Project Old School, Part VI

After many months of cutting, hammering, shaping, filling, welding, sanding, primering, and spraying, Project Old School finally has a coat of black suede on it. We left off last month by torching all four coils 'til the '64 was resting on the bumpstops and bolting on the new red steelies and wide whites from Stockton Wheel and Coker Tire, respectfully. We just had to give you (and ourselves) a little preview of the things to come. Well here it is! While we still have much to do with the interior, drivetrain, and suspension, we have finally conquered the exterior portion of the buildup.

Yeah, I know. We already shaved just about everything off of the truck, right? But there was still a substantial amount of work left--what I like to call "the fun stuff." For starters, we are installing the brand-new Brothers bumpers we picked up. Brothers, who already supplied us with the new front fenders and tailgate filler panel, carries pretty much every reproduction part ever made for the '60-66 trucks--so we knew we would be back. Added to our Brothers parts list were rear bumper brackets, as well as taillight lenses, bezels, and gaskets, a windshield rubber, and door-panel screws. If you recall the earlier stories, we swapped our Chevy frontend for a GMC unit we found at Chevy Truck Salvage in Santa Ana, California. We then supplied the GMC grille and headlight bezels to American Classic Truck Parts as cores, who, in return, sent us restored and re-chromed units that looked better than new. We filled the four headlight buckets with Adjure tri-bar units straight from the Southern Rods catalog.

But before we went bolting-on parts, we still had a few tricks up our sleeves out at Totally Polished. We decided that the front bumper would look better 1.5 inches closer to the body, which meant slicing off the ends of the frame and shortening and trimming accordingly before welding them back on. I also had another bright idea--flip the stock rear bumper and raise it up a bit. This required TP's Chris Daley to heavily modify the new brackets, but I think the final result is pretty cool. And, finally, remember how we were rapidly closing in on our planned debut at Paso Robles? Well, we were down to our last 72 hours when we bolted all the chrome on for the first time. Not only that, but while we were shooting this installment, we were also working on the suspension (which you'll be seeing next month). But in my mind, it wouldn't be a true debut unless Old School was flamed! I called in a favor to an old friend. Lance Laverty has been building show-winning trucks for over twenty years, and, more recently, helping to produce SEMA vehicles for the likes of Gaylord's and Street Scene. He showed up at TP with only a few hours notice with plans to perform one of his trademark flame jobs, which usually consists of several layers of multicolored flames achieved with masking, airbrushing, and pinstriping. I then explained how that wouldn't go with the theme of the truck. I needed a lot of pinstriped flames in white only, and they needed to look good--but not too good--like it was done really fast as an afterthought. Then I told him he had three or so hours to pull it off. He did it in two. What are friends for, right?

Follow along as Chris, Lance, and I, along with anyone else who stopped by on the way to Paso, finally make Old School presentable. And check back next month when we replace the torched coils and rusted drums with Airlift 'bags and CPP discs.

Front and center on the hood, Lance left his trademark, the Faded Kolors' logo outlined with Von Dutch-style striping.	Next on the agenda was sectioning the front of the frame so the bumper would fit closer to the body. After some careful measuring, Chris lopped off the end of each framerail.	An inch and a half of length was taken out before the ends were welded back up.
The top edge of the frame had a rise in it that was also trimmed, and the notch on the grille surround had to be enlarged slightly so it would not rub on the frame.	Stockton Wheel made the "stock" steelies for Old School. They're actually stock centers with brand-new outer hoops that are 7 inches wide as opposed to the stock 5.5 inches. Stockton also provides a powdercoating service. We ordered ours up in Baron Red. To provide true one-stop shopping, Stockton even has a complete line of hubcaps and trim rings. Here we tried their ring and Chevy cap just for kicks.	Now we were starting to get excited! All we need now is chrome.
We bolted up the tailgate using the stock hinges, but since we shaved the latches, we needed a quick fix to hold it closed.	Mom and pop hardware to the rescue! These galvanized latches are not the most high-tech solution in the world, but that's precisely the point. And they work great.	The GMC grille from American Classic was next to be installed. We were thoroughly impressed with the restoration and re-chroming job they did. From what they told us, there are not many good examples of this grille left. Using new, stainless hardware, we bolted-in the headlight buckets, which we previously sandblasted and painted. We also attached the center bracket and GMC letters that American Classic provided.
Our new tri-bar headlights came from Southern Rods. They fit under the re-chromed bezel between the cup and ring.	In order to accommodate the halogen bulb, the tri-bar headlights are larger in back than a standard sealed-beam headlight. The cups had to be opened up slightly.	Each of the four headlight assemblies was screwed into place on the grille.
The bezel fit tightly around the lights and was held in place with three stainless screws.	We ran new leads for the headlights so we would not have to take the grille apart later to replace them. Pretty smart, eh?	Now the entire assembly was set in place and held...
...while the eight bolts were installed from the backside. The two outer holes were in the wheelwell. The two inner holes were down in front of the radiator.	We were ready for our new front bumper from Brothers. It's triple-chrome plated and carries a lifetime warranty. Brothers also has bumpers available in raw steel for painting.	With the bumper held in place over the frame ends...
...the bumper bolts were installed and tightened down from behind.	The outer brackets had to have their holes elongated slightly since we shortened our frame.	Next was the rear bumper. Why are we showing it upside down, you ask? Because that's the way we installed it.
We thought the '60-66 rear bumpers were perfectly flat, but the bottom edge actually protrudes out a bit farther than the front. We had to make it flat for our plan to work. So we taped it up to protect the chrome and ground it down.	You can see that the inner bumper brackets for the rear had to be heavily modified for the bumper flip. Chris sliced the ends off and determined the correct length and angle before making a second cut. Then the ends were swapped and welded back to the brackets. Like the front, the change in length of the center bracket required the holes to be elongated on the outer brackets.	The inner bracket was slid into the frame and the front-most bolt was installed.
Then the second bolt attached to the outer bracket.	Now the bumper could be held in place...	...while the four bumper bolts were tightened from behind.
Brothers also carries the bezels, gaskets, and lenses for '60-66 trucks. We sandblasted our old housings and painted them prior to installation.	The housing sat on top of the housing and was held in place with two screws.	The gasket and lens was then screwed into the housing. Check out how closely that bumper fits to the bed.
I'm not really concentrating on the interior as of yet, but I had to make it Paso--presentable. I bolted the smooth door panels onto the smooth doors with screws from Brothers. Since I had no door glass yet, I put chrome plugs in the window crank holes.	I put the gauge panel back in, along with the glovebox door, and put the horn ring and button back on the stock white steering wheel. I threw a black carpet remnant and four-dollar rubber floor mats on the floor, then painted the areas of the floor that weren't covered flat black. Finishing off my no-buck, one-hour interior is the very first part I bought for Old School--the all-important Mexican blanket, in matching colors, of course!	Well, another day, another... night without sleep. This project is really starting to take shape, so don't miss next month when we rip out the stock suspension, set up front discs and airbags, and hit the road for Paso.