It is definitely not show quality, but the bed is sold again and should hold up the rest of my life. A before and after shot of the front corner area.

man you have got alot of things done , good work. was wondering what did you use to remove the bed, as far as a lifting device? i know they make something but it looked as if you used a 2x4s and chains?

Looks good Bill, may head down your way soon to check it out.

man you have got alot of things done , good work. was wondering what did you use to remove the bed, as far as a lifting device? i know they make something but it looked as if you used a 2x4s and chains?

Pretty much. It's some 2x4's with bed (the kind you sleep in, not truck) frame rails as the cross pieces.

Looks good Bill, may head down your way soon to check it out.

Sounds good. Is your's alive yet?

Somewhat, now I have tuning issues.

Got the bed painted in Eastwood today. I tried to finish painting the inside of the bed with the leftover silver, but ran short, so it's a bit patchy on the inside. Shot the outside and remaining portion of the inside with good ole black Eastwood. I'm not sure whether it was the heat, my gun, or just me but my second coat didn't flow very well. It will be all sanded and primed later, I just wanted the bare metal covered so the rust would take over, like it started too, with all our wonderful humidity.

I have one little patch to do on the drivers panel behind the rear wheel, then I'll be painting the underside of the bed.

By the way, first picture is what it was a 10:00 this morning (in the shade no less). Probably why painting the bed was such a pain today. I know I sure did sweat a lot (understatement for sure :rolleyes: ). Inside the shop was at 100 also, I didn't want to check later in the afternoon, I was afraid of what it would say.

While the bed was drying I started, routing the fuel lines for the blazer tank. I figured it would be a lot easier with the bed off. Of course I couldn't find all my 3/8"s fuel line, so I'll have to grab some more and bend the front half. I plan on an inline fuel filter just behind the cab. I think I am going to build an insulated heat shield also to try and keep the heat away from the area where I want to put the fuel filter.

Anyways, not much else.

Spent alot of time cleaning the shop and working some other hony do, bt I was able to work on this. ! had to patch and rebuild this section of the bed just behind the driver's side rear tire.
I kept forgetting to bring my camera to the shop during the work so I had to improvise the before shot. This is the shot of what I found while stripping the bed of 8 million layers of paint and bondo. It turned out to be a bit worse than what this picture shows.
It was slow going as I didn't have a patch panel (never thought to check if one existed either :rolleyes: Cut out the metal, made a piece to weld in. It was a bit awkward to me cause the piece had to have two contours rolled into the piece. The wheel lip also had some rust and disintegrated some during the welding in of my patch. I had to go back and build up some metal so I could get the lip correct ( or close). I have been fussin' on it a while, but today I got to do the finish sanding on the section and it came out pretty good. Just need to touch it up with some primer, then I can seal and paint the underside of the bed before I put it back on the frame.

Some sweatin with the oldie. Got some stuff done last night and today. I did some more sanding and primed the patch area of the bed last night. While that was drying, I finished cleaning up the underside of the bed, so I could paint it.

Then I finished up the fuel line and filter. I made a home made filter older out of a hose clamp bolted to the front of the frame. I'll either cut the end off shorter, or find a smaller clamp later.

This morning I shot the underside of the bed. It's just Rustolium, but it should help it hold up. This is after the first coat. I shot one more layer after this picture. I also did the underside of the wheel tubs with bed liner. I forgot to take a photo of that.

While the bed was drying I swapped out the 69's driver's front fender for the original one from the 70. Turns out the 69 fender was a whole lot of bondo covering who knows what. I had already stripped and patched my 70's a while back. I'll just need to finish smoothing out the filler I had to use.

Time for the bed to go on.

Bed is secured temporarily, shift the truck around in the shop. Dang thing needs to get running soon. It is HEAVY pushing it around on those dollies. :rolleyes:

Removed the core support to hopefully do my last bit of patching on the truck.

It was eatin up in the usuals spot under the battery, as well as banged up. I cut off the bad metal, straightened out and cleaned the thing. I just hope the EPA didn't see the huge oil slick coming off it. Little oven cleaner and Castrol puruple cleaner, pressure washer and no more grunge. Tomorrow I'll clean off the rust and hopefully get the patch dopne for that area.

Last shot, I just felt like shooting the engine. Some day it will fire :D

Hey Bill. It sure does help to put the bed and fenders back on it every now and then to help ya keep focused. Tire dollies are nice but I prefer to move mine around under it's own power when I can. It gives me a chance to fire it up and run it for a while. ;)

Today started on making a patch for the core support. I evened up the cut as best I could and then made a patch from an old piece of hood. Scribed and bent the angles for it. Slowly tacked it into place. It's not exact, but it will serve it's purpose. It feels as strong as the other side, so I think it will hold out. Now just to clean it up for some Eastwood and paint.

Covered all the lower areas with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator, hopefully that will hold any further deteriation. Shot some Rustolium on one side and on the core support corner brackets. Ran out of paint, so I'll finish painting the rest of the support tomorrow maybe.

The passenger inner fender was worse than what I originally thought (wish I had kept the new one I had now :rolleyes: ) I decided I will try and patch it once I get the core support back in and can test fit it. I have a beat up drivers side inner that I think I can get to mate up. Too cheap to buy a new one I guess. Anyways, broke out the wire brush on the grinder and cleaned all the undercoating off the inner fender so I can play with it more later.

I also found the fan shroud, so before I got all cleaned up I decided to wash the years of crud off it before I fit it with the electric fan.

Time to goof off with the youngun now.

Little more progress today. I finished painting the core support and later installed it in the truck.

I finished cleaning and painted my fan shroud. I'll be modifying it to fit the electric fan from a Gran Cherokee.

Cleaned and painted the radiator brackets and a few other little things.

Right now she almost looks like a truck again.

Looks like its comin along nicely. Keep up the good work.

Lookin' great Bill. Finish up the engine, some black seude, and it'll be time to ride :D

Looking great Bill!:D

I worked on my fan shroud and electric fan mock up today. As was mentioned in another thread from the board, the fan from a 2000 V8 Grand Cherokee fits in the stock shroud with a few mods.

My truck was originally a 6, and I put in the 4 core radiator and got this shroud from a friend, so I wasn't sure how everything would mate up. I wanted to make sure the fan wouldn't hit, nor be too far from the radiator. It appears everything will work just fine. I don't know the real difference between a AC & non-AC shroud, but this one came off a factory AC truck.

Notched the bottom to allow one of the tabs to slide in. Drilled two holes to bolt the other tabs in, then notched the edge for the wiring to go through.

Pretty simple. I wedged a thick washer and tie wrapped it to the bottom tab to make sure it was snug fit in the shroud

Then it was a simple matter of bolting it to the factory mounting holes (once I found where I put the bolts..:m6: )

Fits in nice. From what others have said, I shouldn't have any flow issues once I get the truck wired and fired up.

I also worked on my door and panel alignment some today. The drivers' door had been patched before and whoever did it didn't do it very straight. I had to massage it back some and then tack weld the skin edges together.

I did learn that mixing parts from all sorts of trucks makes alignment of body panels a real pain in the posterior. I am going to have to go back an tweak some more things to get the gaps right on the front of the driver's door.

I'll have to see if I got some more room to move the fender back, other wise I'll need to weld in a filler on the rocker/fender. It's getting closer and the differences in the surface colors make it a bit worse than what it is, but I want it looking better.

The rear of the door is not too bad. I am going to have to add a little bead at the bottom of the door to make it straight and match up. The upper part of the door seems to be pretty close also.

Oh well, little tweaks. I don't think I will have as much problems with the passenger side. It seems to slip right in, but I'll work on that fine tuning later.

Put the old grill on just so i could have a picture of it semi looking like a truck. Now she rests till tomorrow, and some more fine tuning.

Tinkered around today with the passenger side door & fender alignment. Sometime these things are just a pain in the &^%, which meant I got it better than the driver side, but still not satisfied with the overall fit. Decided to go play Hot Wheels with the son rather than smash the doors with a big hammer.

I know what you're going through Bill. I don't have the patience I used to and sometimes the little things can really get me. Thankfully we don't depend on these trucks for our daily transportation so we can close the door on it and come back some other time and try it again.

Well, time to hack things up. Decided to do the cutout for the AC vents, which I eventually hope to install in her.

I used the Vintage Air templates, but adjusted the passenger and drive side ones a hair so the entire vent will lie flat. Them I used my dremel to out the middle one. I may have to trim the center one a hair, but I didn't have a vent to trial fit it, but I will by next weekend. Smooth everything our and sprayed some primer on it.

Next was to figure out the holes for my new custom from the junkyard visors :rolleyes:

They are from an Explorer, have the lighted vanity mirrors and the secondary visor. A little measuring and a few holes drilled, waaaa laaa. new visors. While I was there I also drilled the hole for the wiring for the rear view mirror. It's a lighted with compass & stuff from a Tahoe/Suburban.

I have to tack in the holes from the old visors as well as do some cutting and fabbing to mount a dome light from a 97 extended cab C1500 in place of the original dome. Who knows, there may be some paint flying on the interior before too long. Now off to help a board member with an electrical issue.

Looks good Bill.:D

That's very nice!

Looking good.

Ended up being able to work on it some more today. I am replacing the factor dome light with one from a 97 C1500 extended cab.

I had to cut out the inner panel of the cab to be able to have it set in correctly.

I then had to make some stiff tabs to go behind it. I got the tabs welded in, but have to clean it up a bit before I go further.

I also welded in the extra holes from the sun visors and started welding the lower rear edge portion of the driver's door in order for the door to fit more evenly. I didn't take any pictures of that cause it is UGLY at the moment. I didn't want to embarrass myself too much since this was my first attempt at filling seams that way.

Now to rest.

Thanks for the detailed pics on the fuel cell and fuel door install. I will eventually be doing the same to my 68. Only difference is that I will be using a aluminum fuel cell. Looking good. Keep at it.

Nice job! i wish i had as much space in my garage as you do. My 69 needs so much right now. When i am done with my truck everything will be new. To try and save my cab is useless. It needs way too much.

Well it has been a couple weeks since I looked at, let alone touch the 70. Between some other auto duties today I was able to work some on trying to clean up the door alignment. I worked on the rear of the driver's door. Because of the way the door had been repaired by someone else (supposedly a professional body shop) it was very crooked and sort of cut wrong when the replaced the lower half of the door. Most of the door lined up OK except the lower front and rear edges. I took care of the front end (I hope) a few weeks ago, no onto the rear.

Basically I built up the edge of the door with welds and then ground them off even to get my corner back on the door right and fill in some of the gap.

I still have to finish smoothing the welds, then skin coat it, but I was pretty happy with the results. I may run the bead up a little further above the crease, but I'll look at it later. It's pretty close now and not sure I would do much better other than making a mess.
That was my morning work after serving the Bonneville. Spent rest of day (like yesterday) helping EdB tear up his 94 looking for n electrical short.

i really like those two way visors!

good work, as always. you're more patient then i am...i absolutely hate tedious work, like aligning. especially when you *think* it's about right, then it slips and you have to start all over.

...yeah.

but good work!

you'll get 'et yet. just wait til hear that baby purrrrrrr.

-Sam.

Good going Bill. Did you get Ed straightened out?

I think so Krue, but NEVER go chasing wiring without a FACTORY/correct wire schematic ::m6:

If I have any wiring issues I'll just get you to come figure it out for me.:D

Well today was the attempt to fix the passenger side door fit. As you can see the top part of the door is way out of wack, but the lower portion lines up really well.

First thing was to strip down to see what type of welds were used to hold it in place.

There was a LOT of welds, big ones in this area and ti took a lot to get it free, but finally as you can see I was able to play with it until I got the top to align.

With it aligned, I welded the door back together. Besides my welds not being pretty, you can see how big an area the original welds covers.

After the first grinding I filled in a few more areas, then filled in the area fith some fillers.

It fits like it should now.

Next step is tweaking out the front fenders to door on this side. I am hoping I will not have to weld a bead on the front of the door skin to fill in the gap with the front fender.

That's a lot of work to make it fit. I talked to my painter a while ago and he told me that this is exactly what they do with after market doors. Pull them apart, line them up and weld them back together.
Nice work!

Not a lot done today. Had to cut-up and haul off a bunch of fallen tree limbs from our storms this week.

I went to work on the passenger door again and messed with the hinges, a BFHammer, and a couple hours and I think I finally got the thing lined up. It stands out a bit on the front side since it has the color coat underneath, but much much better. Tomorrow, I hope, back to some grinding/sanding on the interior area. I have to tweak my center AC vent hole a bit and finish up the new interior light.

Mostly little things again on the truck today.

I finished welding in and setting up the braces for the new dome light. The second shot shows how the frame sits in its new hole. Cleaned up the welds and drilled the mounting holes.

I also finished the opening for the center AC vent. Got my practice piece to fit in their good now.

Cleaned up the welds where I filled in any unused holes from the old mirrors and visors.

Before I do the final priming and paint I will probably need a little finish sanding, but for now it all got primer in a can.

Sanding and filling.

Tedious crap, but it has to be done. I sanded down a lot of spots on the driver's door, fender, and for the old fuel neck hole. I am using an angel-hair glass filler to smooth out my less than perfect welding areas. The space from the gas filler, with it's compound curves, is giving me fits. I'm out of practice with this, so hopefully I'll keep my patience and let time work out the bugs. I think I should be just about done with this batch of sanding. The driver's door edges that I had to build up may need an additional trim coat, but I think this is getting closer.

On the passenger side door, the only areas are again smooth out less that perfect welding of the mirror holes and one spot where some nitwit :dum:banged the riding mower into the door.

Hopefully I'll get a good bit of the sanding done tomorrow afternoon.

It's been a while since I was well enough or had time to work on the truck, but I was able to get some time on her today. Some more sanding and prep is all I got to, but mad some progress. It's just slow and time consuming at this point. Hopefully I'll get more time on it over the holidays.

What I worked on today.

The area around the fuel filler patch, the driver and passenger doors. I am of practice and it just seems for ever sometimes to get a good blend and level things out. The patience of body work :rolleyes:

Good progress Bill. Looks like you'll be ready to cruise by summer.......:D.

R

Did some more sanding and filling out some rough spots on the ole girl today. I think I am getting close. I am a lot happier with the area around the fuel filler door now. I have one small spot I need a touch of glaze, but other than that I think it is about ready for the good primer. Same goes with the passenger door. One of these days I'll be through snorting sanding dust. Oh well, gives me something to do.

It got too damp this afternoon to do anymore work with filler, so I goofed off up at EdB's.

looking good!

you have more patience then me, i'll say that much.

when i was filling and sanding, i got frustrated, not mention pressed for time to lay paint before it froze, and said, "good enough for now", and that was that. lol.

but you're doing an absolutely stellar job, enough to make some people envious. ;)

keep at 'er!

-Sam.

definently have more patience then me...i wish i possesed an eight of the patience you have..id prolly have finished my truck by now..but fixing stuff that was rushed usally take more time lol good work

Hey Bill,
The trucks looking good. Boy it made a big difference in that door frame. I have one on my drivers side with a similar problem and I thought about doing the same thing. After seeing yours I'm convinced now that's what I need to do. Thanks for the tip.

It was too cool to be doing bodywork, so I clean the shop and since I unpilled enough stuff from around the truck, I just had to take a photo. I have the grill on temporarily mainly to get it off the floor, besides it makes it feel like a truck again.

I am working maybe some idea changes for the inside. I think I will use my radio delete, mount a new style CD player in the heater control area. The when I add the vintage air, I'll mount their controller in the glove box or maybe in the console.

The mind is dangerous when left to think. I guess I need to keep my mind on the sanding then I don't drift on new subjects. :rolleyes:

I didn't realize how long it was between working on the ole girl. Soccer season and honey dos will get you every time :rolleyes:

Anyways, I had some time and needed to work off some frustrations, so off to body work. I think I am finally satisfied with the drivers side of the bed. I started on the passenger side before I got distracted on another project in the shop. With luck, I'll get some more on the passenger side done tomorrow.

man that thing looks alot different from the day that you bought it

How much fun. Next time I am going to do my own body work too. Great job and keep at it. Soon it will painted and cruz'n

man that thing looks alot different from the day that you bought it

Jacob, I am not too sure how much of the 69 exists with all the sheet metal that has been replaced.


Again other things kept me away from the old girl as much as I wanted, yesterday yard chores (grass grows here you folks in the white), and yesterday afternoon the wife's car blew the computer or something. Sat around waiting for the tow service to come and fetch it back to the dealer. We'll see damage on Monday, maybe.

Anyways I got out on here for a while today. More sanding. I think I have the passenger side of the bed ready now. We'll see when I walk in and decide I don't like it. Started some other areas with sanding, but the wife had to head out for a while, so I cleaned up and am juggling entertain the boy and playing here.

Just a couple shots for today.

those bed sides just keep looking better and better Bill!

oh wait, the whole truck does. it's going to be one sweet little diddy when she's on the road, no doubt about it.

keep at it man.

-Sam.

Can't wait for you to drive it up here.:D

Me-2!!!!

Looks great. I wish I lived where the gras grew all year around. My wife likes to mow so that would keep her busy while I got to play. We have the hunidity during the summertime so I think I could handle it down there.

Great looking project. That's going to be a pretty truck!

Man I had forgotten how long it was since I touched the ole girl. It was sure nice to be able to get into the shop and do a few things with her. Hopefully now that I am well and the big spring yard trimmings and all are down I can start making a bit of progress.

I am really hating these wheel dollies. They were OK until the body got put on. Now it's mostly grunt, groan and cuss to get it to move. Decided to hook my new (well new to me a 91 instead of a 71) Snapper and pull it into a new position.

In case you are wondering, a 16HP rear engine mower towing a heavy truck, you can do some dang good wheelies. :lol:

Hey it worked and sorry I can't do wheelies and snap the camera at the same time:mm:

Like some others mentioned, just boring sanding and filler. I put another thin coat of glass filler on my rocker patch job and on the door. I think they should pretty much sand out the next time, maybe just some glaze. I also got tired of doing bondo, so I decided to strip the hood down. I'll probably try and take it off and shot some eastwood on it and then flip it over and do the underside.

Not much, but it was some progress. Hopefully I be doing something besides sanding here soon.

As I joked in another thread

Miyagi: Bondo on, right hand. Sand off, left hand. Bondo on, Sand off. Breathe in through nose, out the mouth. Bondo on, Sand off.

Good job Bill-san!! :rolleyes:

Anyways, here is how she sits now.

Keep plugging away at it Bill, it's looking good. Hopefully you and I both will have our trucks ready by CTC next year.

I didn't get a lot done on the ole girl today. Yesterday was pretty went for body work, even inside, so I helped EdB install his new stereo in his 94. Today I spent most of the morning installing a new stereo and speakers in my 2002.

Did get some more sanding accomplished, oh the excitement.

I did start to work on the dash layout some more. I am going to install a DIN stereo (not the one shown...thats the test bed), then install Vintage Air AC/Heat controls in the radio delete plate.

I have not made up my mind totally yet on whether I will weld in some metal to fill in the gaps on the edge the head unit, or make a temp filler in case I ever go back to a factory heat/AC controller.

I really like the look of the stereo in that spot and it is a pretty clean/simple install.

Nothin else big yet, so onto the continuing house/yard chores

Looks good bill.:D

Wow, I had not realized how long it has been since I got a chance to work on the old girl, let alone update this. I was able to spend some more time on body stuff. Man Sanding can get tiring fast. Anyways, between yesterday and today I got a good bit of the final body work done. I may have a few touch up when I get doen to blocking it all, but painting the outside is a way down the road.

For the life of me I couldn't fond the original pictures of the work, but on the passenger side rocker, I just had a small bad spot and was cheap/poor at the time, so I cut out the metal and patched rather than replacing the whole rocker. Since I knew it would be a while till I finished it, I sealed it with a coat of fiberglass hair. I think I did the patch back in 2005...I guess I am slower than I thought. Well I, smoothed it out and skim coated it and got that done. Then I tackled the driver's door that required patching. Sand, skim, sand, skim, sand...Crap I sometimes hate body work. The last area I have is cleaning up the welds and patches made on the driver's front fender. With luck, I hope to have it in spray bomb primer before the board meet.

In addition to breathing body dust, I tacked in the fillers to put a DIN style head unit in where the heater controls use to be. Again, a little work hopefully over July 4 weekend and I hope to be able to prime and paint the interior sometime after the board meet. Then I can do some wiring and all and maybe fire this dude up.:metal:

Any progress is good progress! Don't feel too bad Bill, I haven't touched mine (except to drive it every once in a while around the block) since the end of 06. Hopefully it will get it's chance this summer sometime.

Any progress is good progress! Don't feel too bad Bill, I haven't touched mine (except to drive it every once in a while around the block) since the end of 06. Hopefully it will get it's chance this summer sometime.

I'm in the same boat only mine is stripped down to the the frame. :(

But anyways, good progress!

:metal::metal:

Looking good Bill. Just keep plugging away...................:D.

Nice work...keep it up!

Looking good now put your A/C controls up were the radio went before and you will almost be done. I don't think it will look right having a radio delete plate with a radio below:uhmk:

Kevin
LFD Inc.

Today started on making a patch for the core support. I evened up the cut as best I could and then made a patch from an old piece of hood. Scribed and bent the angles for it. Slowly tacked it into place. It's not exact, but it will serve it's purpose. It feels as strong as the other side, so I think it will hold out. Now just to clean it up for some Eastwood and paint.

I know this is an old post, but im doing this part on my truck now. Can you just cut that piece off and leave it off, or is it needed???

In my case, I needed it because the inner fender bolt to it. Other wise my hole front part of my inner fender would flap.

In my case, I needed it because the inner fender bolt to it. Other wise my hole front part of my inner fender would flap.

So did you reweld on some nuts on it to bolt the fender to?

So did you reweld on some nuts on it to bolt the fender to?

Not yet. I need to finish patching the inner fender, then I'll align the bolt holes and fix it up.

Had a visit from GMan69 (George) this morning. He brought me down a T350 tranny Krue gave to me. After he went on with his chores I started back on the truck some. Did the usual, some sanding. Then I picked up all the stuff I hauled to and from the board meet and put it up.

I decided I wanted to see how the new tailgate I got fits, so off with the old one. I cleaned up and shot some primer and paint on the area. One I wanted a contrast to check gaps, plus I wanted to see what the truck would look like with some of the color I plan on going with.

Got the tail gate one and played around with it some. I'm going to have to do some more tweaking with it and the bedsides so the seam will align up right with the bed sides. The tailgate seems pretty good quality and since my bed has been dorked around with so much, I think it is more of a problem than the tailgate.

I'll figure I can tweak the passenger side tailgate mount some and get it to slide down a hair for the seam alignment.

Well that's all I got to play with today. Had to get a load of scrap steel ready for the dump later this week and try and beat my son later at Transformers (not likely :lol: ).

Say, that looks like the shade of blue on SactoJim's truck. I like that.