68 C50 Looongbed pickup build

[rkn463]

OK, I've been threatening to post this for a while but I knew the truck would be on hold for long periods of time so I held off until I got to some real progress. I'll start with the story and it is a bit long so bear with me...

I always wanted a hotrod Chevy pickup and I fell in love with the 37 to 40 models. That vintage truck around here is really scarce so I just kept my eyes open for a project. Finally one day several years back I see an ad for a 40 model 1.5 ton. I went and looked at it and although it was a basket case I had the cash and a place to let it sit so I bought it. I can't seem to find anything with a date on it but I think that was probably around 2006. The truck is old and rusty and no bed on it, being a 1.5 ton it is dual rear wheels and big wheel wells. So... I was thinking hotrod pickup but fell in love with the original configuration and started speculating on what I really wanted to build. I did a few web searches and found the Stovebolt sight and a post there ultimately led me to this forum. Anyway time goes on and I decide I want a big "modern" 6 cylinder and the 292 was my choice. It just so happens that a friend has a 67 C50 grain truck witha 292 that has been sitting derelict on our land for several years and I talk him in to selling it to me for a fair price and then there were two. Here are pictures, I lost my hard drive and all of the original pictures of the 40 so the one I have is recent, please ignore the late model bed resting on it, that is just to keep the bed off the ground.

[rkn463]

OK, that worked (been a long time since I posted anything with pictures).
So I need to get the 67 running to make sure that the motor is rebuild-able and a carb kit, points & condenser and various wires later I have a running 67 C50 with no brakes. And I fall in love with that truck too! Shifting that split rear is just too cool. I drive it around on the farm wondering what I'm going to do with it. One night after a drink or two I think how cool it would be made into a big giant dually. This is literally before I'd seen anyone do it short of some Internationals with F**d dually beds on them. Anyway I deem it too rusty to be a valid candidate so I need a new donor truck (yes by now the 40 is on the far back burner). My neighbor has a pretty clean 68 C50 with a 327 4 speed in it so I go insult the hell out of him with a really low offer. Eventually he comes around and sells me the truck, and then there were 3. Here are some pictures of how bad the rust and hack job were on the 67 along with an early shot of the 68. By now it is 2011.

[rkn463]

Now the story really begins. The 68 has some minimal rust in the floorboards and a few dents but solid as I had ever seen. The interior was rough, the engine needed tuning up and the brakes were leaking fluid

At least the radio holes were unmolested, but some of the things people do to trucks instead of just fixing them makes me crazy. Heater controls broken because the tried to force them with a rats nest in the way of the blend door, heater switch wires cut and a rotary switch added under the dash, oil pressure gauge screwed in to a radio knob hole, dripping oil into the ash tray, tee shirt shoved in to catch the drips. "Before" pictures:

[rkn463]

So I start fixing stuff:
Tune up
carb rebuild
(now it runs great!)
new door and window weatherstrips
repaint instrument cluster bezel, buff instrument panel lens, repaint needles
remove and repair heater controls
remove rats nests from heater ducts
paint heater ducts (inside too to kill the smell)
repaint dash
new dash pad
new window crank handles
new window regulators
(no more door rattles and windows actually go up and down now!)
New shifter boot
remove hand brake, clean put missing washers in and now it works
new cardboard insert in glove box
repaint glove box door
new headlights
new alternator and re-replace headlights because the alternator fried the high dollar Sylvanias.
And I built some wood sides for the flatbed so that the dogs could ride. More photos:

[rkn463]

The seat was toast too so I got on craigslist and found some leather buckets out of a 2003ish Tahoe. Pics of painted dash, seats, and a "glamour shot" of the interior. Also the sideboards that I didn't show before. The dogs loved riding on it. Unfortunately Lucy, the chocolate lab, is no longer with us... bone cancer took her at 12 years.

[rkn463]

Gotta get some sleep, will continue tomorrow...

[rkn463]

So by January 2015 it's time to get started on making it into a pickup. I found a really rough bed and my friend helped me remove the flatbed, which had been welded on. Once removed I mocked up the pickup bed.

[rkn463]

I had spent a lot of time deciding whether to shorten the frame or lengthen the bed and since I wanted to use it for a truck I didn't want to do anything to reduce the structural capacity of the frame. I did not like the idea of moving the diff forward as it would change the pinion angle and reduce the suspension travel unless I completely re-engineered the rear suspension and the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of a 10 foot bed. Back to craigslist I found another rough bed. I didn't want to sacrifice a good bed to my newbie (non-existent actually) body welding skills. All of the builds that I had read on this site said the same thing "You'll never learn if you never try!" So I went for it. I had seen a lot of long beds shortened and it was obvious how to get parallel cut lines: put on tape and measure the amount you want to remove, make marks and add second piece of tape. But how to mark a line on two different beds that will line up, and I mean really line up? I spent a long time pondering this and finally came up with a plan: Bolt a jig on through the bolt holes in the front of bed 1, measure back to where to cut and mark it, then move the same jig to bed 2 and do the same. Pictures here, not sure if they make sense or not.

[rkn463]

Here are the pics of the cuts.

[rkn463]

And putting it back together, this was all during the last few days of June 2012 and first few of July, the finished pic was July 9 2012:

[rkn463]

A few other odds and ends had happened along the way, adapted a real air cleaner off of an 84 Chevy school bus 366 4 barrel to the 2 barrel carb. I fabbed a replacement battery tray starting with an LMC piece made for a 73 c10.

I continued collecting parts:
1970 model GMC 5500 front sheet metal for parts
grabbed the frame from that same GMC as the diff had higher gears than mine
Got some stepside fenders to finish of the dually bed

By now a front wheel cylinder was leaking bad and I had to do something about the brakes. Research had shown that the stock drums were not a reasonable option as it cost a fortune to put together a system out of bits and pieces and still come out with mediocre brakes. Plus best guess is 1000.00 to 1500.00 to get to that point. I also had widow maker rims to deal with, a gear ratio that worked out to 4200 RPM at 60 mph and manual steering. Time to plan the next step. Back to craigslist and I located a 1989 c60 box truck with 4 wheel disk hydraboost brakes, power steering, 5 speed trans, 2 speed diff. The ruck was alos a 366 4 barrel carb. We checked it out and it ran and drove great, bought it cheap. This was November 2012. I started taking measurements and discovered that the cab from the 68 would just bolt on to the 89 frame but there were issues I needed to address:

- 89 front axle was 6 inches wider, so I either need to narrow the axle, or find the wide front fenders
- 89 wheelbase is 18 inches loner so I'm back to the frame cutting dilemma or move everything to the 68 frame
- 89 frame is way heavier material plus it is reinforced so I prefer it
- not sure if the power steering box will bolt to the 68 frame
- and what seemed like a thousand reasons why I should use the 68 frame plus a thousand reasons why I should use the 89 frame

So I put it on the back burner. Meanwhile I figured out that some 3x5 inch box tubing that I had would make the perfect spacer to raise the bed to match up body lines so I built and installed that and continued to drive the truck around on the farm and loved every second of it. The brakes continued to degenerate to the point that adding fluid became pointless and I just downshifted a lot and used the hand brake.

Here are pics of the 89 truck with the box removed along with the box sitting on the ground, I use the box for extra storage.

[rkn463]

So from November 2012 when I bought the 89 until just a few months back I pondered and argued with myself about how to proceed and basically ignored it while I worked on other stuff. Over the years I've read a lot of threads here and found several folks with similar ideas. A few that I really dig:

84rzv500r's Napco/4x4 build. I LOVE that build:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=599758

COGAD's c50 (can't locate the link)

atvpro's k20 "Identity crisis"
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=612307

Plus a red one that ended up sold at Barrett Jackson.

UPNADM's 1981 Chevrolet C50 Pick-up Conversion http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=503247

[rkn463]

Time for sleep again, will pick this up again tomorrow if I have time. FYI, I am working on it again and will soon be up to date on the posts. Stay tuned...

Oh and to COLGAD, 84rzv500r, atvpro, UPNADM and the rest of the board members, thanks for the inspiration!

[rkn463]

A few months back my attention came back around to the truck. As much as I like the 327 in the 68 this will be a working truck and the 366 from the 89 is a better option. Plus it already has all of the accessories like power steering/hydroboost pump ans A/C compressor already mounted. Further measuring looks like the hydroboost will bolt up to the 68. That front axle thing is killing me so I get to looking at the SPIDs on both trucks, they both have an F050 (5000lb) front axle, it is just that the 89 is 6 inches too wide. More measuring and it looks like the 89 spindles might fit the 68 axle. I researched on the internet and found this:

http://www.stemco.com/f/qbin/STEMCO_Kaiser_2013.pdf

I found that the bore in the older axle needed to be enlarged by .0070 and I could put the 89 spindles on the 68 axle. That was the deciding factor, I'd just go ahead and use the entire 89 frame and drivetrain in the 68 but with a narrower axle.

Rather than pull apart the 68, I pulled the front axle from the 70 GMC frame that I had acquired and took it to a local machine shop to have it bored out. I also ordered a set of kingpins online. This was December 2015. After a few weeks of waiting to get that axle back I pulled the 89 in the shop and removed the brakes, spindles and axle. Things got held up at the machine shop and I finally got the 70 front axle back in early March 2016. I cleaned it up, repainted it and reinstalled the 70 axle in the 89 truck with the 89 spindles. It went smooth except that the stops on the steering linkage did not line up with the stops on the axle so I had to drill and tap a new hole.

Here are pictures of the axle installed with the spindle on, the stop bolt missing the stop, the new hole drilled and tapped in the linkage and then the linkage installed with the bolt in the new position hitting the stop.

[rkn463]

I was shocked at how big some of this stuff is, the rotor is 14.25 inches and the rotor/hub assembly weighs in at 70 lbs! In comparing parts I noted how much heavier the parts from the 89 are over the 68(70). I'm not sure if it is the year model difference or the fact that the 68 is a c50 (actually 70 c5500) and the 89 is a c60. Anyway, attached photo shows two equivalent parts and the different size. I still had to deal with the drag link (tie rod?) width. I checked and the tie rod ends were different in where they went through the tapered bore, but the threads on the drag link are the same so I unscrewed the ends from the 89 drag link and installed into the narrower drag link. I put it back together and took a test drive; steering wheel off by 90+ degrees and hitting the stops so soon I have to make a lot of 3 point turns. It was toed way in as well. Back in the shop I ran the stop bolts all the way in and then used the "string method" that I found on youtube to set the toe-in. That got things close enough to drive on the farm...

The pictures I posted of the 89 above were actually with the narrowed axle installed, here is a dead on front shot showing how funny it looks.

[rkn463]

Now to deal with the frame. I have to lose 18 inches. To shorten the frame I will remove the reinforcing plates and then shorten the frame then reinstall the plates. 34 rivets per side hold on the reinforcing plate on each side. This will take a while. I stopped by Northern Tool and picked up the biggest air hammer/chisel they had on the shelf. I used an angle grinder to x cut some rivet heads and then used the air chisel to knock the heads off. Then I switched over to the punch and tried to drive them out. Not happening! I finally figure out that by cutting the head off the rivet, drilling a 1/4 inch hole followed by a 6-step 1/2 inch step bit I can then drive out the remains with a hammer and punch. I've got the process down to 7 to 8 minutes per rivet. Here are photos of:

Before
x-cut
ground down (so I can see center) and center punched
1/4 drilled
1/2 drilled
rivets knocked out

[rkn463]

...continued

[rkn463]

This basically brings me up to date. I've knocked out 30+ rivets. To get to any more I have to drop the back springs and remove the cab. Now that I have the build thread going I'll try to do better at photographing my progress and documenting progress. I only work on the truck on weekends so it will be at least next Monday before I post any more progress.

Thanks for looking!

[eventor]

Neat project. I'm looking forward to seeing your future progress!

[Katrina/10]

Nice work on the axle. I know those rivets are really tough to get out, they expand inside the frame when they hammer them in.

[rkn463]

Neat project. I'm looking forward to seeing your future progress!

Thanks for checking it out eventor!

Nice work on the axle. I know those rivets are really tough to get out, they expand inside the frame when they hammer them in.

Thanks for the props Katrina/10! The rivets are kicking my butt. The first weekend I managed to remove 8, the second weekend I got out 29 and this last weekend 15 more.

I was inaccurate when I said that the cab had to come off to remove any more rivets, I had forgotten about the 15 that were already center drilled, those are the ones that came out last weekend. Unfortunately the "had to do's" took precedence over the "want to do's." I spent Saturday mowing, replacing the water pump on my daily driver (04 Silverado extended cab) and dealing with a neighbor regarding a new fence we need to build between us. Sunday: More recreational mowing followed by my 15 rivet removal and then head back to town and my regular job.

I hope very much to get the cab pulled next weekend. I'm a little unsure on a couple of aspects of shortening the frame and would appreciate some feedback. I drew up a diagram of the frame, see below. The horizontal black lines are cross members, the one in front and back of the differential also support the spring hangers. The red lines represent the frame reinforcing plates which are basically an inverted L (second diagram). The plan is remove the reinforcing plates, shorten the frame 18 inches either at A or B the cut 18 inches off of the front end of the reinforcing plates and bolt them back on with grade 8 bolts. I had initially planned on removing at point B but my brother said it would be stronger at A. What do you think?

Thanks for looking

-Richard

[jaybatta]

Cool man, I've always wanted to build one

[Obsolete]

Cool project!

Unless there is something about the frame that does not show in the diagram, and assuming that you put the frame back together in a way that does not weaken it, I don't see why one place is better that the other.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by jaybatta

Cool man, I've always wanted to build one

Go for it! The looks you get when people see it are classic.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Obsolete

Cool project!

Unless there is something about the frame that does not show in the diagram, and assuming that you put the frame back together in a way that does not weaken it, I don't see why one place is better that the other.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it. The logic was that if the frame were weakened in any way it would put that spot closer to the axle where any stress would have less torque against it. I think I may be over thinking it again.

-Richard