1969 Chevy C/20 Build

[Diggerdan11]

Hey Everyone. I figured I would start a build thread on my 1969 Chevy C/20.

My Father and I purchased this 1969 Chevy C/20 last summer. We have wanted to restore a classic Chevy truck ever since we restored his original 1969 Chevelle years ago. Well after years and years of talking about it we finally purchased a pretty good truck. The body is pretty straight and has very little rust. The 350 Engine (from a 1974 truck) and tranny are solid, and it came with some fairly nice 20" wheels and tires. One of the things that frustrates me with this truck is the previous owner ripped out most of the factory AC , So we are looking into what it might take to replace it, or we may just buy an aftermarket AC system.

The Truck was originally blue. We are planning on painting it Atomic Orange (from an 07-10 Corvette), and doing the interior in black. A buddy of mine who is a member on here (bagged68chevy) is going to be doing the paint and body work. Over the next couple weeks I am planning on pulling the engine and stripping it to get ready for paint. Then we will start gathering parts for a full restore. Hopefully we can have it ready for our local car show in June 2014.

[Diggerdan11]

I started the long process of stripping everything out of the vehicle, placing all the parts, bolts, nuts and screws into labeled baggies.






Now that its winter time I will have more opportunities to work on the truck. Next I plan on pulling the engine, and the gas tank, and finish removing everything from the interior.

[Ghostryder79]

looks like fun...I'm in

[low&slow]

I'm in too

[Earlthe3rd]

nice!
i hope you ditch those flashy rims and go something more suiting to a 69 c20

[Diggerdan11]

Originally Posted by Earlthe3rd

nice!
i hope you ditch those flashy rims and go something more suiting to a 69 c20

We will see. I kinda like them, but they are not my favorite. We will have to see how it all looks once its done.

[knomadd]

Hey, what do you know. I grew up in Klamath Falls. Lived there from the time I was 4 years old until I graduated from OIT in 2005. Still have immediate family and a few friends that live there.

Nice looking start, and sounds like your plans will turn out great. Good luck making it for the Kruise of Klamath... or did they change it back to the Klamath Kruise?

[Diggerdan11]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Hey, what do you know. I grew up in Klamath Falls. Lived there from the time I was 4 years old until I graduated from OIT in 2005. Still have immediate family and a few friends that live there.

Nice looking start, and sounds like your plans will turn out great. Good luck making it for the Kruise of Klamath... or did they change it back to the Klamath Kruise?

Small world. I graduated from OIT in 06. I was born and raised in Klamath and lived there all but 3 years of my life.

I hope to have it ready by the Kruise of Klamath next year, but we will see. I travel quite a bit for work so It has been hard to work on the Truck.

[bagged68chevy]

cant wait to throw some color on this beast!

[Diggerdan11]

Originally Posted by bagged68chevy

cant wait to throw some color on this beast!

Yep I cant wait either. Now that its winter time I will have more time to start working on it.

[Diggerdan11]

Im shocked at how little rust there actually is.

Rust under the battery


There is rust on both floor boards at the same spot, and rust on the outer rocker pannels.



Rust in the rear cab corner on the passanger side.


That is all the major rust, there is some surface rust but nothing major.

[mcbassin]

Looks like a very solid start to a good project. Sounds like you have a plan to restore it. The rust looks minimal. You know all the areas where the cabs rust? When I did my cab, (Starting HERE). Mine looked worse than yours, but it turned out it was worse than it looked. I found rust above the windshield on the inside, inside the cowl area, lower braces were shot, etc. etc.
Just know ahead of time they can have a bunch of rust not seen on initial inspections.

Don't worry about the A/C stuff too much, you can buy most of that aftermarket or used right here in the classified section.
subscribed

[Low Elco]

To heck with the truck, show us more of that place in the background! That's awesome!
(The truck's pretty solid, too!)

[Diggerdan11]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

To heck with the truck, show us more of that place in the background! That's awesome!
(The truck's pretty solid, too!)

Yeah thats my parents house. My dad built that house from scratch by himself. Peeled the logs and everything. They live on 40 acres about 10 miles from town. That Garage is 40x40 and it is packed full, my dad always kicks himself for not going 40X60 or even bigger.

[JD'S 69]

I'm in for the build.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by Diggerdan11

Yeah thats my parents house. My dad built that house from scratch by himself. Peeled the logs and everything. They live on 40 acres about 10 miles from town. That Garage is 40x40 and it is packed full, my dad always kicks himself for not going 40X60 or even bigger.

X2 on the Killer looking house and shop. You never can go too big. I'm in the same boat but smaller 30X30 way too small.

That is beautiful country out there. Never made it as far south as Klamath. But I did spend about 9 weeks in the Corvallis area. Did the coastal drive a few times and got to do some local smallmouth fishing on the Williamette and at Cottage Grove. Back in the late 90s. It was great. Hope to go back some day.

Back to the build

[Diggerdan11]

Well it has been a crazy last few months. I have been working on my House non-stop so I have not had anytime for my truck. There is a huge life change in my future and I have to get my house ready to sell ASAP. So that has been taking all of my time.

Anyway I have made a little more progress on my truck.

I have the interior almost stripped clean, just need to removed the rest of the HVAC system, and hide all the wires. We are not going to remove the wires, but I think we are planning on replacing the entire wire harness eventually.
And in case your wondering what is on the floor of the truck, well thats spaghetti noodles. I found them in the HVAC system, must have been from pack rats.



removed the Gas tank. We are buying a new one that goes under the bed.


Began removing smaller parts from the under the Hood, as well as the hood itself. We are planning on removing the engine and tranny as well, and we are going to re-paint them both.



Hopefully this weekend we will remove the front fenders, radiator core support, all the HVAC system and most of the smaller parts under the hood. My body guy wants us to leave ti so its rollable and steerable, so will will strip everything else we can.

[Diggerdan11]

Well my body and paint guy (bagged67chevy) came and picked her up this weekend. I cant wait to see how it turns out, then comes the long process of putting her back together again.

This is the color we went with. I guarantee you there is no other 67-72 Chevy this color and I can seem to find any non-BMW's in this color, so its going to be very unique.

[Diggerdan11]

yeah hopefully there isn't any hidden rust we have not found yet, but if there is oh well we will get it fixed.

Im not worried too much about the AC i just wish it would have had less parts missing. But oh well. The plan right now is to get it so its nice enough to drive around, and in the future I may look into going back to AC and mayb others things like custom seats, new engine, etc...

[Blown06]

Nice project, hopping onboard for updates.

[Diggerdan11]

Well there has been some progress in the paint and body work.



While I am waiting for the rest of the truck to get finished. I have been cleaning, sanding, and re-painting some of the underhood parts.

[cooperhw]

Originally Posted by Diggerdan11

Well there has been some progress in the paint and body work.



While I am waiting for the rest of the truck to get finished. I have been cleaning, sanding, and re-painting some of the underhood parts.

Don't forget that those hood hinges are held in one position when the springs are in place. Meaning that when you move the hood either up or down they are going to have areas that have no black paint on them. That's how my Chevelle is now. Didn't think about it until the hood was back on and all aligned. If I had those I would pop those springs off and take the hinges through their range of motion making sure that the primer is covered no matter if the hood is open, partial open, or closed.

[Diggerdan11]

Sorry for the late replies

Originally Posted by Mac93

Looks good. Were you able to find parts to complete your AC? Looks like a pretty good truck to start with. Keep us updated when you can.

Ive decided to just go with an aftermarket AC system. THe heater was not working either so I figured it would be easier to rip it all out and start from scratch with an aftermarket kit.

Originally Posted by cooperhw

Don't forget that those hood hinges are held in one position when the springs are in place. Meaning that when you move the hood either up or down they are going to have areas that have no black paint on them. That's how my Chevelle is now. Didn't think about it until the hood was back on and all aligned. If I had those I would pop those springs off and take the hinges through their range of motion making sure that the primer is covered no matter if the hood is open, partial open, or closed.

Thanks for the advice, I did not even think about that. I did a really good job trying to to get into every crack, but it may be a good idea to take the spring off and check.

[Diggerdan11]

Well its been a while since I have updated this build. The painting is a slow process since my friend who is doing the painting is really busy, and is doing the work for me on the side when he has time. He is gettign closer to delivering it to us, and Im getting super excited.

Here is a little teaser:

[Blown06]

Looking good.