68 shortbed stepside stripper truck build

[indymachinist]

Well it has been a long time coming but I now own my first classic truck. If you read any of my intro thread you would know I saw my first c10 step side in highschool and wanted it but wasn't able to get it. Now a little under 15 years later I finally got one.

It is a white 1968 shortbed stepside with a 250 6cyl and 3 on the tree. I forgot to get a picture of the SPID but it has virtually no options other than heavy duty rear springs, volt meter, and oil pressure gauge.

It has been repainted but other than that it appears to be in very original condition.

Here are some pictures of it on the trailer Thursday night (7/30/15) when I brought it home.







My Caprice wagon towed it home with ease. I was quite impressed with how well it pulled the truck. I averaged about 13 mpg at about 65 mph.

[indymachinist]

Now on with the pictures of the truck from the next day.


This truck is currently not running. It would start up and run some, but the carb seemed to just be pouring gas into the engine. The previous owner thinks that someone took it apart and put it back together and forgot to put a spring in it? You can see its little Rochester Monojet sitting on the ground in the corner of the picture. I am going to try to get a coworker to help me rebuild this thing and see if we can get the engine running right.








I do not like the bedside mounted spare tire. This will be one of the first things to go away. So I will have to get ahold of a new driver side fender to take care of this.


The tailgate is a flat panel where the Chevrolet is written. That is a black sticker. I assume it is an aftermarket tailgate? Or were some of them flat like that from the factory? I would have rather had the tailgate that has Chevrolet stamped into it but its not a big deal.


Is this possibly original bed wood? It is in pretty bad shape but it is there.




The underside/rockers of the truck are in pretty good shape. You likely wouldn't find one up around me that look this good. The driver outer rocker does have the start of a small hole in the back area of it.


Passenger rocker is in good shape.


This seat and steering wheel is a pretty hilarious combo. I know it was common for the time but sitting in this truck makes me feel like I am sitting in a school bus or something. The bench seat and giant steering wheel will almost certainly be swapped out for something else. Not sure what yet, but something.


The blue interior doesn't really do it for me. Not sure what I am going to do with the interior yet but it is likely I will change the blue to either a charcoal gray or black.


There is a bit of bondo in the hood that has cracked. I am not overly worried about it as I may consider putting a low cowl induction hood on the truck. I like the way those look


Is this a common thing? I have seen 3 trucks with the same issue that I have looked at. At first I thought it was from people just being lazy while painting the dash board but this actually appears to be a white fog inside the glass. Does water somehow manage to get into the layers of the windshield or what?


This looks like something I need to get taken care of. Not sure how to best tackle stopping this rust without getting paint work involved?

[indymachinist]

I would like to leave the exterior of this truck almost exactly as it is with the exception of the bedside spare tire. I really do not want to paint it at this point. I think the paint will clean up pretty well for the most part as it is. I do want to try to make sure what little bit of rust is there is stopped. I am a big fan of patina looking trucks but I will not be letting this truck rust away.


Plans for the truck are not finalized at this point. In some areas it will be pretty wild vs. what people are used to. In some areas it will stay pretty basic.

For a brief start the plans are as follows:

-Get the carb fixed and get it up and driving as it is

-Take bedside spare tire off, get new fender painted and installed

-Lowering suspension pretty mild... spindles and springs in front, unknown in back (not air ride)

-4 wheel disc brakes and power brake booster (I want to swap an entire late model disc brake setup into the truck. Front and rear calipers and rotors, master, booster, and prop valve.)

-Change wheel color (black, dark gray?), find good looking wheel caps to go with the beauty rings

-Possibly a light window tint. Not sure on this one yet. I do like window tint for privacy/staying cool but don't know how I feel about it on old cars/trucks


As it is right now this truck is sitting in a shed waiting for me to finish a couple other projects I have in the works. Work will probably ramp up majorly on this thing in the fall but for now I am going to plan it out carefully and try to get my head wrapped around exactly what I want this truck to be.

[indymachinist]

Just realized I posted this in the wrong spot. Could someone move it to the 67-72 area for me please?

[markeb01]

Congrats on acquiring a very nice truck, running or not.

[TJ's Chevy]

Nice truck! Don't mind it being in the wrong spot at all! lol

[indymachinist]

As a bit of a start to this project... a coworker says he has experience with the Rochester and will help me get it back working right. That would be nice to get the truck back up and running for now.

[cooperhw]

First off congratulations. You harvested a diamond.

You are on the right track. Get that dude running and starting to put smiles on your face. Do those other things "as you go". Resist the urge to "rip it apart". Most of those never get back together. At least not with the owner who did the ripping.
I would buff that dude out and proudly drive the wheels off it.

[slowcpe]

Nice truck to start with. Congrats!

[67swb72klb]

Nice solid starting point

[mooseknuckles]

that one's a keeper!

[kingstrider]

That's a nice truck!

[Advanced Design]

Very nice truck Indymachinist! Where did you find it? We don't find them that solid around here.

[indymachinist]

Thanks for the comments guys. The truck came from Nashville and the owner said he thought it had been around Murfreesboro Tn it's whole life. Definitely not the kind of truck you find up here in the salty winter zone.

[Pick]

That definitely looks like a nice solid start for a project! Congrats!

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Dig that truck!

[indymachinist]

Just got to looking into how much a non spare tire fender costs. Looks like I may have to try and find a used one or try and find someone who wants to trade.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

I think it looks *****in' with the tire on it!

[swamp rat]

If it rains over there at all it might be advisable to scrape the sealant out of the rain gutter and re do it with a self leveling 2 part product from 3m or sem, after its set you should be able to skuff it and hit it with some white paint so it won't look bad. i think you will be suprised at what you find under whats there. Don't try and use silicone on it cause it always fails.

[Xeen]

I was talking to a buddy of mine the other day and we both agree, don't settle for something you don't want because it will cause you to become disgruntled and the truck will lose some of it's magic.
I bit the bullet and spent $1,000 for new reproduction fleetside bedsides and I couldn't be happier, so even though the reproduction fender is expensive buy the made in the USA fender and you will be glad you did.
Projects always cost more money then you think anyway so don't even worry about it, build it to make yourself happy and call it a good investment, you only live once.

[indymachinist]

My carb rebuild kit showed up today. I will have to try to get that back together and on soon. Time is short right now though.

[indymachinist]

Well some small updates....

I got the carb rebuilt and got the truck running. I drove it around maybe 2 miles and got some smiles out of it. The shift linkage is out of whack though so it likes to get stuck in 1st gear. Have not fixed that issue yet.

I got a full dark gray 40-20-40 seat set out of a 2000 Silverado that will be going in to the truck. That will take care of several things all at once. It starts the process of getting rid of blue interior, getting rid of uncomfortable bench seat, and adding shoulder harness seat belts.

Recently while I was on Gatlinburg TN I got a new drivers rear step fender without the spare tire cutout in it. Dave's Truck Parts out if Claremont, NC was set up in the swap meet area and making deals. I wanted to get a cowl hood also but had no way if getting it home.

I have been collecting brake parts to do my own custom 4 wheel disc setup on the truck. So far I have gathered late model truck/suv calipers and rotors for the front and the back. As I finalize this setup I will share details with the forum, but it will likely be hard to replicate without machine shop access. My goal is the calipers, rotors, and pads will all be standard issue parts available off the shelf at a normal parts store.

Today I ordered a set of satin black 17" Soft 8 wheels that I will need to clear the new big brakes. I intend to run a set of gray late model truck center caps on them. I think it should look decent. I also ordered a set of CPP modular front 2" drop spindles and the Hotchkis 2" front 6" rear drop spring set. I know the suspension will require more parts than that but aside from probably using all Moog steering parts I will likely fabricate almost all of the rest myself.

That's where this thing stands right now.

Drivetrain plans are pretty well firmed up at this point also. 5.3 LS engine with single turbo, 4l80e trans with paddle shift, truck 12 bolt refreshed with new limited slip diff and forged axles, traction control using late model wheel speed sensors, and e85 fuel with a flex fuel sensor to keep an eye on the % and transition between e85 and straight gas as needed.

[69Tom]

Originally Posted by indymachinist

Is this a common thing? I have seen 3 trucks with the same issue that I have looked at. At first I thought it was from people just being lazy while painting the dash board but this actually appears to be a white fog inside the glass. Does water somehow manage to get into the layers of the windshield or what?

Overall, looks like a really nice truck.

I have the same thing going on with the windshield on my '70. I believe that the windshield is starting to de-laminate. I'll be replacing mine when I repaint my upper dash. Much easier to paint the dash with the glass out. And wise to replace the glass anyhow.

[indymachinist]

Originally Posted by 69Tom

Overall, looks like a really nice truck.

I have the same thing going on with the windshield on my '70. I believe that the windshield is starting to de-laminate. I'll be replacing mine when I repaint my upper dash. Much easier to paint the dash with the glass out. And wise to replace the glass anyhow.

Yeah, I noticed about half the trucks I saw in Gatlinburg had the white in the glass going on. Must be a pretty common issue with these trucks.

[Xeen]

I purchased the modular drop spindles for mine also, I've been hearing some grumbling as of late that the stock rotor hits the lower control arm when you go to put everything back together so budget an extra $500 for the CPP tubular lower control arms because you might need it, you may not have to but I just thought I would mention it just in case because I haven't gotten around to installing mine to find out if it's true yet.