1968 C20 Build

[dagnabbitt]

Wow, what a surprise, the last guy drove the front brakes down to the rivets. Honestly I'm so shocked.

At least the drums don't look too bad. New pads, new wheel cylinders, new brake lines. This truck is going to stop really good, I guess.

[dagnabbitt]

I've been puttering away at this one day a week, and have been making slow progress. Upon discovering that its 327 was seized, The 1967 GMC Custom pictured below has donated the following to the 1968 Chevrolet:

• Taillights
• West Coast Junior Mirror frames/brackets
• Cabin light cover
• Five gauge dash
• Brake and gas pedals
• AM radio
• All the deluxe dash knobs I need
• Emergency hand brake assembly and cable
• Dash vents
• Rubber door and hood stoppers
• Numerous original screws and bolts which only someone could on this site could see value in, I know, but now the 68 has no rusty "Robertson" screws in the headlight bezels, etc.

And all four original wheels: I managed to put together four other wheels out of my junk collection to keep it rolling. Three 1990 14" Mazda truck rims from a B2200 I owned 20 years ago, as well as one trailer tire I found in the ditch.

At that point, I stopped stripping it because a guy had showed up about five times to look at it, and he seemed very interested in buying it: he wanted one of "these old trucks" to restore as a hobby. He had seen it parked outside.

I ended up selling it to him for $1000 as it sat. I had all parts I needed from it already, I made a small profit on the sale, and I know that this guy is going to build it into a driver. Had he not come by to buy it I would have eventually started pulling fenders off of it and made it unbuildable.

I realized shortly after I sold the non-running GMC that this is the first time in my life that all of my vehicles have been running at the same time.

[dagnabbitt]

One of the parts I managed to pull off of the GMC was a pair of really, really poor condition West Coast Junior Mirrors. The mirrors themselves were crappy plastic replacements from the 70's which I threw away, but the armature was original to the truck. They were quite rusty, but cleaned up quite nicely.

Since the C20 had the exact same hole pattern in the doors I knew these were the same style that came with the truck, so I was pretty happy to put the time into rehabbing these arms and brackets rather than buying new. I did buy some new mirrors which matched up well. I've always really liked WC mirrors, I favor them over the more sporty style.

What I forgot was how hard it is to adjust these things, it easily took me 2 hours before I was happy. Just don't slam the door too hard or you have to do it all over again.

[dagnabbitt]

Installed a manifold gasket on the 292 today. Of course one bolt was stubborn and had to be torched off.

When I went to reinstall the temperature controls (also swiped from the GMC) I was pleased to find out that my heater and fan seem to work, although the fan probably couldn't blow out a candle. I wonder if there is something a little more powerful in the aftermarket, I would like to be able to drive this on a cold day, and maybe even in the winter.

I gave all the cables a tug to make sure that I wouldn't break my new controls, and found that the one to the heater box wasn't moving. After taking some bolts off and getting a screwdriver in there I discovered yet another mouse nest was the problem. Currently trying to figure out how to remove everything without taking of the passenger side inner fender.

[dagnabbitt]

Before I removed the heater assembly I vacuumed a couple of pounds of mouse nest out of it, then as I removed it a couple more pounds fell out. Upon shaking it, yes: another couple of pounds fell out. When I got it home and took it apart, I discovered even more. I am not easily grossed out, rodents do not bother me, but I have to be honest it was disgusting. It has been disassembled and is soaking in a tub of soap and hot water.

When it is clean enough, I have to patch two holes that are in the side of it. I am in the process of sort of restoring a fibreglass trailer so I think I am actually pretty good at working with the stuff. We will see.

I have a new squirrel cage, blower motor, and all the necessary rubber seals for this job. One thing I do not have is the door that swivels inside, it is rusted beyond repair. I can't find any in the aftermarket, will have to post a WTB for it. Hopefully somebody has one.

The heater core itself seems like it is ok... the only test is to see it it leaks, right? I feel like I should replace it since everything is apart but I need to save a few bucks wherever I can.

[dagnabbitt]

Arriving this week is the cheapest NOS part I have ever bought, this handbrake boot on ebay which was $12, and another $12 in shipping. Some time ago I picked up a NOS retainer for it, in hopes that I would find the boot. I am sure I paid a hundred Canuck bucks for that one, so good deal for me, finally.

It is possible that it was cheap because it is so old and brittle that it will fall apart in my hands, I will be looking into ways to preserve that rubber. I am afraid to use tire conditioners on it cause many of those just make the rubber look nice for a week while leeching the moisture out.

[68 C10 Driver]

Originally Posted by dagnabbitt

Arriving this week is the cheapest NOS part I have ever bought, this handbrake boot on ebay which was $12, and another $12 in shipping. Some time ago I picked up a NOS retainer for it, in hopes that I would find the boot. I am sure I paid a hundred Canuck bucks for that one, so good deal for me, finally.

It is possible that it was cheap because it is so old and brittle that it will fall apart in my hands, I will be looking into ways to preserve that rubber. I am afraid to use tire conditioners on it cause many of those just make the rubber look nice for a week while leeching the moisture out.

There is a way to preserve this boot, I think it is a mix of mint oil and mineral spirits (not absolutely sure about the mineral spirits), or something like that...hopefully someone will chime in as I remember reading that on one of the threads here.

Cheers-

[dagnabbitt]

Using a 3/4 inch impact gun I removed the cab bolts and shimmied the mounts out of the passenger side, while using a floor jack and a 2x4 to hold the cab up.

I have no idea how a person without shop tools could possibly do this, each bolt took forever to get out and my arms were on fire the whole time: for the front two I was holding a vibrating forty pound gun with one hand and simultaneously reaching up into the cab with the other hand to capture the bolt with a wrench. The rear bolts of course have a cage nut and were a little easier.

I then stuck some wood between the frame and the floor to keep the cab suspended, somewhat, a couple inches above the height where it would be with mounts. The floor of this truck is actually not bad, just holes in the corners near the kick panels.

At that point I dug into the outer rocker, and then the inner. Ironically, although it appeared to be completely falling apart, it didn't want to come off all that easily. I owe my buddy a box of cutting discs.

Inside the rocker there seemed to be an almost impossible amount of rust and dirt, and more fell out as I was shaking the truck with the impact. I have no idea where it all comes from, but this truck definitely has about 50 pounds less of it than when I started on it.

I am hoping that this weekend I can clean it up some more and then... maybe tackle or at least mock up the repair. I have to replace the inner and outer rockers, the cab corner, and the two cab supports on each side. That's a lot of work for an amateur.

I've read many threads and watched a lot of videos, so I am going to go completely out of character and just get started on it. I expect I will learn a lot along the way, that seems to be the best process for me. I know it will not be perfect and I will make some mistakes, but I figure that I will be doing this a few more times on my other trucks in the next few years, so I will get better at it.

[dagnabbitt]

It is easy to feel, sometimes, like you are not making any progress on your project. But occasionally I feel like I am going backwards. This happened when I was surveying the cab corners and coming to the realization that the box was going to have to come off: when it seemed like I just put it on yesterday.

Instead, I removed the bumper - I don't like it, it has been tweaked at some point and I want a nicer one - along with the rear wheels. I put the truck on jackstands and removed the bed bolts, then slid the box back 6-8 inches. At that point I taped off what I wanted to remove from the cab corners and cut them out. The corners might have suffered some erosion over the years, but they surprised me by how flimsy the metal was. I think my patch panels are actually a thicker gauge.

Underneath the cab, the supports are in bad shape. I have the right front one in place - just in place, not affixed in any way - and I am working on getting the right rear one in. Surprisingly (to me) it is not very long and unlike the front one it does not incorporate the cab mount in its design. But the makers must be aware that the rear cab mounts seldom rust, so this one I just have to french into the area where I cut the old one off. What it does have is the housing where the seatbelts bolts in, and an unwelcome surprise was that it will not accept the original bolt. So I have to take the new support in to my nut and bolt place and get a couple that fit.

Although 95% of the supports are rusted away, the other 5% does not want to go. They are a real pain to remove, and I can understand why some people opt for the slip over design support. I scoffed at the idea of using a slip on but it might have been best in my application. There would be basically no harm in it if you removed as much of the rotten material as possible.

I only get a day a week to work on this so it is going slow, but it keeps me interested.