy to access these parts. But I cut the hole on the bottom of the cover so you wont be able to see the resistor or the wiring going to it (keeping the engine wire friendly free)
Tomorrow I will start on the front SS brake lines, then hook up the Dakota Digital transmission shift wires/linkage and speed sensor.

[44boggers]

Got some break lines bent up today. I have both front lines and the rear brake line from the prop valve down to the frame. I have the rear line already made up but I am switch everything to stainless steel line and fittings. Nothing to exciting to report, just a few pics. I still need to install a plug for the second front brake line out on the prop valve since I will only run one line out.

I still need to run a few more brake line clamps, but I would say the front brake set up is 99 percent done. I think it came out pretty clean on from the prop valve down to the frame. I really didnt want brakelines all over the place like the stock set up.

These pics show how much dust has collected over thel ast couple years of sitting. Driving my OCD crazy

Thats it for now.

Paul

[44boggers]

Ok, got some stuff done but also realized I made a big mistake 2 years ago. First the stuff that looks good. I finished cut and buffing the AC delete cover so it will match the firewall perfect.

Now for the big mistake. Two years ago when I drilled a hole in the firewall for my spark plug firewall pass thru thing, I just happened to mount it directly in the same spot where part of my heater box (interior) will be. So now the end of the box hits it not allowing me to bolt down the box or keep the spark plug on.
I really dont want to remove the spark plug pass thru because it will leave a big hole in the firewall which is in final paint.

One option might be to modify the heater box. Basically shaving the end of the box and using some epoxy to seal it back up. But also the vacuum actuator is also in the way. I would also need to shave that down and hopefully the epoxy will do the trick.
Or another option would be to ditch the bulk head fitting altogether and just put in a larger grommet that would cover the hole plus screw holes and just run the plug wire directly from the MSD coil to the dist. That way I dont need to mess with the box or mess up the box. I dont think its possible to shorten the bulk head fitting. Basically to shave down the copper prong.
The pics are below. Let me know what you guys think. Basically it was piss poor planning on my part and I did not double check everything that would be on the inside.

[44boggers]

The last few weeks I started to tackle the wiring in the truck. I have about 90 percent of my painless harness wired as well as my dakota digital dash. I think I am putting the cart before the horse here a bit, but I havent had the time to work on the body , so I figured i would get a head start on the wiring. Anyway that is sorting itself out alright.

Moving to the rear of the truck, I took the axle back out of the truck and stripped off the shock mounts, spring perches and brake line holders, so I could get ready to sort out my pinion angle and weld on new spring perches instead of using a flip kit. I got my pinion right around 1* negative (i first got the pinion and trans/motor parallel to each other, but opposite degrees) and then pushed the pinion down around 1* to compensate for the axle rotating under acceleration. After the pinion was set I tacked in the perches.

Next thing is to move onto the shock mounts. This is where I am a little unsure of how I should mount them. I thought I read somewhere factory shocks were mounted around 30* to help with axle wrap. Then I read people use the shock extenders to create a better shock angle. So what degree of shock angle should i shoot for.

My shocks fully extended have around 8 1/4" of shaft showing. I was thinking of having them at right height with around 3" of shaft showing. With this amount of shaft showing and the shock around 30* it looks like I would have need to make my shock mounts around 3.5" longer than stock.
Is that close to what the shock extenders are?

Now one more thing to discuss which is a big concern of mine. I was measure the wheel base when I noticed the driver side is around 3/4" to 1" shorter the pass side. This was a bit of a surprise to me because when i drove the truck prior to taking it apart it drove straight and there were no issues. BUT the frame was cracked at the steering box and there were a **** load of shims on the driverside A arm. I dont ever remember the driver side wheel looking like it was not centered in the wheelwell.

I am not really sure how to proceed from here, but I am going to worry about it when its time to. Cause right now the truck is so far along and everything from the A arm back is straight, I am going to continue working on the rear end and and begin the body work on the bed. I mean the PO was able to make it drive perfect under its current circumstances. Maybe I can find a frame repair shop somewhere in austria or germany who can do some corrections without beating the crap out of my powder coating.

Thanks for any input.

Paul

[44boggers]

Its been a while since I posted, life has been busy, but I have been chopping away at it. I have 95 percent of my wiring all done. I am waiting on a dakota digital fan controller and then the interior wiring other than the stereo system is finished.
I did not have the original dash speaker corner brackets so I simply just made my own which cradle the 3" speaker, powder coated it and bolted it in the original location. It sits just below flush of the dash so there should not be any interference with the dash pad.
I received my radiator from Wizard Cooling in New York. I am very happy with how it came out, a nice shroud with dual Spal fans.
Brakes have been bled. I had to redo all of my flares on my brake lines. I have never had a fitting leak until I used this stainless steal brake line. Literally every fitting with a 45 degree leaked. The flares looked good to me (normal). I tried loosening and re-tightening but nothing would fix it. So I decided to convert everything to AN fittings, problem solved.
I had my bed floor and wheel wells sandblasted, which I then epoxied and sprayed bedliner top and bottom. I decided to go the bedliner route because I want to be able to through bags or whatever in the bed and not be afraid to scratch up the paint.
I am also happy with how the fuel filler came out. I think it looks clean and like it is supposed to be there.

I am gone for the next 5 weeks but when I get back I will finish the wiring and drop the radiator in and be able to drive it out of my garage for the first time in 4 or 5 year. Then its time to fit the door, fender and hood gaps and finish the body work. I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Oh yeah and the most import, get it TUV approved to drive in Austria.

[twinturboc10]

What kind of AN hose are you using for power steering pressure line? Not many of them are rated for that kind of pressure (1200 psi). It would suck to have one let go after all your work!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by twinturboc10

What kind of AN hose are you using for power steering pressure line? Not many of them are rated for that kind of pressure (1200 psi). It would suck to have one let go after all your work!

I’ll have to double check. It was a long time ago I bought the hose. But I thought u remember it being ok for high pressure. But I’ll double check for sure. Thanks for the insight!!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by twinturboc10

What kind of AN hose are you using for power steering pressure line? Not many of them are rated for that kind of pressure (1200 psi). It would suck to have one let go after all your work!

Good call. Just checked, its an Earls braided line rated up to 500 PSI. Guess I need to find something else!

But thanks a lot, that would have been a huge mess.

[moregrip]

Very nice work!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by moregrip

Very nice work!

Thanks buddy,

So here is a tip for anyone using slick sand or probably any polyester primer. If you lay down any epoxy before hand give it a few days to really cure. I waited 24 hours exactly and now that I am 99 percent done with the second blocking of the cab I realized that some of the slick sand was not really blocking smooth or feathering out properly. I put my finger nail to it and the epoxy was not fully cured which did not allow the slick sand to full cure. The top layer of S.S was hard but when it got thin close to the new epoxy you could scrape it off with your nail.

So now I am in the process of sanding off any of the slick I put over the new epoxy. So this was a huge mistake time wise, but good to know for the future. I already have about 4 hours into sanding the areas off so it feathers out into the the fully cured and sanded areas. You would think it would not take so long to sand it all off but when youre trying to make feather as nice as possible to the finished areas and then all of the areas in the door frame, well it just takes a long time i guess.
I probably need another few hours to finish it, then reapply the epoxy in the bare metal areas and just let it sit for a few days and then scuff and reapply the S.S

So a very good tip for anyone using this. I guess when they refer to the recoat window with epoxys and primers they are referring to laying another primer or base coat on top. Not a poly primer which uses a different type of hardener/activator, this is my guess.

Till next time

paul

[44boggers]

Not to much to add except for a few pictures. I need to go away for the next week so I figured it would be a great time to re epoxy the metal spots and elt it really cure before I redo the Slick Sand.
I ended up spending about 10 hours getting the cab ready for epoxy. I guess I covered more of the cab with epoxy than I thought before I shot the S.S last time. But for everyone, really make sure your epoxy is fully cured before shooting Polyester. I had to undo so much work and hours of sanding because of this mistake. But lesson learned. I spoke with evercoat and they said normally you should wait around 72 hours before applying over epoxy. But maybe I just layed the epoxy on too thick, because the first round of S.S went over 1 day cured epoxy and it was no problem.

Anyway, thats where we are now. Next week one more round of S.S and then a round of high build and this cab should be as straight as it can be. Going over the cab with a straight edge the deepest low spot is only .005" deep. So I think 2 coats of S.S will take care of that. The rest of the cab doesnt show any light under the straight edge.

-Paul

[44boggers]

Ok some small updates and a question for you guys.

First off I got my fender metal work complete, but I had to separate the pass. side fender by cutting out all the spot welds. I didnt want to use the puller because there were some bad creases to take care of as well as rust on the inside of the fender, so got it all straightened out and stripped to bare metal and epoxied, the fender is back together, i just need to re spotweld it. Then I can hang them and start working on my panel gaps,

I also resprayed the slick sand and its been sitting for two weeks now. SO I need to get on sanding that down for the final time.

Today I installed a flip kit, so now I will have a 4.5/7" drop. Everything went fine and dandy, took about 45 minutes to install. The question/problem I am now seeing is, that my driver side shock is almost bottomed out ( about 3/4'' of shaft showing. The passenger side has around 2 3/8" of shaft showing. I measured the rear of frame to the ground on both sides and it is the same height. But if I measure from the center of the lower shock mount to the center of the shock mount on both sides, the pass. side is around 1 5/8" longer than the driver side.
Can someone explain this one to me? did the factor mess up welding on the lower mount by that much? Or is there something I am seriously missing regarding my install?

Here are some pics.

Thanks

Paul

[esbstuff]

Well that's neat you took the fender apart to fix it. I have had many many squares and that is one thing I have never done! Thanks for the picture!

Edit: It may be too late now, but if you do another one, Id spot weld the welded nuts just in case...

[RADustin]

to avoid the stripes in the paint, always lead with a wet edge. the paint 'behind' your stroke will begin to dry, but you push the wet edge forward or across your panel to avoid any dry overspray. you can also mix the paint slower(for a warmer environment) to avoid this.


The low spots in your roof, assuming everything else was where it needs to be, probably needed to be stretched into place. So either hammer on dolly strikes to stretch it or some have success with a shrinking disc without the watch quench. It'll stretch a little.

a stud gun will not really stretch it. Any stretch you get is negated by the shrink the welded on stud causes.

While doing body work on my square and wanting to use the least amount of filler, I've found more times than not that the panels need to be stretched into a place instead of shrunk. Most body men just want to shrink and fill. So it's definitely a headache.

your progress looks nice though. Keep it up!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

to avoid the stripes in the paint, always lead with a wet edge. the paint 'behind' your stroke will begin to dry, but you push the wet edge forward or across your panel to avoid any dry overspray. you can also mix the paint slower(for a warmer environment) to avoid this.


The low spots in your roof, assuming everything else was where it needs to be, probably needed to be stretched into place. So either hammer on dolly strikes to stretch it or some have success with a shrinking disc without the watch quench. It'll stretch a little.

a stud gun will not really stretch it. Any stretch you get is negated by the shrink the welded on stud causes.

While doing body work on my square and wanting to use the least amount of filler, I've found more times than not that the panels need to be stretched into a place instead of shrunk. Most body men just want to shrink and fill. So it's definitely a headache.

your progress looks nice though. Keep it up!

Thanks for the tips. With the roof I couldnt hammer and dolly unless i romved the skin which I did not want to do. In the end the work I did got me very close and I am confident it is not a plastic filler roof.

It seems whenever I use my shrinking disc I end up flattening the panel to the point it is below the panels natural curve. I feel like I am not getting it very hot. When I have watched videos guys seem to use it much longer and even more aggressive. I guess I just need more practice.

But thanks again for your tips!

Any idea about my shock situation? Every point I measure on each side of the frame is the same except for the distance from the shock mount to shock mount. The frame to the floor, frame to axle ect.. are all the same, basically exactly the same. Even the distance from the lower shock mount to the floor is the same side to side. I feel like I am really missing something with this.

Paul

[44boggers]

Hey guys,

Got a few more things accomplished, I have the driver side fender welded back together and got both fenders in epoxy and sprayed one fender right away with slicksand and added any filler where needed. I decided I would try this method opposed to filler, then slicksand. I am currently working on the other fender right now, but skim coated the entire fender and will slicksand it once I am done blocking with 80 grit. I am not really sure which process works better. I think in the end it is exactly the same, but I am leaning towards spraying the slicksand before body filler.

I also blocked the entire cap once again, this time with 220 and it is flat as can be. With a straight edge there is no light shining through anywhere. I am also happy with how the shaved cab seem turned out. Next step will be to hit it with a few coats of high build and final block with 320 and 400, then its ready for paint.

This is a lot of work!!

Thats all for now.

Paul

[RADustin]

can you go into more detail on pulling the fender skins off and putting them back on?

how time consuming? was it worth it? etc?

Really considering this- but obviously will wreck the flange while pulling it off.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

can you go into more detail on pulling the fender skins off and putting them back on?

how time consuming? was it worth it? etc?

Really considering this- but obviously will wreck the flange while pulling it off.

It all comes down to how much time you want or can spend on your build. Also the level of resto you want. I really didnt want to use a stud puller on the damage. It took me about 2hours to drill out all the spot welds and once the welds were drilled the inner fender came right out. You do have to peal back one section of the fender lip but that can get hammered back into place once the fender is back in place. But in no way do you damage any fender lip.

I would do it all over again. I didnt like the fact that i could see so much rust and I wanted to hammer and dolly the panel as flat as I could.

But it is time consuming. Between cutting out the welds, then stripping all sides of the fender down to bare metal, I would say I have around 20 hours of work into the fender just to get it back to epoxy. So 20 hours in, cutting welds, hammer and dolly work, stripping all sides to bare metal, epoxy priming all sides of the fender and welding back together. And now another 5 hours in block sanding (round 1).

Paul

[RADustin]

It's a super cool idea. But I'm with you- I think we are going for similar quality builds. Minimum amounts of filler.

Problem I have is and this method solves- someone already drilled a bunch of holes to rip damage out. To properly weld up those holes I need access to the back of the skin.


How hard was it to align the inner and outer afterwards? Seems like I can drill 1/8" holes prior to disassembly and use clecos to line it back up if need be.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

It's a super cool idea. But I'm with you- I think we are going for similar quality builds. Minimum amounts of filler.

Problem I have is and this method solves- someone already drilled a bunch of holes to rip damage out. To properly weld up those holes I need access to the back of the skin.


How hard was it to align the inner and outer afterwards? Seems like I can drill 1/8" holes prior to disassembly and use clecos to line it back up if need be.

I had the same issues with previously drilled holes I needed to weld up.

The clecos idea is a good one, but I think the inner fender is lined up 99.99 percent good enough or close enough. There are certain areas of the fender you can uses as a guide to realign the fender, plus when you use a spot weld cutter it leaves the welded portion on the inner portion of the fender and the outter portion of the fender has a round hole from the spot cutter. So when you line the fenders back up the old weld fits right back in the hole and I used that as a guide and then filled in the rest of the hole with weld and it was no problem. If I have any alignment issues with the hood or so because the inner fender was not aligned perfect, it will be so slight that the hood adjustments will take care of it.

Hope all of that made sense.

Paul

[RADustin]

yep- for sure.

Well watch my '76 build. I'll be doing this.

thanks for the motivation to do it right!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

yep- for sure.

Well watch my '76 build. I'll be doing this.

thanks for the motivation to do it right!

I’ll be watching for sure. Let me know if you have any questions.
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