Fast Orange Update:Frame and gauges.

[muddpile]

Well, after a lot of grinding, bending, sanding, priming and painting I'm back with another update!! The box is off, and the cab is ready to come off, so I figured I might as well paint the frame, as I hope to never have to tear this truck apart again (or at least not for a long time).



Once I got the box off, I noticed that there was indeed minor damage to the rear of the drivers side frame rail from when I got rearended. It was straighted with a hammer and a crescent wrench prior to painting.



One rainy trip to the auto wrecker (the most miserable trip ever) the heater and wipers quit. On the drive home I noticed it got louder. One of the rusty old bottles had broken, and was just kind of hanging there. When I took the box off I hit it and broke it right off.





Another area of concern was the shocks, I knew the truck was bouncy and needed new ones, but I never expected to find these. Anyone know when the last time they made Gabriel AjustOMatics was?

[muddpile]

Once everything was out of the way, I noticed the extensive rust damage that my cab corners have suffered. I wondered why the patch panels were so big.....





Armed with my trusty roller, brush, and spraycan I started on the frame. I wanted to give it that slightly textured look that new truck frames have, so I used a thin foam roller. Here it is in primer.







Notice the modified exhaust in the last pic? It's going to be loud as hell for a while, but I figure the kind people on main street miss me owning a vehicle with straight pipes, and I'm not one to disappoint ;D . I will be getting performance mufflers put on, as bottles don't seem to last very well.

[muddpile]

And here it is with a fresh coat of flat black. It looks kinda blotchy in the pic, but it wasn't dry. I checked it today and it dried nice and even. The diff and will be painted by the end of this week hopefully. I'm in the process of scraping about 1" of grease off of it.

[muddpile]

I've almost got all the rust cut out of the drivers side floor, but won't bother taking pics of that until it's done and ready to weld. There isn't much floor left after the large amount of rust is gone, but I have patch panels to cover all of it.

I've got the differential primed between the springs and should have the rest of it including the drum backing plates done tomorrow.



I also mounted my instrument cluster to see how it will look and fit, as the gauges aren't in the original places or the original sizes (and yes, I know some are really crooked, but I just slid them into the holes for fit). It fits really good, and I really like the look of it on the orange dash. I was thinking of painting the entire interior a semi-gloss grey to make it look more modern, but I'm leaning towards orange again.

[Striker169]

Looking GOOD!

[Rollie396]

Holy crap I love that bezel and gauges!Details?

Uhhhh shouldn't you have put in the notch and bags before you painted the frame?
Looks great mudd,keep up the progress!

[edmonton72]

Looks like you made quite a bit of progress there. I like that instrument panel were is it from. Good luck with the truck.

[HeavyD]

Excellent progress!

[muddpile]

The bezel is a stock GM 3 gauge setup I got from a wrecker and modified substantially with fibreglass. It took a long time, but when I was done I had a perfectly smooth cluster ready to cut holes in. My glovebox door and ashtray face are airbrushed to match, along with some door panel pieces. I think there was around 100 skulls when I was done. The gauges are Autometer streetrod arctic white electric. I still have to get 3 LED's, 2 green for the turn signals and one blue for bright/dim indicator.

No notch for bags on this one. Although its not hard to bag a leaf truck, I realized that it is a ways out of my budget. I can always go back in a few years and add them. I'm thinking about maybe doing a rear flip kit, which by my measurements would take it down 5", but I'm not sure what I'd do in the front. I still want to use this as a truck (steel bed floor, and will be Line-X coated) and don't know if I can with it dropped. I don't really want to C-Notch the frame in the rear, and I'm not sure if my 255/60/15's would rub in the front with it lowered 3-4".

[Palf70Step]

You have made a good deal of progress. It's going to look great when done.

[70c10]

The cluster looks cool and I vote doing the interior in gray like you suggested!

[truckdude239]

looking good

[stllookn]

Mudpile, Is that a long wheelbase GMC with a single piece driveshaft? Just curious. Put some duct tape on those cab corners and smear a little filler over the outside and you are good to go...LOL!

[Yukon Jack]

Lots of good progess - keep on it!

[C10er]

lookn good, love the instrument cluster!

[RICHARD MORGAN]

Im in the process of cleaning up my undercarriage also. Yours looks great. What method did you use? sandblasting? wirebrush? Also what brand of paint did you use on the frame?

[4tiresngas]

Yeah, the frame looks good. Tell us some more about how much muscle you had to put into it...grinding, scraping, sanding, blasting?

[72MARIO]

255/60's on a 7" van rallywill be fine with a 3.5 drop 2.5 spindle and 1"coil here never had it rub. I have 275 60 on the back and they are clear too. Drop IT . If the money allows.

[Z28Owner]

I have 4.5 drop on 8 inch ralle with 275/60/15. I can get my hand all way around tires fully turned.

[Billla]

Looks AWESOME! You did the paint by hand (no gun)?

[Rollie396]

I don't suppose you have any progress pics of the bezel build do ya?

[muddpile]

Thanks for the compliments guys! I guess now its time to answer a few questions:
Stllookn: It's a 72 chevy custom deluxe C10 that was converted from a 2 piece to a one piece by the previous owner. The two piece blew a U-joint or bearing or something he said and didn't like the complication, so he got a one-piece made up. The center crossmember was enlarged on the bottom with a torch to make it fit.

Richard Morgan, 4tiresngas, Billla: All I did was scraped away at it for about 3 nights with a wire brush, and a sanding sponge (one of those rectangular sponges with the grit attached). It was a lot of work, my arms and back hurt for days and there was rust dust everywhere, but it was clean. I then wiped everything down good with varsol. Paint was just tremclad flat black enamel with a base coat of tremclad grey primer, rolled on and sprayed out of a rattle can where I couldn't get a roller or brush. I used a foam roller 3" wide, and it gave it a slightly textured look, kinda like my dads new Hemi has on the frame. The roller did the sides, top and bottom of the rails, and all the crossmembers. I sprayed the insides of the rails and the leaf springs. I brushed the differential housing (the cast hid the brush strokes very well) and spraypainted the cover. I liked the idea of the roller and brush the best, because the paint is not thinned, and goes on nice and thick, providing a durable finish.

[muddpile]

Rollie396: Unfortunately, I never took any progress pics. I thought about it, but after every stage, it never really looked any different. I'll try and explain it as best I can, it's not too terribly hard, but time consuming (previous fibreglass experience helped). It started life as a red spraypainted junkyard 3 hole bezel I got for 40 bucks with gauges and a perfect glovebox door. I took the gauges out and cut all the bracing off the back that held them in place, including the recessed chrome rings that go around each gauge. It's just ABS plastic, so it cuts with a dremel cutoff wheel. I then flipped it over and used an orbital sander to smooth out the grain in the plastic and get rid of the remaining lip from around the gauges. I also cut off the headlight and wiper letters. Next step was laying it face down on a piece of tinfoil, and laying a few layers of fibreglass on the backside until it looked smooth. The next day I came out and the resin had flowed around and smoothed it pretty well, but not perfect. I peeled the tinfoil off the front and began sanding, adding body filler, sanding some more etc. until it was smooth to the touch. I then sprayed the outside edge silver and the inside with SEM texture paint, so it looked factory texture. The skulls were kind of an afterthought of "I bet this would look cool." I tried it, and I like it so I think it will stay. Hope this helps.

[muddpile]

Here's what the the glovebox door, ashtray face and uncut bezel look like.

[gferris5]

Nice 'glass work, and great finish work with the skulls.

What has become of the rear cab corners? YIKES!