'64 rustbucket longbed former farm truck

[Improbcat]

I've had this truck & been on here since 2012, so I should probably start a build thread. I'm going to try and quickly catch up from when I bought it to now, then try and keep up with the massive rust repair I'm currently doing.

The truck is a 1964 longbed absolute base-model truck. The only option seems to be deluxe heat(which makes sense given it lived in New Hampshire). It is bone stock with a 230 and 3-speed.

My plan is a mild custom that is still very usable since I am restoring a 100+ year old house.




The truck as-bought, just before we drove it 2.5 hours home.


New radial tires to replace the terrifying bias-plys, and wheels repainted white.


I patched the rotted floor edge, and temporarily attached a replacement outer rocker to hide the rest of the rot, this is all goign to get re-done soon.

[Improbcat]

Installed a Mr Gasket 7667 shifter as the column shift linkage was completely worn out. Final tweaking put it a few inches further forward where it was out of the way of the bench seat even fully forward.


Since the center floor is fine, I ground the little surface rust, coated the floor in Masterseries anti-rust paint, then truck bedliner and finally some Second Skin sound deadener.



Found a bench seat on craigslist for $100, power washed it and installed it. It did wonders for the look of the interior.


Bolted a $5 flea market tool box into the bed to hold tiedown straps and such.


Cut the bottom of the fender off and discovered all the original bracketry had been hacked out by someone doing prior rust repair. Decided I needed all the factory floor pieces so I could fix this properly.

[1963c-10]

Welcome and great looking truck!!!

[Improbcat]

The plans for this truck is a mild custom.

I'm looking for a good GMC dual-headlamp grille, and have a set of '50 Pontiac tail lamps that I'm looking to replace the stock tail lamps with.




The paint job plan is a dark hunter green with cream roof/grille/bumpers/wheels. Then copper scallops on top of that.

I'll be lowering the truck some, but not enough that it can't haul loads or handle the occasional dirt road.

I'd love to find a driver's side spot light.

[TJ's Chevy]

Looks good! Are you keeping the straight 6? Looks like it'll be a cool truck!

[Improbcat]

Found someone getting rid of parts from a project that stalled. Bought a less rusty hood, a roof clip to repair my dented roof & mashed drip rails, and a pretty much everything to fix the rocker & fender mounts.



Now that the weather isn't bitterly cold every day, I'm pulling the truck apart to fix the sheet metal rust in hopes of getting paint on the truck this year.


Getting stuff off was interesting thanks to stuck/rusted bolts. I seemed to average 1 snapped bolt for every 3-4 removed bolts.




There is rot everywhere, I'm going to see how much I can fix myself before buying any additional parts.


The inner fenders had been "patched" with pop riveted sheet metal & roofing tar. These are my first project. I cut out the bad metal, set up the metal bender conveniently at hand and started patching. I'm using 18 ga here to make it nice and strong, so the step-flange isn't level, I'll use a different gauge where it shows on the outside so stuff is cleaner.








That is far as I got before I ran out of shielding gas for the welder. Hopefully I'll have a warmer evening this weeks so I can get more work done.

[Improbcat]

Drivetrain is going to stay 6-cyl & 3-spd for now. I'd love an overdrive 3-spd or a 5-spd, but only if I can do it fairly cheap.

[Improbcat]

Have a sore throat and can't talk, which means I couldn't go to work. Since I don't need to talk to work on the truck I got some more welding done. A few more patches and this corner is as done as possible until I pull the radiator support. It is a bit ugly and there is more grinding to do(and a few ugly welds to re-do) but it is nice and solid now.
Progress is chugging along. I'm going to do the same spot on the other side next, then I can pull the radiator support and start welding patches into that. I think I can salvage the inner fenders & rad support since they are mostly flat parts that need patches. The front panel is going to be a lot harder, but at $329 to replace it I'm going to at least try. The front fenders are really rough, I might try and locate some fenders with a good front half and splice together
a good set of fenders.

[64chevtruck]

Oh man nice truck! Im in love with your steering wheel, Keep pics coming pls.

Ty

[rusty76]

Good looking truck!

[Bomp]

Along for the build.
You've got a nice truck to work on and practice sheet metal work to increase your skills.
looking good
Sub'd

[Improbcat]

In the continuing adventures of my rotted out '64 Chevy truck. Today's plan was to get the front of the passenger inner fender repaired enough that I no longer need the core-support in for reference. As a reminder, this is what I started with.




First patch went in.




Second patch went in.




Third & fourth patches went in.




Then I started fabricating the end of the fender mounting flange.





The corner all welded up. As before, once the radiator support comes off I'll be finishing up the grinding and re-doing some of the crappier welds as I'll be able to reach them easier.




Also made some unpleasant new discoveries under the passenger fender.

[rusty76]

Doing good work. Keep it up.

[RANDY COX]

I started once to weld up my inner fenders too, they actually make a patch panel for that, but there about 70.00 bucks for the pair.... I thought I had rust issues...

[TJ's Chevy]

Good job on the patch work! Looks good!

[Improbcat]

As I noted before, my grille panel looks like this:




I was dreading trying to fix that, and I was also looking for a GMC dual-headlight grille. A solution for both these problems came in the form of a grille & panel together that t korinek was selling.



For $235 shipped form AZ I got a rust free & fairly straight assembly that is cheaper than a new grille panel alone. It will need some cleanup & dings fixed, but it is miles better than what I had.



The only real issues are the missing outer buckets, a dent above the right headlamps, and a bullet hole next to the right outer headlamp. Honestly the bullet hole may stay, as it is pretty cool looking.





I'm not sure yet what will replace the GMC letters(PS if anyone needs them let me know). I have seen some people use a Buick grille piece there, but I would really love to fine a set of Chevrolet letters that are the right size so it looks kind of stock.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention, I asked if he could send me the mounting hardware, and offered to kick in some extra $$. He said he didn't have the original bolts but would throw in some spares for free. What showed up was 30+ original style bolts already stripped of rust & paint. He's a really nice guy.

[Improbcat]

Bought a dented fender at the Stafford swap meet this weekend. The dent sucks, but it is completely rust-free, and the only place my fender*doesn't* have rust is where this one has the dent. So I'm hoping be able to make one good fender from two.





Also finally got the radiator support out. Snapped one of the mount support bolts. I'm currently trying to decide between buying a new mount kit for $33 or new mount rubbers for $8 and modifying a normal bolt to work in the mount. Going to depend on how intact the other washers, etc. for the mount are.






No rot surprises on the frame, thank god.

[Bomp]

Some good rust free fenders there. Time to practice hammer and dolly.

[Improbcat]

Originally Posted by Bomp

Some good rust free fenders there. Time to practice hammer and dolly.

Sadly that fender is way beyond saving by me with a hammer & dolly. The whole bottom front section is twisted & several body lines are smashed. Someone with way more skill than me might be able to rescue it, but I'd just make a bigger mess of it.

[1963c-10]

Nice work on the rust repairs....some of the panels are just going to be easier to replace if the cost is right. Keep up the updates!!!

[aggie91]

Nice work so far. That's alot of rust but your thought process to repair them as opposed to replacing depending on cost is good.

I'll have to watch this one thru to the end.

[Improbcat]

Haven't been able to get anywhere near the garage time I want due to various other obligations and a low-grade cold that seems to want to sap all my energy.

Did find time to start fixing a screwup I found after I'd pulled the radiator support.



I didn't notice that my welding had warped the second patch downwards on the passenger side. It is significant enough that the bolt hole for the rad support would be too close to the top to actually get a bolt in.



The fender flange also has a similar bend.



I ground & cut the welds along the side, bent the whole thing upwards, and tacked it in the right place. There is now a gap along that edge, so re-welding it will be a delight.



Much closer now. The outer corner is still a bit low, but I should be able to fix that with some hammer work once the inner fender comes off.



Wednesday was our regular weekly gaming night, I got our gaming friends to help me remove the hood so I can finish dis-assembling the inner sheetmetal.

[Improbcat]

Had a few hours this weekend, and got a surprising amount done on the truck.

Pulled the inner fenders and, for once, found no new rot surprises waiting for me(I already knew about the rot on the edge of the cab toeboard).






Also pulled the front bumper. Tally was 3 snapped bolts, and 4 that needed to be cut off and 1 that actually came out intact. With this I am finally done with the major dis-assembly of the front end. In theory it will all be repairs and re-assembly from this point. Of course this means I will need to start buying parts for said re-assembly.


Welded up the front of the passenger inner fender. Don't know what this was supposed to look like as mine is completely gone, so went with something that looked right. Still need to measure & re-drill the two bolt holes.




Then I drilled out the spot welds for the bracket that supports the battery tray so I could fix some rust caused by crud trapped between it and the inner fender. I think the spot weld cutter is my new favorite tool.




The offending rust holes, you can see welding slag from my attempts to patch it without removing the bracket.


New patches welded in, for some reason I could no get a decent pic of these. I think all the shiny metal confused my camera.




Also cut off the nut on the bracket that had a snapped bolt stuck in it and welded in a replacement.


Next up, the rust on the rear of the panel.

[Improbcat]

Spent the morning at the junkyard getting headlight buckets for the GMC grill. Snapped a few pics while I was there.







I was able to find what I wanted, even if the guy at the counter wanted an arm & a leg for them. They'll need some cleaning up but aren't rusted out.



Once I got home I decided I was tired of welding, so I worked on something else for a change. Ground down the surface rust on the bits of the frame I could easily reach now that the sheetmetal was off the nose. Also ground down the rust on the firewall, scuffed & degreased everything in perpetration for some paint.






There is still rot to be dealt with on the firewall edges, but if I paint everything but that area I will be able to do some re-assembly before I get to fixing the rot.



I also sanded down & rattle-canned the heater box semi-gloss black. This is just to make it presentable until I get around to tearing it down and rebuilding it with new gaskets, motor, & core.



The truck with the frame & firewall freshly painted gloss black. I used tractor enamel in hopes of getting good durability. I went with black on the firewall as I don't know the final shade of green I'll be using. This way I only have to make the firewall match the other engine compartment sheetmetal and not the exterior color.




The frame came out great. However despite looking good in pictures, the firewall has a lot of runs & brush marks. I have to let it dry for a few days anyway, and I figure at that time I'll decide if I'm going to leave it, fix it or cover it with something like bedliner.



(steering column bits will be semi-gloss black, master cylinder will be cast grey)

[Improbcat]

I've been digging into the rust & former repairs to this cab, and have discovered it is a disaster area. The rockers are rotted out, and what is there is mostly badly done former patches. I've discovered the old patches go much further up than I thought, and are largely badly put in. Add that to the roof damage and this thing is a wreck from top to bottom.

Trying to decide where to go next. My options are:
A)spend a lot of time & money fixing it the "right way" and likely still have a cab that isn't perfect just because of the degree of issues,
B) fix it "quick & dirty" and make the repairs solid & safe but don't even try to make it "right". This option gets the truck back together fastest but gives the worst result.
C)Get another cab. Easier said than done in New England where all the trucks are rusty. So probably going to mean a long hunt and/or a lot of money spent.

I'm currently leaning towards "B", and keeping most of the repair panels I bought for repairs to any future better cab I may come across that is more workable.

Thoughts? I can take pics of what I've found if people are curious.