{"id":231,"date":"2014-08-09T16:16:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-09T16:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drjsrestorationrx.com\/?page_id=231"},"modified":"2025-01-24T18:36:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T18:36:25","slug":"dr-js-current-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/drjsrestorationrx.com\/?page_id=231","title":{"rendered":"Dr J’s Current Projects:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1954 Chevy Pickup…Ground-up restoration<\/strong> (2022-24)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This restoration is being done for Mark Harris, general manager of Flagstaff Chevrolet<\/strong> in Arizona. It will be used in the showroom of the dealership and will be used for the occasional parade, etc. I had previously restored a few different components for his truck and over the time I was doing these jobs he convinced me to take on the whole restoration. Although I was hesitant to take on another ground-up restoration, I agreed and here we are. In the past couple years, I had been working on the chassis. Disassembling everything, taking all of the sheet metal to Metal Works in Eugene, OR to get them chemical dipped. The chassis was sandblasted and powder coated and is now fully assembled with new or original restored parts, front disc brakes and a rebuilt engine. Several months later, I picked up the cleaned metal and much to my surprise, this was the nicest sheet metal that I had ever seen for a 70 year old vehicle. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised, as the dry Arizona weather is great for preserving sheet metal. There are a few areas that have rusted through, but not near as many as I have had to deal with in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, with the chassis is done, I’m working on the cab and other sheet metal, prepping for primer & paint. My customer decided to go with a late model color from a Silverado, a beautiful deep red metallic color. This paint is a tri-color job, so this may be a challenge for me. I have painted colors like this before but it’s been many years. At this point, the reproduction bed panels have been painted by a body shop in Scio, but it was taking him too long (over a year!) to get the rest of the sheet metal painted, so I had to retrieve the rest of the sheet metal and get it home so I can get this truck in paint and continue the assembly. Fortunately for me, my customer has been extremely patient. I now have the cab in the temperature-controlled paint booth and I am close to priming in epoxy DTM primer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is how the truck came to me. Very nice original!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And now it begins!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Not a lot of rust on this truck, which is a pleasure to deal with!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The rebuilt engine was painted, but the wrong color. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I had to disassemble all of the exterior components of the engine, clean the block, sandblast the sheet metal parts & repaint in the correct GM color.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The grille was in decent shape except for the bullnose. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hard to believe the chrome shop could get this bullnose straight again, but they did a beautiful job!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The finished chrome grille.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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All of the sheet metal was chemical-dipped by Metal Works<\/strong> in Eugene. The cab is almost ready for epoxy primer then onto the bodywork. The dipped sheet metal has to be cleaned with wax & grease remover, DA sanded with 80 grit, then cleaned again before primer. Any wonder why complete paint jobs are SO expensive? Not to mention the ever-increasing price of paint supplies!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It’s nice to have the cab on a rotisserie! Probably couldn’t do this job without it. Worth every penny of the investment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The cab is now taped off and has epoxy primer on the bottom and inside. Next comes the high build primer on the inside and PPG Commercial Coatings AUE100 SG black under the cab. The inside of the cab will be an ivory color and the outside will be a 2012 Silverado metallic red. The dash will be two-tone red & ivory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The interior is a semi-gloss ivory color. The lighting makes it look like it has a little green tint but it looks more ivory in person. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The upper dash is now painted in the red.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The upper dash is red and the lower is the ivory color.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Now that the interior is painted, it’s time to paint the exterior of the cab. Once the primers are applied (epoxy & high-build), the cab moves to the main bay of my shop to do the bodywork, then back to the paint booth to spray the door jambs. After that, I need to start working on the doors to paint the inside ivory color on the door panel area and the red on the doors in the jamb area. I then mount the doors on the cab to do the final painting of the red color on the cab and hood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The lower exterior of the cab is now painted with the epoxy primer and top coated with high-build primer. I put the cab on sawhorses and disconnected the rotisserie so I could paint the door jamb areas. I had to paint this in two stages because I couldn’t access the roof of the cab with the rotisserie in the way. It was much easier to prepare and paint the roof with the rotisserie hooked to the cab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We are going with power front disc brakes and Diamondback radial tires. The engine was rebuilt before I received the truck. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The completed chassis ready for the body.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Assembled engine in frame with restored oil filter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Difficult to see in this picture, but the transmission crossmember had to be modified to allow space for the power master cylinder. You can see the original crossmember sitting on top of the frame, which would not allow the master cylinder to be mounted where it is.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our Thursday night shop crew. Can’t do it without them! From the left: Jim, Ken, Dennis Wright’s “head” (behind Ken), Steve (my brother), Leroy and Dennis Cochran (RIP) (far right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Installing the engine. From the left: Jim, Dennis W. (on his back), Leroy and me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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1955 1st Series Chevy Pickup…Ground-up restoration (2013)<\/h1>\n\n\t\t