67 C-10 project.

[lolife99]

Wes at Classic Heartbeat sells a front fender cup patch panel.

http://www.classicheartbeat.com/cata...nder%20tip.htm

[JasonBird]

awesome! thanks Keith!

[spike38]

It's coming along nicely.
And don't you just love those bondo surprises.

Spike

[JasonBird]

thanks spike! i do love surprises! after sseing the bondo job on the back the bed (it's about 3/8" thick) i was surprised to see just a skim coat on the front. trying really hard to not let this get away from me...lol...little bit at a time and not start too many other things at the same time!

[67chevy1series]

i hate the bondo suprises!

[JasonBird]

well, i have a three day weekend! hopefully i can get some progress made on the truck. It's been a crazy week of weather! 67 degrees last weekend, then yesterday it was -8 degrees, and we had got a total of 12" of snow in the week. supposed to be back in the 60's by this coming week! Crazy! busy sanding off paint.

[67chevy1series]

ahh you suck jason! i only have a 2 day weekend! have you done any work to the truck lately

[spike38]

Originally Posted by 67chevy1series

ahh you suck jason! i only have a 2 day weekend! have you done any work to the truck lately

If it make you feel any better, I have to work 36 hrs in the next 3 days,

Spike

[67chevy1series]

haha! i guess it does!

[JasonBird]

well, this is work! i sanded all day practicaly and got almost all of one side of the bed sanded down. my sanding wheel is wearing out slowly, or the bed paint is getting tougher! i might need to get a roll of 80 grit paper and try that. tomorrow i'll try and get some pictures. my son is at a wrestling tournament all day tomorrow so i wont get to far i don't think on getting my crossmember all bolted up.

[67chevy1series]

do 180 grit i did my cab with 180 and with a nice primer it looks great!

[JasonBird]

yeah, the 80 grit is to get the paint off...then i'll go back an hit it with the finer stuff. i'm going back to Lowes now to return the scotch brite wheel things i bought yesterday. they clogged up after two minutes and just smeared the paint around.

[67chevy1series]

wow those suck! yes so there is 3 layers of paint/primer?

[JasonBird]

yeah pretty much primer and blue paint over the original green paint and primer. i worked all day on the bed and and got about all of it. the PO had swiped something on the rh side and creased the lower part of the bed, and also something had come up from the bottom and put a nice dent in it. But around the wheel well was pretty straight, and once i got under there, it was all pretty much rust free. so with a block of wood, ball pein hammer and a large brass hammer i started to straighten it all back out. got it pretty close. needed a set of the curved metal things you body guys use. I went to O'Reilys auto down the street and got a 7 piece hammer set for $19.95. worked pretty good...as good as i know how to use em anyways! got the front section done and then moved to the back. here's some before pics of the damage...

[JasonBird]

here's some in progress pictures, and some of the goodies i got. love new projects and excuses to buy cool tools!

it's still not perfect, but it's a lot better than it was three hours bedore!

[67chevylongbed]

Looks pretty good!

[JasonBird]

then to the back....this i knew was going to be ugly...a large chunk of Bondo had fallen out in the previous years, and it had gotten rusty. so i needed to get it all off. the grinder with a heavy duty wire brush took care of getting all of the bondo out and damage was not as bad as i had feared. Since i can't get in the back of the panel to hammer the dents out, and i showed the wife the dilema, i convinced to go with me to Harbor Freight and pick up a stud welder. I had read in another post that these worked pretty good for the money. The weak part being the eccentric gripping wheel on the slide hammer. So i thought i could use a 20% off any item on it and get the package for $79 but they wouldn't allow a coupon on welders oh well...still $99 was not too bad. i got it home and welded up a few studs. the key to it is making sure that you have a really clean bare metal area around where you are welding. there is a collar thing around the nose that has to make good contact for it to work. pretty slick though. i've never used one and it was easy. but of course, as expected...the slide hammer was a fail. it worked for about 5 studs and now won't grip the studs. i'd like to be able to come up with a way to fix it. an Eastwood hammer is $89

[JasonBird]

heck yeah! i wish i had 10 kids! lol

[67chevy1series]

haha if i lived closer you would have somthin just as good as 10 kids.... i would be over there everyday helpin you

[makman1297]

I have the same stud gun and the slide hammer is a piece, what I did was bought a pair of vice grips and welded a nut on it on the adjuster knob. I then threaded the nut on the slide hammer stud. Works very well and is really cheap. I think I used a pair of HF vice gripes so it was only about $8 to fix the slide hammer up.

[JasonBird]

heck, that'd be so cool Rick! you'd be the best help ever!

Makman!! that is a great idea! i think i can do that....will give me an excuse to try the welder....oh boy.

[67chevy1series]

i enjoy workin on these trucks it would be fun!

[JasonBird]

picture for you blood hounds!!

[67chevy1series]

you think thats funny and hurts try grinding on metal for about 5 minutes and then touching it right after .... my dad did that today like 4 times ! hilarious!

[JasonBird]

Makman your idea was great...i didn't have a nut large enough to thread onto the slide hammer rod, so i welded another bolt onto the end of it and the nut onto the vice grips. worked great...i had to re-weld the bolt and the nut each one time. after i cranked up the voltage on the welder that seemed to have fixed that! yay! got one small dent near the brake light pulled out. still working on the other dent on the side. this metal is tough stuff! and this dent is huge! i'll try the 4mm studs tomorrow and see if i have better luck. oh and a mental note to myself! keep fingers out of the way of the slide hammer....i have a nice blood blister on my pinky now!! OUCH!