A New Front End

I have made slow progress on the old pickup truck over the last few weeks, but progress nonetheless. Mostly, I've been working on electrical systems - parking lights / head lights / electrical distribution under the hood. Alot of the wiring was broken down with the insulation melted away. I replaced all of it with various wires I have accrued over the years - many of my wiring harnesses were made out of broken down power tool cords. They are well insulated, have 3 conductors, and are the proper gauge.

While tearing things apart, I try to pretty things up as I go along. The grille was removed so I could work on the wiring for the headlights, thus, I wanted to clean it up and make it look good again.

The picture below shows the original white-paint-discolored-with-surface-rust on the left, and wire-brushed down to bare metal on the right.I like to try to remove all paint and rust down to shiny bare metal when I can, for I feel the subsequent primer gives the paint a better chance to stick properly.

I also find it very neat to see the CHEVROLET lettering pop out in the sheet metal. It is difficult to see while covered in white paint.

Zip on a little primer as soon as possible to keep the rust at bay:

I painted white outside on a couple of sawhorses. After letting it dry inside for a few days, I had my wife help me put it back on the pickup.

Putting on the vinyl CHEVROLET decals really makes it pop out. The only job left to do is to aim and adjust the headlights, and re-attach the bezels around the lights. Even in it's nearly-finished state, I think it looks very good.

So, in just a few hours of labor, and approximately $10 in primer and piant, I transformed this:

into this:

The next job will be to do the same to the front bumper. It, too, will be painted white to match in another short while.