My Grandads 1969 C20

[west9378]

Hello all I have just purchased my grandfathers 1969 chevy truck it was not his first but it is the first truck of his that I remember. It was a great truck that we used to haul a truck camper and boat to the river often during the summer time. Later the truck was put into use around the family business which got alot of really tough duty use haul barrels of oil and everything else. The body is in bady shape and I have purchased a 1971 K20 that I want to use to make this truck a 4X4.

I plan on using all the parts I can from my Grandfathers 1969 engine, was using the tranny but I have been talked into the 700R4 switch because I will be using this as my daily truck, rearend, cab and front clip.
The real questions now are the 1971 has better body parts how much do I use of my grandfathers truck and how much can I use of the 1971. I want it to be 4x4 and the 1971 chassis would be easy to roll right under the 69 body.

My Grandfathers is the red truck and the 1971 that I want to use is the gold/brown

[nutsforchevys]

Welcome from Texas!
Depending on the cab shape I would keep the red front clip and cab and the bed off the gold one.

[west9378]

Thank you for your ideas, the bed on the 69 is actually broken so I agree that bed has to go. At this point I am going to use the front red clip and cab unless I am told that I can or will have structural problems from replacing the steel that will have to be replaced on the red cab to remove all the rust in the floor and a little around the drip guard or gutter.
Thanks again

[west9378]

Sandblasted today Monday, should be primed and returned to me tomorrow Tuesday afternoon. I am changing to a 14 bolt rear end, I have determined my Grandfathers truck origionaly had a HO52 Eaton which I think is really not an eaton just eaton parts. So it is out with the HO52 in with the 14 bolt and 64" springs to replace the 54" springs. I will post pictures tomorrow or Wednesday.

[west9378]

Cab was glass blasted yesterday and there is not a panel on the cab that is not rusted, even the inside roof of the cab is rusted, back glass top and bottom, inner kick panels, etc. I am at the point if I could find a replacement panel for the rear of the cab I would be very happy. I am going to do the work to fix all of this and for my piece of mind I think I will have a brand new 1969 cab HA HA. I will add pictures this afternoon or tomorrow. The chassis has not changed at all still have the front drive axel apart and ready for new bearings and seals. I am taking a 3 from the 8 leafs from the rear springs and adding air bags for extra support I went to Southern Kentucky classics and got the floor, outer rocker and rear lower cab patch panels. The 700r4 transmission will be rebuilt this week with commercial heavy duty parts and a short rear tail shaft from bowtie overdrives that allows me to bolt the transmission directly to the transfer case. We will check out the transfer case maybe put new bushings, etc.. Anyone got ideas for aluminum wheels 8 lug for this truck I would like to find something that looked 1969 1970 ish.
I hope many new pics this week with progress maybe a rolling chassis!!!!!

[Leviticus]

Welcome, looks good already, keep us posted!

[west9378]

It really surprised me just how much rust this truck had. Every panel has some penetrating rust some more than others but it is my grandfathers and as beechd18 suggested do what it takes to perserve what is special and has memories. I will post more pics in the days to come.

[west9378]

I just talked with the transmission guy he is a little sick so it might be the end of this week 1st of next week before the tranmission is rebuilt, engine is ready and the front and rear end are going back in along with air bags to take up the slack that I created by removing 3 of the 8 leaf springs.

[west9378]

The floor is coming out one piece at a time. PLease remind me to get a picture of the bullet hole in the passenger toe / floor board.

[sokyclassics]

Looks like we'll be seeing more of you up here West!

-Aaron

[oldblue1968chevy]

cool build! work hard/fast and youll be ready for cruising season lol!!

[west9378]

It has been over a year since we first started on this build. The first week I thought I would have been driving it by summer 2010 today it is spring 2011 and we have had some progress but it is limited.
Update we have linex the frame and we have rebuilt the front diff, rear diff I found the origional rear diff in my grand fathers truck was a dana 60 so the dana 60 and dana 44 have both been rebuilt, the transmisssion a 700R4 has been rebuilt and painted, the nP205 has been completely rebuilt and painted both trans mission and transfer cas are Chevrolet Orange. The engine that was in my grandfathers truck had been replaced obviously by the person that my grandfather sold the truck to, so we are using that till we can see what I need for power and fuel economy, I will finish this project by putting a propane conversion on and installing a 60 gallon tank in the bed, CRUISE RANGE
The body has all ben blasted except the new cab that I am using thanks to everyones input regarding the cab and the amount of repair that was going to have to be done to make it complete.
I will post pictures this week.
Thanks everyone
West

[1ATony]

Thanks for joining the site

[yj4000]

Any updates?