What have you done to your square lately??

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Turbo4whl

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That truck is a '77, but it came with fenders, doors, hood and a tailgate from a '73 or '74 truck. Apparently the higher trim trucks had actual chrome letter badges that went on the stamped GMC. The '73-'74 GMC tailgates are an odd duck around here. I don't remember ever seeing one before... I'm sure I did, but I simply don't remember it. This truck is from Washington, so it has survived much better than around here.

Okay, now maybe I understand what this guy at Carlisle was looking for. Back a few years when I had some square parts for sale at the show, he wanted a high left stamped gate. I never remember seeing one like that except with chrome letters.

I didn't know those early GMC's with chrome letters were attached to a raised letter gate.
 

SirRobyn0

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Well I've done lots of interior stuff lately. Installed an overhead shelf, mounted and hardwired, a rechargeable maglite, replaced the switch for my fog lights. Took apart the passenger side door, and pulled the window regulator out to rehab it. It has been hard to roll up and down and in my case it was still in pretty good shape. The main things it needed was to cleaned up and lubed. So I soaked the entire unit in a bucket of WD-40 overnight. Took it out this morning, wiped off the excess and blew the WD-40 out of the joints with compressed air. Lubed the joints up with spray grease, lubed the big slider that the rolled wheels go into with silicone grease, and silicone greased the gear. Well now the passenger side rolls up and down easier than the driver side, so I'll probably do that side next weekend.

After all that interior work I decided to detail her out. I went the full 9 yards, pulled the rubber mats out and scrubbed them down with soap and water. Vacuumed it out. Cleaned and treated the vinyl and plastic, washed the insides of the glass, pulled the cup holder off the center hump cleaned all the excessive crap out of it and ran it though the dishwasher. Pretty much anything and everything in the interior got cleaned and treated.

Here she is after after all that. Looks pretty good I think.

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Then after that, did fluid checks under the hood, and cleaned up under there.
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The body needs to be done to but I ran out of time. During the week I'll run it though the car wash and apply a fresh coat of polymer "wax".

Not sure if this will be during the week or a next weekend project, but I need to replace the blower motor, it's working fine, but making some unpleasant noises. Not sure if I'll replace it with an original style unit, or if I'll try doing the upgrade using a GMT-400 motor, since it's an 84, I'm not sure if I'd really see any improvement. If it's not to expensive I'll probably do a resister at the same time.

I also need to rehab the wiper linkage, it'll be the same program as the window regulator, take apart, soak the pivots in WD-40, clean everything up and reassemble with silicone grease, the reason is squeaking noise.
 

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SirRobyn0

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Okay, now I am confused again.
I'm not going to be able to unconfuse you. Other than on my Dad's truck, I don't recall seeing another one with raised lettering like that and was going to ask Andy about it but you beat me to it. He bought his truck used in 80 with (I'd have to ask him to know for sure), but my memory is saying it had 18K on it so I've always assumed the tailgate was original, and the paint matched. But then again you never know, maybe something happened in those first two years and it got used tailgate installed.
 

bucket

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I'm not going to be able to unconfuse you. Other than on my Dad's truck, I don't recall seeing another one with raised lettering like that and was going to ask Andy about it but you beat me to it. He bought his truck used in 80 with (I'd have to ask him to know for sure), but my memory is saying it had 18K on it so I've always assumed the tailgate was original, and the paint matched. But then again you never know, maybe something happened in those first two years and it got used tailgate installed.

More than likely, the gate had already been swapped for some reason before your dad bought it.
 

Tank6x2

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Still doing hood mod, starting the other side now
 

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squarelyfe

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New to the list.. my hinge set has arrived :) was worried they would be robbed in LA lol
Install tomorrow..
 

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hoagster

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Finished media blasting the hood. Yes that's body filler from the factory? Dad purchased it new from the Fremont plant, they must have had an issue. Luckily I noticed it.
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waterpirate

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I am winning! The cab is finished, 4 coats of color gm8774 on top of bright white sealer, 3 coats of clear, last coat blocked out with 800 and final clear coat. Fenders and doors, same treatment ready for 800 blocking of clear then the final coat.
Eric
p.s. and the chopped studebaker coupe
 

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Bextreme04

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Been thinking about my brakes and that maybe it is a hydraulic issue.

So, I saw this and decided to try it today.

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Well, I figured with the key on my coworker helper would see the brake light come on in the dash. No go with the PS bleeder screw out.

OK - let's try both.

Nope. WTF?

:33:

Brakes seem a tad softer now but I cannot tell that I ever centered, or offset, the proportioning valve.

Nasty looking fluid, too.

Work will continue.
I would recommend if the fluid looks terrible, to just go buy the big jug of DOT 3 brake fluid from the local parts store, connect a clear hose over the brake bleeder screw nipple on the rear passenger side brake drum into a clear empty bottle, open the bleeder and let all the old fluid run out. Take the master cylinder cover off and make sure you don't let the reservoir run dry. Keep doing that until nice clean fluid comes out. Then repeat on the rear drivers side. Then the front passenger side, then the drivers side. Once all the fluid is clean and clear, then try to bleed the system. To see if you over-centered the proportioning valve, you need to unscrew the sensor that the single wire is attached to. You can then look straight down into it and see if the shuttle is off to one side or not.
 

hoagster

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I am winning! The cab is finished, 4 coats of color gm8774 on top of bright white sealer, 3 coats of clear, last coat blocked out with 800 and final clear coat. Fenders and doors, same treatment ready for 800 blocking of clear then the final coat.
Eric
p.s. and the chopped studebaker coupe
Good job, looks awesome! The door paint racks did you make them? Picture of the other side plz!
 

Grit dog

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I am winning! The cab is finished, 4 coats of color gm8774 on top of bright white sealer, 3 coats of clear, last coat blocked out with 800 and final clear coat. Fenders and doors, same treatment ready for 800 blocking of clear then the final coat.
Eric
p.s. and the chopped studebaker coupe
Yeah you’re definitely winning! But you’re cheating… that there is a professional body shop!
Jk. Looks awesome!
Question about the clear? You can’t see 800 scratches in the final coat?
I’m not a great painter but that seems like it would telegraph through?
 

waterpirate

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Blocking the clear with 800 just levels out the last of any orange peel or imperfections, makes it like glass. No it will not show in the final coat.
Door racks were custom made to paint whole door at one time. Just stock tubing welded together. Will get you some pics of the feet and arms next week when I am back at the shop.
Eric
 

Grit dog

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Blocking the clear with 800 just levels out the last of any orange peel or imperfections, makes it like glass. No it will not show in the final coat.
Door racks were custom made to paint whole door at one time. Just stock tubing welded together. Will get you some pics of the feet and arms next week when I am back at the shop.
Eric
Thanks for the tip. So it's an extra step during paint, but saves the cut and polish after wet sanding the top coat instead. (Assuming I can lay down a last coat without any dry spots, lol)
 

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