Dunce's 61 SWB Custom

[dunce79]

Just picked this up a month or two ago. The wife had a really nice 66 Nova but has been wanting a pickup since I did my 58 Fleetside. So we sold the Nova and will be making this a street beast. Want to keep some of the Patina but I'm not into the super ratty stuff.. It can look a little ratty but needs to be built really well. We'll see where the project takes me.

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum

Those '60-'61's with all the custom trim intact are hard to find, especially in a shortbed.

Keep us posted with your progress

[Bomp]

Nice little truck.
I'm in.

[dunce79]

Ditched the photobucket account so starting over, I'll post up the originals and then I have some updates.

[dunce79]

Picked up a few things before the doing much work. Old school license plate, spear for the trim to replaced a smashed one on the truck. (The rest of it was in pretty good condition really), another tailgate since the original is a bit too far rusted for my taste. Cab roof and another hood to cut patches out of and oh..... just a little LS3 from a wrecked Camaro with less than 20k on it : ).

[dunce79]

Started sheet metal repairs... My goal is to keep as much of the original "patina" as I can and try to fake the areas I've had to repair. I'm not into big rust holes etc so everything needs to be solid. The baby blue color will go and get replaced with an off white I think. Will be interesting trying to fake that but I'll have to play around with that... and it that doesn't work out, I'll strip it and we'll do something else. Its a bit more work fixing things this way but the hoods are rare and the aftermarket fenders are crap so if I can fix the original parts I feel like I'm ahead.







https://imgur.com/OZw5nlB

[dunce79]

[dunce79]

[dunce79]

[dunce79]

[dunce79]

scored a V8 hood emblem and started work on the fenders.

[dunce79]

Blasted the back sides of all the panels and some misc parts then hit them with sealer and tore the rest of the truck down to get the cab/frame blasted and see if there was anything left ; ). Doors aren't terrible. Just minimal rust repair needed on the very bottom and a little of the skins. My grille surround is pretty bad but since I'm looking to keep the patina, it must be fixed.

Floors were pretty bad..rockers are toast, toeboard swiss cheese, lower cowls garbage. Someone had done previous rocker repair by slipping a new one over the old and riveting it in, then slopping on what seems like roofing tar. Complete mess!

[dunce79]

Some repairs on the other fender. Cab and frame back from blasting. New blaster guy couldn't lift either so I'll have to go back and hit what he could not.

[dunce79]

Repairing the grille surround























Purchased a one piece door glass kit.

[dunce79]

Fixing rust in the passenger door jamn and roof corner. Blasted bottom of cab and rest of frame.

[dunce79]

Passenger floor, rocker, braces, toe board and firewall.



Check out whats left of this body bolt? Reuse you think? ; )









































Performabuilt 4l60e (700HP rated) showed up : ).

[dunce79]

Direct Sheet Metal toe boards and some firewall panels... I forgot where I picked those up at. Started work on the other side. Ugh.



















Direct sheet metal high hump panel kit:

[dunce79]

Getting close to done on the driver side floor/toeboard/rocker/firewall







Made a little boo boo and cut my replacment rear floor panel much to short... DOH

[SkinnyG]

Thank you so much for detailing and sharing all your work!!

[Captainfab]

Very nice sheet metal work!

[60short]

yes, thank you for detailing your process- like most of us - i have the same rust, and its awesome to see how other people are patching!

[x33d80]

Great work man! Bravo! Excellent metal working skill! ��

[LostMy65]

More than I could have ever imagined taken on.
Amazing work!

[350TacoZilla]

I wish I was half as good at body work as you are lol. Great looking work man.

PS- I probably wouldn't reuse the body bolt, looks like one of those new fangled torque to yield bolts.

[dunce79]

Thanks for the feedback. I got my feet with with this stuff on my first build, my bare metal 58 is up on here somewhere.

Updates...

-almost done with the trans tunnel. way more clearance than I'll need I'm sure but me likey. Tried to utilize some of the factory seams so it kinda looks like it belongs.
-Finished the passenger side floor repairs by getting the floor braces in there. Man the rear cab braces I bought are totally off, both of them needed rework to even come close to fitting. Front ones were good though.
-driver side cab corner repaired
-did a little work on the center of the firewall. With an LS I figured no need for such a high center there and I thought it looked better with a thicker section there.
-I'm was going to fill the cowl vents but then decided the patina on that part is just too cool to lose so I think what i may do is make some removable covers for the wiper arm access areas so keep air/rain out. Water can just drain down the sides of the cowl if its ever in the rain.