1968 GMC Shorty - Pearl

[Graham57a]

I was doing some scrolling on the local Craigslist the other week and stumbled upon a decent looking og paint 68 gmc. I went down to take a look and next thing I know it's in my driveway, funny how that works. The plan was to clean it up and flip it but I get the feeling it's not going anywhere. Either way, it's a cool truck and I wanted to document the progress. These were the best pictures in the ad

[Graham57a]

The plan is to work out some dents, clr some rust off, replace the rockers and paint match the patina. It's a straight 6 3 on the tree truck, it's gonna stay factory height, factory running gear, just clean everything up and go through it all.

[Graham57a]

Just a small amount of elbow grease brought that old paint right back to life. I plan on pulling off the front fenders and hood and cleaning/waxing/fixing every little detail the best I can. I have a set of original steelies getting blasted now, I found a set of gray gmc dog dish caps ok eBay that are on the way. My plan is to just collect parts for now and then go through it with a fine toothed comb in a month or so.

[Graham57a]

A few more as it sits now. Just curious, on the steelies and caps. I am torn on what color to paint the steelies. I've searched and searched and I couldn't find a truck with gray dog dish caps that didn't have a gray painted wheel. I've always painted my steelies white but idk how that would look with a gray cap. Any opinions? I will also be running skinny white wall tires

[Graham57a]

Last one

[68bowtie]

nice find!

[GR8-68]

Very nice, looking forward to seeing the transformation

[weim55]

I recently purchased nearly a twin to your GMC right down to the 503 green paint. My goals are essentially the same as well. I'll be following along, it'll be fun to see how it goes ........

Steve weim55 Colorado

[weim55]

I don't know why this site loads pictures upside down??.......

I was going to go with primary body color on mine. The white caps go well with the white bumpers and std. trim on a '67. The gray trim and caps make it tougher on a '68 for the right look. Still think that 503 green body color for steel wheels would look great on that '68.

Steve weim55 Colorado

[Graham57a]

So the LF fender had me a little nervous with that primer on there so I pulled it off the truck and did some fine sanding to see what was underneath... I still have a little work to do but was very relieved to see there was nothing but og paint under there

[Graham57a]

Here's a little after shot, still needs a little work but looks a ton better

[GR8-68]

I thought I recognized this truck I was checking it out on CL also, glad to see it found a good home
Looking forward to watching the transformation

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

I thought I recognized this truck I was checking it out on CL also, glad to see it found a good home
Looking forward to watching the transformation

Thanks Larry, I was pretty stoked to bring her home. Its hard to find one that's still all og paint

[hewittca]

Somehow I missed this one. I like where it's headed! Any more progress on it?

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Somehow I missed this one. I like where it's headed! Any more progress on it?

Not at all haha, I wish. I have been digging on the blazer, I am hoping to pull this one in the garage by the end of the summer. My plan is to spend an hour or so on the engine to make sure I can get it to run and then blow the front end apart and start going through it piece by piece. I will keep you guys posted as I get it started

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

I thought I recognized this truck I was checking it out on CL also, glad to see it found a good home
Looking forward to watching the transformation

Same here. I'm at my limit at home though...

If I remember right, it had been on there for quite some time as well.

[Leonard1]

So did you just use clr and a green scotchbrite on the truck? Or something like stainless steel?

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by Leonard1

So did you just use clr and a green scotchbrite on the truck? Or something like stainless steel?

Actually all I did in the pictures above was rub some turtle wax on the old dry paint. I will clr each panel as i work through it but it really doesn't need much. Probably the roof and the bed sides, everything else should clean up nicely.

[Graham57a]

Had the wheels off the orange truck the other day and I couldn't help myself. Not exactly the direction we are headed but still cool none the less, it's a decent pic of the fender all cleaned up

[lolife99]

Really like this truck. Just like every truck you own,...

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Really like this truck. Just like every truck you own,...

Haha thanks man, I realized the very first post I ever made on this forum I mentioned how much I disliked the old gmc front end, now I own 3 of em

[Graham57a]

So pearl finally got some love yesterday, not a lot but hey it was enough to get my pumped up about working on her. I did a little investigation on the passenger side to wrap my head around what needed to be done. First step was to pull out the 80s cloth bucket seat that was bolted into the floor board with a tap con...

Once I had the seat out I was able to get to the cab corner to clean out 50 years of crud. I was actually very surprised how solid it was once I got down to the metal. The picture of the dustpan filled with dirt was just the one cab corner, it's really amazing it was still there. Once I got it all clean I sprayed some ospho on the inside to kill the surface rust and hopefully preserve what's left.

After I got the cab corner clean I wanted to investigate the rot around the rockers. I knew I needed to put rockers on it based on the outside but I wasn't sure how much of the floor board was intact. Someone used a cheap spray in bedliner years ago on the entire floorboard and gas tank of this thing so it was really hard to tell what was good and what was bad. I discovered that the old bedliner actually come up pretty easy, I just used a plastic putty scraper and it came right up. I followed the OG paint all the way down to the edge of the rocker and found solid metal up to the edge of the wire gutter. I was pretty pleased, I knew I was going to need rockers and I think I can get away with just replacing inner and outer rockers. Finally I took a hammer and did some tapping around the rocker to see how strong it was, as suspected it was filled with bondo and fell apart as soon as I touched it haha.

Finally I took a spray bottle of ospho around the truck and sprayed a few rust areas that I was concerned about, I think she is pretty sealed up now. The only other piece I want to address is the drivers side cab corner so it doesn't hold moisture until I can get her in the garage.

[Graham57a]

...

[Graham57a]

Not sure why but I cannot get this picture to post right side up... Anyone else have this problem? It looks correct on my desktop and as soon as I post it it's upside down. I even tried rotating and saving the file as a new name and it still does it...

[lolife99]

3" body lift "hockey pucks" work good for raising the bed floor.
I like you raising the bed floor idea a lot.
Plus it will give you more room when you eventually slam this truck.
Coilovers maybe?