Uber Cool's 1963 C10 LWB Fleetside in England

[uber cool]

Aha, but I've realised one thing you can do really well whilst it's raining heavy!
Colour sand the read bed..................and yes, my neighbours now know i'm bonkers

[Ta2Don]

Keep em guessing

[uber cool]

having fitted and removed the exhaust manifold 3 times and tried different new gaskets I couldn't get it to seat properly, having a 0.6mm gap between manifold and gasket on the Siamese'd exhaust ports.


a light misting of matt black spray paint and a flat sanding block revealed the problem. Times like this you wish you owned a milling machine. Alas I dont, some many hours later of flat sanding and filling they are nearly good to put back on.

Enlisted the help of the wife and eldest daughter to paint strip the hood, think they did a better job than the boys at the weekend.

[uber cool]

Mark came round tonight with his new 16" smoothies, so we gave one a quick rattle can paint job and swapped the tyre just to get the look. He's also going to order some chrome hub caps too.





meanwhile at the front of the truck the manifold is back on and not leaking

[flashed]

Wheel and tire looks good .

[uber cool]

Bit more tonight. Mark bought himself a power sanded so carried on with the never ending body prep.

We got some heat into the front bumper with a gas torch and with the combination of wooden blocks and a scissor jack between the back of the bumper and tyre got both side of the bumper straightened out nicely.

flushed with this success decided it was time to start the welding for the MOT, for now patches will do. As maybe on the drivers side we'll fit a full rocker (inner and out) over the winter.

[Ta2Don]

Diggin' the progress...

Metal work...

[uber cool]

Normally I'd do the steel work first, but since it had been laid up for so long and I needed to know what parts to order from US, as lead time can be 1 to 2 weeks on bigger parts. Whereas steel work is just raw materials, time and a bit of skill.

Resumed today on the drivers side floor, I was try to retain the rear section where the floor meets the rocker, but the more I looked the more it just needed to be cut out.

So first the hole got bigger..always a worrying time







I bought the inner rocker panels off Martin since he'd got his better cab. It was just the top section that was rotten, where the door seal sits, so cut the panel down to just you the upper stepped section.

I didnt have any repair panels for the floor so cut up some sheet metal and used my bender to fabricate the repair section








then made the front section of the floor in one piece.




Next I need to make a section for the bottom of the door post and repair the top section of the rocker and fabricate a lip for the door seal to attach to. Then when I have it all together I'll seam weld it all, grind down flat and seal and paint.
Hopefully have this side completed this week.

[mjh1965]

Looking good Andy . Nice bit of tin work . I have one of those Clarke metal folders , really handy tool .

[Palf70Step]

Excellent work!

[Grizz1963]

You really are marching right along with this build Andy.

As you say, some skill helps you go a long way, but you also are prioritising all your work, which makes a huge difference.

I continue to be super impressed with the way you are turning this truck around.

[uber cool]

Thanks Rian (think I called you Grizz on your thread last night) means a lot when you get nice feedback, keeps one motivated.

This build is more a 'get it on the road' as quick as possible so Mark can use this year and continue as a rolling project. However it's a balance between a temp repair that can be reworked after registration and MOT or do the job properly first time. We're had a bit of scope creep, like the painting but had time to do this as we had a bit of time slippage whilst we await parts from USA.

[uber cool]

its like an early xmas, Mark turned up with another pair of smoothie rims, the brake unions arrived from USA and a big box of goodies from LMC.

So tonight's achievements are another rim painted

made the front brake pipe from master cylinder to front T piece




and this time I remembered to put the unions on before swagging the ends!

[Ta2Don]

Awesome…

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by uber cool

its like an early xmas, Mark turned up with another pair of smoothie rims, the brake unions arrived from USA and a big box of goodies from LMC.

So tonight's achievements are another rim painted

Made the front brake pipe from master cylinder to front T piece


And this time I remembered to put the unions on before swagging the ends!

That looks lovely.

I plan on replacing all my brake lines up front too, as they are perfectly functional, but I suspect not correctly made up.

Will be good if I remember the unions before swagging.......

[uber cool]

yep done that a few time and lest the unions off, nothing looks worse than lobby and kinked brake lines

[uber cool]

got some more painting and sanding done today, all one side done now. Also 2 wheels painted and put on the white band tyres. At this point Mark turned up with his son on route to a local hot rod show. So we pushed it on to the road to get a better view of it, as it hasn't moved off the drive for 7 months. Have to say I think it's really coming together and looks bloody awesome, low and long. Gave us a great boost to push on. Not bad progress since we only started mid April.





and the not so good side


I think I might try the smoothies on my Apache when Mark's not around. The rims are 16" and I think they fill the arches better than 15"'s

[mjh1965]

Looking good Ian .

[ibrown50]

That sits really nice. is the first side shot with air in the bags? how low does it go when they are deflated

[uber cool]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

That sits really nice. is the first side shot with air in the bags? how low does it go when they are deflated

no that's its down on the bump stops, any lower and would need a notched chassis, which is a no no for UK regs

[uber cool]

Bit more done today driver side floor and rocker finished. I didn't have any repair panels for this side, so had to make all the repair sections. The outer and inner rocker are good, it was just the top section and floor where the seal sits that was completely rotten.









Just have the same to do on the other side, but have a new inner and outer rocker panel for this.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Nice job rebuilding the driver's side.

[ibrown50]

x2! the repair turned out great, I will have to "re-do" some repairs on my cab done by a previous owner so this is really helpful,

[Lokin4AReason]

nice progress =0)

esp. doing your own metal work is saving you load(s) on the funny money =0)

[uber cool]

Thanks Guys, must admit quite impressed myself how it came out. The investment in the metal bender certainly made the finished repair look quite professional