my C10 project....building a truck from a heap of parts

[moregrip]

Originally Posted by rusty76

Awesome on the Degree.

thanks man, I did not enjoy it but she's done

[moregrip]

Update:

Since I need/ed to create more room in the garage (family stuff adds up!) to allow me enough space to really dive into this project, I came up with a plan to build a shed on the side of the house. Well along with that came repainting the trim on our home, a concrete side walkway to the pool, various small stucco repairs, and an in ground pull-up bar for the boys.....(she got me!)

Note to Self: digging two 3ft deep holes in heavily rock filled dirt is not fun......at all (what was I thinking!)

I just put in for a week off work to go ahead and get the exterior paint completed, pull-up bar in the ground, redo landscaping lighting/irrigation, and get the concrete pad poured for the shed.

Bought one of those Harbor Freight Concrete mixers to get the job done.....should be fun right?

I think I will actually have fun building the shed though....be good to run some nails through my Hitachi Nail Gun again!

So that gets us up to date, basically doing a lot of non truck build related stuff so I can get back to the build with the room I'll need to really get this thing going!

Oh, made one more purchase I should mention.........been wanting to learn how to machine for many years now; sort of a retirement promise/goal to myself.....Grizzly G0704 Mill enroute!

[rusty76]

We’ve got lots of stuff too. But in all it’s ok. I cleaned out the garage and stuff seems to make it’s way back. Good luck with your house endeavors.

[Dads79GMC]

Originally Posted by rusty76

We’ve got lots of stuff too. But in all it’s ok. I cleaned out the garage and stuff seems to make it’s way back. Good luck with your house endeavors.

So true!!

[moregrip]

Originally Posted by rusty76

We’ve got lots of stuff too. But in all it’s ok. I cleaned out the garage and stuff seems to make it’s way back. Good luck with your house endeavors.

Originally Posted by Dads79GMC

So true!!

you're both probably right.....in my head the garage would be only my project/work/relax area

[moregrip]

I digress:

Homeowners Association hit us up for fading paint on our "pop out" trim, instead of whatever color it was that turned pink I went ahead and starting a color change





Not a fun project when it's 112 cozy degrees lately but at least I'm losing weight right!

[rusty76]

You should paint the trim a light color so they won’t be able to tell it faded. Lol.

[moregrip]

Update: Exterior of the house is painted, added a pull up bar via two 3ft deep holes in the backyard for the boys, next up; concrete pad for the shed, build the shed, move stuff from the garage to shed, and then finally get back to work on this project!

[Tsoptich83]

Good looking truck. I like those old Inline 6's. I had one a 250 in my old 66 with a 3 on the tree that my pops swap to floor **** for me. It was my first rig in high school and those engines just run. Looking forward to seeing some more progress. Did I miss the reason for the lean to? Is it for storing a rig? Any way keep it up.

[moregrip]

Originally Posted by Tsoptich83

Good looking truck. I like those old Inline 6's. I had one a 250 in my old 66 with a 3 on the tree that my pops swap to floor **** for me. It was my first rig in high school and those engines just run. Looking forward to seeing some more progress. Did I miss the reason for the lean to? Is it for storing a rig? Any way keep it up.

Thank you, thank you. The reason for the LeanToo is I'm working with a 3 car garage = not a whole lot of real estate left for projects/working area; need more storage for things like pedal bikes, lawn care, house paint etc etc and some parts storage.

I'm determined to see this one through, I've waited 20 years to setup a home work shop so I can work on these projects! I still have a full time job but no longer always away like when I was on active duty.

[moregrip]

Lol, I gotta tell ya, hunting down these old parts is a HUGE learning experience. sometimes I have to buy 3 or 4 parts to find a nice matching set.

Example. Bought an NOS GM RH taillight, surface scratches everywhere made in the USA (according to the box). Probably buff out just fine. Then I bought what I thought would be a matching new LH tail light from GM, made in Taiwan (did not know it was an overseas piece), beautiful piece actually, no scratches whatsoever. Taiwan part has GM logo on it, USA part has GUIDE IT on it where the GM logo is on the Taiwan piece. My point being, even though both parts are nice in their own way for what they are, and even though both parts (to the best of my knowledge) are exactly as described and what I paid for, they don't really match, so I either need an NOS GM LH tail light or a New RH GM Taiwan piece.

Went through the same thing for side marker lights. I'm sure most of you are much more informed than I, but I gotta tell you, this is a steep learning curve.

Lesson 1: Even if you get what you paid for there's still a chance it won't match the other side and the condition WILL vary.

Lesson 2: I don't even know what questions to ask until I get the part in hand because I don't have enough experience to realize all the production differences.

Lesson 3: If you can put eyes on something you want or need in person prioritize that purchase over a part with pictures on ebay or the internet, no matter how good the pictures!

Lesson 4: If you think your being annoying and have asked enough questions, you probably haven't.

I'm learning! Luckily, most of my lessons have not been terribly expensive, so far anyway!

[moregrip]

wow, not too shabby, I might have to waste a little more time on it:

[Dads79GMC]

Well, I have some very expensive lessons learned, l’ve hidden from public view on my 79 GMC build!!! Lol
Great work Chief!! Mike

[moregrip]

put in a little more time:

Before



After

[moregrip]

not sure why this is making me smile like it does, but damn that paint ain't half bad, ain't half good either!

[moregrip]

well 32, 90lb bags of concrete later the foundation for my "lean too" shed is curing! what a hoot!

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by moregrip

not sure why this is making me smile like it does, but damn that paint ain't half bad, ain't half good either!

That is some very nice, shiny, patina. I'd roll w/it w/o question.

Slick paints jobs are costly. Not so sure they're a worthy ROI when going that far for a cruiser/driver especially w/paint that looks like that after some attention.

[moregrip]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

That is some very nice, shiny, patina. I'd roll w/it w/o question.

Slick paints jobs are costly. Not so sure they're a worthy ROI when going that far for a cruiser/driver especially w/paint that looks like that after some attention.

no doubt, we'll see how it all turns out when its finished....I'd like to do a bit more buffing and make the call then. I'll post some progress pics as there are some challenges, i.e. some of the patina looks like it was a paint prep plan gone bad.

[moregrip]

I never seem to be in the right place at the right time or know the right people to find the truly nice pieces but at least I was able to source these locally, they ARE rough, although the price seemed fair enough considering the repairs needed.

The not so bad:

[moregrip]

the not so good:

going to need a bed rocker pretty-much on both sides, this one is also dented on the rear



both bed rail have extra holes in them and this bed rail rear stake pocket is deformed a bit and metal cracked in one place



inner structure and bed side seperated on both bedsides with some metal cracking

[moregrip]

5'x15' lean-too shed base complete! This is HUGE as the completion of this shed = much more garage space!

[Dads79GMC]

Those bed sides are Iowa beautiful!! Mike

[moregrip]

Originally Posted by Dads79GMC

Those bed sides are Iowa beautiful!! Mike

I'm going to use these bedsides as my practice set. Worst case, I screw them up and lose the $150 they cost me. Either way, I imagine I'll gain some valuable experience

I'll do my very best to make Iowa proud!

contemplating my approach.....options in consideration:

separate inner bed panel from outer bed panel; inner bed rail edge is wavy and is 2 panels thick, multiple bed-rail holes means water has had access between the two panels, possibly better access to rear stake pocket for repairs.

leave bedsides intact; treat all rust I have access too, encapsulate as much of the non-finished surfaces I can, weld all edge cracking as it sits, hammer and dolly all double metal panels as best I can, weld **** additional bed-rail holes.

These bedsides will give me a nice side-project while I'm building the lean-too shed without getting over bearing.

[moregrip]

been raining and snowing here lately and the wife's ride needed new brakes so haven't started the framing on the shed just yet; hoping to nail some boards together next weekend. In the mean time I took my framing nailer apart, cleaned and greased it, test fired, ready to go, that old Hitachi is still running strong.

Then I went and did a dumb thing; I bought half a dozen socket organizers. Guess what I learned? I'm missing alot of sockets.....lol......but I still got my 10mm. Damn things grew legs I suppose. Anyway, been patching my socket sets back together.....nothing fancy here, mostly Craftsman.
Of note, looks like my local Lowe's is phasing out Kobalt and will be exclusively a Craftsman supplier now. Even though their stuff isn't USA made anymore, exchanging a broken tool ought to be alot easier/closer.

[moregrip]

long-story-short:

1. the shed wasn't building itself
2. tried to do the right thing and pay someone to build it
3. that was a mistake
4. now renting storage space
5. moving in all my rusted metal
6. starting a new build thread when I actually start the project
7. March 1st goal date

live and learn!