I am getting excited about my Panel!!

[Classic Heartbeat]

There was a lot more body work done on the rear doors too. Most of that mud will be sanded off. WES

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking good, your parts look pretty straight.

[Classic Heartbeat]

Thanks Dale. They are pretty straight. Media uncovered a few things, or someone did damage to the parts while they had them. They were all original paint parts and there's a few dings and some damage on the hood that's hard to see.

['68OrangeSunshine]

What will you do for a heater/defroster?

[Classic Heartbeat]

I am going with an Old Air Hurricane system that will be made specifically for my Panel. I have a 72 Suburban rear air that I will be incorporating into the system too.

Here is a real subtle customization that I am doing also. This is a power antenna mounted where I think GM would have mounted it if it were stock. The top of the antenna ant the little bezel will be the only thing showing when down. WES

[Ol Blue K20]

What did you have to do to the cowl to get there he antennae to fit?

[DeadheadNM]

Looks great Wes! You deserve a beer...

[Classic Heartbeat]

Not Oly Pete!! That's yuk around here... I had to cut the inner cowl area and build a box to mount the power portion of the antenna. Consequently I lost the fresh air duct. The box for the antenna had to be about an inch too large so I had to cut into it. But that's customizing some times. You loose something that is not used that much for something you think is cool. Here is a link to where I did the modification to the cowl. http://classicheartbeat.com/panel_10.htm Untill lately this whole Panel build is on my website. WES

[Ol Blue K20]

Nice, that's a nice looking way of getting it in there. As for the Oly "I seen em"... young people won't remember those old commercials. I drank a LOT of that stuff when I was a teen...

[Classic Heartbeat]

I remember a lot of the old commercials. "It's the Water and a lot more" was the jingle. Then they had the comercials about the Artesians. They would act like they were secretive little creachers that you could only catch a glimpse of once in a while. I know some other stuff about the Schmidt family (owners of the brewery) and state legislators too, but I won't go into that..
Anyway, more progress pics!

These pictures show the rear end of the panel getting closer to being done body worked and the parts are starting to go back on. I found it amazing how much work it took to get the NOS door to fit right. We found out that what I thought was original paint front fender had been worked quite a bit in the past. Must have been in an accident or something. They did great work fixing it, but this is the kind of stuff you find when you are restoring a truck. You will see more in the hood and right door in my next post.

WES

[Classic Heartbeat]

These two pictures are of the hood and right door. Both parts I had purchased years ago as original paint parts. The reproduction doors were not fitting very well back then so I chose to go original equipment. The hood only had one ding that I knew of when I purchased it and after media blasting, boy did I find out how wrong I was. The door I purchased from one of the board members here on this site. He was in Arizona and I bought it because it was strait and rust free. We were both wrong about the rust free part... Had to repair the lower hinge pocket and some of the surrounding metal. So much for that... Oh well, I don't blame the seller. I looked the door over carefully myself once it arrived here and didn't see any rust either. It only appeared after media blasting. This kind of stuff happens and all you can do is fix it. WES

[Ol Blue K20]

The peak of the hood looks fun. But it looks like you can handle it. It was the artesians....lol

[Classic Heartbeat]

[Classic Heartbeat]

Here is a short little video of the progress on the rear doors.

https://youtu.be/VdmKMK5IK-o

WES

[IRQVET]

I really love this build. HATE the taillight situation, but to each their own. Carry on!

[Classic Heartbeat]

Wait until they are done. They will very closely resemble the fleetside truck taillights, just a little larger. There will be about a 1/4" wide bezels that will be copper plated just like the rest of the chrome. WES

[Ol Blue K20]

Love the solid sound when they're closing

[Classic Heartbeat]

Believe it or not, I am using the original latches. WES

[Ol Blue K20]

WOW!

[Classic Heartbeat]

All of the sudden my panels hood is oil canned!! Something smells bad here. I went to great lengths to be sure that I got an extremely nice hood for my Panel and now all the sudden it looks to be a pile of garbage!! Something has happened between the time I dropped off the hood and now. It is oil canned on both sides of the spine, and all the sudden it doesn't fit like it did. Not happy about it.

[Classic Heartbeat]

We also have more door fitting problems... Granted I am trying to achieve near perfect body lines but what the heck. It was all fitted before it went to media blasting. WES

[Classic Heartbeat]

And here is a picture of the dash... At least it wasn't screwed up.. WES

(Sorry, but I am a little peeved right now.)

[Ol Blue K20]

I would be peeved too. What kind of media did they use?

[Classic Heartbeat]

I am not sure. One of the questions I have to ask.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Sorry, I'm not a bodywork guy at all. What does ''oil canned'' mean?
Also -- may be a trick of the light or camera angle -- but in an earlier pic of the hood it looked like there were 2 holes in the ridge, forward, like a PO had some big goofy hood ornament.