My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Ok.. so my "build" has started. Today I drove my new truck to my inlaws, my husband has a kickin' shop there, with a cooler and everything so I thought I would be working in style. HA! It's monsoon season here, and coolers don't work in humidity. What a sweaty day!

We started by taking out the seat. It was a lovely seat frame with some blankets and foam rubber shoved into it to make a seat. So that came out first. Then the cracked and shredded hideous brown plastic dash cover came off. Then we pulled up all the carpet, sound deadening stuff, foam, and cardboard. Off came the sun visors too. Then we started on the gauges. I had discovered on the drive over that only the speedometer worked, everything else was broken, so I get the idea of taking the speedometer out of my wrecked 1986 Chevy Long Bed and using those gauges... except it didn't work!

My doors are both broken too. The passenger door drops a couple of inches each time it's opened and makes a popping sound, and if you look there is some rust and a crack right near the hinges. The drivers door has the same crack, and swings shut all by itself but doesn't drop or pop. My hubby thinks I should change the wiring harness (since it has some issues anyway) and put my doors with power windows from my '86 on it...

So much I want to do with this truck, and so little time and money!

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Welcome fellow zonie, be patient they all come together. I suggest you watch craiglist and check the local wrecking yards - look for the pull a parts, their the better ones allowing you to go inside and pull the partrs off yourself. I believe the parts that work for your truck are 73-79, perhaps 80 also. The 86 doors should work, but the earlier door panels will not. I suggest you check the LMC online catalog to help you out to see which ones match.
Also this group on here is a great resource and are full of suggestions to help you with your project.
Hang in there and have fun.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Oh yes! I already get the LMC catalog. Got the most recent in the mail two days ago. :D

The only thing wrong with my '86, is the front clip and a seriously tweaked frame. I plan to cannibalize as much as I can off the '86. Of course the '86 is 4wd, and my '74 is 2wd, but I think for the most part I should be able to make most things work.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

howdy and welcome...id swap the door out for the electric ones... might as well strip your wrecked one for everything you can use...

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Welcome from Germany and good luck with your projekt!
Keep us updated and don´t forget the pics!
Volker

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

welcome from texas. and you can put power doors on without the harness, i converted my 82 and put my own switches in it was fairly simple.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Welcome from Central California, My 79 has the same cracks in the drivers door. I was told that its fairly common. I recently picked up a 74 GMC and yours looks alot like it same color (primer)LOL. The only differance is theres a Bowtie in front of yours. Good luck on the project, it'll come together.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Welcome!! nice project! if you want answers you gonna found here!!

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

So yesterday my husband and I put in almost 10 hours on my truck. He pulled the wiring harness from the '86 and started putting it in the '74, and he pulled the steering column from both trucks and swapped them for me. I now have a 1974 with tilt steering! lol.

I replaced the glove box. The hinges on the glove box of the '74 were all busted and held together with bailing wire, and the glove box wouldn't latch right or stay closed. So I took the glove box from the '86 and installed it in the '74. I switched out the sun visors too. I also removed the black dashboard cover in the '86 and when my husband gets done with the wiring I'm going to put it in the '74 as well. I took off the doors on both vehicles, then I took off the stiff, worn, crumbly rubber door gaskets off the '74 and got rid of them, and put the still rather supple door gaskets from the '86 onto the '74. I also pulled out the seatbelts in the '86 and the seat... I put the seat into the '74 already, but discovered that the seat belts from the '86 are a bit larger than the seat belts from the '74 and won't go in without drilling a new hole.

The black truck pictured is my now dead 1986 Chevy Silverado Long bed 4wd. I had her less than a year before she stalled in the middle of the road and got hit. The frame is tweaked really bad or else all she would have needed was a front clip. So, now she's my donor truck.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Nice project...nice progress.

Welcome for Santa Fe, NM....

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Nice looking truck sounds like your making great progress so far.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Good luck with it! Keep us posted.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

I can't work on my truck again until Friday at the earliest :(( I hate this!!

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Sweet! Hi from California and another 1974 owner!

I've been overhauling mine too, and I found there are some things special to only 1973-1974 years, so good luck. Looking forward to some good progress pics!

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Friday, well I hope you have a shady place, 113 forcast for today.:devil:

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Yeah, I'm getting a late start too.. already going to be hellish out there. I'm spending most of today taking parts off the black truck. I have a few buyers for some parts I'm not using, and I could use the cash. While I was stuck at home baby sitting some kids this week my hubby finished putting the wiring harness into the dash!

My hubby's shop is shady and has swamp cooling, so it's survivable at least.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Very nice truck,Its gonna look good when your done.What color are you going to paint it?:chevy:

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

I've got a long way to go before paint is a major concern, but at the moment I'm leaning towards red oxide or flat black.

I didn't make it to the shop at all yesterday. Today though, we managed to get the 383 pulled out of the black truck and sold the transmission from the black truck. I also took the tailgate off the black truck and put it on the '74.

It's coming together, just pretty slowly.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

I vote for flat black,everybody says its played out but i never see it on the street.I only see it on the forums.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

I gotta admit, I'm leaning towards flat black myself. I think I wanna go flat black with pretty pink accents, top of the cab, wheels, pinstriping...

but then the question becomes "Do I leave the interior the way it is? or turn it black and pink too?"

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Welcome from the north coast of the US, land of mega rust that even rusts rust. The thing you gotta remember is that most of the parts on our trucks simply unbolt, and then bolt back together. It makes them very easy to work with and rebuild. The second thing is it will almost always take two to six times as long as you think it will. Doesnt matter what it is, it just will. :)

We see flat black all the time up here, anything to stay warm, it also stands out against the snow so you have less chance of getting hit. Although in AZ staying warm isnt a problem, you sure you want black? I guess it will be warm no matter what. Just got back from Nebraska (home of record) and the humidity was right near 100% and it was well over 95 outside. It hasnt reached 90 here at all since last year! Yeah it was a bit rough diggin parts out of the quonset. I think I would take living in AZ over living in NE as far as weather goes.

Progress looks good, post more pics! Pice are always a good thing.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

My last truck was black. It's not the heat I'm concerned about, it's the idiots who don't know how to keep an eye open for a black truck at night. Truth is, I'd still be driving a really sweet mostly stock 86 Silverado Long bed 4x4 if the driver of the other truck had been using his brain.

Here in southen AZ it's hot. Unbearably, unbelievably hot.. but I've lived here my whole life, and I'm sorta used to it. IN fact, I shiver and shake and act like I'm freezing to death if it drops below 75 degrees! I don't plan on putting AC in the 1974 either! As long as it's got a working heater for during the winter!!

I've been stuck at home baby sitting all week, so I've gotten very little accomplished on my truck. My husband did go work on it for me until about 2am the other night. He pulled the 305 out of the 1974 so we can put the 383 into it. He says that the transmission mounts were messed up, so the transmission eventually flipped over and poured transmission fluid all over the place and because it was 2am, he just said "screw it" and left so before we can work on the truck again we need to clean up all the tranny fluid.

I'm baby sitting this morning, but I might be able to go work on my truck this afternoon. I hope so, I'm so tired of not having my own ride!

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Truck has a lot of potiential.

Getting stuck babysitting is not always a bad thing..

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

Seems like every time I do something big on my truck, I end up saying that exact same thing.

My grandmother's in Mesa. I like it there. Yall keep up the good work.

Re: My 1974 Chevy Short Bed
 

We need a update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :metal::chevy::wave: