STOKED! Cab Corners & Rockers In the Firewood Square Body. Part 9  

Your wife is gold. She seems more than happy to help out when you need it . I'm sure you already know you got yourself a keeper.

Don't forget if you change to LED you likely will have to switch to a LED compatible flasher for your turn signals to work correctly.

just keep it two tone brown and tan. was one of many of the good things of the ole square bodys. glad to see the old truck being fixed

Where I grew up, there was an old bachelor farmer who had returned from WW II with excess backpay. So he bought a new 1949 Ford pickup. He was still driving it at the time of his death in the 1990s. However, he had to enter and exit the cab via the passenger door. The driver's door was tied in place with baling wire. He kept that truck because it still ran. Upon his death, a rather large cash estate was divided between the local hospital, the volunteer fire department and the public library.

It's great to see something old coming back to life. This old truck will give many more years of service.

Led bar light across the front "It really doesn't matter....But it does"....Never a truer set of words spoken!

You, sir, have the patience of a saint. Doing body work ranks right up there with root canals, colonoscopies, and flogging. I admire your determination.

A little "air tool love". My new favorite phrase!

Sheet of carboard, best matt invented by man ever.

Steve's next project a scrap metal roll anywhere jib crane instead of using the cherry picker!!! 👈🤓😉👍

Paint job? Where you have chocolate brown, recoat it with a middle to darker blue metal flake paint. Where the cream paint is, paint it a deep glossy black, with several coats of clear coat overall. The paint will look deep enough that it will feel like you could dip your hand *into* it, and darker blue and black is a marriage made in heaven!

Red! Always go with red! Red RULES! :)

Paint it the bottom tan. Matches the interior and still hides home bodywork. cool project.

Awesome body shop tutorial!

I like the amber glow sealed beam lamps give, true they’re not the brightest but nothing else looks quite like them. Just my take

Switch to LED headlights and running lights. The brightness is amazing and the lack of worry about them breaking is great.

LED on all the lights there Steve. I promise, you will be much happier !

Tangled grinder cords are like tangled climber’s ropes. Climbers called the prevention of tangling “spaghetti management”.

Paint that son-of-a-gun RED !! Drive it proudly.

been delaying watching this. Until you said " I am really into this", I was wondering exactly why you are fixing this truck up. You nailed it. You have a labor of love situation with which I identify on many levels. This series of videos and the truck itself are classic. You are showing just what is takes to fix a truck right. Keep on keeping on. I am in with you now.

i see this truck sparkled candy red ,like in the 70's. good job!

Not everybody has such a lovely helper/barista. lol

That ain't water in the headlight Steevie, Here in Stralia that's called blinker fluid. An important part of older vehicles!

A big YES on LED lights - maybe even a light bar?

Outstanding video...you do amazing stuff that most of us would never attempt...your skills and determination are world class.

At least this is not another one of the "will it start videos". This is more of a true restore video. There was not any poring or oil or some other liquid down spark plug holes, priming carburetors, etc that you see on most of these type videos. Keep up the good videos, I can't wait to see what next.

Always been a fan of flat black for a restoration of this caliber. 👍🏼

Must be someone out there that could donate you a new/recon engine for the beast? awesome series I'm really enjoying, thankyou Steve & family.

Dark midnight blue, with silver trim.....🍁

Nothing wrong with the original colors. Body work is awesome. I’m thinking you could use a much bigger shop. Won’t be long before you’re son will be bringing in his project truck(s) or vintage muscle car. ;)

Steve,I thiink you approaching this project with the proper amount of TLC it deserves and still being practical.l. Headlights I agree with Wiedapp as to color she should be black on black. Keep on smiling.

I two-toned my all black 75 Ramcharger(with 78 trim). Gloss black top & bottom, with red garnet pearl metallic for the middle. It came out strikingly beautiful. I had a couple different people, driving by my house who saw it parked in the driveway, stop and compliment me on the paint.

Nicely done Steve . I think your idea of a resto-retro rod with up dated lights is great . Pick a new color and people will think you bought a new truck . Keep up the good work .

Go for "The Fall Guy" truck with the stunt man association logo on the hood and all the accessories that made it awesome.

Hi Steve, another tip, fitting doors on your own, set the door hinges to door open position wind the window down, place your shoulder under the top of the window opening, standing on the inside of the door, lift into position and with one hand fit to top bolt, you will be surprised how easy it is to get the door in the correct position to start the bolt.

Led conversion all around. That is the plan for my 87.

Gm 4x4 steering box idea that nobody ever let me build for their truck. The three inner steering box mounting bolts change to grade 8 studs with flange nuts holding the box to the frame. On top on the studs a triangle shaped tube structure that drops down below the crank pulley but comes back up to the other frame rail where the idle arm mounts. This stiffens up the left frame horn and any rotation the steering box tries to exert on the left frame is stopped by the light weight tube structure.

Two tone red and white. Like an old 70's Honda cb 350 gas tank. Snazzy. : )

One of my best friends in high school had the same model truck with the same paint scheme. Good memories for sure. Keep it the original colors, it looks good on that body style.

Awesome video and work as per usual Steve 👍🏻. I recon gray would look good . LED lights too.

RE: The headlight, look into LEDs. They're brighter and last longer. Dan from Moscow, ID

I like blue and silver or all blue, look at the old pictures of original silverado’s. The 78 Silverado we had was a dark green color.

Looking good. Really enjoying the progress.

I put my vote in for the factory two-tone paint. Stock never goes out of style.

I have 6 of this cab corners and rocker jobs under my belt , and your right . They do not fit well. Yours look good and honestly I feel the same as you. Its good enough. The difference between your truck and a "show truck" is more filler.

Sometimes you just have to play the cards your given .. that ole truck is coming along nicely

Mr. Summers, well done. Above all, the metal work well explained. Thumbs up. I've been following your channel for a while now and I'm thrilled with how diverse you are. Starting with shop building, roofing, maintaining your machines and now restoring the Chevrolet Truck. I am thrilled, you have one fan more. Kind regards from Germany

You can get LEDs that will fit the bezels you have BUT please ensure that your local authorities will allow them as an aftermarket fitment (I used to import and sell LEDs and HIDs into Australia) - they are very bright! You also need to do some re-wiring to get the high / low circuit to work properly, the LEDs are polarity specific - but you can now get plug and play looms that overcome that problem. You can also get lenses to take the old halogen bulbs if you don't or can't go down the LED route but the current draw can be high - make sure the wiring will handle it.

I had a 78 Chevy in high school, it was in ok shape then but the tail gate need replaced. So I built one out of square tube and expanded metal and loved it. I kept that truck till the cab rusted so bad that it saged on both sides of the frame.

Lets get the truck back on the road & save the machine shop work for bad weather.

Steve awesome work done on the nice old square body truck that is definitely coming back into popular demand for sure!! The old square body Chevy and GMC are one of my favorite body style trucks ever besides the 1967-1972 Chevy trucks!! Witch I only have one 1969 Chevy pickup and have had it ever since 1997 and have been going threw it ever since!! But the square body trucks I have 5 or 6 of them witch are all 1TON 4x4 with the best sm465 manual tranny and 205 transfer cases!! The newest one I have gotten is a 1981 Chevy 1Ton 4x4 SRW witch was ordered new by a local fire station!! It’s a pretty nice truck other than the yellow paint that they had painted over the original white paint that it came in!!! I absolutely love this truck!!

I've done several of these over the years and it's relatively the same process for different year trucks I've had a couple of the late 50s trucks I've had a couple of the late 60 trucks and the '70s and the '80s and providing you can get the repair panels it's not all that hard of a job it's tedious but when it's finished and you put that layer of paint on it and you can't tell that it was done???? Priceless

Thanks Steve YOU ROCK!!!

Loving the series Steve

Hi Steve, as a previous owner of a 1980 C-10, I really really recommend an Electric fan to replace that clutch fan from the Motor. Especially when your doing any hauling in Hot weather. I could manually turn on the fan (it turns on automatically with a sensor in your radiator) whenever I know there's a hill or having a heavy load in the bed that way the cooling system gets a head start with extra cooling for the engine and transmission. Only about $170 I think it was. A must have mod. Frees up Horsepower too.

It was a beater truck before, and you are creating a "less-beater truck". Thanks, Steve. Saturdays are always a pleasure.

“Really, it doesn’t matter . . . . . But it DOES”. Spoken like a true person with OCD. (The good kind) I know because I’m one also.

Being tighter than a hide tick in a belly button I understand cheap. But, a lovely old truck like that needs decent paint and good lighting. My early 60's Ford was black with 4 different shades of metal flake so that as you walked around it it seemed to change color. It was a real pain doing the metal flake blending but the three coats of clear and a finish polish almost made it perfect. Good luck on the rebuild. I am thoroughly enjoying the series.

Excited for this project!

Red with a flat or matte clear coat. Would go well with the interior

When you twisted the bottom of the rocker, you changed all the angles, thats why the corner panel have that big gap/misalignement in the back of the cab. Maybe if you put the corner panel a little bit higher, the gap in the back and in the corner would close. Anyway, I am not saying here that the aftermarket pannels are good, but sometimens a part of misallignement come from how we work. Otherway, you have patience and do a very good job. Keep up the good work !

I would definitely run the led headlights in your truck!! That is what I’m going to run in mine!! They are much brighter!!

The work on the truck is looking great yes you are spending money and time on it but when you get done you know the work has been done correct and you will have a better truck than anything one could buy now adays

Use the same colors of the square body truck on the TV show the fall guy. That was sharp!

A man on a fast horse will never see the fix. It looks fine to me.

I am really enjoying this project. I suggest just touching up the repairs and keeping the patina.

Id say flat black. It looks decent and its super easy to rattle can up scratches from running the fence rows collecting firewood. Great work Steve I really enjoy your channel and would definitely contribute financially if I were in the position to do so. Barring that I always like and try to comment to help in any way I can. Cheers.

Whatever you do about the headlights, adjust the angle after installation. I know you would, Steve (the attention to detail on this 'firewood truck' is above and beyond)! But too many people don't do it.

If you go for a paintjob and not just clear over primer: Keep the colors (fit the age), but flip them. Brown below, maybe up to the ridge, all above in cream. The dark lower doesn´t show dirt too much, but the light upper helps against heating up in the summer sun.

Steve, if the truck was mine I would paint it back the factory color, remember you're bringing an old truck back from the dead so make it better than it was from the factory. lol.

Fall camo paint job looks good on Chevy to me. But its what you like ..Great job on the body work so far.

Really i am blown away at what you are doing. When i said the engine would still be going after the rest of truck rusted away, I had no idea what was in store for the dear old thing! I have no idea about headlights but probably get ones with no water included hehe and for the colour; what about just clear coat so you can see that hardship the truck has endured but you can also see that it has been given some care and attention. Hah I don't know... It doesn't matter... But it does ;)

Myself I would just go back original colors and paint scheme. "Good enough" is what your going for... those trucks look plenty good enough as is once you've finished all the fixin. Color changing and getting into the jambing and interior color changes definitely make a bunch more work, not doing it and changing colors makes it look like quickie work or unfinished. Besides, IDC where you go, if you see an old square body looking all fresh, shiny and right in its original "clothes" you'll see nearly everyone notices it. It will surprise you what vehicles will not get noticed but the old original square body does. Seems like everyone has some connection to one in their past somehow. Fine job on the floorboards btw. Thanks for sharing

Bedliner the whole truck. Green upper, tan lower. Or all one color. Dark grey. No wax on or wax off. Pressure wash, drip dry, no water spots. Good luck.

A dark gray primer with clear coat would like neat

I would go for an led version of those headlights if they exsist which i am sure they do. Waxoil your repairs to preserve them internally

You put new cab mounts on this rig. This is a great project for the channel. Alot of content and you'll have a great looking and running rig.. new shocks,maybe a sping pack from a 3/4 ton out back?..idk.. I've been running that light for some time. It's great. I say if it's rebuildable rebuild it with this rig..be cheaper and we all learn.

Headlights: At a glance they look like 4x6's? You can get sealed beam retrofits that run on either a replaceable modern H4 or 9007 bulb. Since you can get 4 hi/low beam housings, you can run one aimed as a normal white hi/low headlight, and the other set with a yellow bulb aimed much lower for a sweet hi/low fog light setup and really cut through the fog/rain/snow. You'd have to get pigtails too I'd imagine, but those are also available.

Good job Steve!

I use LED's on every square body i build .Just cant beat them for efficiency and brightness

If they're not very bright, you likely have electrical resistance somewhere. Don't waste money on "high brightness" sealed beams; they burn out WAY faster. Either convert to H4's or buy regular lights, and fix the wiring/ground issue. Great content as always!

You asked what colour we think you should paint it. I would say whatever Elizabeth says to paint it. It would get her more involved, give her an increased sense of ownership, and she would probably appreciate your soliciting her thoughts and then implementing them. Also, I think you would be reasonably assured that she would take the time and care to find just the right tones and shades for the best possible look. Remember, happy wife, happy life.

When you paint the truck I'd stay with the original colors. It's more in keeping with the theme of resurrecting it from the dead, which aims to return it to how it was in its prime. Also , that approach might save a little work with door jambs, etc. Cool video. You obviously picked up some skills in your previous life as an auto body man.

Brings back a lot of memories. Ate a lot of rust at the body shop back in the day. Remember the Chrysler K-cars. They had no inner fenders, and the cheap metal of the fenders would rust out in a heartbeat, if not heavily undercoated. We always wanted o do a Red Oxide primer under clear coat, but never did. Always thought that would look good. Thanks for sharing.

When I was in the aftermarket import world, we found assemblies that looked just like the originals but allowed a replaceable bulb. I believe my Camaro used H7 lamps. They look factory until you turn them on.

Either original colors or primer gray. Great project. Thanks as always for sharing.

Two tone, Goodwood green and cream!

That's always great content 👍

I like the original colour scheme, also it will save you a miss match on exterior vs interior or having to mess with the inside too.

Hey Steve ! You are right full of good tidbits for us today. As I try and stay away from anything thinner than 10 ga (1/8th in) you are making body work look reasonably painless. Actually 1/4 in and thicker (2 in) is my comfort zone. You sure have a great shop hand there my friend. Good welder and all round mechanics are hard to come by as I am sure you know eh. Although LED's are nice and bright (sometimes too bright) they do not create any heat. Up here where we have freezing temps for 7 months regular lighting is preferred as with tail lights esp they melt the snow and ice from them. LED headlights are nice but particularly hard on the oncoming drivers eyes. I really think for a fella that is normally used to working to the tenths scale you are rocking this project old friend. Take care and have a great week !

Hi Steve, looking good so far.😁. Your headlights, I could suggest Halogen but I don't know what shape your wiring is in, so I would consider using LED's, extremely bright and no extra strain on your wiring. As for the colour, considering where you live, in a beautiful bush area, I would suggest a colour called Harlequin with a dark green dark blue brownish red tints to it. Harlequin is a unique mix of colours that if you look at it in one direction, with my suggested colours, your pickup will look green, if you look at it in another direction it will look blue in a different direction will look reddish brown. As I said Steve, the Harlequin colour is a very special unique paint. But it is extremely nice to look at and I think it would suit you and your area very well. Love your video's and can't wait for your next one. "OH" careful of the beard while grinding, them sparks can make a mess of it if it catches alight.🧔😀👍.

when we replaced the rockers and floors on our old Chevy I cut the back half of the fenders off , about to the hight of the bottom door hinge ,. cause i was replacing the fenders with new ones anyways , that way I could leave the hood and the doors installed while i was fitting everything ,. it saved a lot of work from taking the doors on and off the truck , and I was able to use the body lines from the fenders and the cab ... but either way , here's to ya man 👍. keep up the great work . thanks for the video .

Hiya Steve

Hey Steve. Loving your channel, loving your accent. I’m from Dorset, a county in the South of England where we too have a distinctly recognisable way of talking. Ours is very much a “countryside” accent and can be spotted by everybody else in the UK! Keep up the good work buddy. 👍

Need a couple spray cans of weld thru primer , for protection where metal overlaps , really helps ...

Headlights? Check the local bone yards. They just toss them, but if you ask, they may just give some to you. Jon

Candy apple red sounds good to me :-)

Thanks for sharing!

Looks great. The headlights I used to buy for the 80s GM stuff aren't available anymore but they were glass lens and used an H4 bulb. Same connector but you will have to move wires around to make it work as the pinout is different. I think you will be happy with any of the decent capsule style lights with a replacable bulb. I used 45w/90w bulbs and they were pretty bright. You will need relays to run power to them as the factory wiring and switch won't handle it. Shoot me an Email if you have any questions. I used to be an ASE master tech and did primarily GM stuff.

Bigclive brought me to this channel to watch your shop renovations but I dig this a lot more. I really like the truck and it's been a real treat to watch it getting a good makeover. For the colors I'd stick at least close to the original. Also I'd take some spray wax to those cavities, like the rockers and the new fenders. Would be a shame if they started rusting all too soon again, now that they're all new and shiny.