Fashionable Fever! - 1969 Chevy C10 Build

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by Kronald_70GMC

Good to see you back at it. I was wondering what happened to you there. Sounds like you've been busy.

I've been lurking around the site here and there. I tried to stay away so I wouldn't get side tracked on my house stuff

[clay68c10]

Life definitely gets in the way, particularly house projects. House before hot rod is how it has to be tho.
Nice progress. How’s the firewall and cowl rebuild going?

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by clay68c10

Life definitely gets in the way, particularly house projects. House before hot rod is how it has to be tho.
Nice progress. How’s the firewall and cowl rebuild going?

It's not lol. I gotta get back on the cab soon, but I've been putting off getting my frame to be a roller for so long, I finally just bit the bullet and ordered some brakes for the back. Once I get the brakes finished, I can throw my "cheap" wheels on it and get the frame off the jack stands.

I've been trying to come up with ideas on a homemade paint booth that I can just have set up in my garage for awhile. I think I have a plan figured out finally, now its just cleaning the corner of the garage and building it. I really need to get going on priming some of my parts that I have sitting around with no paint before they spot rust.

[ryans69chevy]

Made a little more progress on my brakes. I ended up ordering new hubs for the front to make it a 5x5 pattern. In doing so, I either had to order new rotor hats ($225 a piece) or drill the 5x5 pattern into my existing ones.

Ended up drilling my existing ones. I did 3 of the 5 holes myself on one of the rotor hats, but couldn't get the last 2 holes since they were half way into the existing holes. (I need a drill press). I called up my buddy who is a machinist, and he was happy to help. I brought over both rotor hats to his garage and watched him do it. Pretty amazing to watch him do the work on his mill. Both hats fit nicely, now its just getting the front brakes put back together.

[ryans69chevy]

Last month I cleaned a section of the garage out and built a paint booth. So I've been spraying epoxy on parts that I've had sandblasted.
Had some extra time yesterday and got a little more done on the cab.

[ryans69chevy]

Feels like I'm bouncing around with working on different parts of the pickup. I'd rather stay focused on one thing, but years ago I got carried away sanding parts down to clean metal and never did anything with them. Well now they are starting to spot rust so I've been trying to get them cleaned up again and send them through my paint booth. I'm hoping to get most of them through before it gets too cold this year.

I started with spraying alot of the parts that won't be seen to get used to using a gun. I used Nason Ful-Poxy since that's what I bought a couple years ago. The stuff laid down really nice. I'm just going to continue using this on unseen parts until the quart is gone.

I then decided to switch to PPG products. Wasn't getting very good customer service where they sell the Nason. Being that its my first time painting a vehicle, I have quite a few questions. When I've been in the place with Nason products, they didn't seem like they wanted to give me the time of day. Shopped around at a couple of other places and found one that has been more than happy to answer alot of newbie questions.

I chose the PPG Shopline JP375. Sprayed my tailgate first. Seems like this stuff is a little more finicky as far as gun setup. The two coats I put on, orange peeled. I should have tested it on a small part and let it dry fully before spraying this, but when I was dialing in the gun, I assumed it would dry smooth. Turns out after I sprayed both coats, my regulator was set too low. Dumb mistake. Sprayed one of my bed tubs this evening with higher psi and turned out better. Hardly any orange peel.

The picture with no epoxy looks like there is rust on the tailgate - its just the lighting. It was nice and clean before I sprayed it.

[ryans69chevy]

Warm weather again. Got this piece bent up and ready to burn in. The last piece needed for where the cab meets the firewall. Should have done this last fall before winter while the plan was all fresh in my head. Cut out the old rusted section (shown in the pic) and realized I cut too much metal out for what my shrinker could handle. Now I'll have to add some metal to fill the gap after this piece goes in. Oh well. The new piece isn't as crisp of a bend as the old one, but it matches the bend of the new metal that I welded in on the firewall.

Summer goal - get cab in epoxy. Lots of work ahead.

[ryans69chevy]

Finished welding in new metal where the cab meets the firewall. Prepped the area for epoxy where the inner cowl goes.

[Kronald_70GMC]

Nice! Good progress

[72 tigger]

Looks great

[ryans69chevy]

Been working on welding up the inner cowl to the cab. Bought this air tool that is alot like a mini belt sander. Works really well to grind welds in hard to reach areas.

Also welded up some metal on the passenger side to mirror the radius of the driver side. Have a few things left before I get the dash put back in for good.

[ryans69chevy]

Welded in the bottom lip of where the windshield sits. There was a gap from the factory on both the passenger side and the driver side. For such a small patch, it took awhile to bend those pieces back to back.

Also tacked my windshield washer pump bracket back on behind the dash. Looking through my pics - noticed it was over 3 years ago that I fixed all the rust on this bracket. Time flies.

Trying to get everything done that I can before I throw the dash in. Figured some of the stuff might be tough to do after I get it in.

[ryans69chevy]

Dash made it through the booth for epoxy and got it tacked in the cab. Used a foam brush to epoxy the areas where the dash will go in the cab (easier than pulling the cab into the booth). Have to finish filling in all the spot welds. Then on to the roof.

[Getter-Done]

Great Idea.

I really like your Paint booth room.
This is working for you.

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Great Idea.

I really like your Paint booth room.
This is working for you.

Thanks sir. Paint booth is working good. Only bad part about it is I lost floor storage. Had to shove everything to the side. Trip hazard zone all over in there.

[ryans69chevy]

Here's some more. Going to fish a pull string up for cab lights before welding the outer roof skin.

[ryans69chevy]

Outer roof skin all welded up. Still have to take a roloc to the back seam welds to clean them up. Turned out better than I thought. Took it nice and slow to avoid major warp.

Only thing not too impressed on is above the doors - filling in the spot weld holes didn't turn out as good as I hoped. I couldn't reach down in that valley up against the drip rail very good with my welder. It will all get filled in with seam sealer eventually, just wish I could have filled them in a little more. When I took my roof off originally, I used a 3/8" spot weld cutter, so I had that large of hole to fill back in.

Now on to cab corners and rockers...

[Kronald_70GMC]

Originally Posted by ryans69chevy

Outer roof skin all welded up. Still have to take a roloc to the back seam welds to clean them up. Turned out better than I thought. Took it nice and slow to avoid major warp.

Only thing not too impressed on is above the doors - filling in the spot weld holes didn't turn out as good as I hoped. I couldn't reach down in that valley up against the drip rail very good with my welder. It will all get filled in with seam sealer eventually, just wish I could have filled them in a little more. When I took my roof off originally, I used a 3/8" spot weld cutter, so I had that large of hole to fill back in.

Now on to cab corners and rockers...

Nice work! Looks good 👍

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by Kronald_70GMC

Nice work! Looks good 👍

Thank you sir.

Spent bits and pieces of the day working on rocker fitment and realigning my doors and all that. Kept getting frustrated. Had to step away a few times. Watched some videos and read through some threads on here. Might have to rework some of the stuff I did a few years ago - doesnt look like its fitting that well.

[ryans69chevy]

Finally came up with a plan on my rocker. Still not 100% sure how I needed to move it so much.

I installed my door and aligned it the best I could, but couldn't get my rocker to fit where it needs to. After some time measuring, I found out I needed to move my rocker down 1/4", but my inner rocker wouldnt allow it. Ended up cutting my inner rocker out and adding a 1/4" of metal to lower it. Would have liked to bend a whole new inner rocker, but my metal brake is only 30" wide. Pic shows the inner tacked in. Looks like the outer will work - now time to weld it in fully.

[nicklear36]

Originally Posted by ryans69chevy

Finally came up with a plan on my rocker. Still not 100% sure how I needed to move it so much.

I installed my door and aligned it the best I could, but couldn't get my rocker to fit where it needs to. After some time measuring, I found out I needed to move my rocker down 1/4", but my inner rocker wouldnt allow it. Ended up cutting my inner rocker out and adding a 1/4" of metal to lower it. Would have liked to bend a whole new inner rocker, but my metal brake is only 30" wide. Pic shows the inner tacked in. Looks like the outer will work - now time to weld it in fully.

I had the exact same problem. I had to move my inner rockers down more than an inch to get the door to close. It was frustrating to say the least!

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by nicklear36

I had the exact same problem. I had to move my inner rockers down more than an inch to get the door to close. It was frustrating to say the least!

Holy moly. Here I thought I messed something up with being 1/4" off. Must be somewhat of a common issue?

[ryans69chevy]

Got at it a little bit this past weekend. Finished up welding the inner rocker in place and getting my outer rocker where it should be. Tacked all the slices before taking it out to fully weld.

I installed my door again and now I am running into another issue with the striker plate. With the striker off, the door lines up with the body lines (3rd pic), but when I put the striker on, the door moves up maybe 1/8"-3/16" which makes the body lines not match up.

There is not much adjustment in the striker. Ive tried moving the latch that is bolted to the door, but that also has little adjustment in it. The only thing I can think of is making the holes for the bolts on the striker plate larger or elongated in hopes that it can move down more. Ive searched the board here and can't come up with anyone ever having to do that. I've read about someone filing down a little of the striker, but not sure thats the solution here. Is there another way that I'm just not seeing?

[nicklear36]

Originally Posted by ryans69chevy

Got at it a little bit this past weekend. Finished up welding the inner rocker in place and getting my outer rocker where it should be. Tacked all the slices before taking it out to fully weld.

I installed my door again and now I am running into another issue with the striker plate. With the striker off, the door lines up with the body lines (3rd pic), but when I put the striker on, the door moves up maybe 1/8"-3/16" which makes the body lines not match up.

There is not much adjustment in the striker. Ive tried moving the latch that is bolted to the door, but that also has little adjustment in it. The only thing I can think of is making the holes for the bolts on the striker plate larger or elongated in hopes that it can move down more. Ive searched the board here and can't come up with anyone ever having to do that. I've read about someone filing down a little of the striker, but not sure thats the solution here. Is there another way that I'm just not seeing?

I would try elongating the holes on the striker plate first. Those can be replaced easily if you need to

[ryans69chevy]

Originally Posted by nicklear36

I would try elongating the holes on the striker plate first. Those can be replaced easily if you need to

Thanks for the suggestion. I just looked them up online - amazing all the stuff they make for these pickups. I will give it a try elongating the holes.