Herschel's Lowdown Dirty Truck Build Thread

[Hershizzle]

Ok.....So I have officially started on the build. I have to do some body work on the front clip I got before I actually put it on the truck. I want to sand everything down to bare metal and fix ALL the little stuff. I'm also doing some custom work such as shaving the antenna hole, side marker lights, cowl grills, and filling misc. trim holes. I have a small amount of rust repair to do on the very bottom of the fenders and I need to delete the battery box. So anywho, I started sanding the cowl today and I am SOOOOOO glad I bought a little orbital sander to do this with......It's definately going to shave lots of time off of this project because there's going to be a lot of detail work. I have all the time I need to finish this so I'm going to take my time and make every panel perfect before it get's final paint. I'm not quite done with the cowl, but I got more than half of it sanded today......

Here's what it looked like after a test sanding......


Then I got down to business....


Then, after a beer and a bowl, I really got down to business......

**Note the antenna hole and the cowl grill that will be shaved.....

The windshield wiper holes will remain, but it will be smooth across the cowl otherwise (that's why I didn't bother sanding the paint on the grills)......


In this pic you can see where I'm going to try and cut the grills out and weld a filler piece around the windshield wiper holes.....


BTW, a vented mask and safety glasses are a must........Breathing paint dust and having small rust/paint chips shot into your eyes is really not cool at all.......

I haven't really done any bodywork before so I'm kind of in uncharted territory here. If any of you guys know anything about bodywork and have any suggestions then feel free to add your two cents.....

So that's all for now. I'm going to finish up sanding the cowl tomorrow and get some primer on it so it doesn't rust until I can get the welding done. I'll probably start on some of the small grill trim pieces so I can figure out if I need to replace them or if I can refurbish them and get them rechromed. WHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

[Shawn]

Buy etching primer. Nason 491-40 will work. You can spray it with a cheap paint gun. Dont use a lot, just enough to wash the metal with. You want to be able to see through the primer. Only one coat of etching is needed. THEN you can use normal primer. Spray 3 or 4 coats of normal primer on and then topcoat it with a light mist of black spray paint so when you sand it with 320 grit you can see if you have low spots or dings in it.

[En-Gay-Ged]

Harbor Freight paint guns work awesome, and are nearly disposable.

[Hershizzle]

So I got the rest of the cowl sanded and got a coat of etching primer on it until I can get it to the shop to have the welding done. Once that's done then I get to sand some more and then a light coat of filler is all it should take to make it perfectly smooth. Then I get to sand some more........And hopefully after that it should be ready for paint.....hopefully......

So anyway, here's some pics of it after the primer went on.....





The next thing I'm going to tackle is the grill pieces. I'm going to start on the bezels, but I'm probably going to buy new bezels and the grill opening trim because by the time I get the ones I have cleaned up enough to be rechromed and then actually get them chromed I would have more money in them than just getting new ones. Either way, I'm taking the whole clip apart to paint all of it and the grill comes off first so that seems to be the natural step to take....Moar WWHHHHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

[Shawn]

Good job so far man. That etching primer will keep you from having to do this again 5 years from now.

[Tofuball]

Post info on truck.

[Hershizzle]

(05-26-2009 05:25 PM)Tofuball Wrote: Guests cannot see links in the messages. Please register to forum by clicking here to see links.Post info on truck.

All the info is in post #4....
Guests cannot see links in the messages. Please register to forum by clicking here to see links.

[Hershizzle]

I have a tiny update on teh truck.

It's not much because I've been pretty busy with other stuff, but I started replacing the door weatherstrips yesterday and finished it up today. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have because I don't have any of the 3+ pounds of dirt, rocks, plant matter, and general crud that I pulled out of my door sills. There's a little channel that runs the length of the rocker panel for wiring to tuck underneath the weatherstripping. That channel was FULL of shite. So unnecessarily long story short, I cleaned all that up and got some etching primer on the rocker panel to seal it up and stop the rust until I can get a replacement panel to repair it. Then I installed the weatherstripping without much excitement. As I was putting everything back together I realized that the crusty sill plate didn't look very awesome on top of the new rubber so I busted out the stripping wheel and cleaned it up and etch primered it as well. So the drivers side is done and I hope to get to the other side within the next few days.....

I don't have a before pic of the weatherstripping, but suffice it to say that it's life as a seal was long over....

Here's the sill plate...


ZOMG! IT'S TEH WEATHERSTRIPPING!!!! (don't lie...you know this is the most interesting thing you've seen all day....)

[Hershizzle]

...And a day later.....

YAY for motivation!!!!

So I got a few more things done. I got the stereo back in and wired properly instead of having two miles worth of extra wires with the bare wire ends wrapped around a tube fuse for power........Srsly.....What kind of fucking retard does shit like that? While I had the seat out doing the stereo I decided to go ahead and get the floor mat out so I could get the rest of the crap out from underneath it. After I got it all cleaned up I decided to go ahead and strip the surface rust with my trusty wire wheel (my new favorite tool) and get it etch primed to stop the rust that was there. I also got the old passenger side weatherstripping off and got the lip all cleaned up. Both of my rockers are shot, but that's not at all uncommon and replacement rockers are readily and cheaply available. I got the passenger side floor all cleaned up and primed and I'm going to finish the driver side floor and passenger side weatherstripping tomorrow. Then I need to get some Dynamat and lay that down. I think the next thing I'm going to work on in the cab is the dash. I would like to get it cleaned and patched up and get some paint on it. I have a few gauges that I need to install also.

On to teh pictures.......

I took before pics this time, LOL! Here's the passenger side craptastic weatherstripping, rocker, and soon to be cleaned up sill plate....


Here's what it looked like under the weatherstripping on the rocker....


This is where I decided to get serious and just pull the floor mat and get shit cleaned up under there....





The floor pans are actually in pretty good shape. They just have a little surface rust, but are otherwise solid....



Here's the passenger side with a light coat of etching primer on the bad spots....


Here's the pile of shite I pulled out from underneath the floor mat....



As a side note, I have found a short bed Chevy frame (so it has the trailing arms and coil springs instead of the leaf spring set up the GMC's have) with a disk brake set up on the front and a proper 10 bolt rear end for $250 so I'm most likely going to pick that up and build it up so I can still drive the truck until I'm ready to swap the cab to the short bed frame. This will solve lots of minor logistic problems I was going to have other wise. It will be awesome because this way I can really take my time and prep the frame the way I want it instead of having to do it in stages. I can do the final ride height c-notch and get it all set up for teh bags of doom. I can get the frame painted as a whole rather than having to do it in sections. I can get my new gas tank mounted and plumbed easily. This also solves my two piece driveshaft problem as the short beds are one piece. Frame off build bishes WOOT!!!

[Hershizzle]

So I hit it running today. I got the weatherstripping in on the passenger side and got the driver side floor cleaned up and etch primed everything. I also got the passenger side sill plate cleaned up and painted both sides black. All in all it was a productive couple of days of work on the truck and I'm pooped......

Primed floor....



Teh $9.00 bag of assorted clamps pays for itself....


The sill plates painted black...



This is what happens when you run out of primer after the stores have closed and think to yourself "Surely this paint will stick to this chrome surface without any primer"....



Note on the frame I posted about yesterday....It's a done deal. I go to pick it up on Monday. I can't wait to get going on that project. I'm soooo glad I get to do the build this way because when I'm done I will know for a fact that everything on the truck from the ground up is fixed, replaced, or rebuilt, and it's all done correctly. This also means that I can do a through frame exhaust so I can truly lay the frame on the ground. The time is neigh to buy stock in ball joints and tie rod ends yo......