68 K20 Panel truck, ex. civil defence vehicle

[K20chevy]

Hello Everyone,

after aquiring this 68 K20 4x4 panel from member Fishbone, I decided to start a build thread. Not too much going on as of now. I´m still collecting parts, but I will post the progress here.

The trucks was put into service in 1968 in Hamilton, AL for the Hamilton Rescue Service. It was first a civil defence truck, white and blue in color and was later changed to red and used for the Hamilton fire department.

It is a really solid truck with only 24000 original miles. The only rust is in the left rocker panel, which I´ll have to replace. The rest is all solid.

It has a 307 V8 with a 4 speed manual and a Rockwell T-case. No power steering or power brakes. I will change these two as the only deviation to the original to make it more drivable.

It has a Ramsey PTO winch with a step on winch bumper. Hickey front auxiliary coil over shocks, is missing the custom rear bumper (will have to build one from scratch), is missing the custom roof rack (also have to build that) and missing the siren and beacons. If anyone can lend info on what siren and beacons these are and where to get them, I´d appreciate it a lot!

First orders are getting power steering and power brakes and drive it to see if everything works. Then I´ll build the roof rack and rear bumper, before the body goes to the bodyshop. I might start a stainless stell exhaust too before taking it back apart.

So here is a picture of what it looks like in the shop now:





And here are some vintage pic from the truck when it was put into service for the CD:




And later for the fire department:




Big thanks to the Hamilton Fire Department for providing these pictures!!!