son's first project truck

Way to go Dad.
It's reading stuff like this that sometimes makes me wish my daughter was a son.

just ordered about 60or so square feet of sound dampening material, we're not putting the interror in until it gets put it,

The original headliner was trashed, so we had a grey one from the red cab, I took it to mom, and she's gona show toad how to scrape the old foam off, then glue new material on,

tomorrow i'm gona paint the deflector that goes below the bumper, since it's plastic, it will be all diffrent paint system.

I HOPE i have enough time to put the drivers side door glass back in this weekend too,(she kicked it out when it was on it's top).

We still have to pull the trans and put sync's in it. I priced transmissions, and it's heck of a lot cheaper to redo it than buy another. Good thing i work in a parts store, friend has the "stool" you set the trans on to disassemble it.

oh hell, she had to redo her car too!





feller was living in it , ran it off the road. traded it for a paint job on a rollback

arrrgh! fuck fuckty fuck fuck!!



so wensday I get the CORRECT front bumper in . Toad and I decide to paint both bumpers and fix the oops on the right rear panel. Toad sands the bumpers while I sand the rear panel and get it all masked up and a car cover put over the rest.All went well (i thought) until....I came i to work eirly to unmask it, that's when it all went to shit. everything i painted was STICKY, paint not dry. WTF! after the inital shock i figgered out what happened...



but first let me tell you my history of body work, first off, I'm 40 years old, I rebuilt my first truck on my own while in the 11th grade i H.S. before then i helped my dad while he was rebuilding vehicles. I've made a career out of selling autoparts and selling Dupont products. I went to Nashville Auto Diesel Colledge. so I've painted a few things. from crashed rebuilders to a fleet of paving trucks. even did a bunch of paint work for a nickelodon project. So I'm no dummy to how paint works. ( at least i thought so )



what i figgered out i did wrong has me so fucking pizzed off. I LEFT THE HARDENER OUT OF THE SECOND CUP OF PAINT. i was only mixing about a half of paint at a time. it only took two mixes/cups of paint. so now i have begun the task of wiping the still tacky paint off with 3812S and a bunch of blue towels.



oh and the glass man came today. put a new windshield in , and glued the rear back in for me. since it was for my son and not a customer's he only charged me $120.

It's all good, spending time doing something you enjoy, bonding with your son, your son learning.

Keep the updates coming...project is coming along and looking good.

That truck is a perfect candidate for a 5.3 swap!

If you havent already, check out LS1tech and start the gears turning. VERY cheap and easy to do a 5.3/4.8 swap. Junk yards are nearly giving away the 4.8, and its a sleeper from hell!

yes it is, but NOT for a 16 year old

Just finished a year long fixer upper on a 66 Chevy with my 15 year old son. Ended up making it a fishing and hunting rig. We have more money in it than any one would pay but the relationship built and the respect he has for the truck is worth far more than we have spent.

I did a 75 K5 blazer that way Senior year, motor,full interror, both fenders, hood, and new quarter pannels. Turned out really nice. now it just sits.

so tonight's project was to start in overhauling the NV1500 transmission. plan was to get it done by saturday so we can put the interror in on sunday, but that all went down the drain when i got the trans pulled apart.







thats 1-2 and 3-4 shift forks. if I can find someone going to springfield tomorrow i'll can have them friday night and get it back together, if not there's plenty i can do to it on the rack,

well it's back together. but it needs to come back apart. seems i found a spring and detent ball on the floor after i got it comepletley together. the GM manual says nothing about it, nor is it in the break down, but i found another exploded view online and figger out where it goes. it drives and shifts ok, i think it is for when you push the stick left to right so you get just a little "click" feel, and the exhaust downpipe from the manifold to cat. has a woven flex joint in it, and it's trashed, i thougt the leak was from the manifold to pipe, it was but this is worse.

Toad and Jake(my little bro) got the sound deading material all in, and i (we) got the bed put on, lights all working and the rear bumper on. if the interror was in we would be driving it.

I'd consider that a success! If I disassembled a transmission, I'd have a hell of of lot more parts left over

More pics please!

Tipsy

put tags on it Wednesday still no door panels, waiting to put some new speakers in the doors, but I'm making a list of things to do Saturday,

But i had a OH SHIT moment today with it, I took it on parts delivery a couple times today, and it started making a knocking sound down under, getting worse as i used it. I'm thinking the motor is junk and it's spun a rod. so right after work i put it up on the lift running and found the front part of the porcelain in the converter has busted and is rattling really loud, . a few minutes with a short pry bar and the broken pieces are out, runs nice again.

it's still needs front brakes. rotors. (they are .020 under size and the scrapers on the pads have been broken off) plugs , wires, upper A-frame bushings. and i wouldn't be surprised if it gets a ball joint or two, and whatever else i can find.

the truck was owned by Menonites,a girl, she was checking/looking at a text message and ran off the right side of the road and putting it on it's lid. Best i can tell they don't care too much for preventive maintance.

Must be a pretty modern sect to allow texting:eek1

I loved my 97 Sonoma with the ZQ8 handling package. Seeing you fix this one up brings back a bunch of memories!

Menonites, not Amish,

they drive new trucks, lifted,chromed out, but NO stripes. it's wierd to see a Menonite girl jump out of one with a plain dress and their bonnet on, one family even has a flying machine and a hanger!

two sets of upper controll arm bushings, one swaybar link kit, set of front pads, pair of new rotors, a new throttle position sensor,pair of front shocks, all in one day,now it runs and drives like a newer truck. I still have a rattle in it some where, it sometimes sounds like a lifter pecking, but i think it's something loose or pushed up aginst something rattle, after being on it's top who knows what's loose, that's why i'm driving it for a while to get the bugs worked out of it, sorry no pics, i was too busy to stop for pics.

we're going out tomorrow to finish the interror pieces, and if you're lucky i'll take some pics.

This thread rocks. A like new truck in less than a year. 1/16 of a young man's life. Time well spent.