The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Completed Journals 1966 Chevy C-10 Short Stepside -- Step by Step

After placing cab on frame & finishing up the body work, I decided to paint the bare cab. Back in my working life, we always painted our trucks red. Inside & out. While I really like the original Chevy green, tradition won out. Paint is Viper Red. Acrylic enamel w/ hardner added .

First, I had one of those surprises that sandblasting the cab uncovered. On the '60/'66 models that have been sitting for a long period time mice crawl up into the eyebrow section of the roof (That area directly above the windshield) & build a nest. Then they urinate in the area next to the nest & cause rust in that area. When I picked the truck up in Joplin Mo, the seller pointed out that those areas were not rusted out on this truck. Sort of a bonus point, I guess. And, in fact, it did look good. However, the sandblasting said otherwise. I had rust through areas on both sides of the windshield & on the inside behind the passenger sun visor area. All three areas were about the size of silver dollar + or -
I cut the offending rust out used some sheet metal I had to bend patches to match the cut out areas. Luckily for me, the flange that the windshield rubber connects to was not damaged. After brazing the patches in place, areas were leveled out as well as I could then I used body filler to finish prior to painting. Sorry, I didn't think to take phots of this repair.
Also, while rust was cut out, I used those openings to use high pressure air to blow out any mice nest or other debris from that area. For those not familiar with the 60 thru 66 models, the headliner area is a metal panel, making the area between the roof & inside ceiling impossible to get to.

The new paint job revealed two things to me. Number one was it was too much red. I did not like the red interior. Number two was that I had good size but very shallow dent in the top of the dash. Near the left side defrost vent & radio speaker area. I had just not noticed it before but the shinny new red paint made it stand out.