'69 GMC Build Thread.

[samwise68]

Well. time for an update.

i got my sheetmetal! w00t!

i was on the way to visit my girlfriend when my mom called, saying that a UPS guy had just struggled and awkwardly put a very large box with LMC Truck on it, on our picnic table in front of the house. let me tell you, i was half tempted to turn around and go back home to see my parts. haha.

so i now have rockers, inner rockers, cab corners, locking gas cap, and door sill's.


they forgot to put my bed bolt kit and rocker plugs in the box however, so i have to call back monday when the shippers are in, i guess? -shrug-. they were good about it saturday morning.

i also send out a money order for a set of headers (Thanks Teeitup (Randy)). and those should be on the way soon and such.

however,

i haven't gotten much of anything done this weekend.

Saturday was cutting a few trees down and slowly accumulating firewood, followed by minor repairs on some of the family cars with Dad.

Sunday was welding the front end loader up on a neighbors backhoe. a 4 hour job for my dad and i...talk about tedious. but! it was a nice change. i almost forgot what it was like to run a nice bead on thick metal...haha.

and thats about it.


this week should prove to be productive, or atleast i'm hoping.

i need to finish fabbing up some sort of inner fender for the bed yet, just to keep junk and water from splashing too far up on the side, i guess. lol.

then a few patches, just to cover some holes in the floor and sills to make it solid-esque. and hit it with some paint to slow the rust. and..that should be it for the underside.

then it'll be flipping it back over, and stripping, smoothing, primer, paint..etc.

all while dismanteling the rest of the truck to get rid of rust with my fresh sheet metal, and then smooth, prime paint...etc etc.

and while the front clip is off for the new fenders, i'll cleean up the engine bay as much as i can in a short period of time, a splash of paint, put the headers on, and strap it all back together for paint and tags.

followed by the most important step.

ENJOY IT! drive and haul and haul and drive. and just like having an old truck.

so. thats where she sits now.

stay tuned!

it's about to get interesting...lol.

-Sam.

**EDIT**

i decied to post a pic of the stuff that i've accumulated in my bed room in preperation of body work.



there's Oliver Green tractor paint, along with patching red oxide primer, and same style white, and hardener. a can of Bondo. a spray can of rust convertor, a spray can of undercoating, a gallon of paint thinner, mixing cup, and cheese cloth. this doesn't include tools and such that are in the garage...just the stuff thats special and stays in the bedroom with me. hah.

okee, later days.

-Sam.

[samwise68]

good news!

the bed to frame bolt kit and my rocker panel plugs will be here before the end of the week! so, yay to LMC.

plus. I sent out my headers money order.

so. things are falling into place.
just as soon as i get my ass in gear and get to patching and welding some more. gah.

i'm hoping to have it on the road for a mid august camping trip.

...we'll see.

-Sam.

[1LoC10]

lookin good... i would have left the sign on the bed though..lol

[samwise68]

lol, i COULD have...it probably would have been alot easier for me, along with being interesting to the truck.

but. what the hell. hah.

thanks for the kind words!

-Sam.

[drivethechevy]

good job on savin the original sheet metal and not just buyin a replacement
i bought a 68 chevy in very simmilar condition with a similar back story
mine however is a 292 iline 6 th350 one wheel wonder nad its a 3/4 ton but its futer once the repairs r done is to be my daily driver parts getter for my other trucks, ive already pulled home a 69 and a 70 with it from a neighbor
thank god for welders and sheetmetal

[samwise68]

Amen to that!

it's a real downer to live up here in the middle of the rust plague, especially when it comes to replacing sheet metal. then we see those southern guys with their dry climate and pristine metal...yeah.

i figure we have enough extra trucks with solid bits of metal sitting out back...and it's all around the same gauge..i'll save some money, and give those old beasts a purpose instead of just rotting away. for instance, i just took the hood off a '64 GMC thats out back, and am using that for patches at the moment.

god, these trucks are an addiction...and i haven't even started to drive it yet! lol.

-Sam.

[Longhorn Man]

Sam... you should see what the guys in Cali will junk and call rust buckets... if you can see rust, or stick your finger through a small rust hole, it is WORTHLESS to them. (talkin So-Cal) Fleetside Paul has a nice 90% original truck that is virgin by our rustbelt standards, but it is next to worthless out there due to needing a small patch in the floor. I was drooling over his 'rust bucket" ell evening this past sunday.

[samwise68]

haha...wow.

i was all sorts of excited when i found out that there were only some fairly small tire inspection holes in the floor pan of this truck, let alone being semi solid, with just surface rust.

oh surface rust. how i love thee more than ordinary cancerous rotting destructive rust...:P

-Sam.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Wow, great job on the metalwork! That's a truck I would have had to pass on!

You asked about the 67 not having markers.... well, your filling in holes everywhere else... why not weld up the markers in the back too?

[BigSky71]

Great work! You are attacking it full steam ahead, very commendable!

[samwise68]

hmm..you raise an excellent point about the side markers. haha.

now it's just a matter of if i get the ambition to actually do it. needless to say, it's not high on my list of things to do...however. it'll end up bugging me that it's lopsided with none in front and some in back..sooo...it just might end of getting done.

thanks for the kind words all, your comments are priceless when it comes to motivation and keeping the fire lit under my behind.

back to the garage!

-Sam.

[samwise68]

So.

I accomplished a bit more today.

however, this is where it gets to be not so proper, nor pretty. haha.

needless to say, the inner fender between the wheel well and the wheel arch on the bed was..well..non existant. so. i cut some metal after making a pattern using some paper and rubbing a crayon to over then high spot to get the rough idea of the patch. cut that out. welded it in, along with a few other small patches. and sprayed it with rust convertor, and caulked the seam to try to prevent too much junk from finding it's way up there.





i welded in a piece of cross sill on the bed as well, but the batteries in the camera died, so...no pics of that. which isn't necessarily a bad thing...lmao.

so. thats where it stands now.

tomorrow the girlfriend has off, so i'm spending the day with her. the truck will have to wait. haha. thursday should prove to be productive, and i hope i can finish up the other wheel well a bit, since it's not so bad. and that should almost conclude the underside of the box.

i also looked into Evercoats Metal-to-Metal filler, to go ove some of the areas where i can't weld, due to thinness of the metal. ugh. so..more rust converter and perhaps some of this water resistance filler will be the ticket. we'll see.

well, let's hear it. haha.

-Sam.

[samwise68]

No pics for now, but i did finish up the other inner fender on the bedside. it wasn't too bad, by my standards, haha. it's not pretty, but hopefully it'll be effective.

i also fabbed up something resembling the little metal mud flappy looking guard shield...thing, since it was absent. once again, pretty? no. effective? lets hope.

pretty much the motto for this truck is Function Uber Alles. I want it to be solid, reliable, and if it can look good (which lets face it..it's hard fopr these trucks NOT to..) so much the better.


o!

and i did my first burnout with her this afternoon. it's a bit different with the one wheeled wonder and 3.07's than the limited slip 4.56's...but...she smoked that one tire pretty damn good. once again, no pics. not that it was worthy. however, i have a feeling it'll happen again.

and we just got 7 inches of rain here..soo..i'm pretty much done for the night as far as progress goes.

lets hear it!

-Sam.

[samwise68]

once again, a picture-less post. i need to upload the ones i took tonight. but, i'm beat tired, so it'll have to wait. haha.

as far as progress, well, started to dismantle the cab to start on the lower sheet metal and all that nonsense.

pulled up the what looks like original rubber floor mats, and insulation, to find a good sized tire inspection hole...area...type thing. kind of a downer, since i had high hopes. haha.

then took the seat out, which was going swimmingly, until the last bolt on the back inside drivers side decided that it wanted a round head, instead of a hex head. so, that was quite a hold up. ended up brinding the backing nut off, and i'll just have to weld a new one on...not a big deal.

then, attempted to unbolt the seat belts. that was a complete and utter failure. backing nuts didn't come loose...nor did the heads round..but rather, it was so rusty that the plates the nuts were welded to decided to spin off. yeahh. not lookin' so good is it? the same thing happened when trying to get the bottom gas tank bolts out - backing nuts broke loose.

so, needless to say, tomorrow if i get a chance, is going to be a day of begging someone to spin a wrench, while i hold the other side, or vice versa. heh.

and thats about it.

curse the Rust Belt I say!

pics to come soon...not that it's going to look good...lol.

-Sam.

[samwise68]

as promised! pics!


and the cab work begins...


after pulling the floor mat, i discovered that.

and i thought my repairs were out there...sheesh...
cab corners repaired with shingles. yes, shingles.




damn rust...


so, thats about where it stands.

i did a little bit of work between the cab mounts, and made that a alot more solid. not correct, but solid. i'll take pics tomorrow, along with more progress i hope to make on the floor.

anddd...thats about it.

it's nothing i can't handle.

....i hope. haha.

let's hear it, whatcha think?

-Sam.

[samwise68]

well.

a little more done today.

plated and braced and all that fun back cab work.

just more patches.

pics...sometime. haha.

hopefully something more fun than this will come up....

oh! headers here wednesday!

hah, i know i'd think of something.

-Sam.

[samwise68]

nah hah! progress!

cut out the old floor junk.


and the hole that remains.


annndddd the patch! that i stole from my previous project truck. haha, oops...


and i have most of it all welded up.

i also turned my welder up a bit, instead of using it on "low-low" with a wire speed of around 5.5-6, i put it on "low-high", and am using around 6-7.
it seems to get better penetration, obviousley, along with not being weak goober bird**** welds. so, i'm pretty happy about that.

i also got my headers from Teeitup. they arrived wednesday, and today i wire wheeled them down, and hit them with some hi-temp paint.




...after painting, i realized it said that it should be baked on at 650 degrees fahrenheit, or run on the vehicle for an hour. welllll...both of those were out of question. sooo...we'll see how it turns out. if nothing else, it'll look good for a bit. haha.

okee guys.
lets hear it!

-Sam.

[samwise68]

For the sake of continuity, and keeping the thread up to date (not meaning to double post or anything....)

the hubcaps i just procured off of e-bay!



and shall now wait for them to arrive.

as far as an update, the floor pan is almost completely welded in, i just have a few small section left to bead over and such. and hopefully before the weekend is over, i can get an inner rocker on or something...we'll see.

thats about it.

-Sam.

[samwise68]

alright, i've been fairly busy.

i finished the floor pan, it beaded over pretty nice, and i'm happy the way it turned out.

then, planned on starting on the passenger side rocker. well, got it all cut out, but then realized that i couldn't get to the front for the pillar. and i don't want to take the doors off (i know, kinad dumb, but then i can keep checking to make sure i have a good fit on the rockers). so, i started to pull the front fenders.

which lead to this.



and this.



the hood, both front fenders, and inner fenders are off. as well as the cowl, antenna, and wiper arms.

at the time, i didn't really feel like welding, so i continued to clean and such. and ended shop vac-ing the cowl out. well, the vaccuum couldn't suck out this.



yeah. leaves, pine needles, carpet, acorns...etc etc. i got most of it out, but theres still some that i need to weasle out.

and. just because i thought it was neat that my washer fluid bottle and bracket were still intact.



and thats where she stands right now.

it's getting close to some real progress starting...i hope. hah.

lets hear it.

-Sam.

[samwise68]

well, have been working a bit more on the cab.







the rocker turned out pretty good, in my opinion. i'm really glad i left the door on to check the fit. the door slides right into place and latches well, and the cab is even fairly consistent. a bit off, but good enough for my purpose. haha. plus, i can always tweak the door, if i wanna be all perfectionist like.

but yes. thats where she stands now.

hopefully i'll get some more done this week.

stay tuned!

-Sam.

[samwise68]

today was another successful day in the ol' garage.

i got the passenger side rocker boxed in and all that under-cab goodness.

so i moved over to the driver side for a bit.

started out ratchet strapping the cab, to make for a decent fit.



and went along tacking and adjusting, thanks to the door being left on.

and this is how it turned out.





i'm more than satisfied with the way it turned out, since the gap between the rocker and door is consistent, and nicely thin.

woohoo!

so, thats where she stands now. i just have a bit by the vent and toe board to patch, and then it's on to the cab corners and that nasty mess of sheetmetal. yeah...


and in other news!

my hub caps came today.

and, they were rusty, as advertised. but they weren't in real bad shape, at all.



i'm looking forward to cleaning them up and painting them stock - it should add a pretty nice touch to the truck, in my opinion.

and thats about it for now.

after the cab work is done, i'm going to reward myself by bolting the headers on, and firing it up to listen to that open rabble of my little tree-oh-seben.

lets hear it guys.

-Sam.

[samwise68]

some more work done so far today.

started on the cab corner. so. i chopped it out.





then i cut my patch panel to match.



...or so i thought. i didn't take into account the difference in outside corners...or something. i dunno. but, regardless. she was a bit off.

so, i did the best i could with where it sat. and ended up with this.



i have a small gap to fill in, but i'm not real concerned about that.





i'm sure most of my problems were operator error..but...we'll blame the patch panel. haha.

all i have left is to weld in that little patch, and knock the beads down a bit. soo. yeah.

it's gettin' there.

well, lets hear it!

-Sam.

[raggedjim]

Sam, you're making some real progress there. I am doing the same thing as we speak (well, as I type!) and it can be frustrating. I'll bet I've pulled my doors off and on 3 times so far!

Keep at it and you'll get it done.

I guess I need to start a build thread on here soon...

Rg

[samwise68]

thanks for the kind words Roger.

yeah, it can be a real pain to do the rockers and line everything up. this is the second pair i've done, so luckily i have some experience. still, theres no better feeling that pushing the door, and watching it slide right in and latch solidly. and then looking down and noticing a nice even gap at the bottom.

ah progress. it's a beautiful thing.


and as for the build thread...yes! you should! but be warned, they can get kind of addicting, espeically when you like to type and post a lot of pictures like me. haha.

i look forward to seeing your ride in a thread...soon!

-Sam.

[raggedjim]

Sam, here's a before shot just to tease you.

Rg