Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Starting to look like a truck again. A good lookin truck.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks Bomp! I'm actually excited about this phase even though it is all stripping paint, bodywork and sanding. Now I'll be adding a door back one week, a fender a little later, etc. and see the whole thing come back together. I like seeing tangible progress every couple of weeks.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

So are you going to take it all back apart for paint then?

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Yes, my plan is to do the bodywork for each piece and get it in primer and reassemble onto the truck, doing the adjustments for hinges, etc. and scribing in their positions. Then, do the high fill primer and block sanding while the truck is together. Then take the whole thing back apart for paint.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Me and Kitty are getting real familiar this weekend:lol:

I never intended to get the inside bed even close to perfect, but I do want to get rid of all the rust pockmarks and rust-through in the floor covered before doing a spray-in bedliner. Looks like I have a lot of sanding in my near future!

BTW, that must be camera angle - my bed is nowhere near that caddy-wompus!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

well, got both doors totally disassembled without breaking any glass. Lot more time for that than I expected, but getting the latch, inner handle, outer handle and lock disengaged enough to pull out of the door is tricky. Got the paint stripped from one door and started some bodywork, but with temps in the 40's the Rage Gold wasn't drying enough for sanding. Funny how that is. Most times, it dries so fast I can't even get it spread. Anyway, nothing picture worthy. Don't get me wrong, I took a bunch of pictures but mostly so hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to get all the door innards back together :)

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Excellent!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

The truck is looking good! Nice work.

I have probably had my door innards apart at least half-a-dozen times if you run into problems putting it back together. I apparently had a bent regulator on the driver side. I kept taking it apart and putting it back together, but the glass was going up crooked. Finally, I tried a different regulator and everything was good. Use lots of tape along the edge. I ended up scratching my new paint. :lol: Another tip I learned was to leave the outer lower felt/trim off until after I got the glass in. That gave me more room to move the glass around to get the little wheels in their tracks. If your windows are power, buy all new switches. I had a box full of used switches thinking a couple of them had to be good, but they all had problems. I wasted a bunch of time chasing a wiring problem on the passenger side, when it was actually the driver side switch that was bad. I still don't understand the wiring that well, but I figured out that the driver side has to be working for the passenger side to work. As you can probably tell by now, I spent a bunch of time jacking with my windows to get them working!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

its starting to take shape,nice

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks for checking in fellas, and I'll definitely keep you in mind when its time to put these doors back together Greenlee. Hoping that will be within about 6 months!

Got one more part done and back on the truck. I'd thought I was done with rust on this truck, but found one more spot in lower rear corner of this passenger door. Where the curve on the inner edge of the door lays behind the corner is a nice little pocket to gather crap and moisture. Got that patched, pulled a couple dents where the window frame and door come together in front, filled the dings. I also rebuilt the hinges with new brass bushings, pins and springs for the top hinges. Wire wheel cleaned up the bolts and put the door on. Still not sure I'm happy with the gaps - pretty sure I've only spent about 45 minutes on adjustments which obviously isn't enough :lol: But, pretty happy with the body line. Rebuilt hinges helped a lot with lining that up.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Door on.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Sure is lookin good.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Nice!:metal:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks! I wanted to show what I'm using for paint stripping in case anyone ever reads this thread who knows less about what they are doing than me :) The orange strip disk is something new I just tried on my driver side door. One disk stripped the entire door, both sides. I've tried a similar product that I believe was 3M which looked the same but was black. That product didn't last nearly as long and I constantly had shredded plastic from it flying at my face. This disk had no separation. It strips at about the same speed as 80 grit, which is to say this is still a long slow process, but I'm not changing out a lot of sanding disks and I think this leaves the metal cleaner with a little less effort. I then use the purple "surface preparation discs" to get the edges and nooks and crannies. The orange disc is a "The Beast Bear Tex Rapid Strip Disc w/ Mandrel- 5Pk.". Only problem is that it didn't actually ship with a mandrel so had to come up with one of my own.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! I know I did. All three of my grown kids were home, so not a lot more progress for my week off of work. But, I did get the driver side door done (kind of), and hung back on the truck.

2 spots I want to point out because I suspect they are common problems. Both of my doors had stress cracks around the bottom bolt on the inner door panel that holds the vent window assembly. I have no idea why there is enough stress there to cause these cracks, but I found them on the driver door and went back and looked at the passenger door and found them on it as well. I'll have to fix that when I pull the door back off. BTW, I drilled those holes at the end of the cracks because they are supposed to prevent it from cracking any further.

Also, missed it when stripping the paint and doing bodywork on the driver door, but noticed when I was bolting the door back onto the truck. Pretty nasty stress cracks in the door at the top hinge. I'll have to fix that as well next time the door comes off.

Finally, got my Christmas gift early. Just had to open it and verify that it is all there and undamaged! Vintage Air Gen IV SureFit System. Also got brackets to mount the compressor, brackets to move my alternator to the driver side, and the chrome bulkhead connector with the kit containing all the necessary hose ends. I want to get all this mocked up in the truck before I start getting the front clip done and for sure before paint. I figure I'll do that this winter when its too cold for body filler or spraying primer.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

sure is looking good!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Dang! Thats a hell of a kit!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

That's interesting about the stress cracks on both doors. I didn't notice that on mine, but I wasn't looking for it so they might be there.

Congrats on getting the Vintage Air kit! :metal: Pretty much exactly 1 year ago I bought the Vintage Air kit for my truck. I spent the Christmas Holliday when I had a few days off work putting it in the truck.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks guys, I'm pretty stoked seeing it come back together even though I know I'll be pulling it all apart again for paint.

Greenlee, your build was one of them that put the idea in my head to go with Vintage Air. Do you recall ballpark what you spent for the AC connector crimping tool and vacuum pump? I've been debating whether to purchase or have someone else do that work since I don't know that they'd get used much.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I would just rent them if you can they are very expensive and the one I borrowed has been sitting in the guys shop for 4 years and I'm the first one to use it. I wish you were closer and I was knee deep in my build so I could come help you throw your system together. Then I could take you up on your offer :)

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I still have the crimping tool new in the box unopened.:lol: Vintage Air made a mistake on my order and gave me the hoses with both ends already crimped on. They were supposed to leave one end off so I could cut them to the length I needed. Because of their mistake i needed new fittings on one end. I found an A/C place on Dixie Dr. in Houston to sell me the new fittings and they also crimped them on for me. The guy barely charged anything to do this. Seems like it was less than $20. I felt bad and slipped him a $20 tip. :lol:

I bought the crimping tool, vacuum pump and gauges on EBay. I will have to go back and look to figure out what I paid. I bought the vacuum pump that connects to your air compressor. It was a lot cheaper than a stand alone pump and worked just fine. All that being said, I am close enough that you can use mine if you want.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

That's a generous offer Greenlee and when I get to that point I may very well take you up on it.

Last weekend and part of this one - a friend gave me some used garage cabinets and they weren't in too good shape once I got them home. Had to reinforce them and add a lot of shelves, but now I have lots of space to get my tools and supplies out of the dust.

And I have to admit to doing something pretty stupid. I'm working on my tailgate now and it had a pretty good bow in it. I thought that if I laid a 2x6 across it and used my weight (about 240 lbs) I could persuade it back straight. Well, that wasn't getting the job done so I started jumping on the 2x6. Big mistake!!! Now I have a bunch more work to do on it:waah:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Ouch! Maybe time for a new one?

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

i think you could fix it, you do great work

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Ya know, I had that same idea for tail gate straightening. I haven't tried it yet, but have two bent ones to perfect the art with. Granted mine are 67-72 vintage, but the laws of physics apply to both. Maybe a little tiptoe and drop rather than jumping would work???

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I think I'd have had a better shot running the board lengthwise down the tailgate, but I was focusing the force on the center by running the 2x6 up and down. Boy did that work, focusing the force I mean :lol:

I am going to try very hard to fix this. I've already spent over an hour on stripping the paint and don't want to waste that effort.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Well, maybe good enough. I first tried pulling on studs and hammering, but the dents through the body lines were too deep and the metal too thick. Barely budged if at all.

Then decided to just cut out the dented sections, hammer them out and weld back in. Well, that sort of worked. They looked better in person than some of my pictures would indicate, but I think the pictures are right. Didn't get the body lines reformed well enough and the whole patched area is low.

Out came the stud welder again and with more pulling and hammering I got the low areas up some, but I still have a good 1/8th or so in spots, and that is after a lot of work. I was debating just moving on to filler, but decided to give up on it for the weekend and sleep on it.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

That's a lot of work! I would have given up and started searching for a replacement. In fact, I have a stepside tailgate hanging on my fence as a piece of yard art because I thought it was too far gone to go on the truck. :lol:

That being said, your tailgate being a GMC with the letters in the middle would likely be hard to find. My truck is actually titled as a GMC, but I went back with all Chevy stuff because I already had a Chevy grill, steering wheel etc. and I couldn't find the GMC parts.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I have a tailgate on the side of my house I can't remember if it's chevy or gmc stamp. UnfortunatelUnfortunately I think shipping would kill from wa.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I thought of an idea to get the remaining dent out in the picture above. Get a large C-clamp and stick the top side in through the handle opening. Put a 2"x4" or something on the outside and clamp down until it squeezes the dent out. I did that for a dent on my bedrail and it worked pretty good.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

I like the c-clamp idea. I will definitely give that a try. I did hit CL last night and found a couple Chevy tailgates, but no GMC. I'll keep working on my own a bit more, but if worse comes to worse my tailgate band would disguise a Chevy tailgate I think.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Thanks for checking into my build srt6, and appreciate the tailgate offer but I think you are right on the shipping charges. Plus, haven't quite given up on mine yet. So far, the only replacement panels I've got for my truck are the inner fenders which were about half gone with rust. Never consciously decided to stick with all original panels for the rest of it, but its kind of become my goal now.

Also, your profile pic looks just like the 73 1/2 ton I had back in the mid 80's. Really liked that color scheme (still do) - sharp looking truck!

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

No worries, I just thought I would try to help.

I should update my profile picture, I sold that truck ot was a 77 1/2 4 speed 205. Sweet truck terrible rust.

I'm loving the truck you're working on I soon plan to build up my first 2wd. Well see how that goes.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Do you have a final color in mind? You're Def going very meticulous I like that gives me a couple ideas for when I get to that point.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Well, for color I'm thinking 1) medium brown with copper highlight, or 2) a blue green more blue than green, or 3) a "steel blue" that is silver grey with blue tint. I've only got a paint code for one of them. But that's just this week's choices. Ask me again next week :lol:

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Those are great choices! Your painting oor having it done?

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Plan to do it myself. So far, the only work I've had done by someone else is the transmission and transfer case rebuilds. I just didn't want to have to pull them for a redo if I didn't get them right once the truck is back together. I think I've got pretty good paint equipment, just need to figure out how I want to make a temporary paint booth. That, and making a final choice of color still are a few months away though.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

My cousins made one out of one of those carports you can close all the way in. Turned out pretty good. The ones that are poles and canvas.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

So the wife said "you broke it, you fix it" so it didn't seem like a good idea to buy a better tailgate. So, its as fixed as its likely to get. All I know is that if I did bodywork for a living I wouldn't be eating nearly as well as I do :lol: After 4 layers of filler and countless hours of sanding I think its good enough. On to fenders next.

Re: My 78 K15 High Sierra build - Fish Tremble
 

Good work! I would have just pulled the skin off and hid it underneath the rug, thrown a new one on and say I fixed it! :lol: