Stovebolt.com Forums Project Journals Project Journals Grandpa’s 1970 C10 Rebuild.

Thanks.
On the bed wood, I used a Minwax ebony stain on Mar-K's red oak.

Sir, What's the significance of "XXX hours" at your every retrojournal entry? Why? This is your hobby right? This takes up the "white space" in your retirement years preventing boredom, right? You don't pay yourself, hourly, right? I mean anyone that ventures in this hobby knows, or should know, it takes much $ & time to complete. By the way, your work is through, concise, and good! Thanks fox. V/r, Nick

Thank you.
Haha! I don't worry about the retirement thing. This truck bug has wormed in pretty deep and I have a line of projects to keep me busy until I'm too old to go on.

As for the hours, that all goes back to when I finished my first project. When I completed my 51 GMC, the appraiser asked how much money I had sunk into the truck, so I presented him with my binder of receipts and totals. He then asked how many hours I had into the truck as I built it myself. I said, "Hours?! Good grief, I don't even want to think about it."

He said, "You'd better think about it. It's part of the appraisal process."

Since then, I've tracked hours. It is scary how much time goes into them. I'm becoming more of a night owl, as that seems to be the time I can work on them with my kids growing so quickly.

Sir, Got it! Makes sense relative to appraisal purposes & my projects will be passed down to my next of kin, so hadn't thought on that angle. Thanks fox. V/r, Nick

This past week has been busy. We took our kids to ride the ole train in Stettler. It was fun. Report cards have kicked in at school and I’ve been busy, but I am still finding some truck time.

I have been slowly installing Kilmat in the cab. I have the back wall done. I am slow, but I want it straight and true, not slapped on haphazardly. I lightly blasted the inside of the cigar lighter and cleaned and lubed, cleaned again, and then installed it in the dash. I began wiring up the replacement interior light. I installed the new ignition tumbler and its new key. I have blasted, prepped, and painted the vent panels. I am just using rustoleum on these pieces in black. I moved the box (and front inner fenders) home from the paint shop after a few days of curing. It’s really good, not perfect, but really good. I can see a couple issues, but the untrained won’t notice. Trained would have to look closely. 😎 I suppose I’m my own harshest critic. I installed the tailgate rubbers; I love these little instant gratification jobs that take a minute. Then I cleaned the booth and began hanging the doors and rear tubs for topcoat. I shot those tonight.

Hours: 658

Next up: more Kilmat, rubber spray underside of inner front fenders, hang doors once cured…

Man, this stuff is fun. The rusty phase sure sucks. Hang in there fellas, if you’re dealing with rust!

Kilmat running low. I have 3 sheets left, but I will try to utilize those for the doors. My pa-in-law has some insulation tape that seems pretty good. He used it on his ‘47 Stylemaster, so I think I’ll use it on any remaining gaps on the cab floor, firewall, and door skin area. The cab already sounds deader when I move around inside it. I lightly scuffed and used 3m undercoating for the front inners and hung one the other night. I can’t locate the 2nd inner fender large washer bolt combo, so the LH side is off for now. It’s around somewhere.

Tonight I went to the paint shop and picked up the doors and rear box tubs. The install went quite well. The dimples I put on the hinges and doors worked beautifully. This was a fun step tonight boy, oh boy.

Hours: 663

Looking really good and I’m glad you finally reached the fun part. This is supposed to be fun, right?

This is the fun part, seeing it all come together. Man you are really making progress, with luck you may be able to take a cruise before summers over. FUN, FUN, FUN....

This was nerve racking, but it went well after we got everything lined up. I was able to get a pdf of the tailgate font from a fella on another forum that he created using the tailgate letters as a pattern. My pal and I used it to create a couple numbers, the kicking R, and the quarter circle to complete the brands. We ran out of time as his boy’s baseball games were rescheduled, so we had to shut it down and watch some ball. I have two more boards to laser, and then I’ll be ready to start sealing the boards.

I love how the font matches the tailgate.

Way to tease us all.
I for one am dying to see all those bed boards in place with the cool lettering.