1976 Chevy Truck 3/4 ton 4x4 - 2nd rebuild

[thirsty]

You have been making great progress.
That's a lot of tedious work done in a short time (I can attest to it after just doing the same  )
How did you like working with the roofing material? I thought about putting it on the floor of my cab. Just wish is was wider, that's my only hold up on getting it.

For the tires...My vote is for the 35" just because I can't fit mine in the garage with anything bigger than 33"

What are you watching on the tv in the shop? Those are some nice legs.

[Blazin]

Looking great. Youve been on a roll for sure!

[bake74]

     It is all coming back together.  Starting to look like a truck again. 

[84chvy]

ilike the sliding back glass. never seen one like that.

[firefighter]

How did you like working with the roofing material? I thought about putting it on the floor of my cab. Just wish is was wider, that's my only hold up on getting it.

That was a hold up for me too but that quickly went away when I started working with it. It's 6" wide so it really does cover a nice area per strip. If the whole floor was straight, a wider width material would be great, but there are so many creases, corners, curves, etc... that the 6" width is your friend.
I just took a measurement and got the first piece on straight and then kept on lining the next one right up to it, strip by strip.
Since this comes in a roll, the bottom side has a peel off layer. I simply cut it to length, lay it in place and kind of semi form it into place. If I need to trim or cut it, I do it then because I haven't peeled the layer exposing the sticky stuff yet. It's really flexible and contours very well. I'll definitely use it on the rest of my floor before putting carpet down.

For the tires...My vote is for the 35" just because I can't fit mine in the garage with anything bigger than 33"

Yeah, I want 35's. With 33's on now, the top of my cab to the floor measures just 2" shy of 7'. 
I foolishly bought some used 16.5 rims a few months ago and am having a really hard time finding any 35" mud tires around here. Plus my tire store guy tells me if I ruined a tire in a few years and needed a replacement. that it will be almost impossible to find one then. The tire companies are really phasing them out he said.
I've switched directions and am now going to look for a set of aluminum 16" rims.
This is my hold up of painting the fenders. I want to throw the fenders on the truck temporarily to see if I need to trim them to fit the 35's. If I need to, I'll trim them before I paint them. I should have gotten tires a month ago.

What are you watching on the tv in the shop? Those are some nice legs.

Oh, up on the TV?
I just had some videos playing of our family vacation last year. That's my wife's legs in the picture.
Just kidding !!!!

Yep, I'm trying to make some progress. Not that I need to. I have as much time as I want to take.
I am pushing the painting process though. The temps have been unseasonably warm here lately. It's been up in the 30's and 40's. I warm the shop up to paint and then I raise up the overhead door and install a wooden panel (the width of the door) down at the bottom. I've got a squirrel cage fan mounted in the wooden panel so that acts as my ventilation system.
I'm much happier venting my heat outside when it's 40 degrees instead of 20 below if you know what I mean.

I primed the hood tonight and will take off work a few hours early tomorrow and paint the hood the color of the truck. That will be one more panel painted. Yippee !!   

[firefighter]

Well I guess the latest updates are that I got the hood primed and painted last Wednesday and Thursday.
I'm waiting on painting the front fenders until I can temporarily put them on the truck with my unpurchased 35" tires to see if I need to trim any metal first.
I worked on bleeding the brakes yesterday but couldn't finish because I broke the bleeder off on the front drivers side caliper. I bought a new caliper today but still need to put it on yet.
I only had a few hours this afternoon to work on it but I was bound and determined to get the engine running again. It hadn't been running of course since I pulled the old cab off in August.
Since then I'd put in all new brake and fuel lines. I didn't know how long it would take to get fuel from the tanks back up to the carb. I dumped some fuel into the carb and hit the key and it started right up. It ran about 5 -10 seconds and died. I dumped some more gas into the carb and it fired right back up and continued to run from then on. Sweet !!
I had to deal with the smoke from coating the headers and top off the antifreeze level since I had put on all new hoses and heater core. I let it get up to operating temperature and then switched back and forth from the left gas tank to the right tank to make sure both were registering correctly on my gauge.
Mostly everything is going smooth. Just one little glitch from the starter right now. While I had the truck tore down, I had to split the tranny from the motor and put a new flexplate in. I had one chipped tooth on my old one. I noticed something odd then and now the starter has an odd sound to it when the starter disengages. I'll post pictures and ask a question about that in a different area.

Anyway, that's my update. Thanks for listening!!

[GMan]

Hey firefighter I just noticed your thread.  Very nice work!  I agree with everyone else about the great color choice.

[79k30guy]

sounds like its coming along nicely. its awesome your doing everything yourself, including painting.  I'm gonna show my dad your pics and talk him into a trip to Lowes to get some of that roofing material, since we're right at that point with his truck..
keep some pics coming!   I know everyone's saying it but I'll say it too, Awesome color choice!   

[firefighter]

A little progress over the last week. Not as much as I would have wanted however.

Starter problem resolved.

I did find some used aluminum wheels last Sunday so last week I went to my local favorite tire store and got 4 new tires on the way. I ended up buying 315 (35") 75 16 Dunlop Fierce Aggression tires. $1100 later I brought them home. Wow, tires cost a lot !!!
I've attached a few pictures of my old tires and rims along with the new ones, below. The new tires are 3" taller than my last tires (which were worn out) so I was thinking I'd have to do a little fender trimming. I was right.
I spent the afternoon tediously trimming as much as I though was necessary off the front and rear lips of the fenders.
If a person always went straight and the suspension never flexed, you'd never have to trim the fenders, but unfortunately a person must turn and sometimes the tire goes up. That's when the conflict would occur. If the rims would have been offset 1" further inward, I would have gotten away with no modifications at all I think.
It really turned out nice and most people would never even notice I had to trim.

Yesterday I worked on the interior some more. When putting the cab back together I installed my original steering column. My replacement cab came with a tilt column so I was going to put that in once I verified that everything was working properly.
When looking more in depth to the tilt column yesterday, it appeared that someone had messed with one of the electrical connectors in a way that I could not get my wiring connector to fit and the wire colors were different. A few other red flags came up and I noticed that even when the key was in the locked position, the steering wheel would not lock. All these things combined made my decision that I would just keep my original non tilt column. I would have liked tilt, but didn't want to spend the time fussing over a column that I felt had been tampered with or really wasn't from the 78 cab that I had bought.
If I ever find a nice tilt column, it's not that hard to change.

I think all the interior electrical is done and it's almost time to call in the local glass company to  put the windshield back in. I think I can do the rear glass myself after reading some tips about it here.

It's really time to install the doors and make sure the fenders line up properly and modify them if I have to. Then I'm really looking forward to getting the fenders painted and installed once and for all.

Here's a few pics of my old and new tires comparison. I like em'  !!!   

[bake74]

     Those are some nice looking rims and tires.  Yes tires are expensive.  I do have to say the older trucks, (second generation) do have better fenders, I like the round fender on those trucks, I just don't like the way the rest of the truck looks.   

[thirsty]

Nice looking tires and wheels!

It really turned out nice and most people would never even notice I had to trim.

We need photographic evidence of this.

[mikek20]

Im loving the wheels and tires. Cant wait to see them on the truck

[firefighter]

Last night I put the drivers door back on. This was easy because I'd already aligned the doors to the cab before painting either one. All I had to do is just tap in the hinge pins (now remember I have the top pin in upside down with a retainer in the top so it can't fall out).
Then I nervously attempted fitting the fender (aftermarket fender) to the door. I put a double thick layer of painters tape on the front door edge so I wouldn't chip anything.
Since I didn't have a helping hand, I loosely held the front of the fender up with a strap and overhead support. I shimmed and gapped the top of the fender to the door and then had to lower the front of the fender to close the gap on the bottom of the fender to the door. The gap was awesome.... until I had to try and flex the front of the fender enough to raise it the 1" it was sagging in the front.
I now know (with the help of the guys here) that I can shim up the front of the cab to help with this issue. I'll be readjusting that fender so it isn't so torqued.
Anyway, I was happy to have them both on the truck together.
I'll be working on the passenger side this evening. I hope it goes well. This side has original GM door and fender.

Here is how it looks currently.

[thirsty]

It's starting to take shape now! Everything looks awesome so far. I like the way it sits and those wheels and tires are perfect for it.

Are you going to put the hood on also to check the gaps with that too?

[firefighter]

It's starting to take shape now! Everything looks awesome so far. I like the way it sits and those wheels and tires are perfect for it.

Are you going to put the hood on also to check the gaps with that too?

Hey Mr. thirsty,

Thanks for the reply.
I do like my new tires. They are gonna be some mud slingers for sure.   

I will at least set the hood in place to make sure the front end is square, parallel and level.
Before I took the fenders off last time I took some specific measurements that I have been rechecking now to make sure everything was very close to where it was before.
I'm getting pretty excited because shortly I'll be painting the fenders and putting this stuff together for the last time.