The rebirth of El Scrocho

[gkesseru]

Yet another build thread. Found this truck on Craigslist in Baltimore. It is called El Scorcho by previous owners due to outrageous large white flames outlined by hand painted pinstripes. Or should I have said finger painted? It was a Texas truck that somehow ended up in Baltimore via North Carolina. If you recognize it, please respond. being a Texas truck it is almost rust free, but not bondo free. It's had it's share of dent removal performed by someone who must have been payed by the slide hammer hole count.
Story is that it was built for a marina to use as a boat-tow vehicle. It's a 68 SWB 1/2 ton 2WD, originally a 6 but now has a 3970010 350 with Edelbrock carb and intake, Mallory Unilite and B&M shifter. The TH350 worked for 2 days before it crapped out. It even had dual 2-1/2" stainless exhaust with welded mufflers. PO claimed it was an Edelbrock crate motor, but it is missing the serial numbers by the fuel pump that Edelbrock uses.
It had a 3" body lift, home built monster front/rear bumpers and a heavy flatbed made from a lot of angle iron and 2X6's.
My plan is to make a clean 68 stepside, somewhat lowered, modernized on a sensible mid level budget.

[gkesseru]

I wanted to convert from old brakes to power disks and 5 bolts. I found a donor 81 step is a private junk yard down the street just waiting for me. I'll use the complete front suspension and the bed and sell the rest. I can't use the rear since it's leaf instead of coil. I also found a rear from a 71 to convert the rear to 5 bolt.

[gkesseru]

Replaced the entire front suspension with 81 donor parts. New bushings, calipers and brake hoses so far. Also moved the front sway bar and mounts. Had to grind off the mount rivets on the 81, drilled and bolted to the 68 frame.
Brand new 2-1/2" derop spindles from Brothers. When I mounted the wheel it would not turn. Had to grind off a little of the caliper above and below the pads. Wheels fit fine now. Also had to grind a wider slot in the caliper where the metal brake hose comes up on the inside so that the metal hose would clear the upper ball joint nut. I guess that this is because of the drop spindle moving up the rotor and subsequently moving up the brake cylinder.

[gkesseru]

Once front and rear were done, I remounted the now-cleanly painted engine and 2004R transmission. I painted the engine, valve cover and intake in wrinkle black and used all polished stainless hardware. I'm going for the Harley chrome on black look where less is more. I wanted an overdrive trannie for the performance and mileage. Was lucky enough to find one in Philly for $300 out of an Oldsmobile. I installed the TCI wire kit in the pan so I can control the locking converter. Also installed the TCI TV valve adapter on the Edelbrock.
I went through 2 flex plates and three starter gears before I gave up and bought a Summit flex plate and mini starter. Fits well and measures perfect without needing any shims. With the heavy flex plate and the good starter I no longer have that loud Chevy starter sound. I'll always use a mini-starter from now on.

[gkesseru]

Previous post had my portable "dash panel" so I can start the engine.
Just finished the exhaust. PO had a stainless system, but it was too tall to fit one I removed the 3" body lifts. We rerouted the exhaust lower and added brackets that clamp the two pipes together in the back so they will sit level.

[gkesseru]

Now the dropped suspension and brakes are done, engine mounted, cross-member moved for the 2004R, exhaust fitted and hung. A full powered rolling frame. Next step is to pull engine back off and start body work. I'm pulling the engine to make room for working on the firewall, which has a few extra holes, bad grinder marks and a bunch of dents in front of the driver's floorboard. This truck must have had a pretty good accident that destroyed the left front corner back into the cab. With the cab off, I discovered that the frame is stamped 7A131595 while the Cab VIN code is CS148A150915. I assume that the frame stamp is a 67, made in Atlanta ans SN is the rest. I also now believe the marina truck story, since I found a lot of stainless hardware randomly scattered throughout the frame area.

[gkesseru]

Next area of focus was the firewall clean-up. There were at least 25 holes in the firewall that I got rod of, including the big fan hole. Here is the before....


And the after welding.....
The big hole is for an Old Air Products A/C.

[gkesseru]

The very last to be sanded off is the previous owner's lettering of El Scorcho. I guess I'm just wary of sanding off a name from my years of boating superstitions.

[tommyd241]

Coming along nicely. Good work.

[Roland]

Man! You have really accomplished a lot in a month. It is looking good. I'm subscribing to this one.

[gkesseru]

I bought El Scorcho in December and started teardown a few weeks later. I bought an 81 parts truck and started teardown of that in mid January. Fortunately I had help in the cab and engine removal of both from a couple of second generation local gearheads. I used to pal around with one of their dads and now his little boy has grown up to be a full-fledged gear-head. Nice to see it go on.....

[gkesseru]

Just finished the cab. It's been a lot longer than I hoped, but finally all the extra holes in the firewall are gone. Also gone are the dozens of spot weld dimples in the firewall. Gone are the 20 or so dents on the back of the cab from 42 years of working as a pickup truck. Fortunately I did not have to replace the cab corners, cab supports and other sheet metal usually needed on these year trucks.
Here's a few after shots.

[gkesseru]

Cut off the bottom of the passenger door skin with the intent of re-skinning. Discovered that someone had already been there and covered over the rust on the door bottom. Also the corners were too far gone to weld to, so now I must find a new door or replace the door inner bottom. Fortunately, Carlisle is next week. To whoever else is going: see you there.
BTW, I found a replacement bed., A guy in Pittsburgh is selling 10 of them on Craigslist.

[gkesseru]

Went to Carlisle and nearly bought them out....
The bed is from the guy in Pittsburgh who met me in Carlisle. Also found two rust free fenders and a rust free door.
Bought new front bed panel, tailgate and rear bumper. Also filled up those gray boxes with cool stuff.

[gkesseru]

Got the doors hung yesterday and fitting pretty good (not prefect, but I imagine that they weren't perfect from the factory either.
Why is is that every time someone broke a door mirror they were compelled to drill a new set of holes? I welded up 22 holes on the two doors including 7 on the window frames form old mirror holes.

[gkesseru]

I was there all day Wednesday in order to meet the guy bringing my shortbed from Pittsburgh. The car corral was still filling up. I did see the two real nice longbeds next to each other. One was red and one was blue/white tutone. I think he wanted 28K each. Also saw the yellow original truck a little uphill from that one for 18K?. Wednesday was a little early to be there as there were a lot of vendors that were just opening up. However, I did get two rust free, dent free fenders and a similar door before the crowd had a chance to scoop them up. One fender only cost me 80.

There was one guy claiming to have two NOS doors for $1800!! They looked pretty good but I think he was lying as there were weld marks on one and signs of body work on the other. For $1800 I could have taken a drive to Arizona and bought a rust free truck to boot.

[killer71]

Coming along well!

[gkesseru]

Big day yesterday. Got both front fenders stripped and repaired on small rust area on the lower rear lip of the right fender. Hung the fenders and the front grill. Amazing, but it all fit. Next is to strip the hood. Looks OK but you never know what you'll find under the paint. The wheels are off the 81 parts truck I bought. I polished one to see what they will look like.

[tommyd241]

Man you don't mess around! Nice progress.

[basemodel67]

I don't know if I drank too much or if the pills are working, but I don't think those fenders and that grille will work together. Those fenders are for a '69-'72 style front end. Don't want you to waste time prepping parts for no reason...

BTW - Nice progress!

[gkesseru]

I just realized that I grabbed the wrong fenders myself. I have a pair of 68's that are going on today.

[gkesseru]

Got the right fenders on. Stripped the hood and mounted it.

I bought a new right side hood hinge from LMC before I tore it apart because the original was busted into two pieces. I had a lot of trouble getting the bolts in and the whole hood is now shifted to the left. I found that the brand new hinge is bent to the left (looking aft). Hope I can straighten the hinge.

[gkesseru]

I've been away from the keyboard for a while, but have had progress. I finished hanging on the sheet metal to the cab and front clip. Managed to get it to fit all except for the the hood lines. It's at the right high in the front and the back, but the hood's almost 1/4 inch high in the middle of the fender. I suspect that this may be because the hood bumpers and hood to cowl seal are not there. I also welded the holes for the hood letters shut, rediscovering my gas welding capability in the process. Gas welding works much better than MIG for closing up small holes. I also converted the 69 radiator panel to a 67/68 and covered that process in a different thread:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=399960

[gkesseru]

The bed I bought at Carlyle did not have any rust through, it is sure needed TLC to get it usable. Someone previously started rebuilding this bed but stopped after filling the fenders and sanding the bedsides bare. That must have been several years ago, since the sides were very rusted and even the primer on the fenders had a lot of surface rust. After dis-assembly, I ground off the body putty and discovered a lot of crummy bodywork. I sandblasted the rusty bedsides and the fenders. All panels had 40 years of real truck use, so next was about a day of body hammer and dolly work for each panel. I got the bumps out real well where the previous guy simply filled the dent, but in several places the old body work was so wrinkled that I couldn't get the little hammer marks out. I made a frame to hold the assembled bed out of (what else?) bed frames!! No, this is the kind of bed frames from old beds in the bedroom. Everything was treated with Oshpo rust treatment, that's why they look so gray and black.

[gkesseru]

I've been doing work on this truck but have been lax in posting progress. Stripped the inside and outside of the hood. Outside was simple, but inside was a bear. I used aircraft stripper but ran out of the expensive NAPA stuff halfway through. I think I paid 65 for a can. I bought some for about 23 at Advance Auto. It's not as good as the expensive stuff, but it does work.