1967 GMC - SWB, great patina

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Crank pulley on….and some ‘68 puttering.

(Also forgot to include the A+ delivery from UPS on my RockAuto shipment. Nailed it fellas)

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Pretty butthurt about how the drivers side cab corner came out…..but this is FAR from my strong suit.

Will try better on the passengers side. It’ll all be buried down low and behind the cab where it’s not terribly visible….but not my finest work. I’ll have to go back and finish welding things up. Just got frustrated and the in the towel this afternoon.

I tried to cut out as little as possible.

[raggedjim]

Buddy, it's far from the worst I've seen (or done). I cut and rewelded my cab corners multiple times before I got to a point I could live with them.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Thanks for the support Roger. I cut them off twice, each time I seemed to be hustlin’ backward…..so just went forward come hell or high water.

There are a lot of angles and bends and lines to make work on a cab
Corner.

[raggedjim]

Could be worse, you could have a step side! The corners really have to be right on a stepper.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

Could be worse, you could have a step side! The corners really have to be right on a stepper.

That’s good perspective right there. I like Derek’s view from Vice Grip Garage.

“we’re not trying to win car shows. We’re not trying to get awards, we’re not even trying to get compliments. This is just Can we make it look pretty decent…”

[binford]

Looks good.

I drilled holes in the bottom of my corners to let the water out. But I live in a dry climate.

Somehow water would get in and I would not notice it. Drilled and painted and now I don't have rusty pliers, screwdriver and what ever else ends up in those pocket corners.

Not sure If you ever pulled any leaf srpings out. I would pull the bottom 2 off and see how it rides. Remember those leafs prevent axle wrap too.
If you need new bushing, I should be able to find the part number. I order some about a year ago. Or just call https://www.generalspringkc.com/

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Originally Posted by binford

Looks good.

I drilled holes in the bottom of my corners to let the water out. But I live in a dry climate.

Somehow water would get in and I would not notice it. Drilled and painted and now I don't have rusty pliers, screwdriver and what ever else ends up in those pocket corners.

Not sure If you ever pulled any leaf srpings out. I would pull the bottom 2 off and see how it rides. Remember those leafs prevent axle wrap too.
If you need new bushing, I should be able to find the part number. I order some about a year ago. Or just call https://www.generalspringkc.com/

Do you have a photo of the holes you drilled?

The leafs, despite there being 8 of them seem really soft. I’ll wait until I get the bed and cab on to see how much the truck sags. When rebuilding them, I did put in new bushings. I was surprised to see they were a common part used on both chevys and fords of the era.


—-


The passengers cab corner web much better. Decent lines compared to the drivers side. I’m not quite sure how I’ll blend in the bottom edge of the original back panel to the edge of the cab corners (as shown). There’s quite a gap and difference in contour. I opted to use the door jamb lines etc and have to make up the slack where it can’t be easily seen, instead of making the back seam decent and having a dumpster fire to deal with making the door jamb lines all work.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

With the cab getting close to setting in place on the frame, I wanted to tidy up the firewall and plug some holes that aren’t needed. I didn’t do this on my ‘68 and wish I had - I went with grommets instead. Against a black firewall, black grommets looked ok but the holes still bugged me.

I cut pieces to fit, then welded in patches, grinding them down smooth after.

I toyed with shaving the whole firewall like the nice hot rods do, but just couldn’t justify it for a daily.

It will get a spray coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Platinum then Eastwood Chassis Black satin paint before going onto the frame….and beginning the long fun process of wiring.


I still may plug the holes that are used to secure the little rubber / plastic “studs” that hold the original fiber firewall insulation in place. I bought that for my ‘68 from LMC, and the retainers were so hard and not-bendable that it was a massive pain getting them pushed through to hold the insulation, even when softened with a heat gun. It was a pretty crappy kit. Unsure if I’ll try to find another higher-quality kit or just cover the inner firewall with Dynamat / Killmat etc.

I did leave one hole above the gas pedal, because there will be “things” that need to get inside from the engine - wiring for sensors, the driveByWire, controls for AC etc. That location was the most hidden spot, tucked down behind the engine but close to the gauges.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Thought about it for a day before opting to seal up every hole in the firewall except those that will be covered by the heater box panel, the one hole above the gas pedal and the fuse box hole.

I bought some small washers, enlarged the insulation-holder holes and welded stuff shut, among about 8 other various holes.

[raggedjim]

Some nice work. The pass cab corner looks great. It's always best to start on the side that will be visible and make the rest fit as needed.

The best way to get the inside contour to line up is to cut on the red line, bend to white line, and weld it up. As far as it being perfect, well, once the bed is on no one will ever see it.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Thanks Roger for the advice. I’ll end up doing that….just needed to step away from sheet metal for a couple days.

The drivetrain was loosely set in place and needed to be positioned properly. The rear end is where it is - no moving it, so it directs placement of everything else.

The T56 should be 3/4 - 1” from fully bottomed out against the dust seal to allow for suspension travel etc.

My driveline is basically a straight line, so it would take a lot of Y axis movement (axle up/down) to equal significant x axis movement (driveshaft in/out) so I went with the minimum.

I wrapped a 3/4” wide piece of tape around the yoke, and moved the engine back until it was just starting to bury in the dust seal.

From there, I locked down the motor mounts, drilled a 3rd hole into the subframe and positioned the trans crossmember.

There are scratches etc all over now, so will touch up with the same Eastwood Chassis Black Extreme in satin, from a spray can.

At that point, driveline goes back in, bolts down and waits for the cab (soon I hope - still pondering how to lift it. I’ve done the engine-lift trick once and it was sketchy. I’ll figure something out.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Following Roger’s advice I sliced the cab corner, bent it to fit, added a little filler sliver of metal and welded it shut.

It’s a C+ job. The contour of the original edge is basically sharp 90’s and the contour of aftermarket is wavy and not even close to OEM. To get it really right would have taken a day. Good enough for me and this job.)

Laid down some red primer, will add filler soon and get things prepped for some paint (which won’t be great either, but for a rusty patina daily it’ll suffice.


Also laid the drivetrain back in and bolted things down tight.

[SCOTI]

Looks fine & will be perfect once the bed is on

[raggedjim]

I agree, nice job.

[Bodied67]

looks great, I'm about to tackle the same job on mine so this helps a lot seeing how you tackled it

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Originally Posted by Bodied67

looks great, I'm about to tackle the same job on mine so this helps a lot seeing how you tackled it

Anything I can do to help - drop a message here for the masses to follow later on in the future if they need advice or what-not-to-do info.

—

Did my finest masking job, and laid down a coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Platinum on the floor of the cab and the firewall to seal things up. The firewall will get satin black (but I wanted to keep the factory chalk marks so masked off that area - just painted the front of the firewall that sticks out).

I wrangled the spray gun inside as much as I could to the inner firewall, just to seal the metal. The interior is getting a layer of 80-mil Kilmat shortly and didn’t want to apply it to areas of bare metal.

[raggedjim]

Looking good, I plan to do the same. One thing I have done that I haven't posted yet was paint the backside of the dash and the area above eye view of the inner firewall gloss white. It really helps you see when you're doing the electricals or any other work under the dash. It doesn't have to look perfect, but if you've ever worked under a dash board you know how dark it is under there.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

That’s a solid idea. Maybe I’ll rattle-can some white around to brighten things up. There will be plenty of under-dash wiring to do between the gauges, the fuse panel, the drive by wire, cruise control, and AC.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Sprayed the firewall with the Chassis Black, then sanded the corners (too much) added another coat of filler and while waiting for things to dry, bolted on the new radiator support, then cleaned and rearranged the garage for more working room.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

I laid down some 507 Light Blue on the rockers and cab corners…which expectedly is much brighter than the blue on the truck.

I covered about 8 coats of red primer, so there’s depth of red to bring out as I sand the blue.

I’m NOT a fan of the Fake Patina folks do. This truck is legit, the rockers and cab corners are redone and I’ll try to blend the New with the Old a bit without going overboard.




I also scuffed the new inner fenders and sprayed down a coat of Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black satin to match the firewall. They turned out okay. Getting awful close to setting the cab back on the frame.


Kilmat also arrived today. Looking forward to installing that…

[raggedjim]

What??? No pics of the cab corners? No fair...

Inner fenders look great. Looking forward to seeing the kilmat installed, about to do the same.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Will add some cab corner shots here in a few.

Today -> Frame meet cab. Cab meet frame.

Used a sweet setup of a pressure treated 6x6 run through the windows with one end on the lift, one end on the engine crane. Worked slick.

One issue right off the bat…the floor pan hits the back of the T56 which likely means a new crossmember since any skinnier mount to lower the back end, will put the tail shaft on the tubular crossmember.

We’ll figure it out….

I do like the shifter location.

[WorldsCrappiestTruck]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

What??? No pics of the cab corners? No fair...

Inner fenders look great. Looking forward to seeing the kilmat installed, about to do the same.

Some photos of the cab corners and rockers. I just hate how they look but will do some scuffin’ and rub’n some dirt in to dull down the shine and help blend things together a bit.

[raggedjim]

Little more work and they should blend right in. I've been dreading putting the cab back on, you have a great setup for that.