'69 Longbed Daily Driver - Project

[IvelDesigns]

i almost forgot. My rear roll pan from Mar-K is on the way. should be here on tax day.

[berencam]

Originally Posted by IvelDesigns

post 100!! woot! i'm a bone-a-fyed triple digiter now... even if most of the posts are my own

i cant wait for the day that i have a shop to tear down like you. looks like ya got alot of work ahead.

[IvelDesigns]

19723DR - thanks. i have to say i'm enjoying reading your thread as well.

so today the brown truck brought me my door popper kit. I wasn't expecting it since the site i bought it from seemed kinda shady, and never replied to my emails. anyways, it's here, and i just had to jump right in on it.

I'm using the Dec issue of CCT as my guide for this. All in all, seems simple enough. i ran into an issue drilling the hole in the latch for the pull cable to hook into, so i'm gonna stop by a local auto shop tomorrow and see if they can drill me a couple holes.

tonight i got all of the guts of the door handle / latch removed, drilled the holes for mounting the solenoid, and got the D side door welded up. I used patch panels i got off ebay, so it went really quick. They all fit very well and should be easy to clean up.

here's the pics:

[IvelDesigns]

roll pan showed up today. all i did was de-box it. Looks great!! can't wait to get it mounted. i should have time this weekend.

tonight i got the D side latch and solenoid installed. now i'm trying to figure out the wiring diagram for the remote's brain box. i think i have it, but we'll see once i give it power.

i also picked up a 10 slot fuse box from napa today. i mounted it under the dash next to the factory box. now instead of a handful of inline fuses off the battery, i'll have a single wire running into the cab to the box, then will run my bags, compressor and doors off of the box. should clean things up quite a bit.

after tonight, i probably won't touch the truck until this weekend. I need to get a couple web sites finished so i have funds for paint. as of right now, paint is tentatively planned for May 3 or may 10. that gives me a couple weeks to get things buttoned up and on the road for the midwest meet.

[IvelDesigns]

it's alive!! first via hardwire, then via remote!

i'm pretty excited cause once i started looking at the wiring diagram, i got worried that i wouldn't be able to figure it out.

i am seeing some sort of grounding spark issue when the doors pop. not sure why it's doing it, but you'll see a spark at the front of the door in the video below. Any ideas on why that is? i have the solenoid grounding via the mounting bracket, and the brain box is temporarily grounded to the steering column bracket.

now that i got this far, i should be able to easily finish in another night. i have a fair amount of cleaning up to do with the wiring. right now everything is laying on the floor while i test everything.

here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/v/DgwJOAUwUS4

[Palf70Step]

Cool

[IvelDesigns]

well, i couldn't help it. the kids got out of school early today, and i had to go pick them up. That meant i had 4 hours time to work on the truck.

so, i finished the door poppers. Final wiring and all. here are the pics to show how i took care of cleaning up the wiring. all in all, i'm very happy with the outcome. the only issue is that the doors don't ground well, so i'm going to need to run a ground from each door to the cab. but that's not high on the priority list.

here's the pics:

[IvelDesigns]

knock knock? anyone out there?

anyways, like i was saying, this weekend is a 100% work on the truck weekend for me. tonight i got out in the garage a little late, so i didn't want to do any loud stuff (damn neighbors).

i started out my welding the trim holes in the D side fender. didn't take any shots of that since it looks the same as the P side i posted earlier.

I then decided i might as well do some tack welding on the roof seam. so, i got the sand paper out and cleaned up a few spots, marked them with a sharpie and welded them.

nothing to exciting, but here you go:

[IvelDesigns]

the night was still young, and i can't go to sleep before midnight, so i was looking for something else to do. So, i pulled the cowl in preparation for shaving the antenna. that came off w/o issue thanks to the front clip removal thread over in the FAQ.

again, trying to keep the noise down, so i didn't make any other progress there.

Over the past couple of weeks i've been tossing around the idea of making a console for the truck instead of just mounting my gauges under the heater control as i had planned. I also want some cup holders and a place to put my switch box instead of sitting on the seat.

So, i did some cardboard fab work tonight to mock up what i want to build. if you're looking to build a console for these trucks, it seems to me that a 13" wide console is perfect. it is the same width as the resess for the heater control, so everything will look semetrical when finished.

i plan to cover this in the same fabric that my bench is covered in, and am considering either mounting a speaker on each side, or a heat vent and running some tubing from the heater to each vent. or maybe both. either way, this is pretty low on the todo list, so you probably won't see an update on this for a while.

nothing to exciting during the "build" of the cardboard mock up, so i'll spare you the details and skip to the pics.

Here ya go:

[Palf70Step]

I always find it fun to draw the faces on the gage holes when mocking up stuff like that. Makes people REALLY question your sanity.


It's looking good.

[Billla]

I just stumbled on this thread from the console post elsewhere - what a great project thread!

Great work and a really sweet ride

[IvelDesigns]

Originally Posted by Billla

I just stumbled on this thread from the console post elsewhere - what a great project thread!

Great work and a really sweet ride

thanks man. can't wait to get it back on the road again.

[IvelDesigns]

now that i could make some noise again, today started out with a lot of grinding. the P side door is done and the driver side fender is also done. the fender has been roughed in with metal to metal and is ready for a final skim coat before paint.

after i was done my kids came out to inspect the work. allie wanted it done better so she made her brother do the work while she "supervised".



then when mikie wasn't getting it done the way she wanted it, she took over...



and this is what I ended up with



* my kids did no grinding... the shots were staged

[IvelDesigns]

after the grinding was done, i started in on the roll pan. It was a pain in the but to get lined up properly with only two hands, but after some creating thinking (aka remembering a thread i saw the other night) i got a couple small jack stands out and used them to help. I also used some painters tape as well. this really helped. so i got the sides tacked in with a couple tacks on each side.

then i went to remove the tailgate...

when i went to pull the gate, i soon found out that these gates don't come out at an angle like i assumed. so i started in on the bolts for the pivot point. however, thanks to my newly installed roll pan, i couldn't get to the bottom bolt. sooooo.... i had to cut the tacks (thank god i only tacked it) to get at the pivot bracket.

after cutting the tacks, getting the tail gate out, i realigned the roll pan and tacked it back in, this time committing to the "never removing it again" and putting a bunch of tack across the top.

i had decided that easy removal of the gate was important, so i came up with a plan. It's simple really. i notched the pivot point so it wasn't as wide at a certain angle, then i cut the gate so it would slide over it. It actually turned out really well.

Here are the pics:







and here are the pics of the roll pan installed:

[gringoloco]

Progress looks good I always liked this truck. Hot Rod Flatz will look good...

[IvelDesigns]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Progress looks good I always liked this truck. Hot Rod Flatz will look good...

thanks. i agree that Flatz would look good, however, i have decided to go with a shinny paint for a handful of reasons.

[Frizzle Fry]

Roll pan looks really good on there. Nice, simple solution on the gate. Keep it up

[gferris5]

Hey I'm really enjoying this thread; good to see some long beds getting some love. BTW: What color are you thinking? I probably missed it, but if you don't mind repeating...

[IvelDesigns]

Originally Posted by gferris5

Hey I'm really enjoying this thread; good to see some long beds getting some love. BTW: What color are you thinking? I probably missed it, but if you don't mind repeating...

thanks man. it's been a fun project, and probably will be for the next couple years. these things are never "done".

the color i'm going with is Hugger Orange. specifically GM paint code 72, so it will almost look red. going to shoot a base coat / clear coat.

[IvelDesigns]

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

Roll pan looks really good on there. Nice, simple solution on the gate. Keep it up

thx. I want to clean it up a bit so the skin doesn't peel back. I'll probably run a couple tack welds in there to hold things together, then smooth it out.

I'm really anxious to see how your fender mod turns out for me. I haven't done the inners yet, but will be, but probably not until after paint. Did you finish your fender mod article showing how you did the inners? I have some ideas, but i'm curious if you ran into any issues.

[Frizzle Fry]

Originally Posted by IvelDesigns

thx. I want to clean it up a bit so the skin doesn't peel back. I'll probably run a couple tack welds in there to hold things together, then smooth it out.

I'm really anxious to see how your fender mod turns out for me. I haven't done the inners yet, but will be, but probably not until after paint. Did you finish your fender mod article showing how you did the inners? I have some ideas, but i'm curious if you ran into any issues.

Not until after I get moved into the new shop. My trucks are in dry storage for now. I'm shooting for the end of May to have them moved into the shop. Then the flood gates open once more

[IvelDesigns]

so today's update includes a couple pics from last sunday and a couple evenings this week. Nothing to exciting other than both doors handles have been covered in Rage Gold and sanded and etch primed. This being the first body work i've ever done, i'm pretty happy with the results considering all i had for my blocks was 80 grit paper. I do expect to go over them one more time prior to paint, but they look smooth, and feel pretty smooth as is.

I also got the antenna hole shaved, mudded and rough sanded.

Oh, and the biggest little thing... i reinstalled the inner door handles! i had boogered up the clips that hold the rods in place when i was removing them because i didn't think i was going to reinstall them. but then i realized i really should. So, a couple minutes bending the old clips so they would work, and about 20 min getting my arm inside the door to get them in place, and we're in business.

but on to the good part of the post... pics!!













tomorrow i have a couple odds and ends to do, but next weekend is gonna be brutal. 2 hour drive up to my parents where the truck is getting disassembled. Clip will get pulled, then the engine/tranny, then the bed.

engine is getting a gasket / seal kit, tranny is getting new seals thx to my brother. clip is getting set to the side (and is for sale btw, $250) and the gas tank is getting moved under the bed. I got the tank from the surplus link posted on these forums, and picked up a sending unit, ring and float from LMC. The rest i'll just wing.

oh, and some shinny stuff from LMC showed up this week. all new 67-68 grille chrome, window felts, and a couple other things. you'll have to wait until they are on the truck to see them.

[IvelDesigns]

btw, i wanted to describe what i did on the doors to get them smooth.

First, i used filler panels from a guy on ebay. after grinding, i covered them in "metal to metal". rough sanded them down, then covered them with Rage Gold. I also have a 16" sanding block that i used 80 grit paper on. i was having good luck with it, however when i would rub my hand over the area i was working, the different texture between metal and mud made it hard to tell if i had a high spot or low spot.

so, i sprayed a light coat of the etching primer i planned to use, let it dry. then I used the edge of my block, started at the top of the door, and moved it down. after doing this a few times, i could see where my high spots were (the areas where most of the paint was removed) and the low spots were (the areas where no paint was removed).

after doing this, it was really easy to see what needed work and what didn't.

i think this process is called a "guide coat", and there's some sort of powder you can rub on, but i have no clue that stuff is, or where to get it. if anyone can shed some light on it, i'd appreciated it.

the door pics above show the result of this process.

[Palf70Step]

Your work is looking real good. That is the biggest thing with body work is patience to deal with getting it right.

On your antenna, don't forget to seal the hole in the cab where the wire goes through or you'll have some leaks later.

[bad6772]

Great job ,looks great......You can get 3m guide coat at about any auto paint store....IMO i would not waste your money ..its a black powder that is wiped on with a supplied sponge...IME it tends to wipe off and hides high or low spots...I have always just used rattle can paint....(spray bomb) IME ...the paint will not come off unless its sanded off.....just a light mist..will do the job just fine......i have used just a flat black...but other colors will work....as long as it is darker than the primer or sealer you will be just fine,hope this helps....................tony