My Build Thread, 78Chevyrado's 1978 C20

[Dragon]

That body shop looks top notch. One thing though, you would think for the kind of work they do they would know the difference from a 55 to a 57 Chevy!!!!
http://www.brownandbrownprocustominc.com/1957CHEVY.html
Thats a 55 not a 57.

LOL Yeah that is funny for sure, but it was either titled by whoever runs the site for them wrong, or it was just plain fat fingered(ie finger too big, and thought they were pushing one button, over the one that actually got push)...  Although you would be surprised at how many Local "Car Buff" Nimrod's make the same mistake

So just out of curiosity, how Flammable would you say fresh paint is
http://www.brownandbrownprocustominc.com/sitebuilder/images/Picture_057-600x449.jpg
  To me that is a scary shot, even if it was Baked....

[Blazin]

Are you referring to the cigarette smoke? It looks like its open air pretty well.
 I have done complete paint jobs in a wood stove heated garage!

[78 Chevyrado]

Yeah that's what I was thinkin, Dragon, maybe the site designer messed it up.  I do see people mistake shoebox years too, most common I see is messing up a 55 and 56.  Probably is cigarette smoke in the pic, they all smoke up there.  I be getting some more pics this week, it's supposed to be having all the rest of the body work done and probably paint this week too.  Thanks for the comments guys!

[78 Chevyrado]

Started stripping the back bumper today.  The cultivator on the tractor makes a good bench to clamp it to for sanding.

[79diesel]

are you just going to paint the bumper?

[78 Chevyrado]

Yeah, it'll be the same color, I just wanted to get the 5 or 6 layers of paint off of it, and it had many knicks and chips in the paint that stick out like a sore thumb.  When I painted it, I basically just scuffed and shot it last time. This time I'm putting the work in.

[JRConnieK10]

Man your going to have that thing covered end to end. By the time your done your really going to have to put some high dollar insurance on it. Oh and nice to see the safety goggles most people take the safety for granted and those wire wheels your using spit little wires out and stick you like acupuncture.

[78 Chevyrado]

Yeah I always wear my glasses.  It sucks having to dig something out of your own eye, especially when you're short an eye because one of them has trash in it.   I figured out just how many of those wires break off when I used a wire wheel on something near my old '77.  It happened to rain that night and all the little pieces of wire that were all over the hood and roof (I found them 2 days later) rusted and I had a hundred little rust stains on the paint to remove.  Might not have been so bad except the truck was bright white...   The tractor does look funny with the bumper clamped to it.  Not too many tractors have a step bumper.  As far as the insurance, that's the first thing I have to do when I get it done.

Here's a pic of how my new carpet matches up to the "paint" I used on my plastic/vinyl parts.  Pictured is the LH Kickpanel which is Painted with SEM "Firethorn Red" And the carpet piece is ACC CARPET "835-Firethorn Plush Cut Pile"


Here's also a pic of my console's cardboard liner bonding to a piece of the new carpet. The old felt liner was nasty and dingy so I''m going to line it with matching carpet on the inside.  I peeled the felt off the liner and will replace it by glueing the carpet to the cardboard, and then reassemble it like it was.

[ccz145a]

That looks great! Nothing like going all out.

[78 Chevyrado]

Here's pics of relining the console.

Start by peeling the old felt lining off of the carboard backing (not pictured.)  Then I attatched the carpet (before cutting) to the cardboard with contact cement.  After the cement setup i trimmed the carpet with an exacto knife to fit the cardboard exactly.  Then just reassembled it like it came apart; with staples.  I used a leather hammer on the inside and a dolly under the staples to compress them for the tightest hold.

In the first pic below:  You can get the tabs to stand up like below by folding them over and hitting them with a soft hammer to set the crease in the carpet.  If the cardboard tears a bit along the seams that's okay.  The new carpet will hold it together assuming the cement was applied correctly.







It only took about 30 minutes or so to do, minus drying time for the contact cement.  I think it came out great.  And now I don't have to clean the old felt





Capt did a proper write up on my console and it's here:
http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=9540.0

[JRConnieK10]

Wow you sure do awesome work. Looks great.

[JJSZABO]

Yes - Nice Work

[ccz145a]

I am impressed! Nice workmanship.

[Captkaos]

That console looks GREAT!   I took the liberty to create a Tech Article on this and posted it here: http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=9540.0

[78 Chevyrado]

Thanks guys!  No problem about the write up, it looks great.  Anything you think you can use, here it is.

Here's some bodyshop pics for yall.

These two show how the new hood lines up with the new RH Fender and OE LH Fender.  The right side gap needs a little work to just close it up a bit but I'm happy otherwise.  The left gap looks good like it is.





The new fender hood and door go good together.  The filler at the bottom of the door wasn't because of fit, the door just had a couple of dents in it.


Couple of overall shots