American in Austria 83 Build

[RADustin]

did you use a spot weld cutter drill with the adjustable depth or just a free hand spot weld cutter and center punched the spot welds?

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

did you use a spot weld cutter drill with the adjustable depth or just a free hand spot weld cutter and center punched the spot welds?

I used a cutter that has a center punch intergated into it.

[44boggers]

Made some more progress this past week. I got the bed back on the frame after nearly 3 years to measure for wheels and also see where I need to drill the hole for the fuel filler of my boyd fuel tank.

Also got both fenders coated in poly primer and blocked down once again in 220 (well one fender is blocked in 320 because i ran out of 220). I am happy with how the fenders blocked out. I sprayed them down with wax and grease removed and the reflections were very flat and even.

The only thing I am wondering if others had an issue with is regarding their boyd tanks and interference with the bed rails. The rear bed rail landed directly on the fuel filler and the bottom of the bed just barely hit the fuel fittings. Its not a huge deal at all as I just notched the bed rail and I will lower the tank about 1/2" to accommodate for the fuel fittings. But I just figured since this tank was built for this truck I wouldnt have this issue.I am going to contact boyd or pro performance and see what they think. Maybe the fuel filler needs to be mounted more center of the tank (front to back).

Anyway thats it for now. In the next days I will get the fenders in high build primer as well as the cab. Then I am gone for the next 7 weeks so it will give plenty of time for the primer to shrink back before I block it hopefully one last time.

Later

Paul

[44boggers]

Making some more headway. I got both fenders and the outside of the cab in final high build primer. I will let it sit for the next 7 weeks when im away and then fit up the doors to start getting the gaps how they should be and then final block sand.

I feel like every time I paint something happens. I have been using a stool to stand on to paint the roof, well today that stool had enough and literally fell apart while I was spraying the roof and I fell right onto wet paint. Luckly it was just first coat and I didnt dent anything. It should block out (the imprint of my arm that is)

And after 3 years I got the fenders back on, feels good to actually see part of the front end back together.

Till next time

paul

[44boggers]

Just some small updates, no time these days to get a lot done. But nevertheless plugging along.
I got the roof final sanded up to 600 grit, painted up the brake booster and Wilwood master cylinder and started on brake lines from the master to front brakes. Right now I am fabbing everything up with some standard brake lines but I will make everything in stainless steel for the final product.
I had an issue with the bed hitting the fuel fittings on the fuel cell so i made some aluminum spacers and some rubber padding which drops the tank about 3/8" or so which will be enough to clear everything.

I put the hood on and started to adjust the gaps, but I am having a very difficult time to get the fenders and hood aligned properly. I am thinking of slotting the holes of the hinges where they mount to the fire wall to give me more side to side adjustment.

Thats it for now. I think the next thing I am going to tackle is finishing off the interior, paint wise.

[LT7A]

Man, I lost track of this thread. You have made a ton of progress and the work is all to a really nice finish level. I see what you're saying about the door fitment and wish that I could offer a useful suggestion. Maybe p.m. Jasonb? I haven't seen him on here for a bit, but he churns through body work like nobody else I've seen. The wheels and tires look great and those three fifteens are huge. You must be looking forward to driving it. Is the TUV going to be a problem? I have heard that they are very strict.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Man, I lost track of this thread. You have made a ton of progress and the work is all to a really nice finish level. I see what you're saying about the door fitment and wish that I could offer a useful suggestion. Maybe p.m. Jasonb? I haven't seen him on here for a bit, but he churns through body work like nobody else I've seen. The wheels and tires look great and those three fifteens are huge. You must be looking forward to driving it. Is the TUV going to be a problem? I have heard that they are very strict.

Thank you. I have made some progress, it is slow going but progress nonetheless. I finished up the pass side door and fender (final primer). I was able to get the door to sit flush, made all the door to fender gaps an even 3/16". I am happy with how it turned out, should be very flat and then door to fender flows together nice.

I started on the driver side. This door is in better shape. The bottom side of it has one dent and the bottom flange is bowed out a bit so i need to fix that. Where the door meets the fender was banged in pretty good, but i was able to get the door lip to come back out and be around 1/32" below the fender. So some filler will be able to flush it up. The cab side of the door frame was very bowed out from the body line up. and was sticking about 1/2" higher than the cab. But the rest of the door lined up pretty well so i couldnt adjust the door anymore. So I got some wood and clamped it to both sides of the door frame and was able to flatten the curve out and now it is very close to flush with the cab or flush in most spots. The gaps are all over the place, but it is an easy fix with some welding rod. So that is the next step. Here are some pics of the progress.

Paul

[44boggers]

More body work pics.

[44boggers]

and on and on and on.

[44boggers]

On to the driver side.

[Hart_Rod]

Truck is coming out nicely! I'm not sure if you are doing, but I would recommend you putting in your door weather stripping and recheck your gaps before going to final paint. It's crazy how they can change things up, been there ... done that, . Keep up the good work!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

Truck is coming out nicely! I'm not sure if you are doing, but I would recommend you putting in your door weather stripping and recheck your gaps before going to final paint. It's crazy how they can change things up, been there ... done that, . Keep up the good work!

Thanks, yes I do have the weather stripping in there. I am not sure how normal it is, but you need to put a bit of force behind it to close the door. Like the weather stripping needs to thin out. It would close real easy if i moved the door out 1/8" but that would mess up the alignment. It doesnt pop hard when i open it and i dont need to slam the door, but I cant just let the wind close it.

[44boggers]

Time for an update, got a handful of pictures.

In the last few months i was able to finish up all of the metal work on the doors and got the gaps down to 3/16" all around as well as to the fender/door.

I also added some weld to the top of the fender where it meets the cab

After that I did a couple skim coats of filler to the door, blocked it out with 80, expoxied and then shot it with slick sand, blocked that out with 80, 1 more shot of slick sand, blocked it with 180, shot it with 2 coats of epoxy to seal it up and now it is in high build primer.

I will post pics of this first and then move onto my slight dilemma.

[44boggers]

I also added some weld to the top of the fender where it meets the cab because the lip hung a bit lower than the cowl.

And a picture of it in wet epoxy.

[44boggers]

Now the slight dilemma. When I bolted the door and fender back up and pulled a piece of tape along the entire length of the driverside to get an idea of body line placement, things did not line up despite the body lines being straight. The line from the door to the fender climbed about 1 inch up the fender by the time it reached the front. Then I started to take some measurements on the fender, side light etc. Basically everything was 11/16" lower on the driverside than the pass side. Then I measured the frame horns, and sure as **** the driverside frame horn was exactly 11/16" lower than the pass side. But it is only from just behind the core support mount forward. Not where the control arms or motor is, that is all fine. So i guess I missed that somewhere that the frame was bent down. I took some fender shims and shimmed it 11/16" up and now all those body points i measured are exactly like the pass side. This is something I will need to tackle later and in the mean time I will make an aluminum puck to take up that space and then I will need to do something with the bumper mounts.

The fender line is not 100 percent straight across without any pitch but it is very very close. I thought about a door adjustment but I did so much metal work to get the gaps right that I didnt want to touch it. Plus I measure the pass side door body line front and back and the difference from the back of the door body line to the front is a 3mm drop towards the front, which is the same on the driver side. So I think it is where it should be, plus it lines up perfect with the cab body line.

But now my perfect fender to door gap i had before of 3/16" is all messed up and I will not need to add welding rod to the fender to bring the gap in. Basically it starts to go out just above the body line to the bottom of the fender.

Before I start redoing the fender, maybe someone can chime in, in case I am seriously missing something obvious.

Here are some pics. It does look like the fender has a downward kink right where the sway bar mount it, just not idea how this could have happened. My guess is it was that way when I got the truck and when I stripped the frame down and unbolted the cross members it let the tension go and it moved. Because there were not any shims under the core support when i took it off.

Ok enough writing, here are some pics.

[LT7A]

Wow man, you're doing such a tight, clean job that you're almost a victim of your own success and abilities. I know that doesn't help much. Here's my train of thought for what it's worth. Being that 85% of the truck is aligned, I don't think I would want to put that rig on to a frame table and try to tweak that section back into alignment. If you are going to consider re fixing the fender to get your gaps where you want them, I would first fix the frame permanently. It sounds as if you might be able to cut the bent area off and either re-welded it in the correct location, or more likely, and probably better, to get the horn off of an un-bent frame, preferably longer than you actually need, for comparison's sake. Maybe all the way to the firewall? If you don't fix it now, when you do, it may once again disrupt the fine detail work you've done. Once the frame is fixed, you may feel better about whatever you have to do to the fender because you know it is permanent and the last time.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Wow man, you're doing such a tight, clean job that you're almost a victim of your own success and abilities. I know that doesn't help much. Here's my train of thought for what it's worth. Being that 85% of the truck is aligned, I don't think I would want to put that rig on to a frame table and try to tweak that section back into alignment. If you are going to consider re fixing the fender to get your gaps where you want them, I would first fix the frame permanently. It sounds as if you might be able to cut the bent area off and either re-welded it in the correct location, or more likely, and probably better, to get the horn off of an un-bent frame, preferably longer than you actually need, for comparison's sake. Maybe all the way to the firewall? If you don't fix it now, when you do, it may once again disrupt the fine detail work you've done. Once the frame is fixed, you may feel better about whatever you have to do to the fender because you know it is permanent and the last time.

Thanks for your thoughts. I am my own worst enemy, my OCD is taking over hard. But doing a precise build like this is something i have wanted to do for 15 years now but never had the time, place or money. Now I at least have the money, a 1 car garage and at least limited amount of time.

The biggest issue is that I live in Austria, so there are no junk yards around with chevy anything to rip parts off of and to find a frame shop anywhere near me is basically impossible. People here are not so much into fixing their cars, opposed to trading it in for something newer.

I think i am going to leave the frame for the time being and next time i get back to the US, I will cut a frame horn off a junk yard c10 and bring it back over. I just dont want to cut up my frame before I have something to compare it to. In the end that part of the frame will not effect or should not effect the driving. And I have a spare frame to bumper bracket that I can modify so the bumper is mounted properly. I feel like its a bit of a hack job, but I am confident in my OCD and my abilities that it will look like it should have come that way, or at least not be noticeable to the naked eye.

I guess my next step is to tighten up the fender gap, hit it with some fiberglass, body filler and primer and then I will be able to sand the driver side down to 220 and hit it with the final coat of high build.

Then move onto gapping the hood cowl to the fenders, body work it and then the hood. If I can get all of that done this winter I will be happy. Then the only thing left will be the bed sides and tailgate which are all in pretty good shape.
We are building a house next spring and I will have a 40x50' garage, so I will do the final sanding and painting in there. Because right now my garage is way to small to do a basecoat/clear coat job.

Anyway, ill post some more updates.

Thanks

[LT7A]

Yeah I was thinking about your situation and location when I wrote that, knowing that it would be more difficult there. You have a lot of cool stuff going on and everything you said makes sense to me. It may be worth a weekly update to your thread noting progress as well as referencing that frame need. Maybe you can leave that work until just before you paint it. I'm sure that there are a number of guys that have parts trucks. Even I do, and I would happily send you a chunk if I had stripped it down that far and couldn't sell the frame as a whole. There have got to be guys on here with bent frames, hit in the back, that could sell you a chunk from the front. I would read other people's build threads who are combining two or more trucks. I can think of a couple right off the top of my head. PM those guys and I'm confident you'll land a piece.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Yeah I was thinking about your situation and location when I wrote that, knowing that it would be more difficult there. You have a lot of cool stuff going on and everything you said makes sense to me. It may be worth a weekly update to your thread noting progress as well as referencing that frame need. Maybe you can leave that work until just before you paint it. I'm sure that there are a number of guys that have parts trucks. Even I do, and I would happily send you a chunk if I had stripped it down that far and couldn't sell the frame as a whole. There have got to be guys on here with bent frames, hit in the back, that could sell you a chunk from the front. I would read other people's build threads who are combining two or more trucks. I can think of a couple right off the top of my head. PM those guys and I'm confident you'll land a piece.

Thanks again for putting some thought into my issue and thanks for the offer. I have been building this truck for 5 years now, so I am getting anxious to get it done and actually drive it.
I was thinking about the splicing of a frame section in and your concern about it messing with my current body alignment. My thought is that i can finish the body work to my liking and when I get a chance to splice in a new section it shouldnt (in theory) mess with my alignment. As long as I keep all of the body panel bolts tight and i keep the core support propped up when i get it the frame, all i would need to do is bolt the new section to my core support so i know that the core support is tightened down properly to the frame and then weld it in. So really if that all goes as planned the body panels should not move at all.
I travel about 200 days a year for work so I just dont have much time to work on my truck, and as the aforementioned garage, I dont have any room to pull panels and paint inside. So basically I need to do all the priming outside, ok I cant get away with pushing the truck to the wall and getting the door and fenders on a stand to prime them, but no chance for a hood or bed sides.
This is a big reason why this build has taken 5 years so far, between my OCD and lack of space it is hard to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

Either way, I will update this thread more often if people are interested in seeing whats going on.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Paul

[44boggers]

So for now I am going to put off welding on the fender, just because I want to move forward with the hood body work before the snow comes and the fact that I want to move onto that stage anyway.

So I have been trying to align my hood the best I can. I have billet hinges from Little Shop MFG https://www.littleshopmfg.com/81-c10...t-hood-hinges/
Its a very nice set with a lot more adjustment built in, especially side to side.

I need to take the hood cowl off so I can adjust the side to side part of the hinge some more. But right now I can see that there will need to be a lot of welding to the edges to get the gaps correct. I have the hood aligned so the front side is pretty much flush with the front of the fenders.

Here are some pics of where the hood is at now. The biggest cap is roughly 3/8" but the cowl to fender and hood to fender (back side) is right at 5/16" and I want everything to be at 3/16'' like the rest of the body gaps.

[44boggers]

Next round of pics shows the gapping shims. The two larger shims are 1/8" and the smaller shim is 1/16"

First pic is pass side hood cowl to hood gap. 5/16"
Second pic is pass side hood to fender gap (back side) 5/16"
Third pic is driver side cowl to fender (5/16")
Fourth pic is driver side cowl to hood (3/8")
Fifth pics is driver side fender to hood front side ~3/16"

So its a bit all over the place, but I think some side to side adjustment will help things along.

[Lokin4AReason]

How long of a frame horn are you needing and which side ? A friend of mine is suppose to be getting 85 c10 and junking the frame and suspenion . I can also let you know at when he ll have it .

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by Lokin4AReason

How long of a frame horn are you needing and which side ? A friend of mine is suppose to be getting 85 c10 and junking the frame and suspenion . I can also let you know at when he ll have it .

Hey thanks for the offer. I am not exactly sure, but a safe bet would be from just behind the A arm to the bumper. And it would be the driver side.

Lets stay in touch about it.
Thanks
Paul

[LT1 Burb]

Very nice work, I just did the same gapping method on my 66 ragtop. Here is what I will say, my gaps were perfect until I painted it and put the rubbers on. The doors closed effortlessly and after rubbers, not so much. Also the paint stick rule for gaps is what I would adhere to, the buildup of paint and clear is more than you think, as you are adding material to both sides. I have a couple areas that are extremely close to touching on my door and jam where I added material and I wish I could remove some. Work looks great BTW.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by LT1 Burb

Very nice work, I just did the same gapping method on my 66 ragtop. Here is what I will say, my gaps were perfect until I painted it and put the rubbers on. The doors closed effortlessly and after rubbers, not so much. Also the paint stick rule for gaps is what I would adhere to, the buildup of paint and clear is more than you think, as you are adding material to both sides. I have a couple areas that are extremely close to touching on my door and jam where I added material and I wish I could remove some. Work looks great BTW.

Thanks for your thoughts. I am doing all my sanding and gapping with the rubbers installed. Regarding the gaps, I am making them just slightly larger than 3/16" to account for the base and clear that will be applied. So I think everything should come out as planned, even if I know how dumb those words are