A little restoration

Nice build! Love watching these resto projects. Any updates?

 

Thanx much!
I followed up the gloss black with Rustoleum matt clear. They have just the right amount of 'eggshell' now.

Started on the grille, its the last bit left over from two owners-ago. They needed a new grille and it was color matched to a gun metal color, hence the flat black everywhere. Sanding down all the chips & dings. I'm thinking of going with a textured paint because of how deep the recesses are.

 

Nice. Good luck with the grille. Rest of the truck looks great

 

Here is the finished grill, still have to re-do the emblem.

 

I started to replace the broken arm supports in the door panels. I went to Joann Fabric a couple of weeks ago and found a nice unique vinyl pattern called woven straw, but they were out of it yesterday. Damn disappointed because it looked really nice, so had to settle for a typical leather pattern. I cut a paper pattern so I could get a good measurement. ( no pic )
Most of us deal with this design flaw every day. You can see the multiple score lines on the back side of the part. The only reason to put score lines in plastic is to aid in snapping it along those lines! Things that make ya go hmmmm....

I decided to fix the plastic while it was still attached to the door so there would be no chance of distorting the part. I have had a ton ABS plastic sheet around so I used it here.
The area where your elbow rests has to be supported, or it will crack and break again. Super glue and baking soda will hold everything together, cut everything out on the bandsaw.

I ground down the plastic rivet heads instead of just drilling them out. I wanted to be sure the arm rest would come out cleanly and that there would be a nice flat for the screws to rest on.

Once removed, I pealed the cloth off to use as a pattern. I also traced around the cloth in place to use as a location guide for gluing the new stuff down.

I had also purchased some head liner foam to place underneath the pleather. That was glued down first with spray adhesive.

The next bit I knew would be tricky because you don't want the pleather to stick to the foam until you are ready. What I did was spray just the top of the arm rest and masked off the rest. I made sure the top section was in place and then sprayed everything and went really slowly to get it all down without wrinkles or bubbles. It is tricky because the arm rest is very concave.

I used stainless 10 X 1/2" metal screws with washers to secure the part back in place. Sorry no picks of it from the back, I got too excited to get the panels back in place!! They aren't perfect, but I can lean on the arm rest now. Two more to go......

 

Cleaned the MAS & throttle body today. I wanted to install the Fumoto kit today, but after 45 mins. of working on the other stuff, I had had enough!!
I used genexer36 post for the how to. I used a coat hanger and simple green bottle to keep things out of the way. You can see all of the Hawaiian red clay dust on the housings. I don't think any of these components have ever been removed.

The MAS was easy enough, just carefully spray the cleaner on the censors.
There is def. dirt inside there. Instead of spraying inside the throttle body, I sprayed a rag and dug around and opened the butterfly so I could control things a bit. I also opted not to remove the throttle body and risk tearing the thin paper gasket, not having a replacement on hand.

Used the simple green to clean all of the housings. The underside of the main cover was dirty, but being fiberglass, I left it alone so I would not damage it.
Feels good to get that red dust off....


My engine bay is not too nasty, so cleaning the entire thing won't be too difficult. And having those hood struts in place was awesome!!!!

 

That grill turned out amazing!

 

This is great. The truck will have so much more value to you after doing this kind of work. I also like following along on here, good for ideas

 

Your ability to create and improvise parts and rejuvenate others is keen.

 

Awesome thread!

 

Awe.......shucks
Thank you all. That's why I record this stuff here. This ain't no 'build thread', it just shows anyone can do this with all of the experience on this site! Gotta LUV TW!!

 

Finally have the correct wheels on, now to get rid of the green!

 

Looks good! Yes, definitely paint those brakes black or silver.

 

Rear drums black, front calipers silver or black.

 

No more green on the front... As I was pulling the tape off, I realized that I am missing pass. side the top pad pin!! Since this is the first time I have messed with the calipers, someone else either lost it or forgot to put it back.

 

No green on the rear now.....

 

Everything Looking very sharp SR. I am making a to do list to use some of your how to's. Thank you!
I once went to Joanns Fabrics w my better half and 5 minutes into following her I was searching for the exit. I now appreciate how it is for her to follow me around Sears hardware nuts and bolts section.

 

LOL! Thanks, and your welcome. That's why I went by myself.

 

Spent a few hours washing & waxing yesterday. Two hours just for waxing! First coat of wax since the new paint. Used Meguiar's Deep Crystal car wash & cleaner wax.
You never realize how big these 'small' trucks are until you wax every square inch! I ran out of elbow grease, twice!!!

 

Finally have time and nice weather to tackle painting the side view mirrors. BUT FIRST, I have to deal with a couple of issues that Maaco left as little 'surprises'. The first is a broken bolt mounting in the plastic;


I know they broke this because I took it off the truck before paint and there were no broken parts. They over-tightened one of the three nuts that holds it to the truck. ( So much fun getting the nut off! )
Something else now missing that I did not notice until today, the small cover over the two screws on the pass. side.


To prep the mirrors, I scrubbed them with plain water and a green scuff pad. ( no picks ) .

See how dried out and faded the plastic is;


I masked off the glass and the mounting gasket. I then used plastic adheasion promoter before applying Krylon truck bed liner, same as the grill. I waited about five minutes and them followed up with Rustoleum satin black. ( should have done that on the front grill ) Turned out ok.