now that's a bit of a stretch...

[gwaii]

You sir are amazing.

ah,it's just metal.
thanks,man

Nice work, mate. I left a treat in your GT12 thread for ya.

geez,that's still there?

seriously,i'm really looking forward to getting back to that thing.it's really tough having it right in the house so i can't help but see it every day.

good thing it's patient.

 

[gwaii]

another area that needed attention was the center fill doors.when i closed in the windows i didn't have any sheet metal handy,so i used fiberglass to close it in.i knew this would be a temporary fix,and got the metal to do it right a short time later.
problem was,i didn't get the time.

here you can see where the window filler was starting to crack away from the metal frame.steel expands at a different rate from fiberglass,so in the spring and fall when we get large temperature fluctuations it really stresses the bond between these materials.

the piece of sheet metal ready for layout.a little forming and welding will be needed for this part of the project.

the top of the fill door stripped away,and the new panel formed ready to install.

 

[gwaii]

the panel fits perfectly.there'll be a weld seam in the middle of the small flat section in the middle of the door-this is the easiest area to finish it out with the least risk of distortion.
the edges will be folded over factory style.

ok,missed a couple steps here,but it looks good in paint.did the grill at the same time.

grill looks ok too.

you may be wondering why it's blue,though.
seems that with the switch to waterborne paints,dupont hasn't started mixing the burgundy that i have on the truck yet.this is a shocker,as it's a common gm color.
so,i figured if i have to change colors i'll try to save some money too.i looked through all my miscellanious leftover bits of paint from old jobs to see what i had the most of.
there was a lot of blues and greens.
so i took all the blues and greens and poured them all together in a big bucket and mixed well.
then i added a bunch of blue and white pearl powder.

what you see there is the result.i ended up with a little over two gallons of trhe stuff.not bad for a shit-mix.

i guess the truck will be blue now.

 

[shane96ranger]

That grille is AWESOME!!!!! Nice work Gwaii.

 

[Boggin]

Great work tom, i was starting to miss this build lol

 

[gwaii]

That grille is AWESOME!!!!! Nice work Gwaii.

thanks.i wanted something a bit different from the usual black or chrome

Great work tom, i was starting to miss this build lol

this one's hard to get anything done on because it's my dailly driver,so taking it apart is usually not an option.i had to bite the bullet this time,it just needed too much to be done.

so right now i've got no wheels.my original plan was to put the shorty explorer on the road for the summer,but i didn't have time to get it in shape.

 

[TheTopher]

so right now i've got no wheels.my original plan was to put the shorty explorer on the road for the summer,but i didn't have time to get it in shape.

Works for us, just means we'll get our update fix sooner.


Blue on the hood turned out great. Wanna paint my two toned beauty when you're done?

 

[CHKNFKR]

I'm a little curious why you didn't leave the center doors complete and fully functional?

 

[Mr 85Ranger]

I'm a little curious why you didn't leave the center doors complete and fully functional?

I agree with WHS^^^. But if not the whole door being functional atleast leave the window to where it can be rolled up and down

 

[gwaii]

I'm a little curious why you didn't leave the center doors complete and fully functional?

I agree with WHS^^^. But if not the whole door being functional atleast leave the window to where it can be rolled up and down

with the rear facing seats the middle door would not be any good for getting in and out,there's no gap between the seat bottom and the door frame for legs to swing.
as for the window,i thought having a row of windows along the truck looks hokey.i'm happy with it like this.

 

[Boggin]

I agree i like it how it is now

 

[CHKNFKR]

Fair enough

 

[Sunk]

with the rear facing seats the middle door would not be any good for getting in and out,there's no gap between the seat bottom and the door frame for legs to swing.
as for the window,i thought having a row of windows along the truck looks hokey.i'm happy with it like this.

Yeah, this doesn't look very good.

 

[Mr 85Ranger]

Yeah, this doesn't look very good.

That would look pretty good if they had taken the time and done it right and if it wasn't every color in the rainbow might help too!! lol

 

[gwaii]

Yeah, this doesn't look very good.

this was exactly the photo that came to mind when i said that.

and while my intent wasn't to make a limo,the comparison is obvious....and you don't see limos with rows of doors.they have one at the front,and another at the rear with a solid body section between.while many have a heavilly tinted window in that section,many others have glass that is blacked out,and there is no window on the inside.if i had flush glass on this truck,i would have gone this route as all the windows could be joined in one panel.
but as it is,there's no way to blend it in so it doesn't look dumb.(creating flush windows would be possible,but way more work than i have time for)so,the next best thing was to just close it over.

it adds a bit of mystery too...i get people asking what's in the middle part-i tell them that's where the reactor is