1969 Chevy Stepside Restoration/Build up

[matthew20061]

Originally Posted by BACKYARD88

Your truck looks really good man. It's been a lot of work but you stuck it out until the end and finished it and that's about as hard as the work Enjoy driving that thing!

Thanks, it's pretty fun to drive!

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Beautiful Truck!!

Thanks!

[matthew20061]

Well got a great birthday present today since today's my birthday! It was a Tach Conversion Kit! So I went right in and installed it. It was a pretty easy install overall just plug and play except for running the tach wire to the ECM. Here's some pics:


Out of the truck, time to install the tach.








All finished!

[matthew20061]

Picked up a Rear View mirror from a late model chevy truck at the junk yard today. It has the temperature and compass display so I grabbed all the wiring and temperature sensor from the truck too. Anyway bought the glue for the bracket and glued it on the windshield. While that was drying I went to work wiring it up. It was pretty easy to wire up, PINK-+12, BLACK-Ground, BLK/WHT-Temp Sensor, GRN/WHT-Temp Sensor. I just ran the wires around the windshield gasket and down though a small hole in the dash. Mounted the temp sensor on the core support for wind to blow over it when driving to get an accurate measurement. Mounted the mirror and turned on the key, and now I have a temperature mirror!






Here's the remote for the autostart!


Here's where the autostart's antenna is mounted, the wires for that are also run in the windshield gasket.

[oldblue1968chevy]

looks good i like the newer rearview mirrors...neat

[seldomseen65]

Originally Posted by matthew20061

Picked up a Rear View mirror from a late model chevy truck at the junk yard today. It has the temperature and compass display so I grabbed all the wiring and temperature sensor from the truck too. Anyway bought the glue for the bracket and glued it on the windshield. While that was drying I went to work wiring it up. It was pretty easy to wire up, PINK-+12, BLACK-Ground, BLK/WHT-Temp Sensor, GRN/WHT-Temp Sensor. I just ran the wires around the windshield gasket and down though a small hole in the dash. Mounted the temp sensor on the core support for wind to blow over it when driving to get an accurate measurement. Mounted the mirror and turned on the key, and now I have a temperature mirror!






Here's the remote for the autostart!


Here's where the autostart's antenna is mounted, the wires for that are also run in the windshield gasket.

looks great on the truck ,,Matt,, now you won't get lost any were in Alaska, lol ,,happy belated birthday there youngster ,,wanna come down to Nevada and help me finish my truck?? :Chevy:
larry

[matthew20061]

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

looks good i like the newer rearview mirrors...neat

Thanks, ya I like the newer rear view mirror to.

Originally Posted by seldomseen65

looks great on the truck ,,Matt,, now you won't get lost any were in Alaska, lol ,,happy belated birthday there youngster ,,wanna come down to Nevada and help me finish my truck?? :Chevy:
larry

Thanks, I don't think I'll be getting lost up here though, haha.

[matthew20061]

Got a lowering kit from Classic Performance Parts. It's a 2'' front and 4'' rear, came with shock relocates for the back, 4 new shocks, and 4 springs! Should finish up the truck. Recently I've been having problems with the in tank fuel pump I was using (the rubber line connecting the pump to the metal line inside the tank broke, and somehow the truck still ran under 1500 rpm haha was driving it when this happened luckily the fuel just recirculates inside the tank) so its time to switch to the external one I've been meaning to install. To complete the fuel system I also bought a Aeromotive A1000-6 Pressure regulator that should be here by the end of the week, its adjustable from 30-70psi. The lowering kit is on the counter waiting to be installed....Here's a pic of what the regulator looks like.

[matthew20061]

Finally got around to installing my external fuel pump, original sending unit, and my new Aeromotive pressure regulator setup. Now that it's finally installed again I drove the truck for the first time in weeks. It ran awesome with the new pump and regulator. I'm not sure what to set the pressure to though, I think the factory spec for the 5.3L is 55-62 PSI. But I set mine to 50 because if I went higher it seemed to be running rich. Tomorrow I'm installing the lowering kit and shocks.

[seldomseen65]

doing a good job on the truck Matt, keep up the good work,
it's the middle of the night here in Pahrump,Nevada and I'm still up.. retired so my hours are basically my own ,,gonna get me a regulator like you got there Matt,, maybe my truck will run better,, good luck on the rest of the work on your truck and be careful..
larry

[basketcase]

I think you will be pretty happy with your lowering kit. I got basically the same thing from ECE and, as far as I can tell since I still have assembly to do, it is going to set nice without being too low.

Is your mirror a self darkening one too? I need a new mirror and didn't realize that these were so easy to install. Time to go junk yard shopping.

[matthew20061]

Originally Posted by basketcase

I think you will be pretty happy with your lowering kit. I got basically the same thing from ECE and, as far as I can tell since I still have assembly to do, it is going to set nice without being too low.

Is your mirror a self darkening one too? I need a new mirror and didn't realize that these were so easy to install. Time to go junk yard shopping.

Yes it is self darkening but not sure if that part of it is working or not because it hasn't been to dark in Alaska right now/ don't drive the truck at night. The lowering kit worked out pretty good with some problem. I installed the rear springs first and the truck sat pretty low almost too low. Figured I would install the front and see how it sat right? Got the front installed dropped it down, front was 1'' higher than the rear looked ridiculous. I guess this was because the new 5.3L with Aluminum Heads is much lighter than the previous old straight six? Anyway long story short I made some spacers for the rear springs to bring the back up just 1" so it has a 3" lowering kit in the back now instead of a 4". Looks great, went to a car show last Sunday in Anchorage it was the biggest car show in Alaska 350+ cars and trucks! Saw a number of other 67-72's there some pretty close to as nice as mine....
I'll get pics up some time soon!

[Tim_A]

That is an awesome truck you built, man. Thank you for all the inspiration! I have got a '69 shortbed stepside as well and I have learned a lot from your thread. Great work!

[nuke1]

great idea with the temp sensor, gonna have to go and get one for myself now!

[ERIK D]

Great job.congrats

[matthew20061]

Here's some pics of the the truck at some car shows I went to at the beginning of August. Show and Shine 2009! 350 cars and trucks!

[matthew20061]

More...

[seldomseen65]

OK, Matt, looks like every thing came out very nice on your truck, still love that color, and yes you talked me into getting a steering wheel just like yours, looks cool in the truck,, like those short bed side steppers , did you get best of show, i would have voted you for that, and made sure you got that award, i still look forward to finding you on this web site,,because i think your truck is totally awesome. well nuff said , keep up the great work on the truck,,because you will never be done improving it. do you live in Anchorage or near there, i was up there in the 80's doing pipe line work,,

[matthew20061]

Originally Posted by seldomseen65

OK, Matt, looks like every thing came out very nice on your truck, still love that color, and yes you talked me into getting a steering wheel just like yours, looks cool in the truck,, like those short bed side steppers , did you get best of show, i would have voted you for that, and made sure you got that award, i still look forward to finding you on this web site,,because i think your truck is totally awesome. well nuff said , keep up the great work on the truck,,because you will never be done improving it. do you live in Anchorage or near there, i was up there in the 80's doing pipe line work,,

Thanks, the car show I went to was so big that no I didn't get best truck award and for good reason, there was a lot of competition. Think it went to a perfect 50's chevy truck don't exactly remember which one exactly. I would of won best truck at an earlier show in June of this year but I had to leave early. And yes I do live in Anchorage!

[seldomseen65]

cool ,.Matt send me some salmon, lol , work on the pipe line for about 6 years ,then moved into Anchorage , near the coast, not bad weather there , you really have to get used to it though, work with a friend of mine on some fishing boat for awhile then i had had enough i guess, came back to the lower 48, why i still don't know, now my present wife wants to make a trip up there one of these days. thanks for your pics Matt, sure enjoy then. larry

[matthew20061]

Originally Posted by seldomseen65

cool ,.Matt send me some salmon, lol , work on the pipe line for about 6 years ,then moved into Anchorage , near the coast, not bad weather there , you really have to get used to it though, work with a friend of mine on some fishing boat for awhile then i had had enough i guess, came back to the lower 48, why i still don't know, now my present wife wants to make a trip up there one of these days. thanks for your pics Matt, sure enjoy then. larry

I'm not really the fishing type lol, otherwise I would, Cool that you used to be in anchorage, the weather's starting to really suck (raining) so I can't drive the truck much at all which really sucks...Before I know it, it'll be snowing....Guess I'll be putting it in storage till next summer! That's alright though because I just got a Silverado SS so that will be a great winter truck (6.0L AWD) until next summer when I can get the 69 back out.

[russj67]

Matt, Nice truck! I just found your build thread and went through it. I'm just about done with my 67. Need exhaust, tires and wheels, and the bed wood in. I thought I would shoot you a picture since my truck is almost the exact color. Mine is Atomic Orange from the newer vettes, but I'm not sure I see much difference from the copper. Don't worry, I'm in Portland, Oregon so we aren't fighting for the same color in the same town! Ha Ha.

[matthew20061]

Originally Posted by russj67

Matt, Nice truck! I just found your build thread and went through it. I'm just about done with my 67. Need exhaust, tires and wheels, and the bed wood in. I thought I would shoot you a picture since my truck is almost the exact color. Mine is Atomic Orange from the newer vettes, but I'm not sure I see much difference from the copper. Don't worry, I'm in Portland, Oregon so we aren't fighting for the same color in the same town! Ha Ha.

That looks sweet! It's just about the same color as mine....You doing the work your self? You should start a build thread for you truck unless you already did...Looks great.

[russj67]

Thanks. I didn't do the paint, but did as much as I could myself. I'm letting a shop finish some things up that I didn't trust myself with or couldn't do in the gravel. I know enough to be dangerous!

I don't have a build thread, but I have a lot of pictures from it here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/russj67/My67

[Resmondo]

wow awesome truck! almost same color as mine. i was wondering how you kept the fuel neck in the stock location with the fuel tank you have? did you just cut a filler tube hole in the botton of the cab?

[R.L.]

That is a sweet looking truck, congratulations.