August 20

Final coat of clear. Most of the interior pieces are reinstalled. Hm. Just realized that Marc left the glove box for me to re-install. What's up with that? (Maybe because I'm the one that took it out?)

For once, Marc isn't dirty and covered in grease in the photos. He did get dirty later crawling under the truck, in his clean, not work clothes.

 We took it out and drove it around a bit, which was fun since truck can really move. Now we just have the bigger things left to get, tires and rims, a fuel cell, a new speedometer, a flex plate, a new torque converter. We also have to install the wood bed and add paint on liner to the steps and inside of the bed. So in almost three months, the truck is mostly done and drivable. Not too bad when you consider at the end of May, it looked like this:

Apache Day 91

Clear coat day. No photos because we were both clear coating and painting the interior.

August 18

The reappearance of the minions. Notice they were slacking off there towards the end and not sanding as much.

After the minions, the black paint. There would be other painting pictures, but I was running errands, (which included a search for more of said black paint after the regular paint shops had closed) and Marc can't paint and take photos.

Then...green.

August 17

Wednesday I reinstalled the interior panels and painted the interior floorboards, behind the seat and under the dash. Marc was exhausted and a little loopy from the primer fumes. Since I was the one getting dirty today, I didn't take any pictures.

August 16

Primer.

August 15th

Today,we are getting ready for the final coat of primer. More final sanding, painting the black areas that are under the front clip and repainting the seat. It ended up being a little disappointing because it was too late to primer by the time we were finished.

August 3 - August 15

I know, we've been absent. We had to take a few weeks to finish the work on the house, painting, waiting on gutters, fixing trim. But that's all finished up now. In between times Marc has been making small tweaks on the truck, like bleeding the brakes again and replacing the manifold gaskets, again.

Tuesday August 2 Cont

So after Frankentruck rolled over the Corvette, it was put back into the driveway.  Marc got it started, the brakes bled and took it around the block. 




However, it still doesn't have enough stopping power and the brakes will need to be bled again.

Tuesday August 2

The importance of having a good relationship and friendship with your neighbors is that it makes all the difference when you do this to their just purchased today car when your truck rolls down your driveway because your brakes still aren't working quite right:

Guess who will be doing body work on a Corvette next?

Monday August 1

There is still much tuning to be done, but it runs.

Tuesday July 26 - Sunday July 31

Yes, we have been busy, but it hasn't been really anything to photograph. Most of the work Marc has done this past week has been internal. While he's been doing that, I've been sanding.

Things that have been accomplished:
Radiator installed
Truck re-wired (For the most part. There is still a weird ground issue with the right rear turn signal.)
New hoses run for the radiator
Brake lines bled

Now he's just trying to get it running well while I sand.

Monday July 25

Today, we have primer on all of the large body parts of the truck. There are still some small interior panels that will need to be primed, but now the truck is really starting to take shape. It's amazing how fast this is really happening.  It's been just a few days over two months and the chassis has been swapped, the bed shortened, major body repairs completed, a newer 350 engine installed and the truck has it's first coat of primer.

But then again, this means it's time for sanding...

Sunday July 24

We were lucky Sunday afternoon. Storms started to roll in and cooled the temperature down enough to primer the front clip and grill.

We did get the passenger door mounted again, right as the rain started and finished before the winds and torrential rain hit.

Saturday July 23

We had a very brief window this morning before the weather scorched the rest of the day. Marc finished the initial primer coat on the hood and passenger door.

Tuesday July 19 - Friday July 22

It's still hot. These few days were interspersed with family visits and games.

Monday July 18

Once again a new day has dawned and once again it's sweltering outside. Even now, as late as it is, it's still over 90 degrees. Progress is slower than we'd like because of the massive heat wave.  Today, we remounted the driver's side door and prepped the passenger door for sanding.

Sunday July 17

More primer on more parts of the truck. Our goal was to prime the doors, hood, and front clip today. We were however thwarted by both the heat and running out of primer. More primer is on the way and hopefully we'll have cooler weather soon. The primer coats are drying almost instantly on the truck resulting in a finish that is less than desirable for a final primer coat. 

The lucky thing for us, the primer being applied is only the first coat in the painting process. Until the paint comes in later this week and weather gets cooler, it's back to sanding.

Saturday July 16

The cab is sanded and coated in primer.  It's ready for sanding and things are starting to come together.

Saturday July 9 - Friday July 15

Hot weather combined with combined with Marc's trip to Iowa, left poor Frankentruck waiting till he was back for more work.

Friday July 8

It was Christmas this Friday and I was Santa. Marc found the parts he needed on Craigslist and I picked them up on Friday over lunch. He was almost that excited when I got home.  He installed the new Edelbrock intake manifold and carb while the roofers rained shingles and staples down around where he was working.

And then...

Once again, Frankentruck is alive!

Tuesday June 28 - Thursday July 7

We spent most of this time sanding, filling and reapplying primer to the fenders. We were lucky enough to have one beautifully cool evening on July 3rd, which was spent at Marc's cousin's house. There was one point in the evening where we turned, looked at each other and said, "This is perfect for sanding." Instead we stayed to celebrate the holiday.

After the 4th of July, we fit in small amounts of sanding, heat permitting. This was difficult, as the summer has turned Kansas into a blast furnace.

Monday June 27

Hooray! My favorite part! Shooting paint and or primer. This was however preceded by sanding, and filler, and more sanding. The fenders are both primered now and ready for another round of sanding. They just aren't blemish free yet.

Marc finished filling in the patch work he did on the corners of the cab and they are looking very nice. The weather is supposed to be a little cooler here the next day or two, so we're trying to get more sanding done before it's back up to 100 degrees again.

Sunday June 26

It's hot here, very hot. Marc spent the day in and out of the garage trouble shooting the wiring. It's been frustrating trying to get the two systems to work together.
Instead he will be taking off the manifold, carb, and distributor and replacing them with ones that aren't computer controlled. There is a certain amount of irony in in the fact that he is removing the computerized portion of the engine.

Saturday June 25

Marc spent today attempting to get the injectors to fire.  It is proving difficult to find the correct wire in the 93 to connect with the correct wire in the 82. We're thinking this will call for a new plan of action or at least choice of how the motor will run.

On a bright note, the firewall is sanded and painted.

Friday June 24

Today was a day of wiring. Marc is attempting to get the 93 computer wired up to the 82 wire harness and in the 58 cab. As this isn't very exciting, there are no photographs of Marc puzzling over the wire engine octopus and the wiring diagrams.

Thursday June 23

It's alive!!

Wednesday June 22

The transmission, after being annoyingly difficult, is on the truck.

Tuesday June 21

I have minions. Wait, do minions get paid? If they don't then I have acquired assistants. The two youngest (who have rapidly become BFFs this summer) decided they would like a summer job to feed their Lego addiction. More specifically to feed their Harry Potter Lego addiction. They started today and sanded their first fender and did a pretty good job for a 10 and 12 year old.

Marc re-welded the brackets for the cab. I sanded the driver's side fender and applied putty to fill in the low spots after it was primered.

Monday June 20

A broken pulley, a broken power steering pump and two trips to O'Reilly's later the belt is re-installed. So is the new power steering pump, the pulley for where the air conditioner went, and a new U joint.

Today was extremely challenging, but progress was made.

Sunday June 19

The engine is on the chassis, with some slight maneuvering it is bolted on.  One huge step before many little ones.  Getting everything to work together is proving to be challenging for the man, but he likes a challenge.