American in Austria 83 Build

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by LT7A

It seems that if you have a low spot that is about 1/8 deep by 12 in diameter that just filling it would be fine. If it was a quarter or 3/8 deep it seems that would be more of a concern. My concern is if you pop it back up and get everything smooth, is there a chance that you could bump it and it would pop back down. So I would finish it in whatever its most stable position is. There're definitely guys on here that know more than me about this though.

However, I will register an opinion on the drip rails. I had my first Square in the 90s and drove it for a couple years after pulling the drip rails and never noticed the difference. I'm sure that there is a difference since I agree GM thought it was important to put them on. But I do live in Seattle, and it was a daily driver, and rumor has it that it rains here. I think I got used to opening the door letting some drips fall on my arm and then hopping out. FWIW, I'm pulling the drip rails on one of the Squares I have now too.

Nice to see your progress. Thanks for posting.

So I tried pulling as much of the "dent" out as I could but it was difficult to use the puller since the roof is so flimsy. It was more just pulling up tiny little spots instead of sections. So I decided to leave it be. The deepest part of the dent is just less than 1/16" and that is only a 2"x2" section. The rest of it is only around .03"-.05" deep(using a feeler gauge). I have basically the entire roof evened out at this point. I need to go over 1 or two spots again with filler to get it ready for some polyester surfacer and then high build primer. I believe with those two last steps the roof will be perfect.

Once the roof is done with normal filler, I can move onto a few more sections. (specifically the back of the cab and the cab seam I welded up. I already went over that welded seam with some fiberglass filler).

Thanks for any input guys.

[44boggers]

Hi guys,

Making some progress on getting this truck straight, so after all the metal work was done to the best of my ability I shot the truck with 3 coats of epoxy followed up (1 day later) with three coats of slick sand (poly primer). Then the block sanding began!! I just finished the first round of block sanding and it is getting very close to being as flat as possible. There are still some very slight low areas, but one more round of poly primer should take care of it.

This next round I will only block sand the roof, windshield frame, rear of the cab and inner door frame of the cab. The rest I am going to wait until I prep the fenders and doors and set the bed on to make sure all the lines are straight and line up. Well actually I need to get the doors and fenders lined up properly and see where my gaps end up.

Once that is all together I will then block the doors, fender and cab all in one in hope of making it look seamless so to speak.
Till next time.

Paul

[moregrip]

Very nice work!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by moregrip

Very nice work!

Thanks buddy,

So here is a tip for anyone using slick sand or probably any polyester primer. If you lay down any epoxy before hand give it a few days to really cure. I waited 24 hours exactly and now that I am 99 percent done with the second blocking of the cab I realized that some of the slick sand was not really blocking smooth or feathering out properly. I put my finger nail to it and the epoxy was not fully cured which did not allow the slick sand to full cure. The top layer of S.S was hard but when it got thin close to the new epoxy you could scrape it off with your nail.

So now I am in the process of sanding off any of the slick I put over the new epoxy. So this was a huge mistake time wise, but good to know for the future. I already have about 4 hours into sanding the areas off so it feathers out into the the fully cured and sanded areas. You would think it would not take so long to sand it all off but when youre trying to make feather as nice as possible to the finished areas and then all of the areas in the door frame, well it just takes a long time i guess.
I probably need another few hours to finish it, then reapply the epoxy in the bare metal areas and just let it sit for a few days and then scuff and reapply the S.S

So a very good tip for anyone using this. I guess when they refer to the recoat window with epoxys and primers they are referring to laying another primer or base coat on top. Not a poly primer which uses a different type of hardener/activator, this is my guess.

Till next time

paul

[44boggers]

Not to much to add except for a few pictures. I need to go away for the next week so I figured it would be a great time to re epoxy the metal spots and elt it really cure before I redo the Slick Sand.
I ended up spending about 10 hours getting the cab ready for epoxy. I guess I covered more of the cab with epoxy than I thought before I shot the S.S last time. But for everyone, really make sure your epoxy is fully cured before shooting Polyester. I had to undo so much work and hours of sanding because of this mistake. But lesson learned. I spoke with evercoat and they said normally you should wait around 72 hours before applying over epoxy. But maybe I just layed the epoxy on too thick, because the first round of S.S went over 1 day cured epoxy and it was no problem.

Anyway, thats where we are now. Next week one more round of S.S and then a round of high build and this cab should be as straight as it can be. Going over the cab with a straight edge the deepest low spot is only .005" deep. So I think 2 coats of S.S will take care of that. The rest of the cab doesnt show any light under the straight edge.

-Paul

[44boggers]

Ok some small updates and a question for you guys.

First off I got my fender metal work complete, but I had to separate the pass. side fender by cutting out all the spot welds. I didnt want to use the puller because there were some bad creases to take care of as well as rust on the inside of the fender, so got it all straightened out and stripped to bare metal and epoxied, the fender is back together, i just need to re spotweld it. Then I can hang them and start working on my panel gaps,

I also resprayed the slick sand and its been sitting for two weeks now. SO I need to get on sanding that down for the final time.

Today I installed a flip kit, so now I will have a 4.5/7" drop. Everything went fine and dandy, took about 45 minutes to install. The question/problem I am now seeing is, that my driver side shock is almost bottomed out ( about 3/4'' of shaft showing. The passenger side has around 2 3/8" of shaft showing. I measured the rear of frame to the ground on both sides and it is the same height. But if I measure from the center of the lower shock mount to the center of the shock mount on both sides, the pass. side is around 1 5/8" longer than the driver side.
Can someone explain this one to me? did the factor mess up welding on the lower mount by that much? Or is there something I am seriously missing regarding my install?

Here are some pics.

Thanks

Paul

[esbstuff]

Well that's neat you took the fender apart to fix it. I have had many many squares and that is one thing I have never done! Thanks for the picture!

Edit: It may be too late now, but if you do another one, Id spot weld the welded nuts just in case...

[RADustin]

to avoid the stripes in the paint, always lead with a wet edge. the paint 'behind' your stroke will begin to dry, but you push the wet edge forward or across your panel to avoid any dry overspray. you can also mix the paint slower(for a warmer environment) to avoid this.


The low spots in your roof, assuming everything else was where it needs to be, probably needed to be stretched into place. So either hammer on dolly strikes to stretch it or some have success with a shrinking disc without the watch quench. It'll stretch a little.

a stud gun will not really stretch it. Any stretch you get is negated by the shrink the welded on stud causes.

While doing body work on my square and wanting to use the least amount of filler, I've found more times than not that the panels need to be stretched into a place instead of shrunk. Most body men just want to shrink and fill. So it's definitely a headache.

your progress looks nice though. Keep it up!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

to avoid the stripes in the paint, always lead with a wet edge. the paint 'behind' your stroke will begin to dry, but you push the wet edge forward or across your panel to avoid any dry overspray. you can also mix the paint slower(for a warmer environment) to avoid this.


The low spots in your roof, assuming everything else was where it needs to be, probably needed to be stretched into place. So either hammer on dolly strikes to stretch it or some have success with a shrinking disc without the watch quench. It'll stretch a little.

a stud gun will not really stretch it. Any stretch you get is negated by the shrink the welded on stud causes.

While doing body work on my square and wanting to use the least amount of filler, I've found more times than not that the panels need to be stretched into a place instead of shrunk. Most body men just want to shrink and fill. So it's definitely a headache.

your progress looks nice though. Keep it up!

Thanks for the tips. With the roof I couldnt hammer and dolly unless i romved the skin which I did not want to do. In the end the work I did got me very close and I am confident it is not a plastic filler roof.

It seems whenever I use my shrinking disc I end up flattening the panel to the point it is below the panels natural curve. I feel like I am not getting it very hot. When I have watched videos guys seem to use it much longer and even more aggressive. I guess I just need more practice.

But thanks again for your tips!

Any idea about my shock situation? Every point I measure on each side of the frame is the same except for the distance from the shock mount to shock mount. The frame to the floor, frame to axle ect.. are all the same, basically exactly the same. Even the distance from the lower shock mount to the floor is the same side to side. I feel like I am really missing something with this.

Paul

[44boggers]

Hey guys,

Got a few more things accomplished, I have the driver side fender welded back together and got both fenders in epoxy and sprayed one fender right away with slicksand and added any filler where needed. I decided I would try this method opposed to filler, then slicksand. I am currently working on the other fender right now, but skim coated the entire fender and will slicksand it once I am done blocking with 80 grit. I am not really sure which process works better. I think in the end it is exactly the same, but I am leaning towards spraying the slicksand before body filler.

I also blocked the entire cap once again, this time with 220 and it is flat as can be. With a straight edge there is no light shining through anywhere. I am also happy with how the shaved cab seem turned out. Next step will be to hit it with a few coats of high build and final block with 320 and 400, then its ready for paint.

This is a lot of work!!

Thats all for now.

Paul

[RADustin]

can you go into more detail on pulling the fender skins off and putting them back on?

how time consuming? was it worth it? etc?

Really considering this- but obviously will wreck the flange while pulling it off.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

can you go into more detail on pulling the fender skins off and putting them back on?

how time consuming? was it worth it? etc?

Really considering this- but obviously will wreck the flange while pulling it off.

It all comes down to how much time you want or can spend on your build. Also the level of resto you want. I really didnt want to use a stud puller on the damage. It took me about 2hours to drill out all the spot welds and once the welds were drilled the inner fender came right out. You do have to peal back one section of the fender lip but that can get hammered back into place once the fender is back in place. But in no way do you damage any fender lip.

I would do it all over again. I didnt like the fact that i could see so much rust and I wanted to hammer and dolly the panel as flat as I could.

But it is time consuming. Between cutting out the welds, then stripping all sides of the fender down to bare metal, I would say I have around 20 hours of work into the fender just to get it back to epoxy. So 20 hours in, cutting welds, hammer and dolly work, stripping all sides to bare metal, epoxy priming all sides of the fender and welding back together. And now another 5 hours in block sanding (round 1).

Paul

[RADustin]

It's a super cool idea. But I'm with you- I think we are going for similar quality builds. Minimum amounts of filler.

Problem I have is and this method solves- someone already drilled a bunch of holes to rip damage out. To properly weld up those holes I need access to the back of the skin.


How hard was it to align the inner and outer afterwards? Seems like I can drill 1/8" holes prior to disassembly and use clecos to line it back up if need be.

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

It's a super cool idea. But I'm with you- I think we are going for similar quality builds. Minimum amounts of filler.

Problem I have is and this method solves- someone already drilled a bunch of holes to rip damage out. To properly weld up those holes I need access to the back of the skin.


How hard was it to align the inner and outer afterwards? Seems like I can drill 1/8" holes prior to disassembly and use clecos to line it back up if need be.

I had the same issues with previously drilled holes I needed to weld up.

The clecos idea is a good one, but I think the inner fender is lined up 99.99 percent good enough or close enough. There are certain areas of the fender you can uses as a guide to realign the fender, plus when you use a spot weld cutter it leaves the welded portion on the inner portion of the fender and the outter portion of the fender has a round hole from the spot cutter. So when you line the fenders back up the old weld fits right back in the hole and I used that as a guide and then filled in the rest of the hole with weld and it was no problem. If I have any alignment issues with the hood or so because the inner fender was not aligned perfect, it will be so slight that the hood adjustments will take care of it.

Hope all of that made sense.

Paul

[RADustin]

yep- for sure.

Well watch my '76 build. I'll be doing this.

thanks for the motivation to do it right!

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

yep- for sure.

Well watch my '76 build. I'll be doing this.

thanks for the motivation to do it right!

I’ll be watching for sure. Let me know if you have any questions.
Posted via Mobile Device

[RADustin]

did you use a spot weld cutter drill with the adjustable depth or just a free hand spot weld cutter and center punched the spot welds?

[44boggers]

Originally Posted by RADustin

did you use a spot weld cutter drill with the adjustable depth or just a free hand spot weld cutter and center punched the spot welds?

I used a cutter that has a center punch intergated into it.

[44boggers]

Made some more progress this past week. I got the bed back on the frame after nearly 3 years to measure for wheels and also see where I need to drill the hole for the fuel filler of my boyd fuel tank.

Also got both fenders coated in poly primer and blocked down once again in 220 (well one fender is blocked in 320 because i ran out of 220). I am happy with how the fenders blocked out. I sprayed them down with wax and grease removed and the reflections were very flat and even.

The only thing I am wondering if others had an issue with is regarding their boyd tanks and interference with the bed rails. The rear bed rail landed directly on the fuel filler and the bottom of the bed just barely hit the fuel fittings. Its not a huge deal at all as I just notched the bed rail and I will lower the tank about 1/2" to accommodate for the fuel fittings. But I just figured since this tank was built for this truck I wouldnt have this issue.I am going to contact boyd or pro performance and see what they think. Maybe the fuel filler needs to be mounted more center of the tank (front to back).

Anyway thats it for now. In the next days I will get the fenders in high build primer as well as the cab. Then I am gone for the next 7 weeks so it will give plenty of time for the primer to shrink back before I block it hopefully one last time.

Later

Paul

[44boggers]

Making some more headway. I got both fenders and the outside of the cab in final high build primer. I will let it sit for the next 7 weeks when im away and then fit up the doors to start getting the gaps how they should be and then final block sand.

I feel like every time I paint something happens. I have been using a stool to stand on to paint the roof, well today that stool had enough and literally fell apart while I was spraying the roof and I fell right onto wet paint. Luckly it was just first coat and I didnt dent anything. It should block out (the imprint of my arm that is)

And after 3 years I got the fenders back on, feels good to actually see part of the front end back together.

Till next time

paul

[44boggers]

Just some small updates, no time these days to get a lot done. But nevertheless plugging along.
I got the roof final sanded up to 600 grit, painted up the brake booster and Wilwood master cylinder and started on brake lines from the master to front brakes. Right now I am fabbing everything up with some standard brake lines but I will make everything in stainless steel for the final product.
I had an issue with the bed hitting the fuel fittings on the fuel cell so i made some aluminum spacers and some rubber padding which drops the tank about 3/8" or so which will be enough to clear everything.

I put the hood on and started to adjust the gaps, but I am having a very difficult time to get the fenders and hood aligned properly. I am thinking of slotting the holes of the hinges where they mount to the fire wall to give me more side to side adjustment.

Thats it for now. I think the next thing I am going to tackle is finishing off the interior, paint wise.

[44boggers]

Got a few more things dialed in. I laid down the sound deadener on the cab floor and firewall. I also "rebuilt" my heater box. Meaning I replaced the heater core, cleaned the entire box, new seals and fresh paint.
I just have one question regarding the heater box and one of the doors on the box. I have posted three pics below to explain my concern. Should this door always be closed or should it stay in the middle as it is in the first picture. When I pull on the lever I can make the door open and close fully but it sits in the middle when the lever is neutral. Is that how it should be?

Next step will be to put the heater box back in and start the interior wiring. I know I am putting the cart before the horse a bit by doing interior work before the outter body work is finished. But my garage is to small and I cant roll the truck outside because of all the snow.

But I feel like i am making progress finally now that I am working on the interior.

The 1st pic shows door at neutral position
2nd pic shows door fully closed (manually closed using levers)
3rd pic shows door fully open (manually opened using lever)
Thanks guys.

[44boggers]

I forgot to add prior to the last post. I also got the interior cab all painted. I had everything stripped down to bare metal then epoxied it, laid down bed liner on the cab floor then base/clear coated the rest. After the epoxy I put fresh seam sealer. Its to bad basically all of this will be covered up.

One other thing I did to keep the engine compartment clean is that I am running a bulkhead style plug for the distributor plug wire to the coil. I will keep the coil and MSD box inside the cab.

Question about carpets, do they make carpet kits that go up the backside of the cab? If so then I will also sound deaden the section behind the seat.

[44boggers]

A couple more updates. I found some clamps that will hold the rubber brake lines to the A arms. I was using zip ties, but I think these are a nice touch.

Also got my power steering lines hooked up to my Lee box and pump with AN fittings.

Next thing on the list is to paint up my AC delete cover and get it mounted to the firewall. I am not sure if I should paint the cover the same color as the firewall or us the SEM black I used for the heater/AC interior box. It is more of a flatter black or a duller gloss black, if that makes sense.

Merry Xmass

Paul

[44boggers]

Painted up the AC delete cover with the same base/clear as the body. I used my mini gun on this one and I am very happy, barely any orange peal. Ill let it cure out for a few days or a week then cut and buff it (got a few dirt nibs in there), then mount it up.

I am using the original air resistor which i didnt really want to do. I guess there is a non air resistor for a chevelle but being in Austria its not very easy to access these parts. But I cut the hole on the bottom of the cover so you wont be able to see the resistor or the wiring going to it (keeping the engine wire friendly free)
Tomorrow I will start on the front SS brake lines, then hook up the Dakota Digital transmission shift wires/linkage and speed sensor.