A 1969 Chevy for Her

[RckyMntnKng]

Hey guys figured I should start a build thread on the new project.

Up until now, all my time has been spent in the 69-72 Blazer/Jimmy forum as I spent a couple years worth of weekends building up my 71 Jimmy.

Well the wifey ended up catching the bug and persuaded me to turn wrenches on a pickup for her.

Out of the blue this 69 Chevy sorta falls in my lap as a trade for one of our other rigs and she loves it immediately.

The story goes - Its been sitting in a field unregistered since 2002..the carb is laying in the floorboard and the tank is sitting upside down in the back of the bed along with a 700R4 because it was planned for a fuel injection swap at some point that never materialized. It used to be a pretty hot truck with some coin put down but some undesirables poured Brake fluid on the paint and ruined it. Then the family, kids, work came along and the dream got pushed to the back burner (field) and almost re-emerged a few times in the form of fuel injection parts etc but just never came to be....

So now she decides to take it on and it shows up on a flatbed trailer in my driveway about a week later....

[RckyMntnKng]

The PO kept the 700R4 but claims the truck has a 350/350 with 30k miles on a nice rebuild. Driveway inspection of the Vin claims its a 69 C10 2wd with a 6cyl and a 4 spd....But my eyes tell me something different. It has locking hubs, and Corp 10 bolt front, 14bff rear and a 203 transfer case thats been converted to part time 4wd. The motor is an 8 cylinder...and the carb in the floor is a 800cfm quadrajet with a 1982 stamping. Pretty cool wood bed but its shot..

[RckyMntnKng]

So the deal is she gets to dream it the way she wants without me butting in unless asked for advice...and I turn wrenches and drink beer. So far so good...

First thing is ordered up a rebuild kit for the carb and got a couple gallons of dunk cleaner going. Man those are some big secondaries geeze - im used to playing with edlebrocks up until now but shouldnt be too big a task. Carb wasnt too dirty to start with really...800 cfm is gonna burn some gas on wot and wow the dam thing has electric choke

[RckyMntnKng]

Good deal on the carb...got her back together the next day after a good soak and polish and adjusted to the specs on the instructions.

Hmm what next....sitting unstarted for 10 years. Better pull all the hoses and vent lines for replacement because they are dry rotted beyond use, swap the plugs and wires, drain and refill the motor, heavy dose of mystery oil in each cylinder...

Ok so I find a huge 4 core radiator from a diesel or something and it needs taller mounts...fab up some risers from square tube check...needed an overflow bottle...new battery

[RckyMntnKng]

Next is the 14bolt and 10bolt need fesh oil and gaskets..so does the tranny with a new filter, and the 203 yeah it needs new as well. Trying to prep it for being good enough to try and start. The tank got sanded, cleaned, coated, painted and ordered some new straps, and a new sender. brought home like 50 feet of fuel hose and such with some new filters...

[RckyMntnKng]

Well im just gonna pull the bed all the way off and make this easier to swap the bed wood, tank, sender etc....grabbed a come-a-long and lifted it up in the garage and roller her out into the sun again.

I definately can tell someone has swapped frames now and built all different mounts...and its been shortened right behind the cab. Hmmmm turns out to be a 78 K20 chassis

[RckyMntnKng]

She picks out colors she wants and starts going to town on orbital and body work...this is a budget build for sure and is gonna get rattle canned for now until later maybe can do nice paint. still want to drive it and have it not rust away.

So in a similar to original fashion the choice on color combo is white and green..."eden semi-gloss" from you guessed it - Home Depot

[Tinkermc]

starting to shape up real nice

[RckyMntnKng]

Thanks!

Well here is a real surprise....

I kept finding things a little different as I got parts for the motor, carb etc....the plugs were different than whats called for on all the sbc truck motors ive played with. Different designation/Temp than a 69 C/K 350, and also different from a 78 C/K 350...and not even matching a 82 C/K 350...Going off the known years of cab, Chassis, Carb etc. The Carb had jetting / needles no where close to what the Rebuiild kit offered for the 82 options

The casting on the head front passenger side claims originally built in Flint Feb of 69 for a 350 Corvette. I dont know what to think other than it makes more sense considering the Rochester 800cfm carb, that although from a different year was actually setup true to the 69 Vette motor specs.. Further inspection reveals a HO oil pump, and 2500 stall converter. The Block Casting was 3970010 which could be a 69-79 car, truck or vette.

[RckyMntnKng]

Slowly but surely taking shape...

In search of a good deal for some wood to replace the rotten bed, we came across some very rough cut Alder on sale...Not a square edge to be had, but for $84 after taxs we decided to make a go of it. Its a softer variety of hardwood, but should perform as well as the pine did from the factory.

Ran up to my old mans place on a weekend and used his table saw and router bit to square it up the best I could and dado the grooves for the metal strips

[RckyMntnKng]

The metal shell of the bed is mid stream, but alot of the body work is to the point we can start replacing the wood...

Decided to try some white UV resistant Durabak that Ive seen on several off-road rigs. Its basically like Rhino liner except extremely UV and chemical resistant - Textured Body Urethane of sorts. 1 Gallon did 2 coats on the inside of bed, the back of the bed facing the cab, tops of the rails, and the rockers. needs touching up but appears to be great stuff.

[RckyMntnKng]

After some test strips and hemming and hawing - the decision was made to "stain" the bed wood to match or tie into the body colors - try and make it a bit unique and one of a kind.

Ran down to the local Sherwin Williams and picked up a quart of exterior paint matching the body color that I could use to thin out and rub in - thin enough the wood grain shows through and stands up. Also grabbed a gallon of top of the line UV resistant Urethane.

Here is how that is turning out - ended up with a 50/50 mix paint to water, applied in 2 thin evenly applied coats, and then 3 coats of Urethane with 200 grit sanding inbetween coats.

It looks pretty cool to me.

[RckyMntnKng]

Further Bed progress....

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by RckyMntnKng

Further Bed progress....

I wasn't sure about the green but man it looks good.