My Luxurious late model truck (not so much)

[Tx Firefighter]

First coat of spar varnish.



I'll go back out in 4 hours and sand them and apply the next coat.

[jhama78]

Looks good man, I dig the stain color.

[rusty76]

Looks really good.

[Tx Firefighter]

I think I'm gonna call this little sub project finished.

Reminder of before



Stained and cleared (two coats)

That funny color is the front bumper of the fire truck reflecting in the gloss. I didn't mess with the sides of this piece since all you can see is the top lid when it's installed.



Good enough for the kind of girls that would ride around with me.









Total investment was 7 dollars for a little can of Minwax stain and three cheap brushes. I had the clear varnish in my shop from the bed wood on my 63 truck a few years ago

[Low Elco]

Mucho mo bueno!

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by rusty76

I liked the rebuild on the transfer case and the interior is getting there. Killer.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Kewl.

Originally Posted by flashed

Moving right along and nice looking horse in the background .

Originally Posted by tommyd241

Coming along nicely!

Originally Posted by Zane M

Looks really nice.
Sounds like a benefit of your job-as long as everything is taken care of, you have the ability to do a little extra work of your own.

Originally Posted by lolife99

Great color!
I've been out of the cabinet building business for a few years,... so I've never even heard of the color "Gunstock",... but I like it!

Originally Posted by flashed

That looks good ,I like the color ,cant wait to see it all installed .

Originally Posted by 83GMCK2500

Wood components are lookin' goooood. Funny, I was looking at them thinking that if they didn't have the notch for a cup handle it looks like a guy could take a stainless pass through center cap for an 8-lug and slip it in there, trim, roll the edge, voila.

I want to thank each of you for the positive comments along the way. Build threads are very much two fold beneficial in my mind. One, feedback from others keeps me motivated and makes sure I don't stall out on progress. And, two, sometimes I might post something in my threads that can help someone else out with a little nugget of info or a technique, or simply act as an example as to how not to do it. Its a win/win situation for both the poster and the reader.

Keith, thank you especially for walking me though the wood work part of this. I'm truly clueless on woodwork.

[flashed]

That turned out very nice , I look forward to your progress .My other trucks are on hold for the near future since I sort of overspent on my last one so I like to enjoy and learn from everyone else's projects .Thankyou for keeping us learning how to do things .

[Tx Firefighter]

You mean overspending is a reason to stop building trucks ? I hope my wife doesn't read those blasphemous words.

[flashed]

Not stopping ,just letting my bank account recover enough to start again .

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

You mean overspending is a reason to stop building trucks ? I hope my wife doesn't read those blasphemous words.

That goes for my household too!

The wood came out great!

[tommyd241]

Console looks great!

[likaroc13]

Loved following your '63 build, so I had to subscribe here too. While it might not be "my" kinda truck, I love seeing what you're doing with it. The economical route you're taking is perfect for a project such as this. I love your attention to detail. The wood turned out great. I had something very similar in my old '93 C-1500.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...y-interior.jpg

Keep up the nice work!

[Big Tex]

I'm late to the party. Caught up now though. Looking good Kevin.

[aggie91]

The wood parts turned out nice. I like that darker color stain better then the original color on the wood.

We need to see some installed pics....

[Tx Firefighter]

Check the seat off of the project list. It's all finished now.

First, Valerie used her little carpet cleaner machine to do over the entire thing. That helped a lot. There was one seam where the driver slides in and out that had started to separate so she got some matching thread and sewed it up. I didn't take any pictures of it because the finished product is invisible to the eye.

Then, you guys have followed the adventure in refinishing the wood parts. Again, Keith helped me with a good game plan. I will say though, this morning I wasn't totally happy with the finish so I nibbed it down with 320 paper and hit it with one more coat. That did the trick to my eyes. Now I'm happy.

On my way home this morning I stopped by the upholstery supply house. I've used this place periodically for 20 years now. Its a mystery to me why more folks don't know about them. Anyone in DFW area that needs upholstery stuff, let me know and I'll get you directions over there. To describe the selection as vast does them a disservice.

Those rows are very long and very tall. Notice these are rows J and I. That's about halfway down the building. Do your ABC's and try to grasp a row like this for each letter. Huge. It boggles me to try and grasp their selection.







Leather hide section. They also have a full selection of tools, supplies, SEM vinyl dyes and hardware.



Anyway, back on track, I found a close match for my material. I used the unfaded bottom of the center arm pads as my color guide. Not exact, but close. The iPhone makes it look more different than it really is.



I wound up having to buy a full yard of material which was 10 dollars.

When it came to foam, I determined I needed 1.5 inch thick to rebuild these armrests. It only comes in 4x8 sheets. I screamed like a Nancy when she told me it was 18 dollars. Fortunately she talked me down from the ledge and sold me a sheet of 1/2 thick foam for 5 bucks. Stacking three layers of half inch thick foam rather than buying a sheet of 1.5 wasn't much trouble in the scheme of saving 13 bucks. So, all told, I'm out 17 dollars for the foam and material. I had the glue and staples already in my shop so that was no money out of pocket.

These armrests are actually very simple. They are a piece of 2x4 lumber with 1.5 inches of foam glued on top of them. Here is a picture of one of them stripped down and the new foam glued in place. Compared to the old one next to it, you can see how much the foam has compressed over the years.




Tech tip:
to cut upholstery foam, a hacksaw blade works very well. Maybe not ideal for a huge project but great for a little one like this. As an alternate, a bread knife or electric carving knife work great too.





All finished.

[Thunderwagen]

That looks really good man!

[aggie91]

Nice!

[imjeff]

Wow!

[MalibuSSwagon]

Looks awesome Kevin, nice work and good choice on the stain color.

[Palf70Step]

Great job Kevin!

[rusty76]

Looks sharp. I like it.

[flashed]

Very well done ,I like it .

[ryanroo]

As always, i am very impressed by the results of your efforts. awesome

[jhama78]

Im not normally a fan of red interiors in late model trucks but that looks good man, the extra coat of poly on the wood looks slick as eel snot Kevin. Hopefully the everybody that is building a rig on a shoestring budget that see your build threads on here gain an understanding of attention to detail and how it takes a project no matter how big or small to the next level.

Its all about the small things on most anything that you wrench on... new or cleaned bolts, neat wiring, all fasteners installed, etc... Hell Ive been playing with all kinds of trucks for over 20 years now and after reading your threads have looked back on some of the stuff I did that I thought was decent and realized that it was mediocre at best so far as attention to detail.

looking forward to seeing more updates.

[83GMCK2500]

Originally Posted by Tx Firefighter

I will say though, this morning I wasn't totally happy with the finish so I nibbed it down with 320 paper and hit it with one more coat. That did the trick to my eyes. Now I'm happy.

And that right there is one big reason why I enjoy your threads. Not only do you take a step or two further than most, it's like you sweep behind you and produce a masterpiece. Earlier in this thread; someone else might've left their engine harness alone, or just taped it, or loomed it and taped it, but you cleaned the wires, loomed, taped, routed, made sure it was proper...made Ma General haaappy. That seat looks great, it would not surprise me if someone who built it saw this thread today and said "hell, looks better now than when we put it together."

Side note: how'd your dealer/parts guy do with those LED cab light bulbs? I'm still watching for more of them...