Project: Montezuma
 

Figured I would go ahead and start one of these.

1970 c20 292 4 spd granny w leafs & overload

Came from an Iowa farm, 2800 miles round trip back to VA. Pulled out my friends 73 MGM brought back my truck with the 1990 c1500 350 absolutely no trouble.

Brought home a bed today so I guess its getting close to....serious....

Bed has rust through all down it and its a wood bottom. Grabbed the bed in pics at a decent price locally so figured id jump on it. I wanted a metal bed anyway because I would never want to mess up the pretty wood....

Hood is great, fenders have a little rust out on bottom corners but I have a really good drivers side spare and I can order both corners for passenger side. Cab is pretty good, it needs all new support braces and some attention to a small spot in the floor. It had rockers and corners put in it but I need to see how bad the job was once I start digging...

It had a 292 but come to find out it needs 40 over bore and full head job ~2k worth of work from machine shop. I think the plan now is to get a sbc and drop it in.

Other than that vintage air, power steering and maybe power breaks are in the plans. Front disks hopefully, but not sure how the availability will be with 8 lug hubs. Still need info on that one but may consider converting over to 5/6 lug all around but not too keen on that one.

Long road ahead but my friend will be out here on orders for 4 months and wants to help me with the work. Hes a body guy, done a few cars. Looking forward to it.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

I'm in for the ride. Do you have a place inside to work on it?

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

I have a 2 car detached but its not long enough to put the whole truck in and have working room. Gunna work on cab/bed on dollys probably.

Plus I am just waiting on chrome to come in for this guy and hopefully sell it to make room.

1952 Rowlett Custom

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

I am in for the Build.
I like the boat & evinrude.












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Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Bed came off today. Need to find frame parts to replace.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Bed disassembled. Tac welded almost every bolt head to get the nuts off... Most of the square holes are no longer square.... When I go back to put it back together I will probably have to tac the new bolts back in.

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Front clip disassembled

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Great progress.
Did you find the frame stuff you was looking for?







.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Yes I picked up a nice frame, just surface rust. All the mounts are good on it. Gunna get that prepped for blasting hopefully tomorrow.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Well I got real lucky on craigslist. 18 x 20 metal garage for $950!!! The door is 7x10. Spent the day taking it down and bringing it home. Now I can move a lot of stuff out of the shop and store it in that. Really happy.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

How cool is that!!! Nice score indeed. I'm curious about the boat, what did you do to it? It looks like either a new build or a full restore, beautiful.

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Last 2 boats have been full restores. 1952 Rowlett Custom and 1962 Renken, both ROUGH. Ill throw some pics up. I really needed that garage to put the boats in anyway. Ive got the 62 in a lean too right out the back door of the shop so it will be nice to have my frame right there now...

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

62 finished

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Back to the truck... Just got the floor pan (and also a tailgate :D) from lmc. Totally impressed with the shipping, it was surrounded in this foam like cardboard. About to order the front bed panel...

Started a new job about a month ago, but things are starting to pick up at home. Took out a massive tree which took a few weeks to do and haul off. Been crazy.

Upgraded the compressor and am taking out a wall in the shop.. Once I source a beam ill be back on track. Cab is ready to start on the floor, just have to make room now. Plasma cutter on the way, was tired of wishing I had one.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

I hear you loud and clear. On Amazon prime day I caved and ordered my 3 in 1 plasma/ tig/ arc welder. I am complete.:lol:

That glass boat floor is incredible! Looks smooth as glass.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

If you are going to stick with eight lug chassis, the whole front crossmember out of a 73+ truck is a direct swap. The lugs studs are larger though so you will have a mismatch front to rear, but technically a straightforward swap. I kept the front crossmember out of an 82 c20 in case i decide to pit disc brakes on a 70 longhorn i have. It has leaf springs in back and i have a 72 c20 rear axle from a leaf spring truck with the larger studs. Not sure when the swap to larger lug studs was made though.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Ordered all the patches I wanted this week from lmc, to include complete door skins. Well see how that goes. Compressor is hooked up. Massive work in the garage going on. Insulation and osb. Beam is up. Getting ready for the cold. Its going to be so nice to be able to work in the winter out there. Looking good....

Cab is stripped down, doing some tweaking to PO rocker job before cutting out old floor pan and putting the new one in. Once I get the rockers a little more lined up (not much tweaking needed) I am going to brace the cab and unbolt it. The plan is to lay it on its back (with some thick blankets under it) to do the floor pan. Then mount her on the finished frame and get the rockers/corners cleaned up... Not the cleanest welds by PO.

Picked up a frame with disc brakes from a 77. Need to remove the components, clean/go through them/paint and put them on my finished frame.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Disc brake donor disassembled today.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Blasted my front suspension parts. Plan on using already finished springs.

Ordered KBS coating frame kit to do the arms in, looks like some good stuff.

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Spent the last two days completely re-wiring the garage. Previous owner did the 'job' before me. Ripped everything out, all new, 3 more 240v outlets, plenty more 120v outlets etc. All to my new subpanel. Put a light above the door, new light under lean too out back and new exterior outlets. Just need to put an exterior box under back corner of lean too for future compressor location.

A few more days and Ill be able to close up the walls for good. Whew.

Lots of work to get everything straight but its necessary. Hopefully progress on the truck soon...

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Before and after of the wall. Ive got a little area around the corner with a bench, grinder stand and miter saw...

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Put one coat of KBS coatings RustSeal on the parts. Wow.

Great stuff it looks like, they say put it on thin a minimum of two coats. Nearly impossible to do with a brush, goes on thick. If you ever get this stuff, just spray it. It took way too long to brush on. Going to sand it in a few months to spray another coat and then topcoat it with their BlackTop product. Stuff looks awesome. Dont let it get on anything you dont want it to be on forever though, not tape friendly so once it tacs up remove the tape!!!! Frame rails would definitely be a good application.

Progress slow but going. Have too much going on at once. Probably going to stop on truck for a bit to get garage straightened up and finished. Hard to work in their now..... obviously haha.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Sprayed a second coat of rust seal, waited till it tacked off and I couldn't leave a fingerprint as instructions said. Laid out great looked fine. Sprayed BlackTop topcoat, again looked great...

Humidity spiked and some sprinkles fell. Garage floor condensation took off on me. Jacked up the paint. Going to sand relatively flat and brush on a final coat.

Sprayed with the HF purple gun. Rust seal is thick and even thinned it did NOT like that gun. Adjusted till Id had it and got it best adjusted as I could... Blacktop sprayed great.

Oh the joys......

Wanted to use my 3M accuspray system but my desiccant filter before my regulator on the spray gun is 90 psi max... Didn't want any issues with my 175psi output.... Next time... Maybe final coat ill spray w accuspray.

Picked up hub/rotors and calipers from napa.. about $250. In the disc conversion $370 total so far, still need to get the ball joints etc.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

You sir have a lot going on.. but the truck is comen along nicely!!!

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A pillar replaced. Will hopefully do kick panel, part of rear pillar, corner then rocker this week...

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Back corner

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Pass A pillar replaced and floor removed

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Passenger lower firewall repair

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Nice work, and nice work space too. :chevy:

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-
Thanks for sending me the link Matt! Truck is looking good. You have done a lot of work to it so far. I will try to follow along to see how you are progressing on it.

LockDoc

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Damn fine work

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Need to get bigger wheels to allow clearance to install calipers. For now it will roll on orig 15" steelies.

Then I can figure out brake lines...

$175 from POL on tie rods and ball joints, $100 on KBS paint kit, $300 at napa on hubs/rotors/calipers, $70 at advanced auto on bearings seals and dust covers. All I needed was spindles from a square body which I got for free. Maybe 45 bucks on grease and some other random stuff I bought. So $700 total and that was buying the highest quality bearings/tie rods/ball joints I could get. To buy the same kit online would have been $1200 for 8 lugs and I wasn't too confident in the quality.

Im putting together some info on 8 lug swap here: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=804757
I will give a parts list there when finished.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Drivers side lower firewall repaired. Part 1

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Drivers side lower firewall repaired. Part 2

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Rear - Lower cab wall repairs

Chased rust in a few spots. Pretty thin in places around the factory welds.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Sealed up the seam on the firewall and rear of the cab where the floor will be welded up against. Going to topcoat the epoxy sealer with eastwood rust encapsulator product for added measure.

READY FOR THE FLOOR PAN!!

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Job well done on ALL the work, AND the parts selection. An old set of rusty rotors that can take a little machining is a very good thing!!!

Was really glad to see your drum stuff go away!!!

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Thank you, definitely been learning as I go. A lot of head scratching.

Really excited to put in floor pan and hopefully it goes smoothly.

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

Floor pan install

I cut 1" off both the front corners of the pan to make it easier to fit into place.
I cut off the lower firewall brace at an angle to make it easier for the pan to fit up into place.
I cut notches out on both sides of the front to fit around the humps over the firewall supports that connect to the floor.
I made a pie slice along the front drivers side edge to bend in the floor pan lip to fit past the pillar

Re: Project: Montezuma
 

I fit the front edge up into place ( with the help of two people) and trimmed where needed (as mentioned above). I didnt take pictures but I had to trim the front pan lip where it sits in the firewall lip, the 4" or so where the 'hump' comes up, that lip on the pan was too deep and caused the pan not to sit flush.

Once the middle of the front of the pan looked good, I clamped it, then raised the rear of the floor pan up to my old 'white line' I marked on the original floor.

I then took self tapping metal screws and started on the front, working my way on the inner halves of the floor pan. The outer portions needed to be bent down and really did not want to snug up to the firewall. Lots of screwing, pulling to get the whole pan to move forward. its close and my old measurements line up. It took about 2.5 hours for me to get it in there. I also had to take out the kick panel replacement because it was too tight to fit in floor. I will have to trim it and then weld it in once the floor and all is done.

The pillars are reproduction, and the rear holes in the floor do not appear to be forward enough to be bolted in to the floor. The forward holes look good. So I will probably just bolt the front two holes and weld in the back two. Not real happy with that but I didnt have much to work off of. I was pretty careful when replacing those, making sure all the angles and measurements were right. Im not sure why its like that, I gues its just the difference in repro parts. Not too comfortable with it though (inputs welcome).

Now im going to put the doors on and start test fitting with corners/rockers.

Next (i think) I will do the cab corners and then outer rockers. Leaving everything in with those metal screws till I get it all straight.