Chucks SWB Fleetside

[Rusbuilt]

You know I'm always glad to lend a hand.

[thelonerife]

Yeah I know. Always appreciate the help. Thx again!

[thelonerife]

Well tonight started out going good then took a turn for the worse. I got these spacers to get my body lines to meet up right. I got through that okay so I moved on to the hood and fenders. Fenders were easy and the hood wasn't bad either. Then... I had decided to take the shims out of the drivers side when it happened. The allen head bolt stripped. Then it got worse. I tried to get it out with the vise grips and it snapped off. I tried to loosen the others and they also stripped. So I took the hood off (which was a pain by myself) and tried to get them off and the rest of them snapped off. Ugh! So I ground the welds and got the nuts off of the other side of the plate and I am now ready to weld the new nuts on. I saw where the bolts had bottomed out on the support structure of the hood when they went in. Maybe they stripped in the nuts and wouldn't come out. I don't know how it happened but I took the ones out of the passenger side w/ no problem and replaced them with regular bolts. So if you use these hinges I wouldn't use the allen head bolts if I were you.
I also have to switch my hood latch with a correct one from a 68 GMC. Didn't know where there was a difference but there is. I'll get it powder coated and put it on. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

[thelonerife]

more pics and the last one is as it sits now.

[5150]

Dang Chuck, sorry for the crappy night. Hope it gets better.

[Bennett68C10]

Sorry to hear about your problem with the hinges, but it sounds like you have it figured out now. It's always something right.

[Rusbuilt]

Man thats a bummer! But that hood latch sure looks like its going to work better! lol

[thelonerife]

Its fixed and ready to go on the truck. Tomorrow my buddy Josh is coming to pick up a part and help me put the hood on.

[ksbrktracer]

Really starting to come around ..... Way to keep after it ......!

[thelonerife]

Thanks Tommy

[Rusbuilt]

Glad you got that taken care of. Hows the cowl coming?

[thelonerife]

I haven't started finishing it up. I came down w/a cold. Love living in this crazy weather. A little warm one day cold the next. I hope to start on it today tho.

[thelonerife]

Josh came by and helped me put my hood on. I got my lights working and put the turn signals on while i was waiting for him to come. I drilled the holes for the trim over the tailgate handle. While I had the truck backed in I decided to go ahead and strip the tailgate and be done with the bed.

[thelonerife]

more

[Rusbuilt]

boy those body lines look much better!!

[Todd68Chevy]

Looking very nice Chuck!

[JRANGER]

wow! Nice She is gonna be a beauty once done

[thelonerife]

Well I hate to say it but this shaved vent cowl has beaten me. It doesn't fit well anywhere on the truck. I have decided to go with an original with the vents. I had to patch a hole in it and slice one end of it and re-attch it to get the line I wanted. My lines aren't perfect but are good enough for me. I will be happy with them in the end. I have to get the top stripped down and the gutter cleaned out and the hood latch and support on and the truck will be off to the body shop. We are getting freezing rain here and its really coming down now. I took the pic about an hour before posting this and now you can't see any grass. I have to change the battery in the Silverado again. It keeps going down for some reason. Maybe I got a bad one. So it'll be a few days before I can haul it to the shop.

[Rusbuilt]

Dang! That sucks you had to abandon all that work on that cowl, but it looks like you've got that one fitting real nice!

[thelonerife]

Yeah. I'm what they call ''over it''. lol I will have to wait to take my and underhaulins parts to the powder coater until the ice is off the roads. Its 20 degrees here and 79 degrees in Clearwater FL. Ugh!

[thelonerife]

I dropped off my hood latch, grill support, bed support rod,and heater hose clamp at the powder coater this evening. Hopefully it'll warm up this weekend and I can get the truck outside and strip the top.

[mcbassin]

Hey Chuck sounds to me like you are having the kind of luck I always get. You didn't mention were you hood hinge bolts stainless? Or some kind if alloy? If they were stainless, did you use anti seize on them? They will Gaul up if not, sometimes the threads will stretch too.

Sucks about the cowl. I know you're over it but I know how much time it took. Kinda sucks. Keep up the hard work.

[thelonerife]

I call it Rife luck. I think these were stainless. I still have the ones on the firewall.

I hate allen heads. I had a similar problem with my Harley when I went to change the bolts on the struts of the rear fender to install a backrest. They were put on at the factory and did the same thing. I may use the cowl on another truck when I have more time.

[thelonerife]

I got the drip rail seam sealer out. I made a stripping tool out of an old screw driver. I used a wire brush on the drill and it was all clean. And started to sand the truck top. All was going well until Rife luck reared its ugly head. My DA sander quit. I got about 1/2 done.

[Rusbuilt]

Almost ready to go!!!