My own build thread

[zippeay]

Well, I've been lurking for a long time around here and I figured I'd share my build with everyone. I first planned on just doing a few "minor" things to it and of course I've turned it into a huge project now... My wife is so excited! haha

Anyway here we go!
I can't seem to find all my pictures so I will condense this down a lot, I started out with a fairly rough long bed and decided to make it a short bed.

Here is the frame where I shortened it


Here it is welded together


Bed layout


Me cutting the bed, this is the best part for me


Here is the bed welded back together


Here is the rusty floors I'm replacing


I wish I would have researched the rockers better because the LMC rockers didn't have the door jam area's so I had to hand make them.... took me forever!


Here is the new rocker and floor installed


I made the lower half of this door... I should have just bought a new skin because this sucked...


This is after I finished welding everything


The paint was horrible so I've been stripping it all off, man did this make a mess of my garage...


Here is the drivers side floor I'm working on right now, all the floor braces need to be remade also because they are almost totally gone


This is where I'm currently at, hopefully I will finish the whole floor this weekend if everything goes ok.


Once I finish the floors and finish stripping all the paint off then I'm pulling the motor and trans so I can start bagging it. I've never bagged anything before so I hope it turns out ok, if not then I'll have a really clean pile of crap I guess

Anyway, this is a really cool site with lots of good info. Hope everyone likes my build. I hope I can get this thing on the road within the next 2-3 months. That's going to be pushing it but I need a vehicle so I can give my car to my daughter.

[zippeay]

Is it that bad?

[MOTOIMPAIRED]

Wow, a lot of work but it looks like you really know what your doing. Keep us posted...

[losthope]

Looking good! I like longbeds myself but can appreciate the work and time that it takes to make one into a short bed!

[zippeay]

Thanks guys! Honestly I really like the short boxes but I probably wouldn't do this again. I've built a few cars and trucks but this will be my first bagged car/truck. I'm a little nervous because I'm not 100% sure about everything but I love fabricating stuff so this should be right up my alley. I just hope I'm not making a mistake by putting bags on my daily driver.
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[McMurphy]

Hello and to the site !!

Your d-side floor/rockers look almost identical to mine, and I am in the middle of replacing them as well. I did not cut my floor pan right for the patch so I am waiting for a new one to arrive.

You certainly have a vision to do what you have done already!
Shortening the bed is truely an undertaking I am not sure I would attempt, congrats on yours, looks like it turned out really good!

[zippeay]

Thanks man! Ya it's been a much bigger undertaking than I had ever planned but this is going to be my daily so I want to make it how I like. I wish I would have listened to myself and bought a much cleaner truck but too late now! Haha
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[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by zippeay

Thanks man! Ya it's been a much bigger undertaking than I had ever planned but this is going to be my daily so I want to make it how I like. I wish I would have listened to myself and bought a much cleaner truck but too late now! Haha
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Yeah I went from installing an engine and some touch up paint to an almost full blown frame off...
If the garage were bigger I would probably be doing a total job, right now it is just a tinkering dream come true, only time line is I have to have it done in the next 18 months to drive it home.

cool thread man, keep it up!

[zippeay]

Here is my update. Here's what I've been doing lately, I can't wait to get this stupid floor finished, this has been a huge job. I didn't think I was going to have to replace this much when I bought it but I should have the floor done this weekend I hope.

Here is the old stuff I had to cut out




Inside kick panel, I bought the patch for this piece, I wish I would have know they made this piece because I had to make the other side by hand, I can't believe how many peplacement parts they make for these and most of them fit really well.



This is how bad the rocker was.



After everything was cut out.



Inner brace tacked in.



This is just the test fit, I still need to burn them in. It's a real ***** putting the door on and taking it off by myself but I want to make sure the rocker lines up with the door right. Hopefully I can get this all done this weekend.



I had to make these rear cab patches too, I made both sides but I have to finish the floor on the drivers side before I can finish putting the other patch in.



last one



I haven't made as much progress as I would like because I went to Hawaii for 3 weeks and just got back, I did see a few 60-66's while I was over there. I actually saw a burban too, I want one of those bad but Oh well

[65 old school]

Looks great! nice work, I will be watching this one. I would have liked to go with bags but, " IT'S JUST A WORK TRUCK!. " ( DAILY DRIVER ) GONE WAAAAY OVERBOARD!.... and the long bed I had to keep for my little camper.

[VonDog]

Originally Posted by zippeay

Thanks man! Ya it's been a much bigger undertaking than I had ever planned but this is going to be my daily so I want to make it how I like. I wish I would have listened to myself and bought a much cleaner truck but too late now! Haha
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I'm in the same boat! Shoulda, woulda, coulda - but didn't
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[Captainfab]

Unfortunately I haven't checked in on your build for a little while. You've done some very nice work on your truck. I'm really liking the colors too. I've always been a fan of metalic browns. I really like the tables you have made too....very nice and creative

Also sorry to hear about your friend . I lost a friend of 30 years almost 2 years ago.....

[zippeay]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Unfortunately I haven't checked in on your build for a little while. You've done some very nice work on your truck. I'm really liking the colors too. I've always been a fan of metalic browns. I really like the tables you have made too....very nice and creative

Also sorry to hear about your friend . I lost a friend of 30 years almost 2 years ago.....

Thank you. Losing friends/family is never easy. I'm not sure when I said this was going to be my daily but that definitely isn't going to happen any more. I will be driving it often but it won't be my daily. I even may end up selling it if the price is right but I still have a ways to go before any of that can happen. I'm glad you all liked it!

I still need to go untape it today, I spent 6 hours prepping and painting everything Sat night and spent most of yesterday recovering. It was so hot I probably lost 10 lbs "literally" just from sweating so much. It wasn't very fun... Haha! I can literally say I've shed a whole lot of blood sweat and tears on this project.
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[zippeay]

Honestly I'm having second thoughts about the bags. I need to finish this ASAP so I'm probably just going to lower it. This sharing my car with a 17 yr old is killing me...
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[zippeay]

Well, I'm finally almost ready to start the body work. I filled all the trim holes, frenched in some 50 pontiac tail lights "I stole this idea from one of the guys on the forum here", pulled the motor and trans, clean up the front of the frame and painted it so I can put on the new front cross member and disk brakes. Yes, I know my welds were too high...






Here's the frame before, pretty nasty


Soooo smooth

[zippeay]

Oh and I got a killer deal on a fairly complete bag setup for my truck from a guy that lost interest in his C10 project. That's why I painted the front of the frame, I'm going to install the cross member tonight with the bags. I still have to order the rear 4 link piece and start working on that.

[zippeay]

Its been awhile but I'm making progress, not as much as I'd like but progress is progress I guess??? I keep spending all this time measuring to make sure I'm not screwing this up but I honestly should have just done it and I would probably have been finished with the notch and the 4 link. Anyway, this is what I have

This is the notch I cut out.


Here its tacked in place


Both sides in


Boxed the frame a little to add some more strength back into it.


She's still about 2 inches off the ground but I have huge tires in the back and front isn't laid out yet. I'm really hoping it sits on the ground once I do the rest or I'll have to modify the notch more and I'd rather not do that... I made the Notch 9 3/4 so it should lay out, I know I should have probably went more but too late now... Here's the crap pic of it all the way down.

[LostMy65]

Welcome.
Great job on the shortening.

[zippeay]

I've been fairly busy lately, I Notched the rear, installed my 4 link, and made a new rear X member. I also wire wheeled the frame as much as I can so I can paint it with some POR15. Anyway here are some pic's.

Here is the crossmember I made.


Here it is installed


Here's the C notch I made. No Im not using those wheels or tires


Here is the 4 link and the C notch finished and boxed.


Here's it sits before I Z the front and cup the LCA's.


Things are going pretty well, I'm trying like hell to get this thing finish "I need to stop adding crap to do and start finishing more, haha".

[chance65c20]

man looking good!!!!! keep up the good work!!!!

[rmvlt1100]

Your build is looking good. A++ job. Love the side picture of the truck, they look good on the ground. I didn't have much luck with the rockers from LMC, I had to do a lot of cutting bending a welding to get them to fit right. Good luck on the rest of the build.

Robert

[zippeay]

Thanks guys! Yeah I thought LMC's rockers were less than stellar... If I would have known that their quality was so poor I would have never order from them. I ordered a bunch of stuff from there and most of it fit fairly well but the rocker panels were a joke! The side I did put in was 100% better than the one I trashed, I even called them to ask why one side was made decent and the other was junk and they said that they were made by the same company??? I'm not sure how because the one I didn't use was so poorly made it was almost useless. I wish I would have ordered all my parts from the other place I got the new rockers from "I can't remember the companies name right now" but their parts were awesome. The fit almost perfectly. I won't get much done this weekend because I'm getting tattoo'd and I don't want to get it infected but I did score a high hump tranny cover yesterday for free!

[zippeay]

I cut the old tranny cover out and cleaned up the new one one so I could install it.

old one


New one


This was just the test fit, I'm putting in an Auto trans so I patched the holes for the Ebrake and stick shift last night. Now I just need to spot weld it in tonight.

[zippeay]

I've been staying fairly busy lately. Here is some updates

Cupped the LCA's










I re-painted the LCA's but I didn't take a picture of them so just imagine they are satin black

Started Zing the front, never done this before so I hope I'm doing this right, thanks to all the threads on here that helped me figure this stuff out.



2 1/2 in Z


Finally laying frame, now I need to cut off all the rivets so it lays down all the way.


Tonight I'm going to make all the fish plates and box the Z in.

[McMurphy]

Wow you sure passed me up.... I think.

LOL

Looking good though, buy the 17 year old a bus pass and tell him to have a nice day ........ just kidding !