66 Short Step farm truck

[x1buellist]

Here's my 66 I just bought. This truck was on a ranch about 10 minutes from my house. Looks like they were the second owner and have had it since 1974. It was last registered in 1991 so it's been 20 years since it has seen the road. It's been many years since I have had a auto/truck to restore/refurb so I am pretty excited to get started on it. It is a runner and has a 327/TH350 in it (not stock). So I am going to try and keep it running more or less while I work on it. That may be a challenge in itself. How to restore it while all the time staying within a day or two of having it a road worthy truck. Anyway, here are the Day 1 pictures>













It all needs a good going through but it did come with a few new parts. It has a new gas tank, radiator, brake master cyllinder and booster, seat upholstery, tires, and bed slats. It also came with a HEI distributor and an alternator the PO hadn't got around to installing.

[x1buellist]

The bed was completely eaten by termites. The first thing I did was take a cutting wheel and remove all the bolts for the bed slats. Than removed the slats and wood, or what was left of the wood. Time to use some elbow grease and start cleaning the frame and bed supports.

[x1buellist]

Made some good progress this weekend. I cut off the mufflers, the mufflers and pipes are completely rotten. Removed the bumper, probably not going to use the bumper. Removed the tailgate,bed cross supports, and finally removed the bed off the truck. Man I'm pretty happy, now it will be much easier to clean things up and work on everything.



Got out the grinder and cut off the exhaust hanger rivet to remove the hanger, cut off the rivets that fasten the spare tire cross support bracket, removed the shocks and sanded on the frame some more. Also got all those rusted bolts holding the fenders on off. I may have a line on 2 fenders that look to be in perfect condition.

[RockTonka]

Clean truck! Looks like you've got a strong start on it, but, unless I'm missing something...the fenders that came on the truck look to be in great shape.
It's nice to be able to drive the truck as you work through it, I find I enjoy it all that much more.

[x1buellist]

The driver side fender has body rot at the back lower corner and the other side has a dent right in the middle of the fender, very fixable dent but as long as I can get these fenders than why even bother.

[x1buellist]

Finally I can show a little progress besides sanding off rust! I started painting the frame today with POR15. I am super happy to actually start seeing results after weeks of sanding/wire wheeling. It's getting fun now.

[Gus350]

What are you painting the fram with ? Truck looks great,

[x1buellist]

I am using this stuff called POR 15. I am really happy with it. Look it up, it seems to be the perfect frame paint. If I had any negative thing to say about it, it would be that it is to glossy.

[x1buellist]

I got some more cleaning and painting of the frame done this week. Also removed the brake lines and one of the trailing arms.

[x1buellist]

Cleaned and painted the trailing arm,half the cross beam where it mounts and half the axle. Installed the trailing arm with shock relocator bracket. Test fitted a few pieces of the brake line.

[scot 6 feet eleven]

Looking good!!!

[Ta2Don]

Great looking truck, I'm about to start the same cleaning process at the back of my 65 short stepper. If you decide not to use your rear bumper, shoot me a PM, I'm looking for one.

[x1buellist]

Finished the trailing arms, painted the differential,springs and u bolts. Installed everything. Working on the bed now.

[hopped up]

You gotta use that rear bumper!
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[66farmer]

Truck is looking good. I used POR15 as well but I used the low gloss black and gray on the trailing arns and A arms the gray covered alot better then the black.
Keep up the good work love those step side farm trucks.


If you don't use the rear bumper I would be interested in the brackets

[x1buellist]

Yeah I meant to use the low gloss por15 but for some reason I had a brain fart and ordered the regular black and didnt realize it until I painted the frame. Oh well wont see it much anyways. Haven't decided on the rear bumper yet but I think the brackets that came on the truck were meant for a 50's era truck.

[x1buellist]

Working on the Brakes and differential. Pulled off the diff cover, removed the axles, brake pieces and brake backing plate. Replacing the diff seals, wheel cylinders and brake shoes.

[65 old school]

Looks like a great start, keep up the good work!

[x1buellist]

Here's my latest. Rebuilt the rear brakes. New brake springs and wheel cylinders. Springs were installed backwards by whoever did them last time. The brake shoes were in perfect condition so I didn't bother to replace them. Pulled the axles, replaced the axle seals, cleaned and painted everything. I also cleaned up the emergency brake cables and painted the ends where they had rusted before.



Painted the drums. Something I found interesting is that the drums have a locator tab on them that is supposed to align with a hole in the axle hub. I searched the net but couldnt find a technical reason for this. To me it would seem there would be no difference which way the drum was mounted to the axle hub.


Installed a new adjustable track bar and stainless brake lines. The rubber brake hose I bought from Classic parts was the wrong size to screw into the brake line on the frame so I had to order one for a long bed for some reason, hope it's the right size.




Still working on derusting the bed rails and rear cross sill.

[CRGRS 66]

just found your thread, hadn't seen this one before

looks like you are having a great time on this, I am looking forward to following along!

[x1buellist]

Quick update. Took out the transmission and crossmember. Also took apart the front end sheetmetal etc..

[kgmunro]

WOW nice truck, it's gonna be a fun project!

[C@rnut001]

You have a great looking truck. Good luck while you are working on it.

[x1buellist]

Thanks for all the encouragement Stripped down the engine, I will be pulling it out this week.

[x1buellist]

I have been delinquent in updating my build. I have made some pretty good progress. First I got the engine pulled out.





Stripped all the stuff off the firewall.


Stripped the cab down to a shell. That's Monkey, he's there every day keeping me company.


And finally removed the cab. Now the frame is all mine to attack with a wire wheel haha.



Removed the steering and suspension. I will bereplaceing most of it.


All I have been doing lately is removing rust from the frame and the 100's of pieces that were removed. I hope to get the frame cleaned up and painted. I will be using POR15 than Bill Hirsch Chassis black.