1967 Custom Sport Shop Truck

[70LonghornCST]

Keep up the great work. Subscribed.

[darkhorse970]

One of my favorite trucks on the forum already. I'm in for the changes.

[68Gold/white]

Look'n Good Billy Ray!!!
I like the fact that you are using an old school engine. LS engines are awesome (awesome in the fact that they are installed in just about everything from fords to dodges...LOL).
I hope to get one of mine on road w/ you!!!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by 68Gold/white

I like the fact that you are using an old school engine. LS engines are awesome (awesome in the fact that they are installed in just about everything from fords to dodges...LOL).
I hope to get one of mine on road w/ you!!!

The LS engines are awesome, but people don't realize how $$ the swap is until you "get into it," AND most of the people I talk to end up with motors/trans with 80K, 100K, even 150K+ miles on them. With my truck being "done" with the relocated fuel tank, 700R, A/C, everything is set up to "work" already. A GM crate 350 was by far the most economical choice for me, especially Jegs ridiculous price when I bought mine at $1,207 SHIPPED and delivered right into my garage... my only hope is that it's in the truck before the 3 year warranty runs out (it's been a year and a few weeks now...)

Now, if my truck was still an I-6, 3spd like it was back when I did the 350/700R swap in 2002, I would definitely do the LS swap today. Just too much time/$ into what I have now.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I took a break from my bathroom remodel today to play in the garage. It was almost 60 and sunny today... it's been 16 years and I still don't miss NY's weather...

So a little explanation... The bed looks great in pics, but it's not "without issues." I bought it from GCburdic (Geoff) and the body shop he had his truck done at told him it would cost significantly more $ to fix this bed than it would to but a brand new one, so he did, and I drug this thing home for like $300? Turns out the body shop was telling the truth...

The good. Aside from some poor attempts to weld up the 68 CST trim holes (half ass welds, banged in, then bondoed) the bed is very straight. Geoff had the bed stripped bare when I bought it, we actually went to sprawlmart and bought $10 in cheap $1 spray cans and sprayed it on my trailer It actually held up pretty well for the past 6 years.

The bad. It's got rust and I knew it. The area above the wheel wells is bad and on the DS lower rear needs to be replaced. Thankfully, hart_rod (rob) was out in NM at that time and chopped up one of those longbeds nobody cares about and shipped me the sections I needed.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Enough talk, picture time!

So, I'm one of those insanely lucky people that actually has a real deal 67... why the hell would I want to add side markers? Pffft... those babies gotta go!

So, you may be wondering why there are porcupine quills in my second pic? Well, I learned a lot of lessons welding today. See, I haven't picked up a welder in like 8 years and back then, I just did small patch work with it. These area wide somewhat flat, just begging to curve, panels.

Well, believe it or not, I did great with the welder. Took my time, spotted everything in, etc... I blew it with the flap wheel. I got so aggressive I warped the metal around my patch. Dumb ass, right? Anyway, it's not too bad, I should be able to get it almost completely out. So there's the lesson of the day kids! GO SLOW! DO NOT BUILD UP HEAT! You WILL warp stuff!

[67ChevyRedneck]

I tried to keep the cut as close to the curve as possible to avoid further warpage, but it turned out to be a difficult cut to replicate.

1. You can see the bondo squeezed out the backside. Unfortunately, with how these beds are made, if I hadn't seen this bed stripped this would have been a total surprise to me (as it was for poor Geoff.)

2 & 3. I banged out the bondo and chopped off the rusty backside to crate a template.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Who the heck makes cuts like this?

Don't worry, the rust looks a lot worse than what it really is. I'm also going to split the bedsides to take care of that once the patches are done...

[67ChevyRedneck]

The lucky donor!

[67ChevyRedneck]

My handiwork. It's not done yet, ran out of time for the day.

[67ChevyRedneck]

So I'll go ahead and show some more things I learned (screwed up).

When I prefit everything fit nice. I locked it down and started doing all my tacks, but by the time I got back to the left side... the bed didn't quite fit anymore. It was just a hair off, so I chose to slit it to relieve the stress in the bed. Worked like a charm. I was able to gently work it all back into shape and get it all tacked back down.

[67ChevyRedneck]

The left side was on purpose... I screwed up the right side. I was soooooooooo close to being fully done welding the right side completely I let one of my tack beads get too long... and yup... metal bubble. Damn it. It seemed like it would be difficult to work back flat so I chose to slice it to relieve the bubble stress. Worked out well again, the panel is back to flat... but I really need to stop making more work for myself...

I also need to find a place that will let me cut a fuel filler door off an 88-98 Silverado/twins, etc. I don't think the u pull places let you cut stuff.

[jakewalter]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

So, I'm one of those insanely lucky people that actually has a real deal 67.!

Where are you at with this?

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by jakewalter

Where are you at with this?

Same spot.

I got the seat in the truck, that's about it. I'm driving it regularly. I also got another 88-98 fuel door cut out for the bedside and a repair section from a long bed that I've been needing.

I fulfilled a dream and went on the Hot Rod Power tour with my wife and 1965 Mustang this year. We drove the entire tour, and to get there and back and do the tour we drove 3,424 miles total. I spent the months leading up to the tour working on the car almost non stop to get it ready The tour was the 2nd week of June. Then I had a family event in NY... Combined with all the time I took off, I got really behind at work and have been working weekends to get caught up.

Finally caught up. Hope to be working on the truck again soon as the mustang is 99% done (want to swap rear pumpkin from 2.8s to 3.25's.)

[summitflier]

subscribed

[67ChevyRedneck]

Teaser shots...

[67ChevyRedneck]

I started with the first pic, refined it with the help of my local truck club and this forum, to what's on the door in the 2nd pic, to what the final logo came out to be.

I had a little mishap with the stencil... the guy in my truck club that made them for me is making me another bottom set for the other side, as I jacked up the first one... lessons learned. Everything went much easier after the first set.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I got most of the PS completed, minus the drop shadows to add a little bit of hand done authenticity?

[67ChevyRedneck]

Since I wanted the truck to mimic what could have been a dealership truck back in the day... I came up with the tagline "Deals so good they should be against the law"... you know... cause Jesse James was an outlaw...

[67ChevyRedneck]

I got the DS mostly done today, but the missing letters I screwed up yesterday and the threatening rain slowed progress. I did get what was stenciled in the door and fender painted.

I also drop shadowed the PS fender. Look really cool in person and from 5+ feet away, you can't tell it's drop shadowed, but you can clear tell the letters "pop" off the truck more.

[67ChevyRedneck]

...and took her to a little photo shoot location I know of.

[67ChevyRedneck]

This still doesn't change my plans. I'm still doing the crate engine, wiring, 5 lug swap, drop, and FLEET BED, but I'm trying to be realistic on my timeline.

My job has become quite demanding (I've worked 6 of the past 8 weekends) and I need to finish quite a few projects around the house before a lot of my family (like 10 people) come down for Thanksgiving from NY. I have a camper I'm renovating to sell and some interior home projects to finish, then I'm pushing my firebird out of the garage to do the engine swap and build the fleet bed.

My immediate plans are to spend another weekend or so "prettying" up the truck. I ordered a new back window and seal, so I plan on respraying the top next weekend (it looks terrible now!) I bought a set of 65 fender emblems, cab divider trim, CST nose trim (plan to respray the nose white too), CST door emblem, and a few other little things, just to finish up the "cool" factor so I can work on the other stuff for a while.

But hey... at least my Mustang is DONE! That thing took up A LOT of my time the past 2 years!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Man... not gonna lie... I'm a little disappointed... not one comment on the shop truck theme? It seems to be a big hit locally. Was it the Mustang pics? Sorry about that, but proud of that build too... kinda... stuff keeps breaking on it... damn Fords...

I decided to put some time/$ into the truck before a friends wedding that it's supposed to be in the first weekend in October. The top looks like crap so I started cleaning out the rails and removed the back window for the first time in 48 years. Wasn't too happy with what I found, but I kind of expected it too.

There was only one little hole at first, but then that grew to 4, and there's probably another 4 or 5 spots I want to drill out and weld back in.

I also saw the trucks original colors for the first time since I bought it 18 years ago. All white exterior with medium blue interior.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I'm also cleaning up/out the drip rails. I did them 12 years ago and used the wrong product (I used 3M exterior caulk you would use on your home... hey, it was before I found this site - and it did pretty well for being outside 24/7 for 12 years.)

[67ChevyRedneck]

So with dry times, etc, my ADD needed something else to do. The wheels are about 10 years old and needed a refresh, so I cleaned up and painted them. While I was at it, I thought I would make use of the drop kit I bought a couple years ago.