Last week we got lots done on the truck. I took a few days off work and went to work on it with my buddy Ken. Used white high build primer, sprayed the box tubs, grill support panel, under the hood and then painted them. I sanded with 320 the Varathane into the elm and am I ever impressed with the natural colors it brought out in the wood. Took the steering column out, parke brake lever too. The rim tire combination looks good and am happy with the result. The box was very difficult to take apart. Every nut and bolt had to cut off. The stainless bedside trim needs a fair bit of work too and the chevron and spears need to be re chromed. We installed the visor too. Various Pictures of recent work.
Last edited by Phak1; 12/16/20244:14 PM. Reason: Added select linked photos
Ken laid out some color on the doors last night! He can really lay it on nice! His bodywork looks perfect and I know he's not painting until it is perfect! I took a stab at refinishing the bedside stainless this weekend. There's one spot that is quite bad. I think it got bent backwards (outwards) at some point. The picture here is before and after my work today. It's ready now for sanding with finer grits up to 2000 then the rouge and buffing wheel will finish it. I spent about two hours on it to get to this this point.
Last edited by Phak1; 12/16/20244:40 PM. Reason: Added linked photos
Took a few more days to go out to work on the truck with Ken. We were able to paint the bottom of the cab black and painted the firewall orange. Then three of us lifted it back onto the frame for the last time!
We hooked up all the brake lines, bled the brakes, set up the drums and checked for leaks. Brakes are now ready to stop the truck.
I dumped in a jug of oil into the motor, primed the carb and fired it up for the very first time. We had to monkey with the timing and the distributor placement but in the end, it fired and ran for about 3 seconds as we didn't have a fuel line hooked up, no coolant and no oil filter, but we now know it runs! I fully expected it too as it's a brand new rebuild and had never been fired before! We did discover an exhaust manifold leak at #6 so it's going to go in to get planed.
The seat went into the upholstery shop too. They are going to make a headliner with the same fabric and make new upholstered door panels too.
Took the side trim chevron and speers in for rechrome too.
It's sure is getting close so my wife I are getting excited!
Last edited by Phak1; 12/16/20244:18 PM. Reason: Added linked photos
Working on the bedside stainless today. Starting with 220, then 400 as you see it here. After the 400, I sanded it with 600, 800 and then 1000 today. Tomorrow I will finish it with 1500 then 2000 before hitting it with green rouge and the buffing wheel.
Last edited by Phak1; 12/16/20244:26 PM. Reason: Removed broken link
Finished sanding and polishing the bedside stainless. In all, I must have spent 80 hours or more refinishing all the stainless trim including the deluxe cab trim. My son gave me a book on GMC's for Christmas.
Just needed to say how nice the project is looking. It makes my unrestored 55 look tacky.
A few of us will possibly attend the big show at the Reynolds in June. I would like to meet you and admire your truck.
The finish line is close. Nice job. Howie
Thanks for the accolades Howie! I am confident it will be on the road in May so would love to meet up with you and the others in June at Reynolds.
I am gathering wiring supplies and intel currently as I hope to get it wired shortly. Another trip back to Regina is going to happen sooner than later to get this done!
Cab interior is now painted along with the grill. Next steps are more masking and paint the outside of the cab. Ken must have spent at least 6 hours masking and three hours painting just to paint the inside of the cab alone!! Tons of work and perfectionist attention to detail needed in two toning a cab! It's not for the faint of heart!!
Cab is masked off now for HB primer, then color is next! Pictures are going to be hard to get from now on because Ken is getting close to cutting me off from seeing anymore. He wants to keep me in the dark as to how it all looks until I actually get to pick it up. I have ordered a wiring harness from "Seth" on Facebook who claims it's a plug and play original replacement. It has signal light wiring, generator and amp gauge provisions. I was making plans to go and wire the truck next week with the Haywire kit but now it seems I don't need to since Ken will be able to wire it himself with the "Seth" kit. Might get a few bodywork pictures on the bed but that is likely all I'm going to get...
Nice to see it coming back together. Better than the Brown. I am looking forward to seeing it this spring. Will it now have a key start?
I have the same building just no insulation. Mine is 40 x 48 and did not have the funds to combat the cold. but will need to as I now have a new condensing boiler for the hydronic heat. Must keep those Chevys warm.
Well my Dad picked that brown back in the early 70's. Is actually a very nice brown as far as brown goes... I wanted to stick to more original orange but didn't like Omaha Orange so strayed a little... haha The stomp start is definitely going to stay! That's all part of the experience. Push Button start from the 50's... ahead of it's time!
I actually found a stock replacement wiring harness! Ken is plugging it in with a few questions but overall it's going very well. The VIN and ID plates are installed too! I am finding it hard to believe that we are at the rebuilding stage!
I'd like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my grandfather shown here restoring his 1927 Chrysler in the mid 1980's, when he was in his mid 80's (born in 1899). My family has a long history of vehicle restoration and I know he would approve!
Good for you Darcy. Your Grandfather has been smiling down on your project and providing the inspiration to do such a good job. I hope the 29 Chrysler is somehow still in the family.
In the early 60s I learned to drive in my aunts 53 Ranchwagon. It had a start button. Thinking of that old Ford every time I see a add for a modern auto with "push button start" And if I remember correctly the car actually needed to be manually steered into a parking spot.
Stainless trim is being installed, radio, heater and vent controls too! Engine wiring and fuel line are coming along nicely also. Ken has been busting his arse on this truck and I know he's doing a great job!
Good for you Darcy. Your Grandfather has been smiling down on your project and providing the inspiration to do such a good job. I hope the 29 Chrysler is somehow still in the family.
No, the Chrysler and the 27 Model A he restored have been sold. Dad still has the 30 Chevrolet 3 Window pictured here, my cousin has Grandpa's 1953 Chev and the 59 GMC shown here makes for enough Shier cars. I let the '69 442 go to make room in the garage (and the bank account) for the truck. The yellow and blue GMC trucks are gone too. The 55 Cameo is also sold.
Cokers, rims and new hub caps are now installed. The new engine ran like crap with the old style yellow spark plug wires so new black ones fixed that problem! "Runs like a top!" For the very first time, Ken dropped into low gear and it moved under it's own power! Reverse worked just a nicely too! Yahoo!!!
So this past week I drove 500 miles to work on the truck with Ken for a few days. We got lots done! I spent a few hours working on repairing the steering wheel cracks with Fusor 100EZ and a dremel.
I Vee'd out all the cracks with my Dremel tool and the bit shown in the picture below. It worked perfectly and I would highly recommend this tool for this job!
Fusor 100EZ is a beautiful plastic bonding material that has a 40 minute work time. Because of the long working time, I was able to only use one static mixer by squeezing out a tiny bit of adhesive at a time onto some masking paper and used my gloved finger to smear and push it into the grooved out cracks. I used the static mixer to mix the product as per manufacturer's instructions. I kept applying product as it started to set up as it sunk into the cracks. I made sure I had built up enough product to be sure that when I sanded and Dremelled the excess material off, I could smooth over the cracks and not have any low spots.
Headliner material was installed by the upholstery professional. Not shown in the pictures, but plenty used, was the special headliner spray adhesive. I wouldn't dream of attempting this job and plenty of extra hands are very helpful.
Ken and I F'd with the back window and got it in with a lot of soap, grunt and swear words! Not an easy job but we persisted! The lock strip tool was a huge help and made the job possible... I can't imagine putting it in without it!
Door glass went in too! I had worked on a 55 Cameo last summer where I replaced the broken windows but was a little rusty about the steps to putting everything back in... but the steps are first to drop in the vent window but not screw it into place, then drop in the roll up window, then get the roll up in the tracks and then you can screw in the vent window.
Dash cluster installation went pretty good. The new dash plates installed easily but the oil pressure line is a little too short so that challenged us a little. All in all, it went in nicely.
Filler panel and left front fender were next. The filler panel was a donor from a Chevrolet so we had to drill 4 holes to accommodate the GMC grill. Put the headlights in and plugged them in to test the wiring... success!
After drilling the 4 extra holes, the grill mounted without any challenges except for a 2 hour f'n around challenge with what we thought was a wiring issue but turned out to be a faulty 1157 bulb!!! ARRRGGGHHH The hood got installed as well. Still some adjustments to be made at this point.
Door panels were about the last thing to be installed by Ken before I left for home. The gas gauge threw us for a loop. The tank is a late 60's Mustang tank but the sending unit is 90 ohm but the gauge is 30 ohm. After a bit of research here on this forum, we decided to try and use the electrical working parts from the old tank and marry them to the new sending unit. Ken attacked this challenge while I was driving home and let me know it that it was a bit of f'n around to get the float angle and length just right but is happy that it works as it should now.
The exhaust manifold sprung when we took it off and no way no how could we get it to stop leaking so off it went to a machine shop for planing. Seals up perfectly now!
The box sides went off to the sandblasters and came back in great condition. There was a small amount of filler in them but that's not any concern. Epoxy primer is going on them and Ken says the amount of rust on them was minimal and won't take much time to get them into paint. See pics below.
Crystal Glass guys in Regina came out to install the windshield, including the stainless trim that I spent countless hours polishing and in two hours they were done! Very hard install but was made easier for them because the seat and steering wheel were not installed. Carpet is installed, seat is finished and installed too! Ken painted the steering wheel last night so now the entire cab is completed and tight! Ken tells me he has the hood repainted. It [censored] him off that he missed a very small dent in it and won't accept that for one minute!
Sorry, no more pictures until it's done. Ken has cut me off! He wants to surprise me and my family with the final results. Looking to drive it home in tehe next few weeks. Once it's home, I'll post pictures to fill the time gap.
Every time Ken threatens to stop sending pics I get some more! Hahaha He's cutting rust out of the bedsides and although found a few spots, the overall condition is pretty nice. The remaining rust between the panels is going to get a healthy bath in cavity wax every spring. Nothing else can be done at this point since a "dip" is not available in the area. Seems someone gave the passenger side bed spear a pretty good wack because the filler in it was pretty deep. A uni-spotter dent pulling tool must be used to pull it out a bit before any filler is applied.
Getting closer now. Many hours of welding, grinding, priming and sanding are paying off. Ken is busting his [censored] trying to juggle life's challenges, and he's had many recently. He is trying hard to get it done as it's so close!
So this past week I drove 500 miles to work on the truck with Ken for a few days. We got lots done! I spent a few hours working on repairing the steering wheel cracks with Fusor 100EZ and a dremel.
I Vee'd out all the cracks with my Dremel tool and the bit shown in the picture below. It worked perfectly and I would highly recommend this tool for this job!
Fusor 100EZ is a beautiful plastic bonding material that has a 40 minute work time. Because of the long working time, I was able to only use one static mixer by squeezing out a tiny bit of adhesive at a time onto some masking paper and used my gloved finger to smear and push it into the grooved out cracks. I used the static mixer to mix the product as per manufacturer's instructions. I kept applying product as it started to set up as it sunk into the cracks. I made sure I had built up enough product to be sure that when I sanded and Dremelled the excess material off, I could smooth over the cracks and not have any low spots.
I turned out real nice!
First of all this truck is looking great. LOVE those two tone colors. You made that steering wheel seem easy. Never heard of Fusor 100EZ will have to look that up. Wondering what dremel bits, etc. you used for sanding off the excess? Then did you spray with anything special to paint it?
Last edited by wilsjay; 06/19/20181:02 PM.
Jason
Working on my first restomod on a 1950 3100 Shortbed (235 engine, 3 on the tree, disc brakes, etc.)
Quote "First of all this truck is looking great. LOVE those two tone colors. You made that steering wheel seem easy. Never heard of Fusor 100EZ will have to look that up. Wondering what dremel bits, etc. you used for sanding off the excess? Then did you spray with anything special to paint it?"
Thanks Jason.
The steering wheel repair was actually pretty easy actually. I used the dremel bit shown in the picture below to grove out the cracks and a similar one (not pictured) to shape the Fusor. It took me about three hours to do the repairs, not including the dry time of the Fusor. Once I finished the repairs, I sanded the wheel down with 180 and then Ken painted it after applying a couple coats of high build urethane primer.
The box is now painted but don't have pictures because Ken is keeping it secret now. Haha Here's the last picture he sent. The truck is so nearly done, I feel like a 6 year old on Christmas Eve!
