Re: 1976 CCSB Duramax Project #trucknamedsue
 

Thanks guys.

here some pics of working on the door shells. These are all the pics I have currently uploaded for the door repair. I may have some more, there was a ton more work than shown here.

the drivers door was very rusted out on the bottom. I cut the skin off before I had it blasted. After blast, I fixed the rust and put a new skin on.

some before pics-

https://i.imgur.com/aUOiXft.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sSSaeda.jpg

I made my own patches as I could get them to fit better easier than working with aftermarket stampings. Also I worked very carefully around the stock drain holes in the door, to ensure they looked as stock as possible. The aftermarket stamps are not even close to OE.

fixing the front corner.

https://i.imgur.com/Td9NghG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RTOfZKO.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/vR1uZQ1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IXKfH7k.jpg

after both corners were fixed, I cut the rust out the bottom and put the bottom in.

https://i.imgur.com/l7gCuF6.jpg

final door bottom. Looks like some adjusting still after this.

https://i.imgur.com/U12YEI2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/twpf9QQ.jpg




before the skins went on, I setup for the mirrors and panel bonded heavy 'washers' to the backsides of the skins. To try and stabilize the mirrors and prevent sheetmetal cracks.

https://i.imgur.com/MNwrql6.jpg

skin set on door shell. The only exterior body mod on the truck is shaved door locks in the front doors. The skins were shaved prior to installed, ground flush front and back.

https://i.imgur.com/aBr8oXz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sAaXE1I.jpg

passenger inner door was hacked to hell from the previous owner. A member here was kind enough to send me a filler piece. so I was able to install that. You'll never see it, but we all know its fixed.

https://i.imgur.com/SgJkHrS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vzsU6Id.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FFQLAfR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IquTcgN.jpg

final inner primer pics of the rear doors in the booth- with the small door panels this truck essentially has 8 doors. 4 inners and 4 outers. The doors and their body work and such were definitely one of the largest challenges and time consumers.

https://i.imgur.com/YEGXBd5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JlVClEk.jpg

Re: 1976 CCSB Duramax Project #trucknamedsue
 

I'm glad to get to see the process, piece by piece. Thanks for posting. I like the fact that you're leaving the factory stamping and tooling and seams on the firewall. Not that I have anything against cleaning up and simplifying, but you have a goal in mind and you're sticking to it. Once you start fixing perceived factory flaws, it's hard to know how far to go down that rabbit hole. This will be one of the most customized trucks on the road, but your approach doesn't appear to include custom, for the sake of custom. Adaptation and installation of parts, requiring some custom work, but for the purpose of function. Not trying to state what your actual plan is, but that is my impression of the build. Makes it different, and it's something I really am enjoying.

Re: 1976 CCSB Duramax Project #trucknamedsue
 

it's funny you mention going down the rabbit hole. As I get to the finishing side of updates, you'll see alot of attention was placed in making things look original and OEM. For this build, I think the truck is super cool as-is. So any changes I make to the body/interior and such are just to enhance what is already there or add features it didn't have before, but could be plausible and sold in a way they don't stick out. It's about layering details of custom and OEM and finishing things out so when you step back and look at it- it looks like you didn't do anything.

The best comment I received so far was a guy was shocked I found such a clean original truck and put a lift kit on it. :chevy: At first pass he had no clue the amount of modification. This was what I wanted.

Re: 1976 CCSB Duramax Project #trucknamedsue
 

You nailed it & then some brother!

Re: 1976 CCSB Duramax Project #trucknamedsue
 

Back to your door skin install, where did you get the skins and how was fitment overall? Been thinking of going this route to save my OEM door shells.

Re: 1976 CCSB Duramax Project #trucknamedsue
 

from Classic Industries.

The passenger fit pretty good, as good as stock.

The driver had a weird bow were you butt weld it to the door on the rearward side of the skin(door handle side, not mirror side), which made the window gap massive. When I worked the bow out to dial in the window gap, the entire top of the skin oil canned in. so that took some work to get back right especially because the door handle is there. I ended up taking off the door handle brace, straightening everything out- and putting the brace back on.

The door gaps end up being crap- but the stock doors were bad so that isn't a surprise. I didn't gap my truck to have perfect consistent gaps, but I did work them to be better and at least have a gap. When I first put the doors on, they hit each other and the cab in a few places. so lots of edge grinding and welding to make it all work well. The down side to all the edge grinding and such is the door edges get thicker- it looks like filler build up. so I'm not excited about that, but it is what it is- I wasn't going to build door frames and skins from complete scratch to be 100% perfect.

Overall I'd use them again. They fit no better and no worse than stock.