1966 F100 Short/Fleet Full Stock Resto Build Thread

[theastronaut]

We had already blasted the hinges but still needed to make a few repairs and clean them before spraying epoxy.


All the old grease and grit cleaned out with wax and grease remover.






The door stop rod was worn...




So I reshaped and smoothed the ramps.




The rod bottomed out against the hinge before it should have, which kept it from contacting the roller. This made the door have very wide "stops", letting the door swing freely more than it should.




The driver side roller had a flat spot. We welded it up and smoothed it out.




Then polished the rollers with a flap wheel.






After the repairs were done we boiled the hinges in Dawn dish detergent to get the last of the oil and grit out.






Then washed with PPG DX579/520 and shot with DPLF epoxy.

[theastronaut]

Fixed the clutch rod pivot with a bronze bushing. The rest of the pivot point will be sleeved as well to tighten up the linkage.




Shift linkage installed.

[theastronaut]

We've been wetsanding the cab for the last two days... this is one of those jobs where you want to go back and have a stern talk with whoever designed such lumpy door jambs... We've got a couple spots to go over again and then it'll be ready for paint. We'll prep and spray the doors at the same time.










Also been working on some of the smaller parts. We stripped the seat down so we could redo the frame and tracks. The adjustment arm was painted black so we recreated that detail.









The clutch rod was cracked and worn and new ones aren't available. We ground out the cracks, then welded them up and also welded the worn spots on the ends. Ground everything smooth, blasted, and painted it so it looks and works as new again.









Added a bronze bushing to the clutch adjustment pivot.

[jhrusk]

very nice,always look foward to updates. What color on the paint??

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by jhrusk

very nice,always look foward to updates. What color on the paint??

Thanks! It's going back Sahara Beige and Whimbledon White, it's original colors.

This is a 16K mile original paint truck that's identical except for the bumper guards.

[theastronaut]

We wetsanded the bottom of the cab today. It's taken us four straight days with both of us working to get every square inch wetsanded.




What floor pan patches???




A few more reflection pics while the cab was still wet.

[biggene]

Awesome work bro. I am a VW guy too. I actually got to the board from your signature link over on The Samba.
Don't have a 60's series Chevy/GMC again yet, I had to sell off my 69 when my little boy was born, and now that I have 2 kiddo's, I am wanting something all of us can ride in together, so I have been keeping my eyes open for a late 60's/early 70's Suburban.
Here is a pic of my 67 Beetle. I did a complete pan off rebuild on her, and I am just about ready to do the interior now.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by biggene

Awesome work bro. I am a VW guy too. I actually got to the board from your signature link over on The Samba.
Don't have a 60's series Chevy/GMC again yet, I had to sell off my 69 when my little boy was born, and now that I have 2 kiddo's, I am wanting something all of us can ride in together, so I have been keeping my eyes open for a late 60's/early 70's Suburban.
Here is a pic of my 67 Beetle. I did a complete pan off rebuild on her, and I am just about ready to do the interior now.

Thanks for joining and posting, and nice bug!

[theastronaut]

Big day tomorrow, we'll be painting the cab and doors!




Also, everything except the bed and tailgate have been shot with K93 and wetsanded with 220/500. We'll spray the front clip parts after we get the cab back on the frame.

Inside the hood is as straight as the outside.

[jhrusk]

awesome, do you block sand and wet sand in two stages and if so do you guidecoat in between stages? looking foward to updates.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by jhrusk

awesome, do you block sand and wet sand in two stages and if so do you guidecoat in between stages? looking foward to updates.

Yes, we shoot guide coat first, wet block with 220 to take out all the texture of the primer, then shoot more guide coat and go over it again with 500 to remove the 220 scratches. That way the texture is cut flat instead of being "rounded over" by 500 grit. That is especially important on parts that can't be blocked with a hard block, like the inner hood braces. Those spots are sanded using a soft foam pad; the pad won't force the paper to cut the texture flat like a harder block will so if you just use 500 you'll still have some of the orange peel in the primer surface. 220 will cut much flatter with a soft pad.

[Low Elco]

OOOOOWEEEEE! Time for the payoff! Good Luck!

[aggie91]

About 10 months into this (if I counted right based on your first post), and going to paint today. You have done a TON of work in that time. Seeing your past work in other threads, this customer should be SUPER excited to be getting this truck soon. When to you expect it go be finished for the customer?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

OOOOOWEEEEE! Time for the payoff! Good Luck!

Yeah, it's pretty exciting!

Originally Posted by aggie91

About 10 months into this (if I counted right based on your first post), and going to paint today. You have done a TON of work in that time. Seeing your past work in other threads, this customer should be SUPER excited to be getting this truck soon. When to you expect it go be finished for the customer?

It's been a lot of work for sure! Couldn't have done it without Rodney helping me, I posted back in August that we hired him to help with the project. He does great work and helps us get more done. We'd like to have it done in a few months so we can take to shows this summer.

[theastronaut]

Here a the paint pics!! Would have taken more but my phone died.

[duallyjams]

Great looking result after a 10 month journey, getting excited to watch it go back together.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

Great looking result after a 10 month journey, getting excited to watch it go back together.

Me too, I'm itching to start bolting parts on it!

[theastronaut]

Picked up the cab and doors this morning. The factory primer color underneath was red oxide with tan overspray around the edges, so we sprayed the bottom with PPG DPLF epoxy to match the original primer. We'll do the overspray pattern tomorrow using single stage.


With primer on it, you can see how much effort we spent smoothing the weld seams on the rust repairs.

[aggie91]

looking good!

[theastronaut]

Stayed late tonight to spray the bottom of the cab with the factory style overspray pattern around the edges. We had single stage color matched for this since base/clear wouldn't have the same effect. I didn't have anything to go by, other than one post I found that said that the bottom of the firewall wasn't masked from the factory, just that the paint was solid until the last roll at the toe boards. Hopefully it's close to how the factory "painted" the bottom of the cab.













Also shot the column parts, hinges, and front cab mount covers.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by aggie91

looking good!

Thanks Karl!!

[plainred65]

As always your work is truly an inspiration, always checkin in on your work.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by plainred65

As always your work is truly an inspiration, always checkin in on your work.

Appreciate that!!


Started wetsanding the cab today with 1000 grit. Marked all the edges with a sharpie marker so we could see if we were sanding around the edges too much. That keeps us from sanding through, or getting it too thin and burning through with the buffer later on.

[CG]

Geeze I love looking at your builds ... If you think ya need a little more practice, Ill send you over my 62 Unibody =)

[Low Elco]

Looks great! Imma steal that Sharpie trick. Is this wetsand for final clear, or polish?