Chevy pick up restoration

[tech69]

I should have gotten more pics of this white one in the repair process but it's just bodywork and prime and block once. We specialize in these pickups.









I'm currently doing another one and it's an out of stater and has to be perfect. It's going red. I'll take some pics before we prime it and after paint and will post in this thread.

[Len]

Did you have much rust damage? Over headlamps or door bottoms or cab corners?

[tech69]

Did you have much rust damage? Over headlamps or door bottoms or cab corners?

cab corners and an after market door due to rust. Common on those I see. Headlamp area was fine. The one I'm working on now had both cab rear corners replaced and welded into place with being welded in wrong and it enlarged the door gap so I gotta run a bead down the door

Those fricken cab corners are a pain to work with filler, especially the top section!

[another2centsworth]

try welding 1/4" square stock on the door edges to tighten the gap up.

[tech69]

it's just a driver resto. We did some welding for this one though.



this back was mangled. Lots of metal work just to get it manageable.




This door needed a little work after primer. should be good next round.





All in all I learned for the 1955 the UPPER rear cab end is a b*%&! A thin layer of epoxy is not enough to block on it and determine where the body line is cause it's so round as opposed to the door that butts up to it. You have to mud/and/or primer it and block on it before you prime the whole cab n doors to get a good read. Too many dull non defined bodylines and different angles going on to get a good look at it with filler. It needs primer on it to really tell what's going on with it.

This was the first 55 I've done in bare metal and so the upper rear cab end got me and I didn't like what it looked like in primer and it bothered me last night. Without hesitation today I went straight for that cab end and got both sides looking really sharp and matching the door body lines. I'll post a pic of that and I'll take it tomorrow. I bet it'll look kind of cool cause the pic shows clearly what's involved...tape! Cause you can see the guidecoat traces on edges which will make a cool pic and good to show what's involved with those buggy bastards.

[MARTINSR]

The fit and finish you got out of those doors looks TOP KNOTCH! They fit like CRAP when new, you did a fine job on them.

Brian

[another2centsworth]

nice primer what did ya use?

[tech69]

The fit and finish you got out of those doors looks TOP KNOTCH! They fit like CRAP when new, you did a fine job on them.

Brian

Thanks Martin. We had to tack onto the door as well. The other side has an after market door and it was a horrible fit on the onset. It had perfectly working door hinges yet had to be raised overly high like we were compensating for something.

[tech69]

nice primer what did ya use?

featherfill. They have a 1.7 maxum that doesn't load it up like I want but makes for a nice even finish if that counts for anything at that point. I personally would have used a 2k for the second round(or last round) but he says it's gonna be a trailer queen anyways.

[tech69]

when doing this truck I think it's important to spot prime the upper ends first or after filler, block, and then prime the whole truck. It took me by surprise but I like the challenge of these few bodylines in multiple hard angles to deal with that don't match the rest of the bodylines(cab to door bodyline). It means you must make them match the doors but finding the right area to do that is a b#&@! I think it's important to let the metal reveal itself to tell you where your line will be taped. Trying to figure it out by eye isn't good enough cause it's not clearly defined at first. So til that's revealed there's no need for tape but to run your block in the appropriate direction to induce that situation while not taking things out of shape but rather molding it into what it will become. Once you know where that body line should be you sharpen it up with tape and line up your door to that line. Just thought I'd share my take on this area cause it's really the only hard part about this car other than the hassle of dealing with the rear fenders.


Second round of primer. I love attacking the bodylines first. The bodylines are actually off by the slightest to the door but that's cause I didn't want to cheat it on the cab corner but only adorn it by sharpening it up where it told me where the line should be. It's close enough though just not perfect.



I usually start with this side, then switch my tape to the other side so I can sand the inner side. Then I do the lower part of the cab corner by switching sides of the tape for the horizontal bodyline that matches the door. Last I get a soft block and 600 and buffer the sharp edges til the guide coat is gone. The bodyline going from up to down doesn't have to be sharp and it's optional but they like em sharp so that's what I did.

[tech69]

the truck is painted and waiting for the rolling chassis. The cab corners look awesome as well as the rest of the truck. I've been working on my cutting and buffing and now can cutt it flat edge to edge with little swirls. Thanks to this site I was able to experiment a little and totally better myself. I now sand with the bodylines, am now sanding out ALL the scratches, and tape just the very edge and everything works out perfect. I'll take some pics when we get around to sanding and buffing and have it together. Here's a nice pic though and amazing how the color concept is. No wonder I don't see many people doing the factory paint inside...look how much money that can potentially cost!

[tech69]

Here's the cab corners. If you compare the sharpness of this cab corner with an original it's easily to see it matches the overall bodylines better. I'll post more when it's buffed out. We're still waiting on the chassis.

[tech69]

no more dents!


mirror finish

[All Dry]

I think it looks great. Mike

[icrman]

Are the interior colors factory stock? If so what are they? Did you use grey or silver above the floor? Also what is the top of the dash painted with? Factory uses a textured paint, anyone know what it is?