Ok, so I haven't had a wrench in my hand in quite some time. Moved out of state, had a wife, who then had kids. Moved around a bit, etc, etc... and now i'm back in my home state. Ever since moving back, I've wanted to find a project car/truck to play with. Partly because I want to relearn what I knew 10 years ago, but also because I want something that I can do with my kids outside of video games. In the process I hope to learn a lot myself.

In Iowa, it's easy to find sweet rides out behind a barn. But 90% of them are rotted out and not worth the troubles unless you are a premo body guy.

Anyways, by pure luck (I was actually going to look at a different truck) I found what I was looking for. This was one of those situations where you see the truck sitting next to a house, no for sale sign, but you knock on the door and ask if the owner if they want to part with it. Long story short, I'm now the prowd owner of a 69 Longbed.

10 years ago it had a frame off rebuild. At that time it was a 3/4 ton, but they converted it to a 1/2. New body mounts, undercoating, replaced all rust and painted everything.

It's pretty solid. I have found only 3 places where there is any rust. P-side inner wheel well, P-side cab corner, and a decent sized spot in the D-side bed wheel well, at the bottom. Other than that rust, i have not found a single ding or dent in any of the sheet metal. There is one in the grill though. It runs great (30k on a rebuilt 283), brakes are awesome (disk/drum), tires, etc. The one bad thing is that to lower it, they cut the coils. So now everytime the truck leans to one side or the other, the front coils pop pretty loudly.

I will use this thread to post updates on the truck. It will probably start a bit slow, but once the holidays pass, it should pick up to a good pace. Goodguys is here in Des Moines on the 4th of July weekend, so I'd like to have something half way decent to enter by then.

Here are the pics i snapped when I got it to my parents house where it will be for the winter (they have plenty of buildings to work in [like the 40x60 that it is parked in], i have have a 1 stall garage :whine: )

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Oct_06/side.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Oct_06/d_corner.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Oct_06/d_corner2.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Oct_06/p_corner.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Oct_06/front.jpg

Oh, I did pull the points dist out this weekend and dropped in a HEI dist from an 87? truck that my brother was junking. Now it runs like a top!

Looks like a good place to start !

Looks good to me. Good luck with your project.

Great looking truck - nice not to be starting the project without lots of rust.

You have a really nice start there.

Great truck to start with! If the body work was done 10 years ago and only 3 spots have surfaced since then.... they did a good job on it! Don't feel too bad about the garage thing. I've spent the past 9 months driving to Lexington sc (about a 2 hour drive) to go to my Uncle's house to work on my 67. Kinda hard to work on your truck in the parking lot of an apartment complex :banghead:

Great truck to start with! If the body work was done 10 years ago and only 3 spots have surfaced since then.... they did a good job on it! Don't feel too bad about the garage thing. I've spent the past 9 months driving to Lexington sc (about a 2 hour drive) to go to my Uncle's house to work on my 67. Kinda hard to work on your truck in the parking lot of an apartment complex :banghead:

I feel you pain. My parents live about 2 hours from here, so this will be a weekend project for now. But, the one thing nice about having it 2 hours away is, when you make plans to do something, you generally plan it out better knowing that you have to get what you started done before the weekend is over.

That and the fact that my dad already has all of the tools needed (including a welder and a big air compressor) makes it much easier to leave it up there. Saves me from having to buy those things all at once :)

it looks really good to start, do u have a pic of the rear? like the tailgate and rear bumper? also what happened to the grille?

it looks really good to start, do u have a pic of the rear? like the tailgate and rear bumper? also what happened to the grille?

Looks to me like a trailer hitch? Maybe they weren't paying attention one day and lightly tapped the truck in front of them?

it looks really good to start, do u have a pic of the rear? like the tailgate and rear bumper? also what happened to the grille?

I don't have pics of the back, but i'll get some next time i'm up there.

The guy i bought it from said that he was backed into by an SUV with a hitch. I haven't decided what kind of grill is going to replace it. I may stay stock, or i might go with a billet grille :bling:

What part of Iowa? My folks and 1 bro are up in George, Ia. My wifes are in Storm Lake. We used to live in Sioux City and Cedar Rapids..moved all over the country, up by Phili now but would love to try and get back someday. Clean find for Iowa. I feel your pain! Cedar Rapids has a huge swap meet both spring and fall. Usually you can score some cool stuff there. Good Luck!

Wild

I'm in des moines, my parents, and the truck are just outside of cedar falls.

Man, that looks great!

What a great truck to start with!

look what i got done in an evening!!!


http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Oct_06/low_side.jpg

in photoshop :hm:

Nice. No tank and lowered the rear.

Cedar Rapids swapmeet this weekend, Oct. 14-15. I'll have a booth there, pretty good size meet. Look for an English wheel, I may be doing some metal fabrication demonstration. That truck is a "needle in a haystack" find for Iowa. :c2:
Aaron

rear bags, notch and panhard bar are all on their way. Bed is comin' off this weekend.

i can't wait.

:metal: :metal: :metal: :metal:

Sweet Truck! are you going to keep the smoothies ?

actually yeah, if i can find a wider rim, i'd really like to keep them. I'm going for the rat rod look, so the plan is to get some wider white walls too.

man that was a good find...nice truck

Looks pretty darn solid and straight. Nice find !!! There are a lot of trucks in Iowa yet, finding the good ones is the hard part, looks like you scored !!!

it looks really good to start, do u have a pic of the rear? like the tailgate and rear bumper? also what happened to the grille?

dude. its insane. i was ooking at your build pics... we have very similer ideas... p.s.... that kragen special fuel filter.... sucks ass... too restrictive.... replace it with a fram... omg. no more top end fade.

Im going to have to follow this, I just got my hands on a 69 CST/10 Longbed. :metal:

For never being restored, I got lucky on the amount of rust it does have. Just the rockers, and under the windshiels is all Ive found so far. Cant wait til its towed home.

texanidiot25..thats a nice looking truck..and you stole it..lol..welcome from utah

Gotta love Photoshop

Gotta love Photoshop

indeed!

it looks like the snow this weekend is going to prevent me making any progress on the truck. But, i should be ordering all of the front end part next week, so it might work out to where i can get it call done at once.

looks pretty damn clean to me

Lol, my neighbor cut me a deal on it. Hes a cool guy, restoring a 68 Cougar. This was going to be his work truck, but its too long to fit in his garage, and too many cars in his drive way. So we was selling it, and offered it to me.

Yours is sick, I dig the rims a lot. Evetualy mine will be lowered on maybe a 3/4 drop. But 1st things, 1st. Gotta get it running.

this weekend i got some clean up work done on the frame. The bed is off and upside down in another building so i can work on getting the rear left patch panel in when it's warmer.

For the frame, I was most concerned about getting the framerails looking decent. I have new T arms on the way, and will be installing a new parhard bar, bags, c-notch and shocks in soon. Getting it painted was more of a preparation thing than anything.

I went from this:

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Jan_07/start.jpg

To this:

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Jan_07/mid.jpg

To this:

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Jan_07/finish.jpg
http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Jan_07/side.jpg


Also got to see some of the new parts that came in. I only snapped a pic of the bags though.

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/Jan_07/bags.jpg

finally an update. I've been doing a lot of small stuff to the truck over the past couple months, but now i'm making some good progress.

the whole rear end has been taken apart. I had a set of good trailing arms media blasted, then painted black. after pressing out the old bushings, i put new ones in.

Today the trailing arms got mounted and the carrier bearing mount was flipped. I also did a test fit of the home made lowering blocks and new u bolts. looks like everything is coming together well.

next on the plate is getting the exhaust cutouts done in the X member, and the c-notch installed.


oh, and i noticed that i had not posted an engine shot in this thread, so one is attached below. nothing special. just a 2bbl 283 with corvette heads/intake. at least that's what the PO claimed them to be.

Why did you flip the carrier bearing mount? I'm guessing it has something to do with lowering it. Do you have a part number ofr the carrier bearing? Thanks,

exactly. i flipped it to help compensate for a lower ride height. Hopefully this one change is the only mod i need to make.

I don't have the part number handy, but i did buy it from a board member as a new item.

Hey IvelDesigns , Is that a 2" piece of tube youre using? I was thinking about doing the same to my SWB. I'm trying to keep the truck low buck.

i used 2.5"x2.5"x.025" square tube. i was gonna use 2", but i had the 2.5" handy.

also, the U bolts started out as 26" rod. they cost me about $20 at the local driveline place and took them about 5 minutes to pull off the rack and bend.

exactly. i flipped it to help compensate for a lower ride height. Hopefully this one change is the only mod i need to make.

I don't have the part number handy, but i did buy it from a board member as a new item.

Thanks!

R

good progress this weekend. buttoned up the carrier bearing mount. made a bracket for the air tank and got it mounted, welded and painted. did the same for the air compressor.

the big accomplishment of the weekend was getting one of the C-notches in. after getting that done, i just had to see how the axle fit. looked good, but i'm gonna have to do something about the brake line on the P side. the T is really close to the frame, and will bust the line if it were to bottom out. I'll probably try to move it over a couple inches and call it good.

I can't wait to get this on the road!!


http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5312.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5313.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5316.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5317.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5318.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5319.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5320.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5324.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5325.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5326.jpg

and some more:



http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5327.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5328.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5329.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5330.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5331.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5332.jpg

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/4_30_2007/DSCF5333.jpg

anyone have any suggestions on where/how i should mount a water trap?

D side notch is now in and the panhard bar is in. also stopped by the frieghtliner place today (twice and will need to go again tomorrow) to get my air line fittings. they aren't gonna be setup as i had planned, but i still like the config i ended up with. pics will come at the end of the weekend. hopefully i'll have all plumbing and wiring for the rear done by then too.

ok, so in addition to the D side notch and the panhard bar getting done, I was able to complete all of my wiring and most of my plumbing. the only lines i need to run are from each fill valve to each bag.

It was great getting the wiring done today. let the compressor run for a bit with no pressure, then let it fill the tank. then it came time to play with the switches. Now I just need to drill a couple huge holes in my frame for the bag mounts and we'll be ready for the front.

unfortunately, it'll be two weeks before I'll be able to get up there and continue working on it.


here are the pics: -- I just noticed that I didn't take any final pics of the wiring. It looks much better now than it does in the pics below.

Looking good!

so have you figured out how to get it off the one foot tall jack stands yet???:metal: :b69:

mucho 2x4's...

subscribed to see progress...

looks good, cant wait to see it on the ground

uhg, 2 weekends have gone by an i was unable to get up there to finish the rear. this weekend looks promising though. Come hell or high water, the tires are getting back to the ground this weekend.

i guess hell and high water came cause i didn't make it up there that weekend. But, i'm leaving in about 30 min to head up there and have (hopefully) a couple guys helpin me out this weekend.

i only have one more weekend after this that i can work on the truck before the goodguys show. hopefully i make it.

Great find will be looking forward to more build flicks down the road and of course the finished project. Picked up my 69 LB down in Tennesse for $1,300 had a motor knock

ok, so this weekend went well. I was able to button up both of the rear bags, got all of the air line run for the gauges into the cab, and also got my headmen headers installed. as the pics show, the truck sits at 4.5" off the ground aired out. and i have to say, it sounds really sweet with open shorty headers.

It's getting trailered to my uncles shop this week to get 2.5" or 3" exhaust put on it. He used to run an exhaust shop and has his own bender (not one of those manual things) so he's gonna try and get the exhaust to the back bumper. When we looked at it this weekend, we talked about routing it to the outside of the frame rail before the rear end, then out to the back bumper (gas tank will be going in the back section this fall). problems is, my air tank and compressor are both back there.... so, it may end up just getting dumped right before the rear end.

anyways, here's some pics for ya:

http://www.iveldesigns.com/__Downloads/1969_C10/6_10_2007/web/

welp, she's on the road again, as my daily driver. I made the maiden voyage last sunday from cedar falls to des moines (2 hrs) with no issues. Been driving it all week and only had a couple issues come up. The first was the manual compressor switch that i installed to cut the power to the compressor so it doesn't kill my battery when sitting over night. the switch just broke, so i had to replace it.

the other issue was that my pressure switch in the tank made contact with the bed cross member and shorted out. I knew it was close and had planned to change it this weekend, but apparently the bed shifted a bit and made contact. So, for right now it's hard wired and i use the main power switch to stop the compressor when it gets up to 150psi or so. I'm really happy i put that switch in now :)

here are the pics:

and some more

some shots of the rear

bump to get moved to the project forum

Looks really awesome, good work :)

bump to get moved to the project forum

She's moved for you.

This is the first time I've seen a lowered project that got me thinking about actually doing it.... not bags and all, just a 2/4 or so... Any chance you have any closer pics of the flipping" of the carrier bearing? If I drop my front 2 and rear 4, from what you experienced, do you think the flip would be necessary? I can't believe I'm actually thinking about it.... Looks pretty cool sitting low in the grass like that.

Got the bed back on yet ???

Love your truck, take lots of pics !!!

Got the bed back on yet ???

Love your truck, take lots of pics !!!


I agree 100% take lots of pics! You got me motivated to bag mine as soon as I get the 454 in.

oh yeah. the bed has been back on and i've been driving it daily since mid June. So far I've only had a couple issues, none that couldn't be fix in a parking lot.

However, i flew out to san fran last week (tons of 67-72's out there btw) for 4 days, and when i got home and jumped in to head to work on friday, the compressor wouldn't kick in. So, i drove the econo car to work that day....

long story short, after testing everything for power, unplugging and replugging all of the wires going into the relay switch (no power after the relay), i flipped the main toggle and everything worked as planned. Must have gotten some corrosion in one of the wire plugs after sitting for a while.

I was supposed to meet up with another board member a couple weeks ago to go take some shots, but i wasn't able to make it. Hopefully we can do it soon so we have more pics to share.

killer truck. i love it ...so simple in design yet so affective on the mind......haaaa i just wrote that...............looks good tony

Here are a few picks i've taken since getting it back together.

this weekend i'm drivin' up to Cedar Falls for a show/cruise and when I get back, i'm gonna start prepping for body work this winter. by prepping, i mean buying tools and getting the garage cleaned out. So far my list includes shaving the door handles and locks, replacing the cab corners, putting a patch in the bed and putting a 68 clip on. Hopefully by spring it will be ready for me to try my hand at painting. Gonna go with the same red since the interior is still in great shape. This way i don't have to worry about jamming it.

Is that at full dump ???

That thing is sweet! Nothing like down in the weeds!

Is that at full dump ???

yup

Looks great! The 68 clip will look even better!

Too many 68 clips.....You need to keep the wonderful natural beauty of the 69/70 front end. ;)

Do you only have one bolt holding the rear bags on? DId you use drop spindles in the front?:
some shots of the rear

:( I think it could go just a bit lower....JUST KIDDING! Looks great man!

Do you only have one bolt holding the rear bags on? DId you use drop spindles in the front?:

that was prior to final fit. i left one bolt out of the top until i got the bottom bolted in. that way i could move the bag a bit if needed.

Yup, 2.5" drop spindles up front, 2.5" blocks in the back. However, with just a bolt in C-notch, the rear blocks are kinda pointless. the axle hits the frame long before the bag bottoms out.

surprisingly, it's not to bad of a ride when the rear is aired out going down the highway. the front tires just barely touch the inner fenders when aired out. 5mph is the max i'd go with the fronts aired out.

my kids love doing wheelies down the road :metal: :metal:

I have basically the same setup on mine but I got rid of the upper spring pad and bolted the bags to the frame. I went with an 8" step notch to get the rear bags to bottom out with 3" blocks. 8" is enough to do that with a Camaro rear sway bar in there. Otherwise I'd say 6" would be enough.

Just in case you are considering going bigger on the notch ;)

:) , i've been considering a small step notch. nothing crazy, just enough so that i can get the truck to sit level when aired out, or so that the rear bags bottom out. Either way, I want to find a steel floor for my bed and raise it 4 inches or so. Right now the wood over my pumpkin bubbles up when i air it out.

Oh, and i do have my list of body work items for this winter finalized. These are in order of how i plan to do them:


68 Clip
Get Driver door to hang right - sticks out at the bottom a 3/8"
Shave rear cab seams
Cab corners
Patch panel on driver side rear wheel well
Shave gas filler
Shave stake holes
New front windshield
Rear roll pan - Maybe a front pan too.
Shave door handles
Shave door locks
Remote hood release
Shrink drip rail - no one will probably notice this one, but i think the factory drip rails are to big, so i want to remove it and take out about 1/2" and put it back on.
Paint - Same red as it is now, but with clear coat


Since this all will be the first body work I have ever done, I will do my best to keep this thread updated with pics.

We'll see how much of this i get done by next May 31st. I don't plan to park the truck until mid October, or the first snow... which ever comes first. Nice thing is, the truck will be in my garage this year, not 2 hours away like it was last winter.

well, it has been a good summer. drove the truck nearly every day, and had only minor issues. made many 100+ mile trips in it, hauled a few things, including 19 60lb bags of cement that i needed for the fence i put up in my back yard. all of that, and no big issues. the guy at the lumber yard thought it was pretty cool when i added some air to the back to keep it from squatting so much.

anyways, i think i just made my last road trip with it this weekend. I made a loop around iowa to pick up a welder for the body work i'm planning, and to unload a couch and a few other big things taking up space in my garage. Now i actually have room on both sides of the truck to work.

I also located a set of 68 fenders, and i know where the core support i need is at. thanks teeipup! so it looks like i'm ready to start tearing things down!!

Assuming i finish the dog house i started today, this week, i'm either gonna start pulling the front clip off next weekend, or am going to cut out the rust in the bed wheel well and get it replaced with the patch panel i have.

so yeah, pointless post. i'm just excited to get back to working on the truck, and for it to be in my own garage this time, not 120 miles away :metal:

until next time....

here's this afternoon's progress. I was really tempted to start pulling the front clip, but only had the afternoon, and i don't really have a place to put it. So, until someone is ready to buy it from me (i'd like to see $350 out of it, minus the inners) it'll stay on. at least until all of the other todo's are done.

so, without further ado, here are the money shots for my first every body work attempt.

First, the rust:

and now, rust be gone!

new metal in, and a couple weld shots. I'm also a welding novice (you can tell by the burn through i got toward the front), but i'm pretty happy with how things turned out. Grinding will made any booger weld look good, so that's the next step.

for this, i spaced out the spot welds about 4 inches, and just kept goin' from one end, to the other. rinse and repeat. from what i can tell, it looks like there is minimal warpage in the metal. If i had to guess, there won't be any more than 1/16" of mud over this when i'm done.

here's the pics!

once i get the welds ground down, i'll be moving on to the next task, the Roof Seam. I plan to grind out the seam sealer stuff from the factory, and will do the same spot weld procedure for this as well. I'll probably take more time on this though since it will be much more visible than the bed patch.

Here's a before shot: