Accident of 1991 Chevy S-10 Pickup

Now that the major mechanical components have been repaired, it's time to take care of the detail work.  Since the truck needed to be painted, now was the time to start my WH1 Buick Regal Clone Project.  A WH1 (Designer Series) Regal consists of Black/Silver/Black paint, so we'll start with that...but first, need to smooth the truck out.

During the accident, the rear of the bed was also hit.  Since the dent stretched the metal, it needed to be shrunk a bit to get back into shape.  Once initially hammered out, a torch is used to heat the metal while it is tapped back into shape.

Once shrunk, it's brought down to bare metal and smoothed with body filler.

This is the passenger's side B post...you'll note the blue paint on the new door.  Well, GM had issues with clear coats on blue cars, and this one was included.  We had to remove a majority of the clear with clear masking tape and shave off the rest with a razor blade.  The door also had a small dent which you can see repaired here.

Here is another shot of the rear of the bed.  The red you see is the original center color.  The truck was an original two-tone truck with red being the center color.  It was later painted over with solid black, so when you get down towards the metal, you start to hit red paint.  The passenger side was the worst so most repair was done here.  The new green fender had no issues except for a minor dimple.

A lot of credit needs to go to my dad, without him, this project would have been nowhere.  He is applying a coat of primer to worked areas.  Also R.I.P. to the paint gun, we've switched to a gravity fed unit after 30 years of service

Before we started painting, the truck had a issue with the windshield since I've had it...it leaked.  It was also lose in the hole so if you slammed a door, the bottom popped up.  Removing it was easy, just lifting it out hard and we reinstalled it with a new windshield sealer.  A minor step but it's nice to get stuff done when things are apart.

Here is the work on the driver's side.  Some work around the wheel well, along the bed edge, and top rail.

Upon inspection, the undamaged driver's side fender was rusted pretty bad.  No used units were available, so I ended up purchasing a new unit.  It comes with a scuff and paint primer which once scuffed, was painted.  I rattle canned the the inside gloss black and it was mounted in the place of the old fender.  Also shown in the hood with a minor dent repair.

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