Brent's '72 Custom/10 SWB stepside build

[Brento]

Hey Brent, this is Brent. I just started posting my build... http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=318923 ...and checked yours out. Looks like we have more in common than the name Brent and a 72' C-10. Our parts supplier (CPP) even matches. Kinda freaky considering the parts we both bought. Good luck with your build.

[brossow]

Finally got my garage wired for the oven today and tried my hand at powdercoating some stuff. Did the pair of spindles and they came out pretty good (they were rough sand cast to start with and I did absolutely no smoothing or filling so I didn't expect much; the pic below is after the first coat -- they got two coats apiece) as well as some tie rod sleeves that turned out beautifully. Can't wait to try some more stuff -- have to look around for something to coat!

FedEx dropped off a package from Eastwood this morning, so I was also able to finish painting the K-member (wanted to use spray Chassis Black on the top; did the bottom with a brush) as well.

Now I have to go back out and try to cram all the stuff back into the garage that I took out to make room for the stove. That's gonna be fun. I think my Fiero's new rims and tires are going to the basement instead of back in the garage.

[msgross]

cool, let me know when you're at full production and i'll ship more parts to you to get done!

[bryanschevyparts]

brent are you p coating on the side ?pm me your prices thanks

[brossow]

You can probably guess what I spent the day doing. It occurred to me today that one of the many great things about being divorced is that I can commandeer a cookie sheet for garage work and there's no one to b*tch at me about doing so.

Pic 1 is of the U-bolts for the leaf springs. Pic 2 is of the parts that holds the springs to the axle. (Does it have a name?) I had already blasted, primed, and painted those pieces with Chassis Black (several coats, and did a darn good job, too!) but decided to strip them again and powdercoat instead. It took forever to get that paint off!

Pic 3 is of the CPP front shock reinforcing brackets. They got a bit gouged up when I was marking the holes to drill in the frame and I decided to strip them and powdercoat them in platinum to match the other front suspension stuff. Why? Because I could.

Pic 4 is of the drop spindles, finally completed to my satisfaction. They've got four coats now after a couple intentional coats and two touch-up passes.

Pic 5 is my best piece yet -- it's the brake pedal assembly and it turned out PERFECT! I forgot to powdercoat one piece so I can't reassemble it yet, but I'll post more pics when I do.

Sorry about the poor lighting in some of the pics. Worked until well past dark tonight.

[brossow]

Originally Posted by msgross

cool, let me know when you're at full production and i'll ship more parts to you to get done!

Originally Posted by bryanschevyparts

brent are you p coating on the side ?pm me your prices thanks

I really hadn't thought much about doing it for other people -- just started doing this for my own project -- but if you let me know what you need done I'll think about it and let you know if I can do it and we can figure out a price. Just can't do anything that won't fit in a standard-size oven. PM me with what you want done and we can go from there.

[Riveted1]

Looks like fun! I need to get me one of those setups. And a bigger garage.... LOL

[brossow]

Originally Posted by Riveted1

Looks like fun! I need to get me one of those setups. And a bigger garage.... LOL

Tell me about it! I'm doing this in an 18x18 garage. Ouch....

[brossow]

More to show off! Got the brake pedal assembly put back together this morning. Made a quick run to pick up a stainless bolt and a new brake light switch so it would be as good as possible before eventually being reinstalled. Darn happy with how it turned out, to say the least.

Then I tried my hand at the chrome powdercoat. Considering I wasn't working with pristine parts, the chrome stuff came out AWESOME, just as shiny as actual chrome. Unfortunately, when I followed it up with clear, it lost some of its luster. Not sure if that's because of something I did (temp too high? too much powder?) or if it's just the nature of the clear coat. The unassembled pics of the master cylinder are prior to the clear coat; the assembled pic is with it. I think you can see the difference -- kinda went from chrome to silver, but I can live with it. I'll have to do some experimenting with the chrome/clear to see if I can improve.

Last pic is the washer reservoir bracket in chrome and clear, plus the retainers for the MC cap. One more pic will follow in a separate post (reached the limit of 5 here).

[Blue'72]

Nice detail!!!

[brossow]

Originally Posted by Blue'72

Nice detail!!!

Thanks! I'm actually now thinking about selling the MC/booster setup. I still need a prop valve and brackets, which is gonna run me at least $120-130 plus shipping. For $229 right now on eBay CPP has a complete booster / MC / bracket / prop valve / line kit for $229 ($329 on their website). I'd have to redo the powdercoating on the new MC but I don't mind.

Anyone interested in the stuff? MC as pictured above plus reman booster still in the box.

UPDATE: Setup is now for sale here.

Brent

[brossow]

Got a little bit done today. Still waiting for the tubular LCAs to arrive (UPS says 10/7) so decided it was time to get the K-member bolted back on. Managed to get that done with only four (yes, FOUR) trips back and forth to two different stores for hardware. The gas cost me more than the bolts! Good thing it's not that far. While up front, I decided to set the CPP tubular motor mounts in place to see how they would work. Looks good! They're not bolted in permanently, just finger-tight.

Also stripped and powdercoated the front backing plates. Had previously coated them with Rust Converter and Rust Encapsulator, but that was before I had my blasting cabinet and powdercoating setup. I think they turned out rather nice.

[brossow]

Did some more PCing today. The prop valve was so beautiful once it was blasted and cleaned on the wire wheel that I simply gave it a coat of clear and I'm REALLY happy with the result. The pics don't do it justice.

Also did the prop valve bracket in chrome, along with the old MC cover and retainer. The old cover was very pitted but I figured what the heck. I'm not going to be using it but maybe someone else would like it for a daily driver. Chrome stuff turned out nice, at least considering what was underneath the powdercoat (rather pitted metal).

[brossow]

Took the day off work today and got a little bit more done. Kinda killing time waiting for the LCAs, which are supposed to be here tomorrow.

Did the headlight buckets first and they turned out spectacular -- just as good as the brake pedal assembly.

Then I started in on the hood hinges. Got one hinge completely stripped and ready to powdercoat and got both springs coated. I've purchased (years ago) a couple sets of powdercoated hood hinges for my other trucks and was very disappointed in how the springs were done -- rust in between the coils and peeling powdercoating -- because the springs were apparently completely compressed when they were prepped and coated. I wasn't about to do that kind of shoddy work on my own parts, so I media blasted the springs while they were still on the hinges (and therefore slightly spread out). Then to get the powdercoat everywhere, including between the coils, I built a little spreader out of a couple bolts and a nut, just a quarter-inch or so longer than the compressed spring. I used a grinding wheel to slot the heads on the bolts so the spring wouldn't slip off, then stuck the assembly inside the spring, seated one end on one of the hooks, then used my god-like strength to pull the spring far enough apart that it would slip over the other slotted bolt head. That kept a slight gap between the coils, which not only ensured complete coverage but also made it a LOT easier to make sure the inside of the spring got completely coated as well. After the first coat was done and had cooled, I removed the spreader and added a second coat to cover the spots that were covered by the bolt heads on the first pass.

Hope this info helps someone else do a quality job on their hood springs, even for painting if not powdercoating. There are probably better ways to do it, but I made this one up based on my frustration of paying for other people's sub-par work.

Hope to finish prepping the other hinge tomorrow but may not jump right into powdercoating them. Have to think about how to approach it, since I can't disassemble them like I did the brake stuff and there are moving parts with tight clearances. Gonna take at least two coats, possibly more. No perfect solution short of disassembly, I'm sure.

[brossow]

Last night I worked until after dark and got the freshly painted rearend back under the truck and bolted in place for good using the hardware I previously powdercoated. Need to borrow a 15/16" deep socket from my dad to finish tightening the nuts but otherwise it should be ready to go.

Got the front sway bar installed today (and I know I'll have to remove it at least partially in a few days when the front springs get here). Then it started raining and I had to give up for the day. Typical weekend. Had to chisel out a couple more rivets for the mounts and then do some touchup paint work, but I'm really happy with the way the stuff turned out. I used the shorter brackets I bought separately for this purpose -- they're for trucks that are lowered. Really fought with the sway bar installation until I realized that it worked a LOT better to have the A-arms raised into a more "natural" position. (Some of you reading this are saying "DUH!!" right now I'm sure.)

Hope to get the power steering box cleaned up tomorrow and ready to bolt on. Really need to bite the bullet and order brake lines but I keep putting it off. One of these days.... That's something I can work on over the winter if necessary; right now I just need to get wheels on it so I can roll it into the garage again.

[msgross]

sorry to hear the bad news... but maybe it will turn into good news when you land the new job... Things happen for a reason you know...

I'll gather some pieces up for PC and you can let me know the prices. I'll do my hinges and brake booster brackets... maybe a hood latch as well...

[brossow]

Originally Posted by msgross

I'll gather some pieces up for PC and you can let me know the prices. I'll do my hinges and brake booster brackets... maybe a hood latch as well...

Sounds good! PM me to let me know when you're ready and I'll give you my address and we'll figure out a price. I'll want to know what needs to be done prior to PC -- media blasting, degreasing, etc. I'm sure we can come up with something we both agree on and you'll be happy with the result.

[68chevy68]

Looking really good!!! I hope to go all tubular up front one day.

[brossow]

This announcement has been a long time in the making! I'm happy to announce that as of this afternoon my truck (or what remains of it) is back on all four wheels for the first time in more than a year. Clearly there's a lot of work yet to be done, but for the first time in this project I really, really feel like I've accomplished something significant. There have been a lot of little "victories" along the way (such as my brake pedal assembly of which I'm extremely proud) but this really makes it feel "real."

Before I roll it away for the winter, I still need to finish up the steering stuff with a new gear box and Pitman arm and I want to get the engine and tranny dropped into place at least temporarily. But after that, the plan is to carefully set the new cab onto the frame and then pack it up until spring. It's depressing to think about not doing anything until next April, but that's life in this part of the world when you don't have decent facilities in which to work year-round.

Before I upload the pics, I want to offer a heartfelt thanks to everyone on here who has encouraged me and provided answers to what were sometimes stupid questions. I wouldn't have gotten nearly as far as I have without this place, and I appreciate the opportunity the site provides for me to post some pics, show off my hard work that no one else I know even seems to care about, and ramble on as I'm doing now.

I'll have more to offer before the snow flies, but just in case I hope everyone reading this has a great winter and whatever holidays you celebrate between now and spring.

Brent

[Alan's Classic]

It looks awesome!!

[msgross]

I was happy to get mine there as well, I even have a pic from that day hanging at my desk at work... next pic will be all the body panels installed for fitment...

good job,

[big_al_71]

Thats too bad not been able to do anything for months, great progress so far. If you were closer I would offer you my shop, tools and all the help you needed to get it back on the road....
Good luck and happy holidays!!!!

[brossow]

Some good news and some bad news the past couple of days. The good news is I got a new job. Start Monday at a higher wage than I was making previously. The bad news is that when I attempted to set the LS1 in place it quickly became obvious that it wasn't gonna be that easy and that I was going to have a lot of research to do. Current list of known issues:

1. Clearance issues between the alternator and AC compressor and the frame
2. Possible clearance issue between the F-body oil pan and the front crossmember

I absolutely hate having to research this stuff for some reason, but it's time to suck it up and do it. I know the answers are out there. Time to start looking....

[Ackattack]

I didn't have any clearance issues with my F-body pan and the crossmember. But your motor mounts may be different than mine....I made my own.

I'm using corvette accessories. It basically mounts the A/C compressor in the frame, but it does clear. I think the truck accessories would be the easiest and cheapest way to go. Good luck!

Oh, and congrats on the new job!

[brossow]

Thanks for the quick reply, Ackattack! Wonder if you'd mind looking at the slightly more detailed post I made in the general forum? Here's the link:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=312879

Thanks in advance!