One Piece at a Time - A True Friend

[Chief5940]

The sand-blaster took his sweet time on getting the frame done. Once Ron got it back, he wasted no time getting everything in primer and getting ready to cut down the frame from a long-bed to a short bed.

[Chief5940]

Next was the actual process of measuring, marking, cutting, and welding the frame. There is no one I would trust more to do this than Ron. He has been doing stuff like this for years and even helped me fix up an old 1985 Ford Ranger when I was in high school. It had been hit HARD in the side and we had to cut off a leaf-spring, straighten the frame, and bolt on a new leaf-spring. He is the master at this stuff!

[Chief5940]

Welding it back together!

[Chief5940]

Next up, frame paint and new bushings for the front end.

[Chief5940]

As much as possible we are using new OEM parts. Here are a few pictures of the front-end going back together. Ron bought a media-blasting cabinet and he is painstakingly blasting each and every part and painting it before reassembling everything. It really is better-than-new!

[Chief5940]

Next up, the rear-end and new brakes. We stayed with disc on the front and drum on the rear. Our plan is to build this back as close to stock as possible, with the addition of a few minor modifications or upgrades along the way to improve the overall dependability of the truck.

[Chief5940]

More brakes and suspension!

[Chief5940]

Front brakes and Bucket Camp! Bucket is another old friend of ours. We all volunteered on the River Oaks Fire Department back in the 80s and early 90s. Bucket stopped by and got in on some of the fun, helping Ron with suspension and chassis.

[Chief5940]

DONE!!! We have a rolling chassis!

These are the wheels we are going to use. Once everything else is done, we will remove them and have them sand-blasted and powder-coated and put on brand new tires. I'm leaning toward the BFG radial T/As with white-letters out. But I've still got a little time before I have to make that decision.

[Chief5940]

Now it's time to pick a paint color. We are going with the top-of-the-line PPG paint and primer. In the end, it was only a little more $$$ to upgrade to their high-end paint. We knew all along we wanted to use the best clear.

I have looked at different shades of red for over two years! Mainly, I don't want anything that looks orange or that looks oxidized or faded. In the end, I settled on Pull-Me-Over red, with about 9 parts black added to a gallon. It really keeps is red and guards against my fear of orange or oxidized. Here are some of the pictures I have been using to help me pick the color.

We are using Linen White, the factory original white.

[Chief5940]

The last two pictures are the samples, after it was mixed, with a little clear put over it. I carried it around smudged it up pretty good. I can hardly wait to see it on the truck! I think it is going to be perfect!

[TexasLS1]

Outstanding, this is the motherload of updates! Excellent work and I love the color choices

[Chief5940]

COVID-19 is in full-swing and "social distancing" is now a thing!

Ron made some great progress over the weekend. He finished running the brake lines and also got the engine and transmission installed in the frame.

We are using a 5.3L Vortec V8 w/ a 4L60 transmission. We pulled it from a 2002 Chevrolet truck with 120,000 miles.

Before he installed it, he replaced a few things, like the oil pump, timing gear and timing chain, water pump, etc.

[Chief5940]

Thanks! I couldn't be happier with the results so far. He is really taking his time and doing each and everything top notch! I knew from the outset that he would pay more attention to detail than anyone else. I'm excited to see it start coming together and to see the paint start to go on.

More to follow!!

[cornerstone]

Glad to see such a large amount of progress Chief! Is Ron planning to paint the truck at his shop? I'd love to see it in person if that's cool... after this virus mess of course. The work done on the seats looks perfect!

[Chief5940]

Thanks! Yes, he painted his at his house and he plans to paint this one there as well.

I'm sure he wouldn't mind you stopping by. Send him a text of hit him up on here when you get ready.

Thanks for the reply.

Les

[1971Stepside]

Looks great! Pretty is expensive.

[Chief5940]

Last Saturday, we spent about 3-4 hours at Southwest Classics in Arlington, Texas. We purchased our Dakota Digital instrument cluster, a new bed w/ wood floor kit, new handles inside/out, all new LED lights, headliner, door panels, grill assembly, upper and lower body trim, wiring harness, front and back glass, new carpet, and much, much more! All in, about $14,000! OUCH!!!

We also test fit the bucket seats and welded washers and nuts onto the bottom of the cab for final install of the seats later.

Ron adapted the old vent panel to accommodate the four A/C lines coming into the cab for the Old Air system. We plan to run them up inside the fender and keep the firewall clean. So far, so good!

[Chief5940]

Ron has been busy finishing up the work on the firewall and getting all the holes we aren't going to need welded up and smoothed over. He re-sprayed the whole cab again with epoxy primer and then the grey primer. He's been blocking it down and identifying any areas that need additional attention, and getting it ready for the feather-fill primer. It is really looking GREAT!

[Chief5940]

Ron has continued to work on the finer details of the bodywork and is on the 2nd coat of feather fill. He found a couple of small details that he wants to address before he starts putting the color on.

[Chief5940]

Ron assigned me the door panel rebuild. We purchased new black door panels, and the metal, wood-grain panels from Southwest Classics in Arlington, Texas. I also purchased a set of old door panels from them because the small chrome strip isn't available aftermarket. Before I took them apart, I used my Dremel tool and Mother's Aluminum and Chrome Polish to give the chrome trip pieces a long-overdue cleaning. Then I removed the chrome, touched up a few hard-to-reach places with the polisher, and started re-assembly. The only real detail part was drilling holes in the new panels for the wires on the back of the chrome trim strips. This was easily accomplished by drilling three small holes in each slot and then using the running drill-bit to connect the three holes. Everything went together great! The new panels are a little lighter-weight than the originals, but the quality is still good.

[Corts60]

Super nice build so far! Gonna be sweet to see it all together.

[Kronald_70GMC]

Looking good! Ive got the same green door panels sitting at my dad's somewhere. Might have to go the same route as you depending what shape mine are in.

[kehstr]

This truck is turning out awesome! Reading through the build to the rolling chassis reminded me of the process to get to that point on mine.

Oh, and i got to say i can't read the name of the build thread "one piece at a time" without singing johnny cash

[cornerstone]

Originally Posted by kehstr

Oh, and i got to say i can't read the name of the build thread "one piece at a time" without singing johnny cash

HA! me too.... I wish the next line were true.... "and it didn't cost me a dime.."