By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

With the low-buck Maaco paint job done on the Sound Classics 1979 Chevy K10 project truck, it is time to turn our attention to finishing it all off with an interior upgrade. Let’s face it, the ripped-up Saddle Tan interior just isn’t going to cut it on a shiny black and silver 4X4.

In keeping with the guidelines set forth before the exterior restoration, the challenge remains to do this on the cheap-as-a-Trenton, NJ-hooker. Since there’s no budget for a professional upholsterer and I’ve never done any serious interior work in any of the previous Sound Classics projects, nobody is expecting a miracle.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Interior Restoration Made So Cheap And Easy, Even A Journalist Can Do It!" »

By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

We’ve all heard the old standard “you get what you pay for.” Here at Sound Classics we’re using our 1979 Chevrolet K10 4X4 pickup as the guinea pig in testing if you can get more than you pay for with a cheap paint job—if you’re willing to do some prep work yourself.

The last installment detailed the four arm-wrecking days of sanding, Bondo, more sanding, priming, and more sanding on our 1979 Chevrolet K10 4X4 pickup. With this done it was time to hand it off to a cheap painter. Seeing an advertisement in the newspaper for a $199 special deal at Maaco in Lacey, we had our place.

As readers might recall, we already did a mock-up of how we wanted the truck to look. We printed out the “Sound Classics Virtual Paint Booth” (actually nothing more than a photo-chop) comp of the truck in black and silver and gave to the quote manager at Maaco.

Continue reading "The 1979 Chevy K10's New Paint" »

By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

With all of the metal and rubber trim removed from the Sound Classics 1979 Chevy K10 project truck, it is time to commence sanding in preparation for its budget paint job. As described in the previous installment, this is the first time I’ve ever done full prep for a paint job.

The lucky guy I am, while looking for the rubber backing for my electric random orbital, I notice I actually own a pneumatic dual-action sander – something given to me so long ago by my father-in-law that I had totally forgotten that I owned it. The DA is the best tool for the job…and being the same size as my random orbital, the four packs of sanding discs I bought fit perfectly.

The object of sanding is to make the surfaces as clean and straight as possible…with just enough roughness for the paint to stick. The general rule of thumb is that a vehicle can have two layers of paint. Any additional layers won’t bond well. This truck came out of the factory with Carmine Red paint, but a layer of two-tone silver now covers it, so we’ll need to get at least down to the original paint layer, if not bare metal or at least original primer.

Continue reading "Like Sand Through The Hourglass, So Are The Days Spent Sanding" »

By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

The restoration process on the 1979 Chevy K10 has officially begun. If you read the last installment, you know I already Photochopped a picture to establish what I want it to look like (black and silver two-tone), but now it’s time to get off the computer, get out the tools and implement the game plan.

The plan is pretty simple — something I’ve heard hundreds of times from other collectors: “just do the prep work yourself and then have Maaco spray it.” The premise actually makes sense. Maaco employs people who day-in and day-out use a steady hand to spray in the same quality booth as the high-price shops. Where they usually fail is in skimping on the bodywork and prep. So to get the best of both worlds, the collector does all the body work and prep and Maaco sprays. Sure, they also use cheap paint, but how much worse can it possibly be than 1979 Chevy OEM?

Okay, considering I’ve really never done serious bodywork or prep, there is some doubt to the results. It will either come out with a great bang-for-the-buck exterior or it will suck worse than Matt LeBlanc’s Friends spin-off.

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Continue reading "The 1979 Chevy K10 Starts Its Striptease" »

By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

How could I refuse? I bet if you were in my shoes you wouldn’t have been able to walk away!

The long and short of it is that a friend of mine wanted to get rid of his 1979 Chevy K10 Silverado for about what I have into the tune-up parts on Sound Classics’ Infamous Craigslist Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 project. Despite having little room left for anything larger than Vern Troyer in the Sound Classics garage, I was like Angelina Jolie at an orphanage: I simply couldn’t say no.

The trump card is that Sound Classics is truckless. Ever since the POS 1998 Ford Expedition was pawned off to the dealer in 2006 when I got the new Toyota Avalon, all treks to acquire project cars have relied upon mooching off friends with rigs. Even my wife mentioned it was time to find a “good old truck”.

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Continue reading "Can You Have Too Many Collector Vehicles?" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Derrick’s bagged ’85 C/K is rolling on 22 inch Budnik Pentacles and has some nice and very subtle flake flames. Check out his ride page for more pics!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

What do you think of the paint on Brent’s C/K? I think it looks hot!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Michael hasn’t had the time or energy to work on this ambitious project for over a year now. But he just finished building a new 3,300 square foot shop and he’s planning to move the truck in there and get back to work on it. Check out his 1965 Chevy C/K ride page for all the details, and don’t miss his Lamborghini Countach replica, either.

I really like Drake’s old C/K, and this shot taken in West Seattle is great. He has a pretty cool rat rod Civic, too.

When I was but a wee one, I was obsessed with sprue-and-glue model car kits. Specifically, I was obsessed with building Chevrolet trucks. But I could only ever find one kit for the 1973-1987 trucks, Monogram’s Level 2 Chevy Sport Pickup 4×4 (kit number 2963). With its stepside body, wagon wheels, aggressive tires and pushbar up front, it was about everything my juvenile tastes wanted. And still do. I wasn’t exactly crazy about the bright blue plastic it was molded in, but I left it blue nonetheless.

Which is all the reason I’m digging the 1976 Chevrolet stepside I found over at the Hemmings classifieds. Sure, it doesn’t have the wagon wheels, but it does have the exact same shade of Hawaiian Blue and the black pushbar. And as a bonus, you can run it on propane, with the tank cleverly hidden in the in-bed toolbox. $12,300 might seem steep, but these trucks–especially the pre-1980 versions–are going to rise in value over the next several years, mark my words. Now, where did my parents put all my models?