I do been working on a 1969 chevy stepside for 2 years now which when I get time I do small things. I threw a new 350 crate motor in in vintage air and redid the whole interior. The trucks by no means anyway perfect. I'm at the point now of paint body work was a total disaster, truck must have been painted 10 plus times with all different colors and I shoulda known how bad it was when I bought it. Little to no rust, once I started removing all the paint is when I found out how bad it really was someone decided instead of fixing the dents they would just bondo the hell out of them which my magnet wouldn't catch bc there was really no rot. So anyway i find out it seems it was a farm truck and maybe a woods truck at one time hard to say but dents beyond dents. So I did my best by making it look pretty good, but it's still not perfect. Last night I primed it for the second time after going over the body with and fixing little things. Am I crazy to not want imperfections when the rest of the truck really beat up? I do my own work on everything so it's frustrating to not get the best results. It's getting a shop logo on it so it's a shop truck so it's not meant to be show quality. How far do you take your shop truck as far as body work goes and does it make you regret you didn't go further?
Did you just refill the dents with bondo or bump them out as best you could? I like them with smooth paint and no big suprises underneath.
Do a panel at a time, tackle the smaller boo-boo's first. Get a dent puller, or make one! A few dollies and hammers will work wonders.
Its a truck(or car) not a piece of furniture. It all depends on you and what you want(not someone else)If your a perfectionist then your make it perfect! I do my best with what I got and have fun!! (No trophy's for me) cause I can't win them!! Oh!! Cool Truck!! Pete
I bumped out the filled dents then skim coated. I'm no pro at this, this is my 3rd paint and body, just like doing it. But this one body panels line up just ok nothing great, I gotta stop the OCD lol, there's a few small things I need to finish then I'm gonna paint it. Daily drivers get there bumps and bruises shouldn't waste my time on perfection.
When my buddy was still alive our shop truck was a '69 short wide. It was perfect and stayed that way. But we owned a body shop so it was a rolling advertisement. I am a wrench so what I use for a shop truck has to be mechanically sound but these days I seldom make the body perfect. Straight and presentable is more then good enough for me. its your truck so only you can decide how nice the paint is but for me straight and presentable would be good enough. The thread gives mea chuckle, late Friday night I was talking with a good friend at the HAMB Drags. His stuff is always gloss black straight while my stuff is usually fast and a little rough around the edges. granted we were mildly inebriated but he said something that is quote worthy, "Looking good is highly overrated." [quote flamedabone] Gotta love it.
I started off with a OT, 1975 IH, went well overboard on it. Shorten the frame to accept a Chevy short bed and painted it 1998 Corvette yellow. Turns heads where ever I go, but now it just sits in the shop because it is to nice to tear up, running parts or pulling loads. What I needed was a 20 foot "looks good" truck but instead I have a 5 foot "looks good" truck. So I would say, build it for what you are going to do with it.
Truck is being built to beat the crap outta it just like previous owners did, I drive a big truck everyday of the week and sick of driving it when it rains on my days off to go places or run errands, I have my 1970 mustang for fun, but rainy days I would never drive it. Well I feel better about it now, I'll post a pic once I paint it, should be in the next 2 weeks
Badass...as many years as youve been a member here,you know that your truvk is way off topic...HAMB is up to 1965..lets keep it that way....
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