My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble

[Bomp]

Starting to look like a truck again. A good lookin truck.

[rgunlock]

Thanks Bomp! I'm actually excited about this phase even though it is all stripping paint, bodywork and sanding. Now I'll be adding a door back one week, a fender a little later, etc. and see the whole thing come back together. I like seeing tangible progress every couple of weeks.

[y5mgisi]

So are you going to take it all back apart for paint then?

[rgunlock]

Yes, my plan is to do the bodywork for each piece and get it in primer and reassemble onto the truck, doing the adjustments for hinges, etc. and scribing in their positions. Then, do the high fill primer and block sanding while the truck is together. Then take the whole thing back apart for paint.

[rgunlock]

Me and Kitty are getting real familiar this weekend

I never intended to get the inside bed even close to perfect, but I do want to get rid of all the rust pockmarks and rust-through in the floor covered before doing a spray-in bedliner. Looks like I have a lot of sanding in my near future!

BTW, that must be camera angle - my bed is nowhere near that caddy-wompus!

[rgunlock]

well, got both doors totally disassembled without breaking any glass. Lot more time for that than I expected, but getting the latch, inner handle, outer handle and lock disengaged enough to pull out of the door is tricky. Got the paint stripped from one door and started some bodywork, but with temps in the 40's the Rage Gold wasn't drying enough for sanding. Funny how that is. Most times, it dries so fast I can't even get it spread. Anyway, nothing picture worthy. Don't get me wrong, I took a bunch of pictures but mostly so hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to get all the door innards back together

[y5mgisi]

Excellent!

[Greenlee]

The truck is looking good! Nice work.

I have probably had my door innards apart at least half-a-dozen times if you run into problems putting it back together. I apparently had a bent regulator on the driver side. I kept taking it apart and putting it back together, but the glass was going up crooked. Finally, I tried a different regulator and everything was good. Use lots of tape along the edge. I ended up scratching my new paint. Another tip I learned was to leave the outer lower felt/trim off until after I got the glass in. That gave me more room to move the glass around to get the little wheels in their tracks. If your windows are power, buy all new switches. I had a box full of used switches thinking a couple of them had to be good, but they all had problems. I wasted a bunch of time chasing a wiring problem on the passenger side, when it was actually the driver side switch that was bad. I still don't understand the wiring that well, but I figured out that the driver side has to be working for the passenger side to work. As you can probably tell by now, I spent a bunch of time jacking with my windows to get them working!

[Dean'smeanmachine]

its starting to take shape,nice

[rgunlock]

Thanks for checking in fellas, and I'll definitely keep you in mind when its time to put these doors back together Greenlee. Hoping that will be within about 6 months!

Got one more part done and back on the truck. I'd thought I was done with rust on this truck, but found one more spot in lower rear corner of this passenger door. Where the curve on the inner edge of the door lays behind the corner is a nice little pocket to gather crap and moisture. Got that patched, pulled a couple dents where the window frame and door come together in front, filled the dings. I also rebuilt the hinges with new brass bushings, pins and springs for the top hinges. Wire wheel cleaned up the bolts and put the door on. Still not sure I'm happy with the gaps - pretty sure I've only spent about 45 minutes on adjustments which obviously isn't enough But, pretty happy with the body line. Rebuilt hinges helped a lot with lining that up.

[rgunlock]

Door on.

[y5mgisi]

Sure is lookin good.

[Greenlee]

Nice!

[rgunlock]

Thanks! I wanted to show what I'm using for paint stripping in case anyone ever reads this thread who knows less about what they are doing than me The orange strip disk is something new I just tried on my driver side door. One disk stripped the entire door, both sides. I've tried a similar product that I believe was 3M which looked the same but was black. That product didn't last nearly as long and I constantly had shredded plastic from it flying at my face. This disk had no separation. It strips at about the same speed as 80 grit, which is to say this is still a long slow process, but I'm not changing out a lot of sanding disks and I think this leaves the metal cleaner with a little less effort. I then use the purple "surface preparation discs" to get the edges and nooks and crannies. The orange disc is a "The Beast Bear Tex Rapid Strip Disc w/ Mandrel- 5Pk.". Only problem is that it didn't actually ship with a mandrel so had to come up with one of my own.

[rgunlock]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! I know I did. All three of my grown kids were home, so not a lot more progress for my week off of work. But, I did get the driver side door done (kind of), and hung back on the truck.

2 spots I want to point out because I suspect they are common problems. Both of my doors had stress cracks around the bottom bolt on the inner door panel that holds the vent window assembly. I have no idea why there is enough stress there to cause these cracks, but I found them on the driver door and went back and looked at the passenger door and found them on it as well. I'll have to fix that when I pull the door back off. BTW, I drilled those holes at the end of the cracks because they are supposed to prevent it from cracking any further.

Also, missed it when stripping the paint and doing bodywork on the driver door, but noticed when I was bolting the door back onto the truck. Pretty nasty stress cracks in the door at the top hinge. I'll have to fix that as well next time the door comes off.

Finally, got my Christmas gift early. Just had to open it and verify that it is all there and undamaged! Vintage Air Gen IV SureFit System. Also got brackets to mount the compressor, brackets to move my alternator to the driver side, and the chrome bulkhead connector with the kit containing all the necessary hose ends. I want to get all this mocked up in the truck before I start getting the front clip done and for sure before paint. I figure I'll do that this winter when its too cold for body filler or spraying primer.

[Dean'smeanmachine]

sure is looking good!

[y5mgisi]

Dang! Thats a hell of a kit!

[Greenlee]

That's interesting about the stress cracks on both doors. I didn't notice that on mine, but I wasn't looking for it so they might be there.

Congrats on getting the Vintage Air kit! Pretty much exactly 1 year ago I bought the Vintage Air kit for my truck. I spent the Christmas Holliday when I had a few days off work putting it in the truck.

[rgunlock]

Thanks guys, I'm pretty stoked seeing it come back together even though I know I'll be pulling it all apart again for paint.

Greenlee, your build was one of them that put the idea in my head to go with Vintage Air. Do you recall ballpark what you spent for the AC connector crimping tool and vacuum pump? I've been debating whether to purchase or have someone else do that work since I don't know that they'd get used much.

[boynton]

I would just rent them if you can they are very expensive and the one I borrowed has been sitting in the guys shop for 4 years and I'm the first one to use it. I wish you were closer and I was knee deep in my build so I could come help you throw your system together. Then I could take you up on your offer

[Greenlee]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Thanks guys, I'm pretty stoked seeing it come back together even though I know I'll be pulling it all apart again for paint.

Greenlee, your build was one of them that put the idea in my head to go with Vintage Air. Do you recall ballpark what you spent for the AC connector crimping tool and vacuum pump? I've been debating whether to purchase or have someone else do that work since I don't know that they'd get used much.

I still have the crimping tool new in the box unopened. Vintage Air made a mistake on my order and gave me the hoses with both ends already crimped on. They were supposed to leave one end off so I could cut them to the length I needed. Because of their mistake i needed new fittings on one end. I found an A/C place on Dixie Dr. in Houston to sell me the new fittings and they also crimped them on for me. The guy barely charged anything to do this. Seems like it was less than $20. I felt bad and slipped him a $20 tip.

I bought the crimping tool, vacuum pump and gauges on EBay. I will have to go back and look to figure out what I paid. I bought the vacuum pump that connects to your air compressor. It was a lot cheaper than a stand alone pump and worked just fine. All that being said, I am close enough that you can use mine if you want.

[rgunlock]

That's a generous offer Greenlee and when I get to that point I may very well take you up on it.

Last weekend and part of this one - a friend gave me some used garage cabinets and they weren't in too good shape once I got them home. Had to reinforce them and add a lot of shelves, but now I have lots of space to get my tools and supplies out of the dust.

And I have to admit to doing something pretty stupid. I'm working on my tailgate now and it had a pretty good bow in it. I thought that if I laid a 2x6 across it and used my weight (about 240 lbs) I could persuade it back straight. Well, that wasn't getting the job done so I started jumping on the 2x6. Big mistake!!! Now I have a bunch more work to do on it

[y5mgisi]

Ouch! Maybe time for a new one?

[Dean'smeanmachine]

i think you could fix it, you do great work

[Mustard72]

Ya know, I had that same idea for tail gate straightening. I haven't tried it yet, but have two bent ones to perfect the art with. Granted mine are 67-72 vintage, but the laws of physics apply to both. Maybe a little tiptoe and drop rather than jumping would work???