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!!!

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks like a cool truck. Are you going the civil defense colors or the red fire dept colors? Either way it'll be sharp. Sorry no knowledge of the beacons or siren.

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looks like a cool truck. Are you going the civil defense colors or the red fire dept colors? Either way it'll be sharp. Sorry no knowledge of the beacons or siren.

Thanks. It will go back to the white and blue civil defence color sceme with all the signs and lettering airbrushed below the clear coat.

Sure the red and the gold lettering look sweet, but I like the idea putting it back to the way it was put into service.
I hope I can get some more civil defence pictures off it somewhere!

[Juiced06GTO]

Good luck with the build. I just got my 69 Suburban out of Berwick, ME. It was also a fire rescue vehicle in Texas, small world!!

[Joesjunk]

Glad to see it went to a good home. Very rare and cool truck. Looking forward to your build.

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Juiced06GTO

Good luck with the build. I just got my 69 Suburban out of Berwick, ME. It was also a fire rescue vehicle in Texas, small world!!

Thank you! Yes really small world. Gotta love the well maintained fire and rescue trucks!

Originally Posted by Joesjunk

Glad to see it went to a good home. Very rare and cool truck. Looking forward to your build.

Thanks! It´ll be a while though as I will just do that on the side. But I´ll post Progress of what I´ve done to it...

[Justin@EntropyRad]

sweet!

[68SWB4x4]

In for this

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Justin@EntropyRad

sweet!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 68SWB4x4

In for this

Just be patient, not a lot of time lately!

[Waynecar53]

Hey K20, I have been following your post on your "68 with great interest. That is such a very unique vehicle and I was glad to hear that you plan on taking it back to its "original" OCD blue and white. While the government bought hundreds of CD trucks over the years very few remain and most that I have seen are REO's or Internationals.

I too have a restored ambulance, a 1969 GMC that is here on the board. It can be found under "mylatesttoy". Since changing my modem and wireless router a little over a month ago I have been unable to log in to the forums. Therefore I had to get a new account. I previously logged in as smfdco1.

You had asked several questions about the emergency lighting on your truck. Maybe this will be of some help to you. As originally delivered the truck would have been equipped with a single siren light combo. The base that is still on the roof indicates it to have been a Federal WLR. I have also seen older units with Sterling Juniors but they would not have used that base that you have. The two clear lights on the back above the rear doors made by Unity are also I believe original to the truck as are the two "A" post spotlights.

The beacon light which looks to be a Federal model 17 was I'm sure added by the fire department as were the two Whelen Roto-beams on the rear roof corners. I have never seen a OCD truck so equipped when delivered. That was a time when the government was a little more frugal.

I hope that this is of some help to you and I really look forward to following your restoration.... Wayne

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Waynecar53

Hey K20, I have been following your post on your "68 with great interest. That is such a very unique vehicle and I was glad to hear that you plan on taking it back to its "original" OCD blue and white. While the government bought hundreds of CD trucks over the years very few remain and most that I have seen are REO's or Internationals.

I too have a restored ambulance, a 1969 GMC that is here on the board. It can be found under "mylatesttoy". Since changing my modem and wireless router a little over a month ago I have been unable to log in to the forums. Therefore I had to get a new account. I previously logged in as smfdco1.

You had asked several questions about the emergency lighting on your truck. Maybe this will be of some help to you. As originally delivered the truck would have been equipped with a single siren light combo. The base that is still on the roof indicates it to have been a Federal WLR. I have also seen older units with Sterling Juniors but they would not have used that base that you have. The two clear lights on the back above the rear doors made by Unity are also I believe original to the truck as are the two "A" post spotlights.

The beacon light which looks to be a Federal model 17 was I'm sure added by the fire department as were the two Whelen Roto-beams on the rear roof corners. I have never seen a OCD truck so equipped when delivered. That was a time when the government was a little more frugal.

I hope that this is of some help to you and I really look forward to following your restoration.... Wayne

Thank you so much for the help with the emergency lighting. If you zoom in on the orifinal CD picture, it also shows the large beacon in the middle and the smaller ones on the rear corners and actually two more on the fron corners of the roof.

The truck, when it rolled off the assembly line was actually light blue. Now that all the beacons are gone, you can see thet below the 4 "corner roto-beacons" the paint is light blue, so they must have been put on before the truck was painted CD colors. The large beacon in the back has withe paint on it, so it must have been added later, after the truck was painted.

I´ll have to see if i can come up with the siren and lights sometime. I´d like to try them out before stripping it all for body work and paint.

I´ll have to check your 69 out as well!

[DeadheadNM]

Nice!! I'm on board.

[DeadheadNM]

Looks great - thanks for the update.

[Green 1959]

Really cool! I just acquired a 69 GMC Burb but I don't think it has had the rich history yours has.

[68panelman]

Can't believe how nice the inner rim is!!!, especially on splits!!!
You own my unicorn truck!!!

[K20chevy]

here are a couple of videos...

Engine still starts and runs great.



And the so cool aquired sirene!

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by scotto0609

i am so into this build!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Looks great - thanks for the update.

Thank you and you are welcome!

Originally Posted by Green 1959

Really cool! I just acquired a 69 GMC Burb but I don't think it has had the rich history yours has.

69 burb sounds great! is it a 4x4 or 4x2? 1500 or 2500?

Originally Posted by 68panelman

Can't believe how nice the inner rim is!!!, especially on splits!!!
You own my unicorn truck!!!

everything on this truck is in such nice shape for how old it is. I would call it the time capsule!

It took us about two hours though getting the 40 year old tires off! But now they look so nice it´ll be tough to not mess them up mounting the tires again (new ones).
This is also a unique combination that I thought was cool even before I knew they actually built a few of those.

I got confirmation from GM Heritage Cnter that with the V8 they only built 41 total. (68 total in ´68). And the guy mentioned with the manual 4 speed and the PTO winch it might have been less than a handfull that were built that way. This one is almost museum worthy!

[K20chevy]

Finally got the tires mounted with some new tubes and liners.

They did get scratched up a little, but I knew that before, them being split rims. But with a little touch up paint, they turned out really nice.







They also look good on the truck. Can only imagine how nice it´ll look when the truck matches the wheel colors.





And now the reason for the tire choice:

I wanted a radial tire for the sake of drivability. I wanted to keep the MT tire though. I also wanted sth that works with the split rims and has the same diameter of the old bias ply tires but with just a little more width.

Hence the Cooper Discoverer STT Pro in 235/85R16

I think they turned out great and will look perfect on the truck, especially with the hubcaps!

[Ol Blue K20]

They look awesome

[DeadheadNM]

perfect tire!

[68panelman]

Those look great!

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

They look awesome

Thanks!

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

perfect tire!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by 68panelman

Those look great!

Thanks!

[K20chevy]

Only got minor stuff done, just no time lately.

Just thought I´d upload even the smallest things I get done on it!

Cleaned the old winch bumper up...





aside from this.... she´s all good....



Did unspool the old and gone winch cable...



and the winch drum seems to be in pretty good shape...



oh and...





and today I took the old fairlead off...





more to come....

[gmc 2500 4x4]

Originally Posted by K20chevy

Only got minor stuff done, just no time lately.

Just thought I´d upload even the smallest things I get done on it!

Cleaned the old winch bumper up...





aside from this.... she´s all good....



Did unspool the old and gone winch cable...



and the winch drum seems to be in pretty good shape...



oh and...





and today I took the old fairlead off...





more to come....

I have a Koenig winch. They look the same.

[Green 1959]

Stopping by to say awesome build, can't wait for more!!