Looks like a good foundation for a clean cruiser. Still on the hunt for parts you need.

 

Thanks man, did you get my text today?

 

Thanks for the compliments guys. I was dying to get her cleaned up today, but Mamma had me on a honey do list all day. I did sneak off to the scrap yard and bought a set of heater knobs though while she wasn't looking. LoL

 

So I was thinking my cold start problem would need a choke adjustment, it was much more simple. Hopefully anyway, the real test will be on a cold morning. The choke was binding and couldn't close. Took the carb off, got the choke arm freed up, seems to be starting better now. I guess when my friend rebuilt the carb, he must have had it twisted a bit or something. Doesn't seem like it would be hard to do either. Damn there are a ton of linkages, vacuum lines, and unnecessary garbage on these carbs.

Started taking the pinstripes off with a stripe eraser, but my drill seems to be taking a bit too long for that job. Didn't want to overheat the drill, so I'll wait until I can throw the eraser on a die grinder and make a quick job of it.

Kids helped me clean it out some. Someone along the line of ownership decided to paint the bottom half of the dash, and the paint is flaking off pretty bad now, so that will take forever to clean off. No idea why they would have done that, the original grey of the dash looks fine, and the Grey paint looks almost the same color. Weird...

 

Be careful with the die grinder. Might spin the eraser too fast and burn right into the paint. Id go buy the cheap corded harbor freight drill and not worry about burning up the other one. 3/8 in. Variable Speed Reversible Drill Ive used one for notching tubing and it has done that without any issues.

 

I hate those erasers. Something about getting eraser shavings all over bothers me more than it should. Anyhow another thing to be careful of is when you get down to a certain point on them they have a metal disc inside that can scratch your paint as well. Every so often feel for it especially when the diameter gets down close.

 

+1 ....Tons of shavings!! but they work good for stripes...

 

Yeah, I've used them for years guys. I am worried about marring the paint though. Even at the slow speed I was running yesterday, it looks like it might be screwing the paint up a bit. That's why I tried it out on the worst fender first. I'm going to go out and play with it a bit today, but I may end up resorting to GooGone and a plastic putty knife. That should only take me about a week and a half. HA!

I'm also going to start searching for a 5 speed to swap in. The friend I bought the truck off of said it winds up pretty tight on interstate with the 4 speed, so one more gear might help a bit.

Hopefully tagged and driving her by the end of the week. Still no luck finding a bench seat close by.

 

I'm sure you know about using a heat gun to take off the sticker itself right? It doesn't always work on very old decals but it's worth a try. Plus it usually leaves the glue on the panel, but with GooGone that'll come off pretty quick.

 

Better than those erasers.
I park the side im working on facing the sun maybe half hour before i start to help it a bit. I then use a heat gun. It does take a little longer on older stickers and wont come off in one piece.

 

Yep, hit it with a hair dryer this morning and went to town. Stripes are too crusty. Gave up on them for now, until I can finish with the eraser.

Started tearing into the dash. A mouse had made a nest in the heat duct work so it blows fuzz everywhere when you turn the heat on. I'm thinking about blacking out all the plastic before I put it back.

Also looks like someone got mad at the stereo at some point and decided to throw all the wiring they had in their garage under this dash. Good lord.

 

Well thankfully no mouse nests and no dead mice. Just lots of deteriorated foam and dust.

 

Blacked out the main dash pad, painted my gauge needles red with some Testors model enamel, and buffed the clear lens over the gauges. Didn't come out perfect, but a lot better than it was. Leaving the center heat vents out to put some gauges in later.

 

Called it quits for the night. Ran out of paint, will get some more tomorrow and hopefully finish if the weather is nice enough. I was worried I wouldn't like the black dash with grey pillars and headliner, then today I noticed my 2014 Civic has the same exact setup and it looks fine. Using satin black Krylon fusion in case antone was wondering.

 

Nice! I really like the black. I was thinking about doing the same but didn't know how the black would look with the grey. I found some clean black cloth bucket seats with red stitching out of a Mazda 3 for $40 ... Thought about picking them up and doing the same with the dash.

 

I'll probably recover the pillars with some black to match the door panels when I do them, but it really doesn't look too bad with the grey on black.

 

dash looks good. what type of paint or dye did you use on it? how'd the needles come out, use a brush? did they come out smooth or textered?

looks sweet.

 

I'm using Krylon fusion satin black on the dash, didn't get a chance to finish it today. Hopefully soon. I'm pretty impressed with the outcome.

Using Testors model car enamel on the needles and they came out pretty smooth. I took my time and used a very soft bristled detail brush, put it on a little thick to avoid brush strokes as well.

 

Looks damn good man coming along nicely

 

Thanks for all the compliments guys.

Thanks to DaRoach, I now have a new passenger door and a bench seat. Should be picking them up within the next couple weeks. I know my girls will be happy. They're 9 and 10 and they both love trucks. My 10 year old has claimed my Granpa's 70 C10 lwb fleet as her first vehicle, so we have to start working on that before long, and my 9 year old wants a 60s C10 short step for her first ride. Lol. They've been asking me to pick them up from school in the Toyota as soon as I find a bench seat haha.