Man you gotta hate sanding the inside of the bed. I guess I am being a little too anal about the inside of the bed on my 70. I was just gonna straighten it out a little, but I can't just settle for that. I have it pretty straight, I'm planning on a bed mat anyway. I really hope to get it painted in the next 2 weeks. I had a friend of mine who was a Chevy dealer bodman from about 1970-1985 and he never ceases to amaze me with the tricks of the trade he knows. He aligned the front sheetmetal on my car in about 1 1/2 hours. We needed to widen the hood gap at the front of the fender and he used a pry bar to tweak the structure of the fender out by prying between the bolt where the fender attaches to the core support and the edge of the fender, perfect! I would have never thought of it. I guess even NOS GM fenders need work. I almost think I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I need to build a rack so I can cut in the tailgate, headlight extensions, inner panels and doors.
Sanding the bed.....among other things
Bowtie70ss
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Man you gotta hate sanding the inside of the bed. I guess I am being a little too anal about the inside of the bed on my 70. I was just gonna straighten it out a little, but I can't just settle for that. I have it pretty straight, I'm planning on a bed mat anyway. I really hope to get it painted in the next 2 weeks. I had a friend of mine who was a Chevy dealer bodman from about 1970-1985 and he never ceases to amaze me with the tricks of the trade he knows. He aligned the front sheetmetal on my car in about 1 1/2 hours. We needed to widen the hood gap at the front of the fender and he used a pry bar to tweak the structure of the fender out by prying between the bolt where the fender attaches to the core support and the edge of the fender, perfect! I would have never thought of it. I guess even NOS GM fenders need work. I almost think I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I need to build a rack so I can cut in the tailgate, headlight extensions, inner panels and doors.
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I am mainly having trouble with high spots where the floor braces are. The Elcamino has better bed floorpan bracing than a pickup truck. I'm gonna smooth it out best I can without serious work and if it looks too bad then I'll go with the mat. I saw a bunch of 68-72's down at CB07 and the insides of their beds weren't all that great. A few had rust holes. That's ok as some were drivers but I dislike it when people spend a ton of time on the rest of the car and don't pay much attention to the bed.
Dave
Dave
I spent about 6 weeks getting it smooth and ready for paint, I also installed drains in the front of the bed. On my 70 I drilled 2 -5/16" holes in the lift off panel. Then welded two 1/2" X 13 nuts on the bottom. Next get some 3/8" copper tubing about 6-8" long, chase a 1/2 X 13 thread on it then screw it into the nuts you welded on, Stick a piece of hose on it and cut it off so it is above the rocker panel and you will not see it.
Now my Camino has- Gutters and Downspouts!!!!!!!!!
Bob
Now my Camino has- Gutters and Downspouts!!!!!!!!!
Bob
Bob,
That sounds like a great thing to do. Could you give us some pictures to go with the explanation?
THX
There was an episode on Dream Car Garage where they showed how to make a special tool from aluminum to sand between the ribs on the bed. It was a good episode and saved it on my Tivo. Nice thing about the jig is you get the same level on all the ribs running down the bed. I think he said they had almost 100 hours in preping just the bed.
thats the biggest pita bit of body work on any car anywhere, i made a couple of sanding blocks out of wood to fit the inside channels but it still sucks, and i dont know of any mechanized way of doing it. the inner front is the worst, closely followed by the sides, the only way to get real leverage when doing the front is from the cab, if you have no seats and no back glass. i have them blasted since doing my first, and that one wasn't in that bad of shape. who needs it? just doing the tailgate panel alone is bad enough.
A buddy had to point out this thread to me because I was too busy sanding my bed to notice. Thought I'd jump in to share the fun and misery and say Hi to my fellow Bedheads!
Like we used to say in the bodyshop back in the day, If you're not bleeding you're not sanding hard enough. :hurray:
Keep up the good work.
Like we used to say in the bodyshop back in the day, If you're not bleeding you're not sanding hard enough. :hurray:
Keep up the good work.
I had a '72 back when I was 16 but never worked on it and reading this thread just made me think a bit about how much time vs. money a small portable pot type sand blaster would save. You could tape off and cover with some hard plastic over sheet plastic the rest of the bed/body and blast away at it far quicker. It may seem like a lot of extra time/money in the beginning, but sand paper cost and time lost would add up in lieu of this method. The pot type blaster I think is around $100, plus media. I know I blasted my entire '67 hardtop and epoxy primered it over the course of 2 days(weekend) with my Dad's commercial blaster in '06 and it was way easier and a cleaner outcome than any other method. I used walnut shells if anybody wants to know.
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Where I was at is blocking out the dents and dings and trying to get it nice and straight.
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