72 C20 "Old Mustard"

[Mustard72]

My wife and daughter have started getting into horses, so they'll need a reliable truck to pull around a horse trailer with. This has been the opportunity I've been waiting for to get some work done on "Old Mustard", my 72 C20 that I've had since I was 16 in 1986. I'm stoked.


Here's Old Mustard...

[DustinB]

Sweet! I also got my 72 c20 when I was 16. But that was this year. hahaha I sure know mine pulls trailers real well so far.
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[Mustard72]

The objective at this point is to replace the cab floor (pretty rotten, especially under the gas tank), replace the 3speed with a TH350 trans, and install a trailer hitch to use instead of the rusty old step bumper. I was trying to figure out how to put the floor in (in pieces) without removing the cab, but I'm now planning on just removing the cab like everybody else apparently does. I pulled the seat, gas tank, etc. out a few weeks ago. This weekend, I removed the front fenders, inner fenders, cowl, etc. in prep for cab removal. I know that a majority of vehicles that start getting torn down like this never get back together, so I've got to keep moving with this project and get it done. It helps to have a purpose (pulling a horse trailer) and to have the knowledge that a bunch of people are monitoring your progress.

[Mustard72]

I've seen your thread, Dustin. Looks like a nice truck you've got there, especially for that price. Being from down South, its in much nicer shape than mine, which has some serious rust. As soon as I get a little bit of time, I'll post more pics, and you'll be even more pleased with your blue one.

[DustinB]

Thank you, yeah that is one of my favorite things about living out here in the super dry west, no rust. Haha I do like that yellow of your truck though. Not something you see every day. Hahah
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[Mustard72]

Yeah, I like the color, too. Eventually we'll get rid of the "ketchup" color on the bed. A girl that lived down the street from us back in the day in high school called the truck "Old Mustard" (had a yellow bed back then). My brother and I kept trying to call it tougher sounding names, but none of them stuck and "Old Mustard" did.

Below are pics of what happens when the parking spot for the truck is under a tree. We'd get leaf shreds blowing out the defrosters every once in a while.

[Mustard72]

Oops, here they are...

[Mustard72]

I haven't seen these mirrors anywhere else on this forum. I'm guessing they might be aftermarket. Anybody recognize them?

[Mustard72]

...and some more progress shots from the last few days. Ended up grinding off the heads of at least half of the inner fender to outer fender bolts, as the nuts inside the fenders started spinning. Those apparently aren't welded on, are they?

Whatever the case, I'm getting closer to being able to pull the cab. I removed the radiator and radiator support so I can replace the mounts under the support. I was only planning to do as little as possible to get the floor repaired and get her back on the road, but I can see now that there will be some cleaning and painting going on, too. Looking for some fenders/inner fenders, as well. Dang scope creap...

[Spoken]

I had a set of those on my 72 when I got her.
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[DustinB]

Haha that's about how it always works isn't it? The more you want to
Change a nickname the more it
Sticks. and man that's a whole lotta
Leafs.. Hahah
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[Mustard72]

Wow. All I've got done on Mustard so far this week was to remove the brake master cylinder and booster. I gave our two drivers (Taurus wagon aka Mommy's Red Car and the blilver Kia Sedona aka the Man Van) a once over in the other stall of the two car garage with such pampering touches as overdue oil changes, tire rotations, etc. Unfortunately, the Man Van needs a drivers side tie rod end, which will put off progress on Mustard even more.

Although I might have a lead on some front fenders in better shape than mine, so that's a good thing

[Mustard72]

Parts store didn't have the tie rod end for the Man Van, so I ended up with some time for Mustard this afternoon. Pretty much have it ready to be braced up and picked off the frame at this point. Pulled the steering column, speedo cable, tach wiring and tach, floor shifter handle, clutch linkage (not going back in), water temp thermocouple wire/gauge, crappy, brittle plastic tubing for oil pressure gauge (probably only had a few miles left on it the way it desintegrated when I touched it). Now I gotta come up with a spreader for the cherry picker, brace the door openings and brace across the cab, and disconnect what's left of the mounts (might be blue wrench time).

[Mustard72]

Here's what the floor under the gas tank looked like when I removed the tank. I'd like to blame the PO for this work, but I can't. We did this repair back in HS to keep her on the road. Not good work, but remember, Mustard was just another old truck back then, only 15 years old or so. Sort of like working on a rusted out late 90s pickup now.

[Mustard72]

Yep, that was an expert application of bondo, roofing tar, and window screen covering up the new "structure" we had to hold the cab together and bolt seatbelts too (safety first, after all). I was dreading tearing it all out, but the tar was pretty dried up and it all came out rather easily. Good golly, there really isn't much holding the cab on, is there?

[Rochlow]

I'm not sure if you have or not.. But I would brace the hell out of that cab before you consider pulling that floor out.

[Mustard72]

It's braced, but not as heavily as most of the others I've seen on here. I tried to keep the bracing towards the bottoms of the door openings and then put a brace across between the two door braces. The floor is out now (need to update the pictures here), so it's all the bracing, now, and it seems to be holding well, actually.

[67c10rustbuket]

Dang Mr. Mustard, that was one rusty cab! You made the right choice on the full floor replacement. Kinda wish I did myself but mine was nowhere near that bad. Great job on the truck!
It has been a long time but actually half of me is from Wisconsin, Menomonie to be exact. You have a great start on this project and I can't wait to see the finished cab repairs. Keep up the great work man! I'll be watching you.

[Mustard72]

Thanks, Dan. Yah, it's pretty rusty. But I know of guys that rebuilt obscure pre-war trucks that had trees growing up through them, so I use that type of thing for inspiration when working on this "relatively new" truck that has all of this aftermarket support available for it. Still spend quite a bit of time just standing there staring at it figuring out what to do next, though

Hoping to get some more time out in the garage this afternoon. I'll try to get the pics updated some time this weekend.

[Mustard72]

Time for catching up on posting progress info. I managed to get the floor out a few weeks ago. I did as I've seen elsewhere on this site and cut the floor apart a few inches behind the firewall/floor seem, then chiseled the seam apart, which still needed to be done even though the spot welds were drilled out.

[Mustard72]

I apologize for the quality of some of these pics, along with the fact that I forgot to rotate them before attaching them to the post.

I went down the path of replacing both of the cab corners and bottoms of the rear pillars before getting the floor in. This proved to be a bit of a bad idea, as getting the flooor in the right place with the new cab corner in place proved to be a bit problematic. The door just didn't fit right, etc. The cab corner (LMC) didn't really fit that well, either, without a little bit of bending into shape to better match the curve of hte back of the original cab. Nonetheless, here are pics of the wasted effort...

[Mustard72]

So, after getting the first cab corner tacked in place and then realizing th floor didn't fit right with it in, I cut it back out. Can you tell I haven't done this before? But I tend to be a stubborn cuss sometimes, so I won't let a few backwards steps keep me from proceeding on.

Now that I have this fancy new complete floor assembly, I don't need a bunchof the parts I'd been collecting before the fancy floor assemblies were available. So I used one of hte inner rockers to make a piece to replace the rotten steel on the bottom of the rear wall of the cab. I put a radius on one of the edges for strength (like I think was on the original) with my bench vise. It's certainly no sheet metal brake, but it did a surprisingly good job, especially seeing as though this will by no means be a show truck when it's done. This piece gets welded to the bottom of the rear cab wall and spans between the cab corners, which I'm now planning to replace after the floor is in.

[sduckworth13]

Looks like it will be a nice truck when your done, I notice that the cab roof looks pretty good above the visors. Thats a plus.

[sduckworth13]

Mustard72, nice work on the cab corners

[sduckworth13]

Nice job Nick, its looking good.