Making progress on my 108

Just had to post a few pictures of my 108 because I'm excited that it's finally making progress faster than the snails pace of the last three years.

The first pictures are of the white whale arriving at American Stripping in Sacramento to be media blasted about 3 weeks ago, the next set are of her getting naked (if your a prude don't look).

Then she became a gray lady due to the primer coat to keep her from rusting. Then when she was done at American Stripping last week it was off to get her body and paint work done so she will be a painted lady.

And the last picture is of her new upholstery (yes she is a wild woman)  

The only thing is that when I walk into the garage it's just not the same without her. She will be gone for 4-5 months to get all beautiful again.

Until then I will thinking of what kind of interior she is going to get, Tiki, 60s hippy, or ?


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Very Nice. You're lucky to have a van in that kind of condition. That body is in amazing condition to come out like that from the media blaster.

It Looks Wicked Good !

Thanks...

It is amazing the good condition of the van of for its age, going through it over the past three years I not found any rust at all on it and very minor repair work on it. It had some holes on the right side of the roof that were Bondoed over which I welded in. It looks like it had a ladder rack mounted to the roof there.

It was originally a bluish green color (it had three coats of paint on it) so maybe it was a phone company van or some other kind of work van that needed a ladder rack.

Big job! Don't forget to do the inside paint too.

Looks Fantastic and I love those seats too!!! Thanks for posting pics...nice to see the progress!

Looking smooth... very nice work!

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I will post new pictures once it is painted.

The past couple of years has just been saving money for the project, collecting parts, tearing apart, modifying, fitting parts, removing the parts, welding and grinding, fabricating, restoring old parts, etc. You all know the drill.

I can't wait to get it back from body and paint so I can start the final assembly. That is the most fun part of any project when you can really see progress at the end of the day.

In the meantime I will be modifying a front bumper to go on the rear and taking it to the chrome shop. Also I have a crazy idea to modify a dog house lid, now I need to find one that I can cut up. Either it will turn out cool or I will have ruined a dog house lid, time will tell.

I was out in the garage getting the chrome shined up and parts sorted through because the "big guy" (108) will be coming home from the body shop next Saturday.

Cant wait to start putting it back together

I attached some pictures of the shinned up chrome and the paint. In the body shop pictures the stripe looks more gray then it is, it actually is much lighter, the lighting was terrible for pictures. The last picture shows more of the true color.

LOOKING VERY NICE,
regarding the dog house ,remember it get about 200 degrees in there

The big guy is back home, haven't had much time to do much work on him yet.

Got the front bumper and grill on. Going to cut down a front bumper and mount it to the rear for a sleeker look (I hope).

Chipping away at it when time permitts   .

how much was it to have the grill chromed ?? was it done in mexico ??

dix wrote:how much was it to have the grill chromed ?? was it done  in mexico ??

It was done at A.B.C. Plating in Reno Nevada (about a 2 hour drive for me). In the Sacramento area there is either a couple of poor quality places (in my opinion) or a VERY expensive show quality place.

I had it done a couple of years ago along with the bumper and a couple of other small parts. I can't remember how much they charged for the grill.

They do a very good job at a reasonable price (for chrome now days). I will be taking them some more pieces probably in a couple of months.

I have a friend who has sent parts to Ogden Chrome in Utah a few times , the do the chrome in house also and they do a very good job. But you have to pay for shipping and they are a little higher priced than A.B.C.

The chrome looks amazing as does the van! I love the chrome grills on those vans, looks classy.
I had my horn ring done by Ogden Chrome. They are expensive. But they do all types of metal not just Steele. They take a lot of time to complete the job. But, I had to reject their work the first time... they made it right and paid for the return shipping. I was happy with the final outcome. I may try the company you mentioned next time.

Nice work!

I had the same two parts chromed by Auto and Truck Chrome Plating in Hayward, CA.  They bring them down to Los Angeles to get chromed.  Took about a month, but the work is great.

Keith D wrote:Just had to post a few pictures of my 108 because I'm excited that it's finally making progress faster than the snails pace of the last three years.

The first pictures are of the white whale arriving at American Stripping in Sacramento to be media blasted about 3 weeks ago, the next set are of her getting naked (if your a prude don't look).

Then she became a gray lady due to the primer coat to keep her from rusting. Then when she was done at American Stripping last week it was off to get her body and paint work done so she will be a painted lady.

Who did the paint job?  Curious what it cost to have it stripped and painted -- thinking about getting that work done and I live near you/Sacramento.

I got a great guy in Marysville, Ca who does excellent chrome work. Old school.

OutofSight wrote:I got a great guy in Marysville, Ca who does excellent chrome work. Old school.

You will have to let me know his name I get up to Marysville area more often than I do Reno. I have a few things that I will need chromed in the next couple of months.

Thanks... Keith

Keith D wrote:The big guy is back home, haven't had much time to do much work on him yet.

Got the front bumper and grill on. Going to cut down a front bumper and mount it to the rear for a sleeker look (I hope).

Chipping away at it when time permitts   .

Looking like A Dodge again... No I am not going to use the purple steering wheel, it was one that I had around.

Let the fun begin

Looks Great, keep nibbling at it!

Looks like you are going for show quality. Looks great.

Thanks everyone for the kind words of encouragement.

I will not be able to make as much progress as I would like until spring time as this time of year is when my job get busy and I have to put in more hours at work that I would like to. Also the older I get the less appealing it is to go out to a cold garage and lay on cold concrete. Don't let anyone tell you different getting old sucks.

I will get parts lined up so I can jump back on it once the weather starts getting warm again and my work gets back to a normal pace.

In the mean time I will be dreaming up and doing research on how I am going to be doing the interior and other modifications that I may make which is actually a fun part of a project also.

Keith