Project: Montezuma

[May70]

Figured I would go ahead and start one of these.

1970 c20 292 4 spd granny w leafs & overload

Came from an Iowa farm, 2800 miles round trip back to VA. Pulled out my friends 73 MGM brought back my truck with the 1990 c1500 350 absolutely no trouble.

Brought home a bed today so I guess its getting close to....serious....

Bed has rust through all down it and its a wood bottom. Grabbed the bed in pics at a decent price locally so figured id jump on it. I wanted a metal bed anyway because I would never want to mess up the pretty wood....

Hood is great, fenders have a little rust out on bottom corners but I have a really good drivers side spare and I can order both corners for passenger side. Cab is pretty good, it needs all new support braces and some attention to a small spot in the floor. It had rockers and corners put in it but I need to see how bad the job was once I start digging...

It had a 292 but come to find out it needs 40 over bore and full head job ~2k worth of work from machine shop. I think the plan now is to get a sbc and drop it in.

Other than that vintage air, power steering and maybe power breaks are in the plans. Front disks hopefully, but not sure how the availability will be with 8 lug hubs. Still need info on that one but may consider converting over to 5/6 lug all around but not too keen on that one.

Long road ahead but my friend will be out here on orders for 4 months and wants to help me with the work. Hes a body guy, done a few cars. Looking forward to it.

[cornerstone]

I'm in for the ride. Do you have a place inside to work on it?

[May70]

I have a 2 car detached but its not long enough to put the whole truck in and have working room. Gunna work on cab/bed on dollys probably.

Plus I am just waiting on chrome to come in for this guy and hopefully sell it to make room.

1952 Rowlett Custom

[Getter-Done]

I am in for the Build.
I like the boat & evinrude.












.

[May70]

Bed came off today. Need to find frame parts to replace.

[May70]

Bed disassembled. Tac welded almost every bolt head to get the nuts off... Most of the square holes are no longer square.... When I go back to put it back together I will probably have to tac the new bolts back in.

[May70]

62 finished

[May70]

Back to the truck... Just got the floor pan (and also a tailgate ) from lmc. Totally impressed with the shipping, it was surrounded in this foam like cardboard. About to order the front bed panel...

Started a new job about a month ago, but things are starting to pick up at home. Took out a massive tree which took a few weeks to do and haul off. Been crazy.

Upgraded the compressor and am taking out a wall in the shop.. Once I source a beam ill be back on track. Cab is ready to start on the floor, just have to make room now. Plasma cutter on the way, was tired of wishing I had one.

[cornerstone]

Originally Posted by May70

Back to the truck... Just got the floor pan (and also a tailgate ) from lmc. Totally impressed with the shipping, it was surrounded in this foam like cardboard. About to order the front bed panel...

Started a new job about a month ago, but things are starting to pick up at home. Took out a massive tree which took a few weeks to do and haul off. Been crazy.

Upgraded the compressor and am taking out a wall in the shop.. Once I source a beam ill be back on track. Cab is ready to start on the floor, just have to make room now. Plasma cutter on the way, was tired of wishing I had one.

I hear you loud and clear. On Amazon prime day I caved and ordered my 3 in 1 plasma/ tig/ arc welder. I am complete.

That glass boat floor is incredible! Looks smooth as glass.

[WIDESIDE72]

If you are going to stick with eight lug chassis, the whole front crossmember out of a 73+ truck is a direct swap. The lugs studs are larger though so you will have a mismatch front to rear, but technically a straightforward swap. I kept the front crossmember out of an 82 c20 in case i decide to pit disc brakes on a 70 longhorn i have. It has leaf springs in back and i have a 72 c20 rear axle from a leaf spring truck with the larger studs. Not sure when the swap to larger lug studs was made though.

[May70]

Ordered all the patches I wanted this week from lmc, to include complete door skins. Well see how that goes. Compressor is hooked up. Massive work in the garage going on. Insulation and osb. Beam is up. Getting ready for the cold. Its going to be so nice to be able to work in the winter out there. Looking good....

Cab is stripped down, doing some tweaking to PO rocker job before cutting out old floor pan and putting the new one in. Once I get the rockers a little more lined up (not much tweaking needed) I am going to brace the cab and unbolt it. The plan is to lay it on its back (with some thick blankets under it) to do the floor pan. Then mount her on the finished frame and get the rockers/corners cleaned up... Not the cleanest welds by PO.

Picked up a frame with disc brakes from a 77. Need to remove the components, clean/go through them/paint and put them on my finished frame.

[May70]

Disc brake donor disassembled today.

[May70]

Blasted my front suspension parts. Plan on using already finished springs.

Ordered KBS coating frame kit to do the arms in, looks like some good stuff.

[May70]

Spent the last two days completely re-wiring the garage. Previous owner did the 'job' before me. Ripped everything out, all new, 3 more 240v outlets, plenty more 120v outlets etc. All to my new subpanel. Put a light above the door, new light under lean too out back and new exterior outlets. Just need to put an exterior box under back corner of lean too for future compressor location.

A few more days and Ill be able to close up the walls for good. Whew.

Lots of work to get everything straight but its necessary. Hopefully progress on the truck soon...

[May70]

Before and after of the wall. Ive got a little area around the corner with a bench, grinder stand and miter saw...

[May70]

Put one coat of KBS coatings RustSeal on the parts. Wow.

Great stuff it looks like, they say put it on thin a minimum of two coats. Nearly impossible to do with a brush, goes on thick. If you ever get this stuff, just spray it. It took way too long to brush on. Going to sand it in a few months to spray another coat and then topcoat it with their BlackTop product. Stuff looks awesome. Dont let it get on anything you dont want it to be on forever though, not tape friendly so once it tacs up remove the tape!!!! Frame rails would definitely be a good application.

Progress slow but going. Have too much going on at once. Probably going to stop on truck for a bit to get garage straightened up and finished. Hard to work in their now..... obviously haha.

[Andyking1203]

You sir have a lot going on.. but the truck is comen along nicely!!!

[May70]

A pillar replaced. Will hopefully do kick panel, part of rear pillar, corner then rocker this week...

[May70]

Back corner

[May70]

Pass A pillar replaced and floor removed

[May70]

Passenger lower firewall repair

[bigmac73]

Damn fine work

[May70]

Need to get bigger wheels to allow clearance to install calipers. For now it will roll on orig 15" steelies.

Then I can figure out brake lines...

$175 from POL on tie rods and ball joints, $100 on KBS paint kit, $300 at napa on hubs/rotors/calipers, $70 at advanced auto on bearings seals and dust covers. All I needed was spindles from a square body which I got for free. Maybe 45 bucks on grease and some other random stuff I bought. So $700 total and that was buying the highest quality bearings/tie rods/ball joints I could get. To buy the same kit online would have been $1200 for 8 lugs and I wasn't too confident in the quality.

Im putting together some info on 8 lug swap here: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=804757
I will give a parts list there when finished.

[May70]

Drivers side lower firewall repaired. Part 1

[May70]

Drivers side lower firewall repaired. Part 2