A little update on the '71 GMC

[TC]

I don't think I've really talked about it much, but last July I was starting to wet sand the truck and get it ready for paint and then the unmentionable happened. We had the annual Pig Roast and my neighbor said, "hey if you want you can put the truck in one of my spots so you have more room in your carport. Well I took her up on it and got a big surprise that I found out later. Apparently when she pulled into her spot she ended up hitting the side of the bed, basically pushing in from behind the rear tire to the back of the truck. And the sad thing is she didn't even tell me, we had pushed the truck back into my carport and about a week later my buddy asked me what happened and that is when the chic across the way fessed up and told me what happened.
Anyway I've been pretty busy lately and finally said F it and I took care of the problem today. I had already pulled the dent back out, but wasn't happy with the way it was turning out. So when your not happy what to do but pull out the good old cutting wheels and go to town. I got a patch panel from a local place here called Grumpy's(they have all the old truck stuff) and used it for the piece that I needed. Here's a few pics of how things went and if all goes well I'll be back to wet sanding this week.

[IRONHEAD]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

if you had a full panel .why not bolt it on

[TC]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

if you had a full panel .why not bolt it on

It's a lot easier to stitch in a patch panel than to hang the whole side.

Oh and that's only half a side in that pic.

[IRONHEAD]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

if you had a full panel .why not bolt it on

It's a lot easier to stitch in a patch panel than to hang the whole side.

Oh and that's only half a side in that pic.

mine looks like the side bolts on like a fender...
it be silly easy to hang...

[TC]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

If you look closely you'll see that the patch panel is not exactly like the original. Look at how close I had to cut to the marker light on the patch panel and then look at the cut under the marker light on the truck. There's about a 1/2 inch difference. Basically all I needed out of that patch panel was the body line, and that is what I got. ;)

[RyanWalker]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

Nice work.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

yep, it looks like you're infected with my kind of progress... you're almost back to where you were before (she hit your truck) ;)

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

Nice work on the patch!

[Bamfster]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

Nice work Alex....Now get that thing in some paint!

[TC]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

Thanks guys for the nice words.

The plan for today is to finish welding it in, then grind down the welds and get a coat of filler on it.

I'll post some more pics as it comes together.

[Monster]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

Happy to hear you are working on something Alex,
but I wish we were getting an update on the Camaro !!
:D

[min301]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

Happy to hear you are working on something Alex,
but I wish we were getting an update on the Camaro !!
:D

Me too... ;D

Good work though...

[Blazerteam]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

I cant believe that you cut it out like that..if you had gone all down with the panel,you could have done it so much easier for your self..then you could have spot welded the panel along the bottom.But its easier to fix it from here,i guess :D

[TC]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

I cant believe that you cut it out like that..if you had gone all down with the panel,you could have done it so much easier for your self..then you could have spot welded the panel along the bottom.But its easier to fix it from here,i guess :D

Problem was the patch panel was not exactly the same as the original sheet metal. The marker light is in a different place and where the rear tail light goes is solid metal, so I would have had to cut that out. Trust me it would have been way more work to cut the whole panel out than what I did. Basically what I did took about 2 hours and I don't have to worry about matching stuff up. ;)

[TC]

Re: A little update on the '71 GMC

Happy to hear you are working on something Alex,
but I wish we were getting an update on the Camaro !!
:D

Ya I'd like to be working on the Camaro to. But for now I'm closer to getting the GMC done so that is what I'll be working on. ;)