69 stepper-quick deck replacement!!!!

[sharpmark]

hi-been over a year since i posted and my truck has been performing well so i decided to give her a quick tidy up in the stepside as the piece of ply over the rotten boards had curled up badly in the sun.bought some nice pieces of nz pine the same widths as original and some decking oil and some new bolts/nuts similar to originals and thought i would take her off the road for a weekend and replace the wood.plan was to remove old wood,cut and test fit new pieces and then remove them and oil them overnite and refit next day ready for work monday.

[sharpmark]

small problem- with all the wood removed-found the crossmembers had alot of surface rust and really needed to be sanded and painted so went into town and bought some por15.could only buy a litre size tin so on return home thought i would use up the rest on the rear chassis as with the wood removed the stepper bed is just sitting there.

[sharpmark]

well-after painting rear of chassis rails, i thought i could do a better job if the diff and trailing arms etc were out,plus i had bought some lowered rear springs and wanted to fit them so out everything came!

[sharpmark]

i think you can probably see where this is leading!!!!!!!!!!

there was some surface rust on the firewall around the master cylinder and our 6 monthly inspection(warrent of fitness) is quite strict about this plus the battery box was rusty and underneath it on the inner guard was rusty and this was within 4 inches of a body mount (radiator support mount)-- another w.o.f no no, sooooooooooo I PULLED THE WHOLE TRUCK APART.
to be fair to myself i wanted to tidy up the paint and replace some worn parts eventually so this was a good excuse but as you can imagine my wife was not a happy camper. as you can see in some of the photos i already had alot on my plate with her model a pickup nearly on the road and our family oldsmobile getting a radiator replacement.the other main problem was no 2 daughter runs her business out of rooms next to my garage. shes a beauty therapist and her clients park outside her clinic and i had sort of promised to keep my car mess to a minimum.will only be a week or so!!!!!!!!!!

[gcburdic]

and the boards from NC, USA!!!

looks like ya got a nice herd of vehicles tucked in that garage....looking forward to seeing ya finish this one!!!...Better hurry though...I think a nice scolding is inevitable from the wife and daughter!!!

[sharpmark]

so the last 6 months has gone quickly and i've stripped the chassis down to bare rails painted everything with black por15 and reassembled back to rolling stage.also changed to power steering as the manual box kept leaking out the main seal even after i pulled it apart and replaced it-must have been worn on pitman shaft.installed new trailing arm bushes and removed rear x-member ready to install fuel tank back there.built a towing hitch to bolt on across back and give more strength and protection to fuel tank.haven't been able to find a blazer tank or other suitable one so am building my own out of 18 gauge panel steel and using the original sender and pickup.

[litew8]

welcome from Iowa! wow, you aren't messing around! like the flames on the hydraulic jack!

[doosekoop]

one thing leads to another , truer words have never been spoken!

does it have discs on the front...yet? i see the p/s is coming along!

I showed my wife and she said looks just like yours....pieces! gotta love em!!

Nice stuff , keep at it!!

[67chevy1series]

i love your truck whats the plans with the hub caps? those are awesome!

[sharpmark]

Originally Posted by 67chevy1series

i love your truck whats the plans with the hub caps? those are awesome!

had the 5 rims sand blasted and powdercoated black and will paint the hubcaps silver with red chevy insert and put back on.trying to keep everything pretty simple so i can abuse it as a dailydriver.i have too many shiney vehicles !

[67chevy1series]

haha cool!

[sharpmark]

now the chassis is nearly done-decided to have a quick tidy up of some rust issues.haven't done much bodywork but after studying alot of builds on here decided to jump right in.bought some tools and converted a waterpressure tank to an air tank to give more reserve air for air tools and painting in the future.

[sharpmark]

there was some bubbling in the inner headliner steel above the windshield so jumped in with the grinder and it got ugly real fast.there was alot of bog in there so ground it all out and started on the patch panels.should have known that problem was there as i'd had to put some sealer in along the driprail above that area when the pickup arrived from america.just going to take my time and if it needs some bog to tidy it up afterward so be it.

[sharpmark]

now that i'm a panel beater decided to tidy up the interior by hiding the stereo that was under the dash in behind the delete panel and making the gauges part of the dash and putting a gas tank filler in the old side marker lite area on the stepside guard.be aware i am blatently copying all this stuff from some of you clever buggas on here but i'm going to do it the cowcocky (nz dairyfarmer) way-ie roughly.also sent the seat into be recovered as their was a rip and a broken spring sticking into my butt.

[sharpmark]

some more progress over the last few months--man time flies by!!

[sharpmark]

more photos

[sharpmark]

more photos


making my own fuel tank for the rear
this is the panelsteel before folding




cut the sender unit hole out of the original tank to reuse in my new one

[68 TT]

So much for a quick bed wood replacement job. I hate when projects snowball like that.

Nice progress on all that work though.

I like the fuel filler door setup. I was thinking about that on mine but with a round filler door off of an 88-98 truck that I have sitting around.

[sharpmark]

Originally Posted by 68 TT

So much for a quick bed wood replacement job. I hate when projects snowball like that.

Nice progress on all that work though.

I like the fuel filler door setup. I was thinking about that on mine but with a round filler door off of an 88-98 truck that I have sitting around.

didn't plan on such a big job but glad i did as i uncovered and fixed alot of little problems that had annoyed me since i bought it and i never liked the colour from the start.
didn't have alot of choice on the fuel filler door as most of the jap car and vans at the local wreckers didn't have a flat surface on them and there are bugga-all american cars/trucks available as wrecks.
some more pics.
got the seat resprung and recovered



tidied up the heater boxes but when i opened my new heater replacement gasket set -annoyed to find the fan motor rubber gasket wasn't part of it and mines perished badly so will have to think of a suitable replacement-perhaps some draught stop material or something





the steering wheel and dash came up good with a bit of filler and canned spray paint.


and got the radiator recored as the old one was full of gundge.

[crittman]

Nice!!!!!

[68 TT]

I need that blower motor to fire wall seal too and haven't found a source for a new one.

I was thinking about using some type of trunk seal or door jamb seal glued in place. Possibly welding a lip to the housing so a pinch type seal could be used like one from a square body truck door jamb.

[67cheby]

WOW...and still now WOOD ?? LOL

[sharpmark]

68 TT
i ended up using 1/2 inch wide 1/2 thick foam with sticky backing sold as draught stop for around doors and windows-put 2 layers on and wrapped with black insulation tape and it looks like it will work and doesn't look too ugly and was cheep and available.
67cheby
your right about that- i thought i had a handle on how long it would take me and certainly didnt imagine taking this long!!
cheers mark

[sharpmark]

crikey- time flies by!!!!
some more progress at last




glad i painted it myself because i had some issues while fitting panels and with the wind blowing them onto the concrete while stored outside





made up new steel fuel line for the rear mounted fueltank



tidied up all the excess and loose and unwanted wires and retaped the looms.

[sharpmark]

added an extension to my radiator shroud to make it work right



then copied an idea off the best thread ever on here "its just a pickup"-(that man bruce is my hero)





then welded some small bolts on the back of the radio delete plate for an idea i hope works to hide my stereo???




did some more painting- more pics tomorrow nite