Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Got a few things done this weekend. Finished bagging and labeling any parts that were removed from the truck. Built a 4' high 20" wide 4 shelve box mounted on wall for all body work materials, sand papers, etc. Power washed heater assembly after removing fan, also power washed firewall mounted box for heater core. Scrubbed down the rest of the inside of cab, and firewall with solution and power washed. Cab is now ready for rust repair.

Cleaned of one small area of the frame in the rear and did a test sample of a satin black to see if I like how it looks. Need to get it back out in the sun to see the results. Will be prepping the front of the frame for paint. Then make any repairs to firewall, two small rust areas in cowl and repaint with 507 Light Blue single stage.

Also a few more items showed up on Saturday from AMD, rear bedside panels below lower trim for both sides.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Sounds like you are building up a big stash of parts, and you can never have too much storage space for supplies. Keep up the good progress.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Subscribed. ...enjoying this build.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Got a few more boxes of parts in. One from Precision for a complete weatherstrip kit for doors, belt line, wind wings, door seals, windshield and back window. Also got a couple of other boxes from AMD and Summit with patch panels for rear bottom of bed where the installed rear bumper destroyed it with how it was mounted and rust.

Once I got one of those boxes open I noticed that it was not the AMD part I ordered but a Tri-Plus part. So I called Summit back and spoke with them about my order being incorrect and that I have one from AMD and one from Tri-Plus. He said no problem keep the part and we will send one out today. Then I asked about the discount that was currently running and explained that I missed it by one day last time because I was waiting for a call back from Summit on a part question. He said no problem we can fix that and credited my card $100.

I am a fan of Summit and have always been treated well by them whenever I've had an issue.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Got the day off from work for Good Friday holiday and decided to tear into the first stage of rust repair. Started off with mounting a new Lennox metal cutting blade that I thought I would try. It was an $11 investment and I am really impressed so far with the cutting and longevity. I was able to make all the cuts and remove the rocker and all is good. I am keeping track of what I cut with it to see how it goes. I had also bought a spot weld cutter - that will be going back to Amazon. It did not work at all, literally just walked all over the place and made it impossible to use.

After making all the cuts I prepped the areas with a 60 grit flap disc for the welds. The inner rocker area was ground down to bare metal and treated with rusty metal primer. I will start on fitment of the rocker after all is good and cured. Start making templates for replacement patches, cut some metal and get it tacked.

On the cowl area I will treat the inside now that it is cleaned out well. I will treat the upper cowl in windshield wiper area also before painting.

Last area that will need attention is the bottom of the inner door pad, there is a small 1" x 2" area that will need cut out and replaced.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Love the updates ! Wish I had those skills.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

A center punch will help with the spot weld cutter and not much forgiveness for not being exactly straight on when you are drilling. The HF one works fairly well too.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

The one I have has the center point so you can get it right over center to drill. I guess I could try the center punch next time. After I tried about half a dozed I just grabbed a brad point drill bit and it made short order of getting the spot welds cut lose.

Thanks for the heads up.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Was able to get templates made for the three rust area that needed new metal. Treated the metal on the inside of the cowl kick panel with a rust reformer and also on the firewall where it is a double layer of metal. Cut out the metal pieces and test fitting before tacking in. A few will need a slight grinding to make the fit right for a weld. Spray the back side with rusty metal primer and some black enamel. Next I did a test fit on the rocker in the passenger side and I was surprised that I will only need to make a few small adjustments to make it fit properly.

While I was waiting for the primer and enamel layers to dry I went through the drip rails on the cab and removed all of the seam sealer. For the areas that were hard to remove I warmed it up with a Mapp Gas torch and used a sharpened flat blade screwdriver. Now just need to go over once with a wire brush on a angle grinder and it will be ready for seam sealer again.

In the last picture that I circled with red - points to cracks in the metal where the parking brake mounts. I will need to grind and open up these and re-weld. Possibly reinforce if needed, have never seen that issue on a firewall.

This week will be welding everything in and getting those areas prepped for primer. Need to slide the cab back on a couple of 4x4 post so that I can clean and paint the frame from the front to just past the back of cab. Want to get this done so that when I finish body work on cab it can go back on with the new body rubber mounts with fresh paint. Also before I putting the new 292 4x4 crossmember and the 292 motor.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

For the weekend I worked on getting all the metal trimmed and ready for tacking in on the rust repair on the cab. Below are pictures of how I tackled the firewall stress cracks where the parking brake mounts. Top and bottom mount holes were both cracked and need repair before I can scuff and repaint the firewall before the engine goes in.

Pict 1 - Shows the damage and after I used a grinder to cleanup area around the cracks. Originally thought I would just weld up the cracks but after cleaning it up I thought it would be better to cut out and replace the metal. the black marker marks are so I can line up the holes properly after I get new metal back in place.

Pict 2 - Shows where I cut out the metal and also shows how I taped card stock to the inside and outlined with a pencil.

Pict 3 - Shows the use of a spray adhesive to stick the template to the metal to be cut and the other is the tool of choice, a 4.5" grinder with a Lenox metal cutting blade. Clamped down with a large vise grip C clamp on the back of the truck frame with a 2x6 for support.

Pict 4 - Chows the metal cutout and fit to hole. I did have to do a little bit more grinding to fine tune it and make sure the fit was good for the welds. Also shows it tacked in tacking my time to jump around from corner to corner so it does not get heated up to much in one location.

I will follow up with the rest of the pictures of the welds finished and then ground down. Also the metal prepped for finishing and drilled for the parking brake to be remounted.

Will also have a few shots of the other areas on the cab like the rocker, kick panel and the passenger cowl repair. that will do it for the cab then onto minor door repair and then the replacement of the middle section of bed floor.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Nice work!

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Here are a few follow up pictures from the rust repair. This is after I ground down with flap disc on angle grinder, re-welded any small holes missed while welding. Flap disc touch up again then smoothed out with D.A. sander. I will next drill out hole locations from transfered sharpie marks and body work area.

Also decided to put together a cab lift with some leftover materials I had in the garage. Jacked it up and moved the cab to the back of the frame so I could get access to prep the frame, transmission and transfer case for paint. Used the air needle scaler I bought from H.F. to do the dirty work. It gets the big stuff off then I will go to the oven cleaner and power washer to get it closer so I can prep and paint.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Deep digging & dirty detail work ! Nice, Jim.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Looking good!

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Working on cab rust repair this weekend on the passenger side cowl. This area had rust on the inside of the kick panel, outside of cowl and the bottom pan of the cowl was like Swiss cheese. Worked the outside of cowl first, two rounds of welding and grinding. Then moved to the bottom of the cowl pan. Cutting back until I got to good metal that was solid again. Made a template out of card stock then cut it out and started to make all the needed bends to make it fit properly. Moved on to treating the inside with brush on Rust Reformer while I had the bottom out. Then 2 coats of Rusty Metal Primer brush on version.

While primer was drying I had two areas on the back of the cab that were small dents from the top of the bed hitting the cab. The one on the passenger side had a small amount of filler so I removed it, about a 2" square area. After I removed the filler I noticed 3 small hole where they used a slide dent puller. So I had bought a new tool a couple of months ago and this would be the time to try it out. Pulled out the stud welder and put a stud in the middle of the dent and used the new StudLever to pull the dent forward. I used it on both sides and I really like the control you have with it verses the slide hammer. Once I was done with that I used the DA to feather back the paint in the area for filler to finish it off. I noticed in the layers of paint these two areas were spot repaired. I could tell because of the layer of gray primer showing through, as I went further out all primed areas were the traditional red oxide.

After welding up the bottom of the cowl pan I will move onto the bottom of the doors I need to address. I will work on the doors while waiting waiting for filler or primers to cure on the cab.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Spent the morning cleaning up the garage to get the room needed to get moving on this build. Pushed the bed out into the driveway on the bed cart to tear it down and get it stored away in the side yard for later. This is the third bed I have completely tore down. The first one took about 6 hours. Second one took about 3 to 4 hours where I tried to break off the bolts using my impact driver, then drilling out the ones that would spin from the top. This time I went around and tried to break all off with impact driver and the ones that were spinning I tried a different method that worked really well and fast. I used a small chisel and screw driver driven under both sides of the bolt head to put pressure on it. This time I was able to complete the tear down in about 2 hours, that included moving items to side yard and cleaning up the driveway and tools.

Here is a picture of the method i used on the bolt heads that were spinning. After I just used a hammer and dolly to put the metal back and flatten it out.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Looks like a nice job on the repairs. I've got the same StudLever and it does a great job as long as you use enough studs that you aren't trying to pull too hard on any given stud (slips off the stud). Really good control though.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

The first couple I used the smaller diameter studs and they were slipping a bit. Then I moved to the larger ones that I had in the kit and no slippage so far. At some point I would like to buy the tab-it kit and try doing a few with the glue on pads from a PDR kit.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

After getting the garage cleaned up and organized on Wednesday I was going to take advantage of the extra space to get the motor off of the dolly and onto the motor stand to finish cleaning and getting ready for the proper color. The story on the motor is when I bought the two truck deal he also had the motor his dad had rebuilt before he passed away. I asked why is it green and he explained that his dad completed the rebuild and did not want to drive to town which is about twenty miles to get the right color of paint. He had some John Deere Green and thought it was good enough for the C60 it was going to go back into.

Anyways I removed the manifold, distributor, fuel pump and alternator so I could proceed to clean it up with a orange foaming degreaser I use and then scuff it up with a few Scotch brite pads to get some bite on the paint. I will wipe down with wzx and grease remover and prime first then spray Chevy Orange with ceramic motor paint.

I was looking at the script valve cover and noticed it had a few dings and dents so I began working the metal to get it best I could. The one in the picture was probably the worst. I used a hammer, dolly, a few different shaped hardwood sticks, a carriage bolt that had a top on it that had the same curvature and the last item I used was a large turnbuckle bolt. By using a few different items I was able to get it looking real good. I hit it a few times with the DA to see where the lows and high were and worked from there.

So know I will be working the cab and the motor together. I like to have at least two items going on at the same time so if I get tired or need a change of pace I flip over to the other item. Sometimes it works out real good waiting on things to cure or dry while I can move over to the other item and keep going forward.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Got the main part of the engine primed and painted after a couple of evenings of prepping. I used the following products to prepare for primer and paint.

• Purple Power citrus cleaner
• Scotch Brite pads
• putty knife
• gasket scraper
• wire brushes
• Nylox brush attachment for drill
• wax and grease remover
• green 3m tape
• dolly and hammer with other items to remove dents from valve cover
• Duplicolor engine primer
• Duplicolor ceramic engine paint

Now I am working on all the items that were removed like brackets, exhaust/intake manifold, harmonic balancer and few other smalls. After I disassembled the intake/exhaust manifold to paint the intake Chevy Orange and the exhaust side Cast Iron I noticed a hidden crack in the exhaust side. Lucky that I had another manifold to pull apart and I got lucky no cracks on this one.

While I am working on the rest of the small items that need painting I made a list and ordered a few items that I will need to button up the engine and get it ready for install. I ordered a few new gaskets, plug wires, distributor cap, oil filler cap, thermostat, harmonic balancer, Pertronix electronic ignition and Flame Thrower coil. There are a few other items that I have on the shelf that should work like a fan pulley, fan, and carburetor from one of my inline 250 motors.

As I am finishing up the motor items I will be prepping and painting the front half of the frame to get it ready for the 292 crossmember and motor install.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Have been working on a few items to get back toward the build. Hunting down a few more items I need for the motor to make it complete is just about final. I moved the cab to the back of the frame so I could start cleanup and prep frame for paint. I needed a place to put the cab and wanted to be able to work on the frame and drive train at the same time. The old cart I built for the bed and cab has seen better days and is being used for another bed right know. So I always wanted to build one of the Tilt -N-Flip carts that LFD designed a few years back. I put a note up on the forum to see if anyone was still selling them and a forum member Jason Banks post a few images and plans to one he had built. ( link to thread here )

After viewing his pictures and someone sent me a link on how to get in touch with Kevin to order plans, the gears started to turn. I was able to purchase plans from Kevin and ideas from what Jason had put together and design up my own version of a Tip and Flip cart. I will use the cart to work on the cab and also have another set of extensions to add to the other end to put a bed on if needed. When it is all finished I will make the support mounts sleeved with 1.75 square tubing and adjustable with holes for a retained clevis so I can raise and lower or add different supports for different items if needed like to hold doors, fenders or a bedside for painting. Hope to finish up this weekend so I can move the cab onto the cart and get it ready for paint by the end of the month.

Also I picked up a really nice 1972 K20 which was all original except for the small block 400 motor in it. So spent some time removing the motor and a few items so I can put it into storage for a later build.

Pict 1 This is the old wooden cart that I built several years ago
Pict 2 Plans that I drew up in Sketchup for measurements and concept
Pict 3 This is the base - cardboard templates for the supports to do the layout for cab bolts
Pict 4 Here is the tilt portion being tested and measured with angle finder - right on 45 degrees
Pict 5 Here is the K20 as I was dragging it home from Rigby Idaho

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

here is another picture of progress on the cart. Hope to wrap up here in the next evening or so. Then it will be time for testing it out and back onto the build.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Finally got some time to work on an item for the project. I bought this side mount air cleaner for a 292 from a board member a few months ago. It was complete but had a few dings and dents in the snorkel portion so I attempted to hammer and dolly it out the best I could to make it presentable. I used a few different items I had laying around the shop as dollies as well as a flat doll I had.

After it was done I brushed on some metal etch on the outside to strip all the rust and then finished it by smoothing things out with a DA. Then I like to use the brush on version of Rustoleum rusty metal primer. I will next block sand and knock it down then etching primer and finally single stage satin black for the final paint.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Finally got a chance to mount the cab on the new cart. I really like the sitting height on the cart it allows me to do work all around the cab without having to bend over. The lower items like rockers makes it comfortable to sit in chair while working those areas. I always need to take thing like that into consideration with three ruptured disc in back. Being comfortable while working on these projects is an important factor in my book.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Nice job on the cart

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

That cart looks good.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Thanks I appreciate it.

Thanks!, I think it will be getting a good work out I have a K20 and three k10 that will get tested out on this after this build is done.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Got some work done on the firewall, one last small piece of rust repair I found when working on the vent box. Mudded up a few areas to get it looking good and ready for single stage paint on firewall. Like going with single stage under the hood so that if something gets scratched up or nicked during assembly it will be an easy fix.

Also scored a really nice set of Spicer hubs on Marketplace for $100 dollars. These will go on the K20 build coming up.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Little more done on the problem areas on the firewall. Just about ready for surface primer. The firewall had four locations that needed attention. Two of them were small patches of rust toward the top where leaves and debris build up created the issue. The other was in the passenger kick panel vent bottom housing. The last was the area where the parking brake attaches to the firewall. Both bolt holes were basically ripped and close to completely breaking off. On this I decided to take out a larger portion and replace the metal with new 20 gauge. I pre-marked the bolt holes on the firewall further out than where the cuts were to be made so I could get It lined up in the right spot. After I did all the repairs and drilled the new holes it fit perfect first try.

There was also a few areas on the firewall that had big runs in the paint from factor. I was able to scrape those down with a new razor blade and then feather out with a DA. Now that that part is out of the way I will be moving onto the backside of the cab for body work, then remove the front and back glass and get those areas ready for paint. The rest of the cab should go pretty fast since the rust areas have been addressed and there are only a few dings here and there to take care of.

I also included a picture of the door striker hardware. The rusted set is the passenger side and the drivers side after soaking over night in Evaporust.

Pict 1 - shows the issue with parking brake mount holes
Pict 2 - shows the repair
Pict 3 - shows the other side of firewall repairs
Pict 4 - overall shot
Pict 5 - shows the difference of soaking door striker in Evaporust over night

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

No updates

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Jumpin in for a ride a long to the end! :ito:

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

My 69 blazer is very similar to your truck in colour scheme. 507 light blue with the 606 blue interior. My interior was in really rough shape when I got so it's nice that your beginning photos show what they'll look like at the end. Only difference with mine seems to be that it came with medium blue visors not dark blue. Will you be keeping the blue interior on yours?

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

good job on this build

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

I will be sticking with the 607 -Blue Custom Cloth Trim. Everything in the truck will be reused except for the seat cover. I will replace it with the proper seat cover that it came with that has a darker blue outer trim and a cloth patterned insert.

The visors and door panels are in perfect shape, will get a good cleaning and add some conditioner to moisten the vinyl.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

I'm in the process of putting my truck back together and the pick of the door parts shows me what the shims are for. now I can work on my door locks.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

That's awesome, if you need any other pictures let me know, I have them on the table and I have them installed a few trucks at my house.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

I have also taken apart 3 beds, not sure I have it down as well as you have. I use an air ratchet on the nuts. Of course they stop spinning after about 3-4 turns and are stuck. I spray everything down with penetrant first. I use several sets of vice grips on the top side after I have spun several as fay as they will go, trying to position the vice grips to where they are loaded, against the bed wall. If you don't they will slap the wall hard and come loose easier...
I think the best way, may be to cut off the exposed threads off the bolts at the nut, that way the nut can't get stuck. I wire brush the exposed threads. That didn't help as much as I wanted it to...

Wht condition id the small block 400 you obtained. Those can be nice running engines, not sure I'd want one in a 4WD pickup, the extra power might be a test for the drive line...

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Well finally back on the project. Going to challenge myself to a 21 day challenge to get the cab and door metal repairs done, all of the body work and painted. I have all the materials to do the job and complete the task. Here in Idaho yesterday 3/25/2020 the governor ordered a 21 day "Stay at Home" order to fight the Covid-19 virus. So instead of letting it get the best of me I will make it a challenge. Challenge to get the project moving forward and a challenge to learn something new in this hobby that I have not tried yet. Possibly do a full door skin, do a LS motor install, try painting a shop logo on spare door. Not sure yet but I will know in a day or so on the new item to try.

Times are rough right now and this is the best way for me to cope with what is going on and help flatten the curve at the same time. Hopefully when this is all over I can look back and see something positive.

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Not to mention 4 k20s to do

Re: 69 K10 From the Field
 

Actually 3 but who is counting. Did you finally get yours hauled up to your place?