Hello all!!

I am picking up a 72 K20 that is all original I will be restoring. There are some dents and just a few rust repairs that need to be made. I will be learning and posting in this forum my progress and I am sure a ton of questions. I have done a little bit of body work but very limited. I am going to do it all on this truck.

So my first questions...

I want to keep the original paint inside the cab because it's in good shape. I will be painting the truck original color because it's never been repainted. Original color is medium bronze. The door jams will need to be sanded down to metal at the bottoms but the sides and top not the case. Where it goes to metal I will need to seal and prime

How do I do this the easiest and most correct way? Sand all the painted surfaces down with 400 grit and base over in the door jams? What about the dash where it doesn't really need another coat of base?

How the hell do you sand the door hinges for paint?

Thanks in advance. Stand by for more. haha

the best way to do way your doing is to remove the doors sand all the paint that's good with 400 or 600 wet. do all the bare metal areas with epoxy no real need for a sealer. when your satisfied with the work you've done and your ready for paint sand everything with 400-600 and a scotch brite for the hinge area. now you can seal or just spray your base directly on what you've got sanded oem and epoxy. you can use the epoxy as a sealer if mixed that way. one thing you might do just to be safe, is check and see what type of paint your truck has on it to be sure its compatible with the base that your going to use. there were some changes going on about that time with paint. I'm thinking its lacquer but? someone here will know. sounds like a good project I like those 72s is it 2wd or 4wd.
Jay D.

Jay,
Thanks for the reply. The truck is a 4WD.

I was looking over some of the stickys and got some good info there. I am not sure if that original paint is a laquer but I don't think it was.

After wet sanding the original paint and painting the epoxy is the high build primer necessary? This is just for inside the cab.

Sounds like a nice truck, and I like the bronze color and agree you
shouldn't change colors. The original paint is most likely acrylic enamel.

High build primer isn't needed for a truck interior. Those old trucks weren't
perfectly assembled, and had spot welds showing and other defects that
were part of their 'character'. If there's rough spots that you can't live with,
just skim them over with filler.

no, the hi-build is not required. if you can sand the epoxy to 600 then your fine just spray your base. the hi build is a little easier to sand and is used to level out areas that may have problems, like doors and outer body panels. its good for blocking and filling low spots. when you have a chance lets see some pictures of that bad boy.
Jay D.

looks like a good start what are you going to do with the engine? I bought one like that from a friend that had a 350 in it it was horrible for power. just before he sold it to me he had put a 454 b/b in, wow what a difference in power and I think it did better on gas mileage also.
Jay D.

The 350 runs good. It doesn't have a ton of power but for driving around town it's not needed. Was going to clean everything up and put it back together. No need for a rebuild at this point. We will see when I break it all down

iirc, a little lacquer thinner can tell if the original paint is lacquer. put some on a rag and it the color transfers to the rag its lacquer paint.

i could be wrong,though.

looks like its gonna be a nice truck when youre done.

I was thinking it was lacquer but as I said before i'm not sure. didn't GM do there cars in one process lacquer or a/c and the pickups with the other were talking back mid to early 60s to early 70s. I remember my jobber tell me this.
Jay D.