George...
 

This is my first thread and my (hopefully) first build!

I was told by a smart man once that you should start from the beginning, I don’t know why? Quentin Tarantino has made allot of money intentionally breaking this rule. Anyway, I have been obsessed with these trucks since I was 12 when my dad would not let me buy a black 67 long bed for $500. Looking back, even though I hate admitting my parents know anything, I appreciate him for that because it was a POS! Throughout the years since, every time I saw a 67-72 for sale on the side of the road I always pulled over and looked, never pulling the trigger.

This frustrated and baffled my then girlfriend as to why I would stop in the middle of a trip just to look at an old crappy truck; I am a little obsessive about stuff. Back on track, in April last year I was dropping off a check to a used car dealership (I am the Office Manager of a small lending company) and I ran across a Silver 69 GMC lwb tucked back in the corner on this lot. I immediately ran back to the office, joined this forum and started doing research on 69 gm trucks and this specific truck (reference previous obsession statement). Come to find out it had been there for months and for the next month I watched the price go down until one day I couldn’t stand it any more and I test drove it.

Now it was time for some fancy talkin! For the entire previous year my live in girlfriend of then 5 years was rightfully giving me the “S#!% or get off the pot” conversation about marriage. Even I knew I was running on borrowed time and when I brought the truck up to her she was understanding, not excited, but understanding none the less about buying a truck and not an engagement ring! This is why we are married now, that wouldn’t fly in many relationships.

So, $1700 Dollars later I had a running/driving truck, a hole in my ring fund and a girlfriend questioning her life choices. I can’t believe this is all working out!

Here are some photos from my test drive, I will go over some plans in a future post.

Re: George...
 

Much better than a ring
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Re: George...
 

I would have named it after her, just sayin

Re: George...
 

Hopped up-I told her "you cant drive a ring!" That didnt go over well.

DMWPHOTO-I cant name it after her because when I start bolting on bigger better parts I dont want her getting any ideas! :D

Re: George...
 

HAHA, "bolt ons" for her are nice at first until she gains more self esteem...:smoke:

Re: George...
 

If you name it after her it will eliminate confusion when your drivin to cuss!

Re: George...
 

The first thing people will tell you on this forum when starting your project is “get a plan!” I don’t know if they realize that is next to impossible on this forum when every build thread I read completely changes what I want. In my head my truck changes from lowered to raised, from black to two tone ochre, from carbureted to an LS, from automatic to a T56 on a daily basis. I think the chalkboard in my head that holds all of my ideas is worn out!

The things I do know is that this truck is a long bed and that will stay the same. The rear is a leaf spring set up and after much debate with myself I will convert to coils, it is cheaper and easier to lower and more comfortable for day to day use. It has drums all the way around and while they do stop better on that first push of the pedal, every push after that is the perfect reason to upgrade to disks up front. This truck is going to move in stages so I can enjoy each step as an accomplishment and decide what I want to do next. I will be keeping a tab on how much and where I purchase things along with as many pictures as I can remember to take.

First upgrade, mirrors, the passenger side head is gone, the drivers side looks like Charlotte’s Web and the rearview just looks at the floor waiting for it to be sent off to its happy hunting ground. Side mirror assemblies from LMC $60 and a screwdriver fixed the rearview. Now let’s finish taking off the trim, gravity has done half the job for us and I can see some rust issues under there.

Re: George...
 

good point....

Re: George...
 

I sold 2 of those mirrors a couple weeks ago, he didn't want the glass heads, i have both sides in fair shape if you need some.

Looks like a good start.

Re: George...
 

no moa-thanks for the offer but they are on the truck already.

Re: George...
 

Sweet!

Re: George...
 

nice find on the truck, good luck with it , are you keeping it a GMC

Re: George...
 

Good Stuff gmcc10, I like it already. I have a short bed gmc 69. I haven't done much to it since I bought it 3 months ago, but you should look at the pictures of my truck. It might just give you a few ideas of what it would look like lowered and all black.
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Re: George...
 

waiting for more pics

Re: George...
 

firethorn- thanks and I hope to keep it GMC, but I wont rule anything out. If chevy stuff is what I end up with that is what I will use

Cool69-your machine looks great, I love the color, what drop is that?

67cheby-give me a few days and I will get some more stuff up.

Re: George...
 

When I drove this truck for the first time I crawled under it, in a suit none the less, and looked for the common rust issues. All I saw was a little rust under the driver side door, some surface rust under the floor mat and I figured I should be so lucky! Well we all can see that changed in a hurry. I found a deposit of bondo on the driver cab corner, some cancer on the passenger door and that the metal below the passenger door was held together by paint, so much for surface rust. Apparently the only thing trim is good for is falling off, collecting sand and holding moisture. Upon closer inspection after the trim was off this truck you could see it was painted with a brush over the original paint, I just thought it was old and who knows what is under that! I see plenty of body work in the future and allot of little holes to fill. I am not going to focus on the body now; I can drive a truck with “patina” for a while as long as it doesn’t disintegrate on me going down the road. During this entire process I don’t want the truck to be down more than a few days.

Re: George...
 

Great looing truck and great story haha..

Re: George...
 

more pictures of of newfound rust

Re: George...
 

I think that I found a theme for this build. I live in a neighborhood of duplexes that have no room for a vehicle in the garage if you plan on putting anything larger than an 82 Honda Civic, if I only had a chance to meet the architect! Needless to say my trucks and my wife’s car sit out side and my hippie neighbors must hate me for having a smoking, oil leaking, rust bucket they get to listen to and watch me work on in the driveway. I love not having covenants! One neighbor came over the other day as I was under the hood and asked what I was doing. I replied “working on my recycling project” and explained that it would take years to complete. Unimpressed he then wandered off in his home made leather sandals. I wish I was making this stuff up! But there it is, in a joint effort to save money, help the environment and annoy my neighbor, I am going to try and search junk yards, craigslist, eBay and the forum to build the majority of this truck. Still, there are a few new parts i cant live with out!

Re: George...
 

LOL "RECYCLING" hadnt thought of it that way.....saving the enviroment !

Re: George...
 

I found the cause of the rust on the floor boards inside the cab!!!!

Driving down the road in a rain storm and I start seeing a river of water running down the a-pillars on each side onto the dash and from there redistributed throughout the entire fire wall! Under closer inspection, after the rain storm, the seam sealer has cracked and was letting the water run into the seam at the pillar. Man there is a huge seam at the top corner of the window. What a design flaw, but after 40 years I understand it having a leak or two. I need to fix this now so it doesn’t keep destroying what is left of my truck! This is the perfect opportunity to make my first major cosmetic modification, Shaving the drip rails!

I know allot of people don’t like to shave the drip rails because they say they leak, but ya know what? I already have that problem and it can’t get any worse! Besides with new door seals it shouldn’t leak much or at all, it is one of those things people like but can’t put there finger on and it looks really cool! So here is my process of going about it.

Step 1- do allot of research you can on this forum and others! Some of the info about this is difficult to find, but it is there and it is good!

Step 2-Ask you future brother-in-law, who happens to be a welding instructor and owes you a few favors, to come over and give you a hand with something in the morning. Make sure his schedule is clear for the entire day because this takes a while, 1 very full day or 2 days if pacing your self.

Step 3- Collect welder, cutting wheel, pliers, sanding disk, and wire wheel. We started with the sides of the cab and then the center section. This was logically the easiest way to start and if we ran out of time, which we did, it makes for good stopping points. We began by wire wheeling the seam sealer out, cutting 2” of the rail at a time with the cutting wheel and added a bunch of spot welds to keep it together and strong. Watch out for blowing through the metal around the doors because it is very thin due to all of the compound curves the 18 gauge metal had been put through. We repeated this process slowly so not to warp the metal and if I were to do it again, and I would, cutting 4 inches at a time would save some of the repetition and make it go a little faster, any more than that I would be afraid of misaligning the metal.

Re: George...
 

Step 4-Use the sanding disks to smooth out the welds. Don’t use a grinder to smooth out the welds! It will take too much material too fast and create lots of heat, use coarse sanding disks and step down in grit to smooth the weld safely.

One thing I thought I would do different than others I read about is I started at the front of the door opening and at the bottom of the door opening to meet at the bend in the rail. I did this because some people said they experienced separation of the sheets of metal at the corner when they rounded the bend. Attacking the process this way I did not experience any separation at the bend in the rail.

Re: George...
 

Once we got the gutters around the doors done we ran out of time to trim over the windshield and it had to be done later.

Re: George...
 

nice progress on the drip rail !