The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1970 Chevy C10 - Grandpa’s Rebuild.

Does your videos you just posted have sound? I couldn’t hear anything on my iPad.

They had sound when I played them.

Fox, I just read your story on this truck and man oh man did it bring back memories when I was kid as well. I grew up in a small town and a lot of my friends lived on farms and there were always old trucks out there. We had a 83 GMC shortbed stepside pickup that was black with a hopped up 383 stroker engine. It was lowered and had nice centerline wheels. I remember standing a couple feet away from the exhaust pipe and the pressure was flapping my pant legs. Reminds me of your cousins 86 that you speak of. Your workmanship is pretty incredible I must say for not doing this work for a living. Do you guys have all this equipment for this just as a hobby?

Thanks for the compliment. Yes, it is just a hobby, but it is something that we both thoroughly enjoy. It is funny how as you move through life your tool inventory just climbs. I remember when I did all my wrenching out of a single tool box on the grass!

I’ll be reading through all 21 pages of this and following. Your skill and set up is what I would love to have. Hopefully I can pick up some pointers from your journey. I like that hoist you guys made to raise up the cab. I just have attached garage. I parked my truck in there briefly but the fumes from the gas tank and just the leaks in the truck went into my furnace (located in my garage) and pumped into my house. Smelt like a service station in my house. Didn’t want my family to get sick from the smell so took it out.

Box primed. Today had some hiccups that were mostly due to paint gun issues, but it went smoothly otherwise. I have a pretty snotty run on the lower rear right side, but I should be able to sand that out easily. Minimal, and I mean minimal, filler will be laid down in a day or so, bodyworked, and then I will reprime it and set it aside in my garage to await topcoat. Exciting!

Hours : 481

Looks great Fox and I bet it feels great to have that done too! Awesome job!

First coat sanded and body filled. The little dent on the RH side above the wheel well took a long spread to fill. It is very shallow but covered a large area. A few spots were thin, so I hope the second coat with compensate. It is going well. I hope to reprime tomorrow, check the RH side dent again and the box should be done and ready for topcoat. The rh rear tail light area turned out very nicely after the invasiveness of that surgery.

Hours: 486

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Sanding and blasting my life away here! I’m thankful for my wife’s support. This part of the build is tedious and time consuming (and the other parts aren’t, you ask?!). Once again I am happy to be stripping the EDP off of reproduction parts. More greasy streaks under the black primer, fingerprints, little rusty areas, flaking spots. I would recommend to others to do the same. You won’t regret doing it.

The wind changed direction this evening as I blasted, so I shut it down to keep the dusty air away from the shop intakes. Plus my neck and back were getting tired! I have the cab, doors, and hood left to blast. When that’s complete I think I’m done blasting and everything is ready for primer/paint.

I did notice as I blasted the core support that it was a little corroded under the battery tray. I suspect battery vapours caused this. It is borderline, but I don’t think I need to cut out and replace. My wife asked if it was structural! What a gal. I think it will be ok.

Hours: 492

With sand in his boots!

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Well, I couldn't leave it alone. I think it would have bugged me knowing that the core support was so thin. I proceeded this afternoon to cut it apart. Naturally, the rust iceberg grew and grew as I dug deeper. I rebuilt the whole lr portion. I think it turned out really well and it will alleviate any “rust gremlins” that may haunt my thoughts in the future!

Hours: 495

Nicely done! You metalworking skills are getting honed to a fine edge. Great work!

Thanks Phil.

Well, today was a bit of a frustrating bugger. I blasted the core support repair, cowl panel, and the patch I created for the lower front left fender. This all went well. I then proceeded to strip the hood. I began on the underside and all went smoothly. The top side of the hood was another story. I started blasting along the leading edge of the front where I had done some metal work welding up the GMC hood callout holes. This was going well, but once I transitioned into the sides and top I hit a wall. Literally.

The hood had been repainted at some point in the past. The original color was a (I believe code 503) "seafoam" green that had two layers of yellow on top. The first layer was dark yellow and the second was light yellow. Well, the top light yellow came off easy enough, but nothing would touch that lower yellow coat. The sand blaster wouldn't budge it. I was hesitant to keep blasting as I didn't want to warp the metal, so I figured I would hit it with some 80 grit on a block. This barely worked and I didn't get far. I returned home and had supper and socialized with my dad, as he had stopped in. I decided then that a paint stripper would rip it off of there and I could then blast it again to ready it for primer. Good idea, right?

Wrong. The paint stripper wouldn't touch that dark yellow paint either. It made it slippery and my scraper would just slide on over it. So then I had a slimy, slippery, paint dusty, sandy mess to contend with.

I got that all cleaned up and I am proceeding to strip it via DA sander and 80 grit. I sanded for over an hour tonight and I am only 1/2 done the top of the hood.

This stuff is bloody tough. I also considered leaving it on as it has lasted this long, it's probably fine as a base substrate. But I'd already tried in places and would have large dips and gouges where the sanding/blasting have worked some.

Today was both fun and terribly aggravating.

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Hours: 499 (oh that's close to 500!). Imagine paying a shop to do this?

Bloody stubborn hood᠁done. In the end I turned to a grinder with a pretty aggressive wire wheel and stripped off the dark, impenetrable, from the seventh level of ehll, ugly yellow. Once I busted through, I hit it with the DA sander and some 80 grit. Looking good so far. No big issues raised so far.

Hours: 501

Set for some work.

Hours: 503

I laid down a whole bunch of epoxy primer tonight. It went well. Yeesh, that was a lot of little pieces!

Hours: 507

More stuffed moved around and primed. A couple runs on the top where a guy is trying to get the little in behind nooks epoxied to stop rust, but looking good otherwise. I think those two areas will have to be brushed on for top coat with a bent brush so I don’t have to worry about runs.

Hours: 511

Filling, sanding, perfecting...repeat. Repeat.

Yeesh. Time piles up quickly. But I think I'm ready for another coat of primer after body working these to smooth, oh so smooth. It looks like a lot of filler, but it is very, very thin.

I have also decided to redo the LH door skin. It just won't be good enough, so...

Queue the grinder and welder once more. On this SAME BLEEPING DOOR. I can't wait until it is out of my kitchen once and for all.

I have also created a plan to utilize the little trailer I got from my brother to move the cab while I blast, prime, body work, seam sealer, reprime, sand, body work, prime, recheck, sand, clean, top coat...and then do it to every other panel.

Man, that won't take long, will it?

I'm going to remove the axle spring mounts and move them as far as I can rearward to gain more frame rail space. This way the cab sits lower, misses the tires and fenders, and clears the blasting booth door. Also, the trailer can still fit in the little booth. Fingers crossed.

Hours: 522


PS: I also located and bought back my old rig rocket '89 Mazda that I sold 11 years ago. It will be cheaper on fuel than my Duramax! I'm already scheming about its future... 🤔 My buddy says I need therapy.

(Insert wife head shake here!)

Front fenders reprimed. The right looks like it has a couple minuscule pinholes from the body work I missed and one tiny low that just shows in low light.

One more coat and I should be good to go for final sand and then topcoat.

Hours: 525

I'm jealous of your heated shop/paint booth with that forest of coat hangers.
I'd like to be painting as well, but don't have heated space to do that in the winter.

I'm jealous too, Kevin, as it is my buddy's! 😂 I'm glad to be doing it in the winter as the humidity is lower, there are no bugs, and there is less dust to worry about. The summer season is short enough here...Alaska? Man, work fast brother! Winter is already coming again!

Front fenders reblocked, filler gaps fixed/finished, reprimed, reprimed, awaiting final block for topcoat. They look great.

Hood: prepped, sanded down again as it was VERY rough from all the wire wheeling/ 80 grit DA sanding, cleaned, tacked, primed for its first coat. I am now out of epoxy primer. So next up, while I await more primer, I'm going to prep that trailer for its axle surgery.

Going well.

Hours: 529

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Hey, It's good to have buddies. He must be a good one.
I have a buddy with a big shop, although not a paint booth, and he lets me use it on occasion. I almost got evened up with him when I rescued him about 80 miles up the highway when he had a water pump go out. I picked up parts and we did the swap on the side of the road and we sent him on his way about an hour after I showed up there.

I do believe that it's impossible to do these trucks "on your own." Even though I do 99% of the work myself, it's not "alone". My wife's support, dad/brother help, Stovebolt questions, friends helping me. That's what friends are for I suppose!

Trailer axle moved. I think it's good to go.
Hours: 532

Door skin to be redone on the LH side.
Buy more primer. Sand and bodywork hood, reprime, check/sand, and prime one last time before topcoat.

Then I will remove the cab and build some quick angle brackets to bolt it down solid as I prep to move it and the doors to blasting.

Man, hours are piling up fast.

It sure did feel nice to sharpen drill bits for 2 hours tonight. That’s one of those jobs that you say you’re going to do “one day” and you get to it 2 years later.

In the meantime, yesterday I ripped the old tailgate handle off the bench by the fire pit to use it on the new one. It is nice knowing the hands that have touched it over the years. Also, the reproduction one that I got is terrible. The second I opened the package I knew there were problems. The bends were off, the rivets were loose and flopping around. It is junk. I read up online and discovered that there are serious fitment issues with these. Gates won’t open using them, they hit the panel, etc. I didn’t even bother trying it as the consensus was to find an original. Removing it was a pain as the pan head bolts were rusted solid. I had to drill them out. Mine was slightly bent from years of use and abuse, so I drilled out my rivets, disassembled it, straightened the bends a bit, welded a pivot bolt in place on the back latch, ground it down to maintain clearance, drilled rivet holes to match new bolts, blasted it, and now it awaits primer/paint and reassembly. I will need to use some bolts and stover nuts in place of rivets, but no one will know. It was a surprise that this little task took me two hours.

My sister asked me about hours tonight and I told her the count so far. She couldn’t believe it and then I told her I think I’m 1/2 done!

Whilst blasting the handle and its pieces, my shop vac started to squeal. I use it to remove dust from the blast cabinet via a “dust Cyclone dust remover” which works decently. I haven’t serviced the vacuum since I bought it so a complete tear down, cleaning, and lube job was needed. She is sucking “quietly” now, well as quietly as a shop vac can be.

Hours :534

I started sanding on the "new, good" hood and am questioning things. The skin isn't what I'd call "tight, tight." I see serious highs and lows that I figured weren't as bad as I thought as I ran my hand over the surface. It isn't quite canning, but bounces up and down , and isn't tight. The right side is pretty serious as you can see in the picture. I’d rather not have to use filler over most of the hood. Weird thing though, is that it is almost symmetrical left to right, with the right being more advanced. I'm wondering if new vibration pads will help enough to warrant a "little filler." Thoughts, Bolters?

In the meantime, I began searching for a replacement hood. I checked at my Uncle/Aunty's (my departed uncle who gifted the truck) but that old GMC hood was worse off. I then tried an old boy who's a friend of my dad's. He said, "Sure. Come on over. I have a couple you can look at to see if they'll help you out."

So I did. And found a gem of a GMC hood with only two little bolt holes on top that are easily worked. The skin is very tight, straight, and made me drool.

I went to the house and asked about a sale.

"Oh. That GMC. (1 of 2 candidates) I'm not selling that. I'm fixing it up one day." He's done this to others, including me, in the past.

3 miles from the farm. And he won't sell it to me. After he said to come out and we will see if he can help me out.

"I'm gonna fix it up one day."

"Really? When are you starting?" I replied.

"One day... I already started moving things around."

I told him, "No, you're not and no, you haven't. That truck hasn't moved in over 10 years. And the yellow was parked well over 20. One day means never. That truck is going to rot into the ground and waste away. Sell me the hood."

"No."

Makes me crabby. Fix it up. Pfft. No means to do so. No income to do so. No ambition to do so. Old age won't allow him to do so. Hoarders are infuriating. Fred Flintstone's car has better floors than this truck does. The yellow one is even worse.

Offer of trade my primed hood + cash.

"Nope. I'm fixing it up" he says. 🙄 Grrr. Insert bloody "bleep bleep" here. I'm glad he wasted my time, too.

So, I'm sitting on my hood for a bit in hopes my dad can talk sense to this guy. My other uncle might have some leads on some possibilities hiding on people's back 40.

In the meantime, I removed the door skin on the left door. I HATE THIS LEFT SIDE DOOR PROJECT. The previous attempt's bottom edge missed (see earlier posts) and buckled/ pinched the lower edge. It wasn't going to make the cut on the quality I need on this build, so out it came. I cut the scabbed up piece out, cut a new piece of 18 gauge, welded, planished, ground smooth, cut to fit, straightened, and I think this go round will be good. Knock on wood. Test fitting right now. How many hours have been put into this bleeping door? Gotta be over 60 now. Ugh. Reproduction? Oh, right. The LH sides are a POS for A-pillar fit.

Hours: 542.

Ups and downs here at Fox Rods!

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Just following your saga with the re-pop door has confirmed that I need to repair/ patch what I have. Some great work on this truck.

The RH reproduction door seems pretty good actually. It fits the opening well and I haven’t seen any issues yet. The LH door was off. I tried two different left hand repops and they were both “smaller” than the RH.

LH door fiasco᠁
What is this? Attempt 4? Who knows anymore. Anyway, I have reskinned the LH door AGAIN. I think I can say I’m happy with it. It is not perfect, but will work. It has one little area on the lower front where the air tool put the slightest little running dimple in the metal. You can see the slight shadow change in that location in the picture. I can live with the amount of filler needed to smooth it in this area. Before hand, the lowers edge would have nearly needed to be completely built up with filler to mask the imperfections. It had serious waves and warps in it. It would have chipped or cracked and ruined the paint job. This go-around will be just fine. I have to tend to the corners as they are still sharp, plug weld the outer skin window tab to the inner skin window tab, create drain holes in the lower inner tubs, and add some plug welds to the folded over edges.

Tonight went well. Hopefully things keep turning up. Knock on wood.

Hours: 544

Next up: preparation of trailer to drop cab onto it. I’m going to use some angle iron across the trailer’s frame and weld 4 mounting points. I intend to use the jack on the trailer to level the cab when needed. One instance I foresee this happening is when I apply the drip rail sealer. That stuff can be runny, so I’ll use that jack to help it flow down hill. Hopefully when the cab comes off, it’s painted and going on the frame.

Yesterday I went to the paint supplier and got 2 samples in spray cans for giggles. I believe I have decided on the colour posted earlier. It is actually very close to original.

Today I finished up the left hand door. I plugged welded the window tabs together and die ground the excess in case it interferes with the window channel after paint. Then I hung the door and dressed the edges where they were a little close regarding gap. The corners needed to be rounded as well, and I had to lightly grind down the front rocker top corner to ensure no paint transfer. It isn't perfect, but it sure looks a heck of a lot better than the previous attempt. I had to tweak the door slightly using a 2x6 and some muscle to get the door curved line up with the cab, but I got it. I then drilled dimples in the hinges and cab posts to assist in door installation/lineup after paint. Next, I drilled holes in the bottom inner tub for water drainage. I also checked the cab in case I missed a couple holes for drains, and I had, so I drilled and ground a couple. Later on, I marked and drilled the holes for the LH mirror arm.

Doors. Case closed. Finally.

After supper, I went back to the shop to prepare for the removal of the cab. I got some angle iron and cut it to appropriate lengths to hit the cab bolts. 44" front and 39.5" on the back. I welded 2" pieces on the end to "box the angle iron" in order to have a little pad for the cab mount to rest on. I will mark and drill holes for these once the cab is on the saw horses and in the air.

To end the night, I created a lift jig for the cab so I won't have chains or rigging hitting the cab. I used some 1" tubing, flat bar, the door hinge mounts, chains, and some threaded link hooks to have some adjustment to help pick the cab level. I still need 3 links as I'm sure my boy raided the shop and was playing with them before the snow began to fall in November! (Oh sure! Blame the kid!)

Fingers crossed it works as I hope.

Hours: 548

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Love the color, My Dad's 70' GMC Sierra Longhorn was that color with a white roof. Miss both him and that truck.

Thanks Craig. We know what you mean. These old trucks worm their way into peoples' hearts for more than just "being trucks", don't they?

Tonight I rigged up and lifted off the cab. Hopefully, the next time I pick it up it's going on the frame painted and complete. After the lift, I had to clean up the welds on the firewall for the gas pedal modification of a 72 pull type/02 avalanche cable combo I made. This was right up against the engine so I couldn't do it prior. Next, I drilled holes in my cross irons to bolt the cab down. Ran some 1" stitch welds on the trailer frame to the cross bars, lowered the cab, slid in bolts and tightened everything down. This trailer idea is going to be slick. Methinks. I hope!

Hours: 550

Excited to start blasting. Oh boy, I hope I haven't forgotten anything...


Update: fits like a glove. I'm going to put some wheel dollies under the tires to cock it sideways in the booth for a bit more room. I will also pull off the pintle hitch and the rear bumper to gain about a foot of wiggle length.

Look what I found. Arghhhhh!!!!!



Hours: 554

At least the trailer setup worked beautifully.

That's almost inevitable when you blast something that old. But it's still a bummer.
At least the perforations are spots that are flat. Should be fairly easy to patch.

That trailer setup looks like it worked pretty well.

Two steps forward and one step back. Isn’t that always the way with these old trucks? I feel your pain!

The two shouldn’t be too bad, but that one with the hole for the heater is going to be a bugger with the bracing behind, the lip in front, and the tight spot welds. I’m not looking forward to that patch.

If it's still sound structurally, just use some JB Weld as filler for the pinholes. Its under the hood so it doesn't need to be PERFECT.

😂 I couldn't do it, Kevin. It still won't be perfect, but it will be solid. Since many of the welds are hidden or very hard to locate I haven't fully metal finished them, but all the rust has been removed. I can rest easier now! Here are photos of the inspection, destruction, preparation, construction, installation (or test), and finalization of some of the panels.

Everything is epoxy primed way up inside, so that is a positive coming out of this rust adventure.

I still have to trim along the top edge, test fit, and then plug weld and stitch weld the passenger side top right patch I built in place. Almost there.

Hours: 565

Gotta love that surprise rust

I have enjoyed your progress. We are almost in a dead heat.

Likewise. Thanks Ferris.That 66 will be sweet. As I’ve said before, I (and I’m sure all of us) quite enjoy getting a look into everyones’ adventures. It really is motivating.

Almost got it᠁

It doesn’t look like much, but trimming, fitting, trimming, priming inside and out, cleaning the paint gun, marking plug weld locations, die grinding, clamping, tacking᠁

Man, hours pile up᠁


Update: Calling it good enough. A couple little touch up welds on other places of the cab, strip some old sealant, prep the bottom of the floor, blow and vacuum sand, and she's ready for primer. Whoop whoop!

Hours: 569

Hours: 575

Cleaned up some welds and old seam sealer, and sanded down the roof with some 80 grit.

And then spent 2.5 hours blowing and vacuuming up sand from that cab. It’s still coming out in places! Terrible.

Update: she’s in some colour᠁