47-55.1 Long Time Coming......

[8man]

I agree with Rickysnickers, everyone knew how you felt about him!

In keeping with the "moving on" theme, that is one beautiful paint color! Looking forward to seeing it on the truck.

[gsinon]

Thank you again to all have commented on the loss of my dad. It has been a tough few weeks for sure. But life must move on and as I said in a recent post, my plan is to finish this truck the way he wanted me too.

This weekend was the first time in the shop in a month. I have to say it felt good. What I would call a great therapy session! I spent some time doing the final welding on the floor and braces. Once done I sanded it all down and then applied two coats of epoxy.





With that cured I then tipped it right side up with the help of my wife. I then used my engine hoist to raise it up and then rolled my newly made cart to bolt the cab onto. I had been using a couple stacked pallets but it wasn't very solid and I didn't trust it. Especially when the time comes to transport it to the booth for paint work.

Did I share the making of this cart? I don't remember now...




With the cab solidly bolted down I rolled the cart onto my lift and then decided I had just enough time in the day to weld up the hole from the original fuel fill. I used the curved blank from LS Fab.

[8man]

Looking good!

[joedoh]

sorry about your dad, you had a great mentor and friend and how lucky he was to have such a caring son. someone better at words than me said grief is like ocean waves, first you are just tossed and swamped and overwhelmed, and when you catch that first breath of air, slowly, it becomes easier to breathe and even float a little while. but waves being what they are can sometimes rise up and overwhelm you, even in a perfect calm, drenching you and drowning you and pushing you around. i dont subscribe to the 12 stages theory, I like the waves theory because the 12 stages relies on acceptance, and some people with deep and lasting relationships may never reach acceptance.


that said, you are knocking out the stuff i normally half ass just to be done, and the color he picked will be perfect!

[-Dan-]

Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by 8man

Looking good!

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by joedoh

sorry about your dad, you had a great mentor and friend and how lucky he was to have such a caring son. someone better at words than me said grief is like ocean waves, first you are just tossed and swamped and overwhelmed, and when you catch that first breath of air, slowly, it becomes easier to breathe and even float a little while. but waves being what they are can sometimes rise up and overwhelm you, even in a perfect calm, drenching you and drowning you and pushing you around. i dont subscribe to the 12 stages theory, I like the waves theory because the 12 stages relies on acceptance, and some people with deep and lasting relationships may never reach acceptance.


that said, you are knocking out the stuff i normally half ass just to be done, and the color he picked will be perfect!

Thank you for the kind words. Frankly I agree with your Waves analogy better then the 12 stages. I don't ever expect to "get over" the loss of him, But I will instead treasure each and every memory and what he taught me. This build being one of those things. Using all the knowledge I have from him I will now change directions and not only build it in his honor but using everything he instilled in me and taught me to get it done.
I had several staff members of the nursing home he was in for the last 14 mon the often tell me how lucky he was to have me and our relationship. I visited him four times a week so they saw me all the time. I always said that I was in fact the lucky one. Maybe in the end it was Both of us......

That color he wanted it to be is something I custom made for another project. It is a One Off color that has only been used one time before and is on the top half of my daughters square body pick up.

Originally Posted by -Dan-

Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

Thanks, stay tuned!

[gsinon]

Todays adventures was the start of the cab corners on both sides. While outwardly they looked good, the inside showed signs of a previous repair using fiberglass matting. I am replacing both the inner and outer corners on both sides.

Here is a before of the passenger side....



As you can see the outside didn't look that bad. But I couldn't leave it either.


Once cut I could pull it out some and was able to see the many years of crud that had fallen and was trapped in the corner.....




I drilled out all the spot welds holding the old inner corner in place, then started fitting the new replacement piece.

My plan for tomorrow is to weld the inners in place, then brush epoxy over the entire surrounding area. I also need to rehang the doors before final fitting the cab corners before I can weld them in place.

[gsinon]

Been playing with the firewall getting the welding complete. I decided I didn't like the Chevrolet script just sitting alone on the top of the firewall. So I made these pieces to go off each side and create some shape to it. Once filler work is done and primed/painted it will flow much better.

[dsraven]

fancy pants.
looks great, nice job.

[6DoF]

i love putting the stamped script in there

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by dsraven

fancy pants.
looks great, nice job.

Lol....Thanks!

Originally Posted by 6DoF

i love putting the stamped script in there

Thanks, I wanted something a little different then what most do. This fit the bill perfectly.

[8man]

I need to come take welding lessons. Nice work!

[gsinon]

Last week I finally finished all the interior window garnish moldings and the panel I made for below the dash. So I got them in the booth and painted them this color I custom mixed to match the leather seat. It was then cleared in a eggshell finish clear.








Then on Saturday I was out in the shop and cut out the rust in the lower kick panels and then trimmed the patch panels to fit and tacked them in place.

Driver side wasn't too bad....



And the passenger side. A little more rust over here.....

[-Dan-]

That truck is getting a lot of love. The rust did not look that bad in the earlier photos.

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by -Dan-

That truck is getting a lot of love. The rust did not look that bad in the earlier photos.

It is funny what can be hidden under a paint job....

In the end It really isn't that bad compared to many. Cab corners is so very typical. The floors only had one spot of rot, and the lower kick panels. I've seen some people have to cut their truck into fragments and start over.

[gsinon]

Well, the time has come to finally be able to share this with you all. I mentioned it several months ago, but here it is in full color!!!

Back in December Ron Ceridono from Classic Truck Performance called me out of the blue. I don't know him at all, but I did recognize his name. Some of my build pics ran across his desk from a mutual friend and he decided he liked what he saw enough to run an article.

After going back and forth by email and a few phone calls he sent me the text of the article he wrote. This was right around Christmas time. Well in tonights mail is the magazine with the article in it. I am beyond thrilled.

I'm so happy to have been able to share this with my dad and have him read the article before I lost him in January. I'm a little sad he doesn't get to see this and hold this in his hands. But deep down I know he is proud and is seeing it.

[-Dan-]

That’s awesome! Congratulations.

[duramax55]

right on congrats good work didn't go unnoticed

[youngrodder]

Very cool. Now your great build is documented in print as well as the web.

Marc

[57FleetsideC4]

Very Nice!! It's always fun to have your work recognized. Steve

[Rickysnickers]

Outstanding!!!!

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by -Dan-

That’s awesome! Congratulations.

Originally Posted by duramax55

right on congrats good work didn't go unnoticed

Originally Posted by youngrodder

Very cool. Now your great build is documented in print as well as the web.

Marc

Originally Posted by 57FleetsideC4

Very Nice!! It's always fun to have your work recognized. Steve

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

Outstanding!!!!

Thank you all, and thanks for following along with my project.

[gsinon]

I'm just about finished with the welder, but I did have to complete the kick panel patches and get them fully welded in place today. While doing that I needed to make a curved filler piece for the passenger side area. I bent a piece of metal in my trusty Harbour Freight sheet metal break and then used my cheap HF Shrinker/Stretcher to make the piece match the curve.






Once that was done I got the last of the welds done and cleaned them up a bit. Only thing left is the cab corners, but I need to hang the doors again before I fit the pieces.

[Getter-Done]

That is some good Shrinking going on.

Nice metal work.

[gsinon]

I still need to fit and weld in the cab corners. Before I do I needed to hang the doors so I know the cab corners will fit right. With the doors hung and fitted as best I could, I could now see the gaps and how far off they were. And this was after an hour of getting the door to fit as good as possible. And for anyone wondering, I won't finalize the gaps until I get the cab back on the chassis and bolted down solid. I'm hopeful nothing will change because I was really careful when I made this cart to have it square and flat as could be.

As you can see the door edge at the rear is basically touching.



And yet not too bad on the top of the window frame at the rear.


This was the front edge with just a little bit of grinding.


This will need to be built up some... It is too wide for me.


And finally the rear area between the door and cab after grinding and getting it to be 3/16"
It will still need a little work, but overall much much better.