Project: Shadow Dad's '69 Stepside

[Jmc69c10]

first of all im fairly new to the forum and I have to say a lot of the guys have already been very helpful. This project will be slow and minor upgrades to the truck but I'll do the best I can to make it worthwhile for you guys.

my name is Justin and I recently bought this 1969 shortbed stepside for my dad. I've looked and looked and looked and finally found one reason enough to grab off of Craigslist. four years he said that he would love to have old Stepside and with the new opportunities I've had for changing my career, they gave me opportunity to save up and purchase a truck. I'll give you a little bit of a background on the truck.

the truck is a 1969 originally a straight 6 cylinder pickup truck that was converted to a 350 small block Chevy with a very small cam. the transmission is a turbo 400 and at some point in time someone swap in a 1973 - 87 bed. That's got to go!

the reason for the name is funny actually. first of all pictured below is his dog our big dog named Shadow. he's always been by my dads side and what better name to give the truck and the project name. Plus the best part is I bought this truck and my dad has no idea and I plan to give it to him this Father's Day as a gift for putting up with me for almost 29 years. So this truck is lurking in the shadows so to speak lol.

anyway, swapping the correct bed, lowering it, adding new tires, upgrading the exhaust in giving it a coat of matte black paint is on the agenda. That is the current game plan and down the road is the plan to paint it the same color as his 2013 Fat Boy lo. He's always said that he was an old Stepside painted the same color is his bike. Plus I plan on putting a 5.3 liter in the truck. So here are the pictures so far of what we're working with and hopefully you guys enjoy and can help me out along the way.

Thanks.

Justin


**picture of my Dad's dog.....he used to be bigger before tearing his ACL.....

[Jmc69c10]

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh202/llorracs93s10/Dads%20C10%20pick%20up/20160105_131517_zpsiflox4t3.jpeg[/IMG]

[Jmc69c10]

Now for the fum part. Took the broken mirrors off and found this underneath. P7lled out the buffing ball and went to town. Not bad you don't say?



since purchasing the truck I searched high and low for stepside bed as far as New York as south as South Carolina all the way over to Kentucky and I just could not find one. Turns out there were two of them and an hour away from me. Well only knew of one, but I made a deal and bought both of them. Couldn't resist lol.





Time to yank the fenders....here's why


Taking them to the metal guy for him to fix the fenders. besides the fenders the bed is in overall very good shape.

and of course every single bolt holding the fenders and steps all stripped like soft pudding so we had to fold to Grinder route.





that's it for now. Next time I'm at my buddies garage I plan on pulling the old wood off and checking out the cross braces. They look like they're in good shape just surface rust. Once we get his compressor fixed we are going to blast the bed and get it ready for primer.

plan is to get the bed ready to go for paint by the time I get the cab corners redone on the truck from my buddy since they don't exactly line up with the doors. I hope to be able to update this as soon as possible because that means progress is getting done. Thanks for looking!

[Jmc69c10]

Well got the truck back to the garage and started to pull the wiring and bed bolts to remove the 73+ bed. Boy are these HEAVY. Fenders have been sent to the blaster and back to the metal shop for them to be patched.

Other than that, I snagged a deal on a brand new grille. Hoping to get the truck to !y buddy soon to get the cab corners redone. Fathers day is approaching rather quickly!

Also, best place to get a tailgate? I'm in need of a new one and want to get the best quality one that's not made of paper thin sheet metal.




Stock hood back on after selling the cowl hood





Looks like cross braces are in my next set of purchases

[mooseknuckles]

cool truck! nice score on the period correct beds.

[Jmc69c10]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckles

cool truck! nice score on the period correct beds.

Thanks. Next concern is the doors. Driver side has rust under the mirrors (where they mount to door skin ) and aa we tightened the bolts I saw a small hairline Crack come out . I'm afraid body work was done to cover rust hole. So I'm debating going aftermarket doors.

[Jmc69c10]

Well it's been a very long time since I updated the truck. Honestly I forgot. So I'll speed you up til now.

Bed teardown and adding a new gate








Got the new cross sills painted


Time to get some paint on this bed and get it close to the cab color before the Plasti dip goes on




This was the beginning of the longest stretch of days I have EVER had. 2 hr drive to work 12 hr day of work and 2 hr drive home to go work on this til close to 1 am....


Cab corners replaced

[Jmc69c10]

So I went with brilliant silver from duplicolor (no clear) to get a base color close to the cab soin case the dip would look different with black fenders red bed and a primer gate.













So here's where my first attempt at dipping started. This project was a first for everything actually. Never have painted before . Wasn't expecting greatness of any sorts but as long as it was one color I was happy

I'm going with a gun metal dip color
First light coat









Second coat






Third coat and first of the heavy coats









Fourth coat









Final coats

[Jmc69c10]

Let it sit over night and came back after it dries. Wanted to see what it looked like in the sun











Had a few buddies come over and help out with the bed assembly. This stepper was a nightmare. Lol



Well money was extremely tight on this project so I had to go on the cheap oj the he'd wood. Went to Lowe's and for a buddy to trim them up to fit in the he'd nicely. Eventually we will go with a correct wood kit

[rob32472]

Looking good! keep the progress rolling!

[Jmc69c10]

So I had a mad scramble to get this done for Father's day and it was like a episode of Overhaulin. There was a cruise night in town that I wanted to give it to my Dad at and it started at 4 pm. I was still working on it til 3:30 pm. I had to have my mom best around the bush stalling my dad to show up at the cruise night since they were "in the area" and I had my Monte Carlo there.

So I gave him the truck Infront of a crowd with my mom and my brothers kids. It was a amazing situation and he did not believe me at all. I've never seen my dad like this in a long time. He has always out the family first and never did for himself. So I had to do something.

As he gets older we can't play sports much longer together so this will be a nice transition to bonding together.









Niceb bonding moment for my dad and his grandson as well

[Jmc69c10]

Now that he has it, he wanted to keep it how it was. And I couldn't do that. So I went on search for a drop kit and other parts.






Christmas time I got home a few items to freshen up the front from new headlights to buckets to a chrome grille to the billet insert (I'll get to that in a minute) , stock rear bumper and a smoothie front bumper. Plan is to make the stock rear bumper smooth like the front to match




Grille is just kicked up btw. Not fully in.



So for the billet grille, LMC sends a extension rod that ended up snapping at the threaded end. Anyone deal with this and have idea how to fix it? I bought a thicker rod but it still doesn't seem right on the hood release.

[Jmc69c10]

Lastly, this spring I'm hoping to finish the underside of the truck with going from 6 lug drum/drum Toba 5 lug disc /disc brake conversion. I'm not looking for a cheap old technology setup but not trying to go with the 1500 dollar front 1500 rear setup. Any thoughts? Goals are by this time next year to be saving for the body upgrades or the LS swap.

[Jmc69c10]

Well my Dad and I went out to finish off the front end. Everything seemed to line up pretty good. Hood latch is still not working so I had to cut the latch in half to clear the billet grille. The rod that came from LMC with the billet grille broke in half and it just wasn't cutting it. So I'm looking for a "better " option.

Anyways here's the front end setup. We bought a new rear but we still need to weld in and smooth it like the front bumper before I paint match to the body.





And here's my Monte Carlo been in the family since new and has a 6.2 l92 LS engine