The GSFMech Build
 

Well I've finally gotten a few pictures and am going to start posting them here as I have time. The first few are what I started with. I bought this truck in 01. It was all original but was pretty ratty. It had 2 paint jobs in its life, both real cheap. They didn't even take the trim off when they painted it. The cab corners, lower fenders, rockers all stuffed with Bondo. It did have a perfect bed though and a nice set of ralley wheels. It had the original 350 but the tranny took a dump shortly after I got it so I rebuilt it. I found rats nests in both cab corners, the windows would not roll up and down, the doors would hardly open or shut and it had a broken upper left door hinge on it. Oh yeah the right front fender was dented along with the grill and front bumper. I had a good bumper and bought a repop grill and stuck them on but left the fender as it was (it had a crease in it). The AC and heater didn't work, the fan would not even blow but it was all there. I fixed all the problems, cleaned it up got the AC working which took a new heater core, compressor and evaporator, expansion valve etc. and I converted to 134A and used one of those Old Air Products POA eliminator kits. I changed all the belts and hoses, rebuilt the carb, changed the valve cover gaskets and tuned it up. Stuck a new 4 core radiator in it and rebuilt all the brakes. It still had the original Packard plug wires on it which crumbled when I changed the plugs. That would explain the miss the previous owner had the whole time he owned it. This made it a decent little truck to drive. I drove it for awhile like that and then bought a 4/6 drop kit from ECE and a set of American torque thrust 2's and slammed it. I changed the drive shaft over to a one piece as well. It had the original single exhaust so I put a set of duals on it with turbo mufflers because after I slammed it, it would drag.

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The right side, can you see the crease in the fender above the tire? It also had the big mirrors on it here.

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I drove it like this for awhile but had to fix the interior. I went to the Pate swap meet one year and loaded up with parts from Kenny's trucks, he claimed to be the "Wal-Mart of Chevy truck parts" that weekend and I got a lot of good deals. I got a Cheyenne seat cover, carpet, dash pad, new instrument bezel and all the goodies to go with a tach dash I had scrounged. I got an even better tach later from HuggerCST. A repop steering wheel, new AC balls and vents and new shift indicator and one of those custom auto sound style stereos. I later rounded up a set of blue seat belts and sun visors and found a good set of door panels to dye blue with the good stuff from Classic. I repainted the original tilt column and topped it off with the new wheel and shift indicator etc. My sister gave me a CD changer and I stuck it under the seat on the passenger side and a set of Pioneer Roman speakers Kevin (65streetcruiser) gave me, you know the kind, they roam all over the truck LOL. It came out nice.

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A little more cleaning and polishing and got rid of the big mirrors, those are genuine GM on there

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Kevin (65Streetcruiser)and I at a car show in Alexandria LA a couple of years ago

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Almost forgot the headliner. I got this off eBay (I think) and re-dyed it. I got the trim from Wynne

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I then got a hankering for a set of bucket seats and found a set on the board that Frank (PICKMUP) had out in Washington State. He gave me a deal on the seats, console and new upholstery so I bought them. It cost a lot to do and a lot to ship but I like them. The only problem was they are 69-70 style and I plan to one day get new buns and upholstery and redo them for 72 style covers. Kevin (65Streetcruiser) liked them so much he bought another set Frank had for his 65. The only problem is only 2 people can ride. We swapped Kevin’s back out for the bench when we went to Cruising the Coast a few months ago so I may go back with the bench and store these back for later. Anyway Wynne (HuggerCST) had a bucket seat brace that goes under the floor board and I plan to put it in soon. That console I got from Frank was perfect except for a few chips on top. I had to dye it blue and it came out OK. I found another console at a swap meet in Houston that had a perfect top and Wynne wound up with the bottom. I'll swap the other top to mine one of these days. Some of these are not a real good shots, it was dark in the shop that day. You can also see the carpeted gas tank cover in one shot which they only offer in one shade of blue and does not match. It's too dark. I think I'll get an upholstery shop to whip something up if I keep the buckets.

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Well you can't take the drag racer out of me and after about 4 years of this old 350 I had to have something a little stronger. I had a lot of big block leftovers from my racing days so I whipped up a 454 for it. Ernie (HuggerCST's brother in law) had already bored a spare block .030 over for me a few years ago for a set of LS-6 pistons I had. These are the open chamber style and are about 10.5:1 w/ 781 heads. They are forged TRW's and I had them fly cut years ago for a monster cam. Only problem was I was missing one because I had busted one at the track in Eunice and took them out and re-bored that block and stepped up to some 13:1 pistons. They had only a few passes on them. Ernie had one in a cabinet in his shop and he gave to me. I was lucky because the new style they sell now are a lot different. The rods are re-sized truck rods w/ ARP bolts. Ernie fly cut the piston, balanced it to match and mounted it to the rod. I had a steel crank wrapped up under my bench that I thought was rusted but when I cleaned it I found it was coated with cosmoline and it was perfect. It was a long story how I got this one, some of mine and Kevin's trading. I had several sets of 781 heads around so I cleaned a set up, installed new guides and did a 3 angle valve job (I have my own valve grinding machine, guide cutter f/ PC seals, installers and spring testers and stuff to do big blocks). I bolted this junk together with a mild speed pro cam (about 520 lift). We hit the Pate swap meet again and found an old Torker intake with the canted mounting flange and nice set of the old chrome GM valve covers like the old Chevelles and Camaros ran. I also spotted a set of full length BB truck headers and picked them up for 30 bucks. I've had so many of those old cyclone and blackjack headers on big block trucks I had no trouble spotting them. I had a leftover 850 double pumper Holley from drag racing and rebuilt it. I still have jet kits and a bunch of Holley tuning parts in my shop. I picked up a Pertronix at a swap meet and that's planned for later, I'm still running points. I had a leftover 400 turbo and rebuilt it with a home brewed shift kit. I build it myself and use all the tricks B&M does except for the big sprag. I've had them hold up with some pretty stout big blocks. I don't like them to shift hard and rattle you but I like them to shift fast. I also have it rigged so it won't shift by itself into second, anyone who has ever fooled with a 400 knows what I'm talking about. Mine will stay in first if you hold it down until YOU shift it. Anyway I used the 350 turbo converter for just a touch more stall speed. I also had a one piece drive shaft for a 400 turbo laying around from years back. I scrounged up the detent switch for the gas pedal to make it like stock for the passing gear. I then started hunting up all the rest of the goodies. I already had a set of big block pulleys, and alternator brackets, I even had the correct 72 only upper alternator bracket. I got a complete power steering set up from Wynne with the remote reservoir and he hooked me up with the 72 only big block motor mounts. I had a set of BB 68-71 mounts and sold them on eBay. I got a big block fan shroud from Wynne and I scavenged the AC brackets off eBay. I also fabbed up a new 2 1/2" mandrel bent exhaust system using elbows and pipe from JC Whitney and some Summit turbos. I wanted this build to look like something from the 70's (note the white headers)and everything on it was available when I was in high school except the TT-11 wheels, even the B&F Goodrich TA radials were around then. Anyway it turned out good. The mild combo with that big old honkin carb will fry the tires as long as you want to do it. Next is a posi because I almost ruined my right rear tire. This thing will get with the program.

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I was going to put some exhaust pictures on here as well. I fabbed this system up with mandrel bent bends from JC Whitney and used Summit turbo mufflers. The bottom of the bed will painted body color so I don't want to soot it up. I'm going to extend them out and put tailpipes on it but I don't want them hanging out where they can be seen. I'll tuck them up high and 45 them down somehow rear of the tires. These photos show what I have now.

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All this time I was buying parts to do the body. I can't thank Wynne (HuggerCST) enough for all the parts. I got 2 doors, 2 fenders, a hood and a tailgate from him. I went through a couple of tailgates till I got this last one and it's real nice. I didn't want any repop sheet metal so good used was my only option. I did buy 2 repop inner fenders though. I found a real good core support at the Pate swap meet one year. I searched and collected for just about every piece of trim at swap meets and eBay and bought a lot back from a guy I sold my restored 71 to. He stripped the trim off to shave and customize my old truck and I had all new GM trim on it. I bought a new GM grill. I'm still looking for a couple of better pieces but all my trim, grill, bumpers etc. are all GM. I bought repop patch panels, cab corners, rockers, kick panels, inner rockers and the lower A-pillars.This is just a few of the parts, most are stashed in the attic.

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In April of 06 Kevin and I went to a car show and after that I decided to dive into this thing. We had already done the repairs and bodywork to the new doors and they were pretty much ready to go. The bed had rust bubbling from between the wheel wells but other than that it was good. I cut the welds at the rear and totally disassembled it. I then sandblasted the inside and stripped the out side with chemical stripper and a DA with 80 grit. We did the minor body work and coated it with DuPont epoxy. You can see the rust pits left after blasting in these photos. This is all hidden when it's bolted back together

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A couple more shots.

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You can see here where I cut the weld at the rear. The plan is to do all the blocking and then cut the bed in with paint between the joints where it bolts together. This way everything’s painted. I have a small lathe so I'm going to cut the heads down on enough bolts just to hold it together and bolt it back up, align it and fit the tailgate and re-tack the welds. Then we'll paint the bed with the smaller head bolts installed (just a few). Then to finish it off I'm going to install polished stainless bolts throughout. The smaller heads will prevent a gap in the paint at the edge of the bolt.

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You can see in this photo how it was a bondo bucket, check out that cab corner after a little sanding. My buddy Kevin did a number block sanding those doors, are they slick or what?

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This will fix that rust, and besides my old doors had speaker holes cut in them.
Looks better to me already......Progress. There's still lots of blocking on that bed floor still to do but I'm digging this

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After all this I dug into the cab. The rain gutters were rusted so I ordered some repop rain gutters. Don't bother buying them, they don’t match well. It's better to find a junk cab with savable gutters or fab your own. I have a few parts trucks and one of them had perfect gutters. I cut out a big chunk of the cab way back from the gutters with a torch and carried them to the shop and drilled the spot welds. Then blasted both sides and coated them with a zinc weld through coating. I then cut mine off blasted and coated the cab and plug welded them on. If you ever do this weld them from the back side and it will save you some body work. Also if you can grind the spot welds loose from the back and you can mimic the factory spot weld. I thought of this after the fact. It took some time but they came out good. Just before the final coat of urethane primer we will add the sealer to the drip rail, no need to do it now with all the blocking left to do. This is DuPont zinc chromate epoxy, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Man I wish I would have thought to take photos while I was doing the job.

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Again I wish I would have taken photos while I was doing the rockers. Anyway I bought all the repop stuff and went to work. I had to replace both inner rockers, the lower A-pillars below the bottom door hinges (the part the fender mounts to), also the bottom of the kick panel. The A-pillars kick panels and inner rockers went well. I did have to bend up a piece of sheet metal on a buddy of mines brake to make the angle that's between the floor pan and inner rocker, it came out sweet. I did this because I couldn't see buying those big floor patch’s just for a small part of them. My floor pans were good except for a small section near the kick panel which I fixed with home brewed patch panels. The repop cab corners just didn't look right. I had to slice and dice to get them to look decent but I was never happy with them. The contour of the cab corner made it look like it had a big gap between the bed and cab. I mentioned this to Wynne and he said he had an entire NOS back cab panel for a 67 and said why don't you cut the cab corners out of it and use them? So I did and it looked so good the repop rockers looked like crap so I cut out the new rockers and cab corners, put the real GM cab corners in and ordered a set of GM rockers from the local Chevy dealer and installed them. Much better now. The pinch weld lines up and all the gaps and contours are right now. I also found rust in the cowl and the bottom of the left side outer panel on the duct. I cut a left side outer duct panel off one of my parts trucks to replace it with and fixed the rust behind it. The right side was perfect, it’s funny how one side will be good and the other rusty. I also had issues in the firewall where the inner brace is spot welded, they are bad about rusting. I cut the bad sections out and replaced the steel. All the rust is fixed now. I then stripped the cab to bare steel and coated it with the good DuPont epoxy, inside and out. It's all ready to prime and start blocking. Before I primed it I took one of those old suction type gunk guns and blasted all the inner panels in the cab and all up in the roof with Ospho. Hopefully that will help prevent future rusting. You know all these old trucks are ticking time bombs with rust all up in between the panels.

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The inside. The kick panels came out nice. I plan on coating the floor board with that Lizard skin spray on insulation.

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Cab corner shot from the inside, you can see where I welded them. I used the regular gray epoxy on the inside of the cab and the zinc chromate epoxy on the outside

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These are the best shots of the outside I have right now. I reassembled the truck to check the fit of everything and to compact it for storage while I'm at work (I work overseas). The next thing will probably be to start blocking the bed because I have a short time off next hitch. The next full hitch off I'll probably pull the cab, do the frame, paint the fire wall etc. but we'll see how it goes. I do know I want to do the under side work before I block the cab, I would hate to bang it up AFTER blocking it if you know what I mean. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this I know how everyone on here likes pictures and I'll update it as I progress.

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Amazing work! I'll be looking forward to more posts. Thanks for the cool write-up!

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I love the colors that thing had they really seem to pop. Very nice project can't wait to see more updates

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Very nice thanks for takeing the time to do the write up and posting of pictures.

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what color you goin back with?
You mean one can still get rockers for these trucks at the dealership?

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Thanks for the kind words everyone. Killer I'm going back with the original medium blue but I don't think I'm going to put the white back on it. There are so many around like it now. Yeah you can still get the factory rockers but I hear they are going fast, and they are expensive, but hey. I also bought new hood hinges from my local dealer. It took him a couple of days to get them. He won't be able to look them up for you as his computer won't go back that far but if you have the part number and he can order them for you. Go to GMpartsdirect.com and you can get an idea of what GM still has available and an idea of the price. They also list the part numbers on there. Chevyland in Shreveport has good parts people and they can get them even faster than my local dealer can if you have the numbers, I almost bought from them but didn't want to make the drive.