My 1974 Chevy Short Bed

[Ravynia]

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!

[Eyegore]

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.

[Ravynia]

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

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.

[68GMC454]

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

[moneyeater]

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

[Square84]

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.

[GMBowtie79]

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.

[andresco50]

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

[Ravynia]

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.

[jchav62]

Nice project...nice progress.

Welcome for Santa Fe, NM....

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

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

[babyJay]

Good luck with it! Keep us posted.

[Ravynia]

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

[Eyegore]

Originally Posted by Ravynia

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

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

[Ravynia]

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.

[WarBeard]

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

[Kixwy2]

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!

[Thumpin455]

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.

[Ravynia]

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!

[FlatBrokeRacing]

Truck has a lot of potiential.

Getting stuck babysitting is not always a bad thing..

[killthewabbit]

Originally Posted by Ravynia

because it was 2am, he just said "screw it" and left

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.

[WarBeard]

We need a update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ravynia]

Well, it's been months of little to nothing. We started out with such a bang, and then we fizzled and it's been all we can do to push towards the finish line. We had a 4 day weekend and could have spent 3 of those days working on my truck... but we didn't. Finally today we worked on her a bit, and it's amazing how much we almost got done today.

We almost got done with the wiring. My husband was working on the wiring today and well... it's a beautiful thing. We had to take the wiring harness from the '86 and put it in the '74, and we weren't sure everything was going to work right - but we have headlights, tail lights, turn signals, an open door buzzer, dash lights.... What's more, it tried to turn over! He says he has some stuff left to do on it though.

We almost got the rear window finished. I took off the '74's plastic framed sliding glass window and the rotten gasket. Then, with my husband's assistance verrrrrry carefully took my rear window out of the cab from the '86 and then installed it and the gasket from the '86 into the '74. The piping that goes around the gasket is old and brittle and won't got into the gasket though. Gonna have to go to Space Age and get more. My husband says it's not expensive.

We almost got the tail lights replaced. I noticed that the tail lights on the '74 were very dark, especially on the left side - so I decided to take them off and put the tail lights from the '86 on instead. When I took the old dark lenses off the '74 I discovered why, my exhaust had clearly been venting up into my tail light. The inside of the tail light is filthy and plastic housing inside was all melted. (good thing I'm changing the exhaust and already cut off the old one) I would have the tail lights changed out, but I've been pet sitting some dogs (it's what I do) and to be somewhere by 5 and had to stop what I doing. (dammit)

We almost got the carb installed. It's in place but none of the hoses or fuel lines or linkages are connected.

I also completed 2 tasks. I took off the front bumper (but it was supposed to be a start of removing the battered left front fender and installing a less damaged one) and I removed my corroded thru battery tray and replaced it with a new (used) battery tray that actually isn't in 2 pieces.

[Benelli]

How much did your battery tray cost?

I crushed mine a few weeks ago while deer hunting. Damn Irrigation ditches...

[Ravynia]

Cost me $20... got it thru some of my husband's off roading buddies