Another Lks Dcvn Project - 1970 LWB for my Dad

[lks dcvn]

A little history before the updates hit...(taken from an old post of mine)

Long story made short - in December 2007 a guy in Detroit put up a CL ad for a project truck he could no longer keep - and mentioned no rust...I like everybody else was skeptical - but decided to check it out anyway. The most solid truck I have seen in these parts was in his garage (it has some surface rust and a few bubbles here and there, but it is solid for Ohio/Michigan) - after BS'ing for a few mins - he said - just make me an offer - I need it gone...

Having no interest in a project - I left without giving an offer - but left my number and told him my price if he got that low - - he called me before I got home and said that he would take my offering price if I was interested.

The truck was in my driveway a week or so later...I figured I would give it to my Dad since he is always borrowing my other trucks to haul something or another...

Arrival date - Jan 13th, 2008 - no motor, no trans, front clip in the bed...my girlfriend just shook her head as I rolled it into the backyard asking me what I was going to do with that thing...

When the snow stopped flying here I got started. Here are the pix from back then. I had no idea what I was getting into (I had never done a restore before).

[lks dcvn]

Few more of the before pix.

[lks dcvn]

In June 2008 - I happened to get a 67 LWB large window off Ebay and contemplated just giving that to my Dad - that is until I actually got to see the rust that it had in the floor and cab supports - and I opted to pull the motor and trans to put into my Dad's project...

Never had done that so that was interesting. I went and bought an engine hoist to do the job - I have a picture of that somewhere - but for never doing it before it took me and another guy (who had never done it before) about 8 hours on a Sunday.

Since there was no motor in (my Dad's truck) it when I got it I cleaned the firewall down and sprayed it with black paint prior to the motor swap.

Here is the motor swap done...

[lks dcvn]

I did some odds and ends on it for a few months and planned when to give it to my Dad (since he didn't know he was getting it) - I kept changing the deadline for myself since other stuff would come up that needed more attention (work, home stuff, etc.).

I had the shop up the street from me redo the entire brake system so that I could drive it and get it inspected (since the truck was from MI) before getting the title in my name...

In November of 2008 a buddy of mine from HS opened his own storage facility and I got a pretty good deal to store my Dad's truck for the winter - so late in 2008 into storage it went until April of 2009.

When the weather and time would allow I would go check on it.

[lks dcvn]

When May hit this past year - I was itching to get moving on this thing.

I had the trans rebuilt since it was leaking, replaced the cab mounts, and starting selling off some stuff that was sitting in the yard to get some extra dough for this project (and get junk out of the yard) -

[lks dcvn]

As the warm weather got here - I found myself dedicating weekends, work nights and free time on this thing...

I rebuilt the a spare dash that I had purchased for my 69 Blazer - but figured my Dad would appreciate it more. I painted it to color match the truck since it will eventually be white.

I had a new exhaust put on with the 2.5 corvette ram horns into flowsounds - (they sound nice) and then the hammer dropped...

My Dad and I met up for lunch and he starting talking about looking for used truck to buy so he could haul stuff - I contemplated telling him of the project, but wasn't sure how he would react.

After lunch, I told him that I was building this truck for him and he was familiar with the truck since when he would stop over I would be working on it.

I told him that I was hoping to have it done by June - no dice (it is 2 weeks to August now) - so that deadline came and went...

[my67chevytruck]

nice work. Im sure your dad will enjoy it!

[crimespree]

how long did it take you to sand, were there any spots that you found super difficult to get primed? and how long did the body work take?


it looks amazing you did a hell of a job

[lks dcvn]

Thanks for the compliments guys - for being my first time - it looks a lot better than I was expecting.

I went a panel at a time so I couldn't give you a true idea of how long it (the body work) took...

It took a LOT longer than I would have expected that's for sure. I kept going over it until I was good with it (being a perfectionist doesn't help you get done any sooner), but they do say that a paint job is mostly prep anyway.

Spots that were difficult to prime - not really - most of the stuff was easy to get to - it took me a little bit to get used to the gun and the primer coverage, but after the first day - I was good to go. It was a bit of a pain to get the top of the cab (I had to stand on the frame and get those spots since the bed was off by then, but I managed).

On my next project - I think I might prime the entire truck in that Master Series Coating Primer stuff - not sure how it would spray and sand out though...

Body work on each panel was at least 8 hours when I think about it - except the hood and the roof - they didn't have any dings to worry about. Those were a scuff and shoot type deal.

I thought pretty hard about if I wanted to do the body work since I had no idea what I was doing - but figured I would learn a new skill and save some money doing it myself.

Body work started on July 12th and still isn't done yet and I have not worked on it everyday. I would figure I have about 80-100 hours into it at this point. I have a few more spots to hit but it is almost done.

My neighbor is out of town for the next two weeks so I have some time to finish up the spots I want to, hit the whole thing with guide coat and see the result. Then I can readdress and go from there.

When he gets back from vacation we are heading to the paint supply store to pick up the color (white) and see how that goes. He mentioned that shooting color is a heck of a lot harder to shoot than primer - fingers crossed that it goes well.

[lks dcvn]

Well a few more updates - still no color on the truck yet...

a few months ago a guy in Ebay was selling a set of powder coated 15x8 rally wheels - I picked up the set for $80 and he met me near my house (he was a hour or so away). He had a 1972 Blazer that he sold at Carlisle a few years back and these rims were going to be for that truck - but he never got to install them. They were nice with full powder (not just the outside face) and sealed up in bubble wrap.

I had a set of 275/60/15 BFG Radial T/As that I got off Craigs List - but when my local discount tire had a set for $320 (new, installed and balanced) I jumped on them - since now I had a lifetime of tire repairs for free as well.

I got them mounted over the weekend and picked them up last night on my way home...

I didn't get any pix since I was in hurry to get other stuff done - but now I will need to find a set of beauty rings, center caps and lug nuts to get these mounted when the paint is done.

Now the list of what left is:

Paint - White with Black Chevrolet on Tailgate
Wiring Cleanup - few electrical gremlins left here and there

Install New Exterior Items (already have all this stuff):

New Outside Handles
New Outside Deluxe Lenses
New Rear Lights (Backup and Reverse)
New 8/350 Emblems
New Inner Fender Wells

I still need a few items to get this thing done in the next 30 days:

new Custom/10 Emblems
new mirror arms,brackets and mirror heads (not the sport mirrors)
Lightly used Black Bench Cover - or I will wait to recover it next year...

I am sure that there will be more when I get ready to hand it off to my Dad - he stopped over to check on the progress over the weekend and mentioned that he had found winter storage for it - so that is a plus - since I was going to line up a few months of storage with my buddy mentioned above...

[71'tahoe]

Hey tom
I think I have a real nice black bench down at the farm if you are interested its from a 71'

[my67chevytruck]

looking good bro.. I need some neighbors like yours....

[lks dcvn]

Thx Heath -

I will be going home from work today to scuff and try it again with a different compressor setup and some more reducer to see if I can get this thing to lay out a little better.

Hoping to have some new pix of a better paint job tonight/tomorrow -

According to my neighbor - it couldn't get worse - but I didn't think it looked that bad - oh well.

[BB72CHEVKT]

I just saw this today. I am glad the seat cover is going to a good cause.
It looks like you are doing a great job. Keep it up.

[nuke1]

Looks good!

[lks dcvn]

Home stretch...

Need a few more details to wrap this up...

[hgs_notes]

Looks good, I'd be proud to drive it.

[lks dcvn]

It would look a LOT better if I would have bought just a few more new items along the way...

You never notice how crappy something looks until everything else is brand new -

Down the road - I will need to get a few items to spruce it up...

-new(er) front and rear bumpers
-new(er) front grill

Other than that - I think it looks pretty good. This week I will install the new inner fenders and then swap over to the other rims/tires and see how this thing looks after that.

I need to get some pix when it is sunny out. I will be happy to wrap this up and get some seat time (to check for problems) before I give it to my Dad.

[my67chevytruck]

Great job!

[lks dcvn]

Thanks for the compliments everybody - I picked up some replacement zinc coated screws this morning on my way into to work so I can finish this thing up in the next few weeks...

[lks dcvn]

Now that I just spent a weekend chasing electrical gremlins...I finally got the rear wiring worked out.

I put the bed back on and couldn't get the rear lights to work correctly. I ended up removing the wiring, cleaning up a few issues, changing out a light housing and then installing everything all over again - What a pain.

I will be testing it all tonight before I go to bed.

I still need to figure out a few minor things (wiring wise):

Horn doesn't work yet - just clicks under the dash - I tested the horn with a battery - it works that way - so must be a wiring issue from the relay to the horn...
Door open interior light not working - although cargo light works as it should - haven't tested to see if the light is burned out yet though - duh
Fuel Gauge still being a PITA - not working - might be the dash cluster though

I did take out the bench seat to start recovering it - could not get the screws loose to separate the seat top from bottom...hit them with some PBR Blaster and then went to clean up the cab...

Cleaned up the carpet with a shop-vac and put all the old exterior items (handles, wipers, etc) away. It was pretty dirty.

Got the front bumper back on and then went over all the glass and trim with thinner and a razor blade to get off the overspray from the PO and my primer work.

Sadly - when the PO had the cab media blasted - they hit the glass and etched it in a few spots - now you can see three etch marks on the psgr side glass...

I also still need to get a few things like trim rings, center caps and lug nuts to get the wheels/tires mounted.

[hgs_notes]

Lookin good. I hear ya on the wiring gremlins. That carpet cleane dup pretty good.

[lks dcvn]

Well the seat is covered now (no pix yet)- my hands and fingers are sore as can be...I figured I would give it a shot since I did most of the other work...it came out pretty good - just took me forever to do it.

Took the whole thing apart then painted it gloss black then put it all back together - I haven't put the bottom and top halves back together yet - since I might use bolts instead of screws since it was a PITA to get the screws out of the seat since they were seized up. I will take one of the screws down to Tractor Supply Company and find a comparable size bolt.

Also now the horn works - picked up a new horn relay at Napa yesterday morning and installed that today. One push on the horn and it works like it should. Another thing off my list -

I also got the door open light working - the bulb wasn't seated properly - duh. I need to find something to put on the door to allow the pin in the door frame to compress all the way though (to turn the light off) - as of right now - it stays on.

I will be buying some items off Ebay today to get the wheels wrapped up (trim rings and center caps) - then I will have to pick up some lug nuts locally for the rally wheels I got. I will also have to pick up a new cargo light since I was looking at the one I have today and it is pretty pitted. More crap to buy and replace -

I will need an hour or so to swap the wheels/tires and install the inner fenders while I am in there...Just need to find the free time and the weather to cooperate to get this thing done.

When the rims are off I will hit the front and rear inner fender wells with some undercoating to reduce rock chips, etc.

[lks dcvn]

Update for pix...few more things got done over the weekend, rims/tires swapped over, new inner fenders installed, bench seat reinstalled, wipers installed...

Just a few more odds and ends and this will be handed over to my Dad.

Few questions - the dome light door pin switch has nothing to compress it - what is the best/easiest thing to put in the door jam (a screw/pad) to get the dome light to work with the door opening/closing?

What is the method to keep the Heater Control Cables lubricated and moving smoothly - I will be swapping out the controls in the truck tomorrow for a better one and will be replacing the cables while I am in there...I want to be sure that they work smoothly when I hand it over. Can I put some graphite or dry lubricant on them and not have issues down the road?

[my67chevytruck]

looking good!