The Blue Ox (72 SWB)

[Hartje]

I've been trying to find some time to start a build thread. I continue to update my instagram which is (BLAKEHARTJE) if you wanted to get real time updates.

Orgin of the title and name of my truck. I was at work one day and a co-worker called me Paul Bunion as I had a giant beard and was wearing a flannel. I said yup and right there is Babe (the Blue Ox) as I pointed out the window. (truck was/is teal but I have 510 medium blue paint on the bench!

First couple posts will get you up to speed! I started the tear down in September 2015 and its now April. Gonna try and get the truck back to running before the end of next month, as I'll be relocating to Wisconsin...


This was the day after I brought the truck home. Found it on CL here in Denver and its looks are deceiving. It was a bit of a mess and I'm still sorting through some of it.



Truck came with a the 402 big block and an SM465 (this picture is after I cleaned up a bunch - I painted the valve covers and filter hat as they were pretty beat up)


tinkered on it for a bout year while I finished my Nova and collected parts


hated the black painted grill, so I painted it back to stockish for 6 bucks

[Hartje]

Decided I wanted to see what it would look like with a white roof... (it'll likely come back after the truck is blue)


I had my father cut me some boards to replace the old wood bed


making a mess



Got it all out!


Then the bed came off

[Hartje]

Then things stalled for a bit... About 2 months actually just lost interest, wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I wanted it to be a hot rod and I wanted it to be a truck. I wanted it low and my wife wanted it not low...
So the project just stopped.

Then we got a really nice day in late October, and I said well the sun is out I'm gonna go work on something.

So I broke out the spray gun and cleared the bed wood that my dad cut for me!




Then I figured out the truck compromise which is really what I think the truck wanted anyway! (Called up the Porter Boys) couple months later parts!




While the truck was still together we started doing some body work on the bed metal.
We needed to add the wood bed header panel as it wasn't correct for a wood bed. (frankentruck everywhere)











here it is all sealed and primed up - its far from perfect but it'll look a lot better than it did! Which is the goal I don't want to worry about dings and scratches.

[Hartje]

Decided that the truck is gonna be blue 510 medium to be exact and bought the paint


After paying for all the porterbuilt parts there wasn't a ton of budget left for powder coat.

so I hung all the parts and threw down some epoxy primer and ceramic black paint:




lower control arms together


Started the truck tear down after I hung the box from the rafters (its been there now for a few months and hasn't fallen on me so that's a bonus!)





Rear end was yucko! for whatever reason I didn't take any after photos of it...


rebuilt the factory drums (again no budget for discs... plus its top speed is like 60mph so... they'll work)

[Hartje]

Got the rear frame all cleaned up and I only cursed twice while removing 10 million rivets. C-notch cut in


POR15ed


porterbuilt C-notch and support parts bolted in


Removed the stock part and bolted this in (doing this bit of the install is where nightmares come from, what a pain in the rear!) (the really keen eye will notice that I mounted it to far forward in this pic)


HOLY COW REAR END IS IN!


Goes up and down! YAY!


Shop hand was checking air pressure


Started in on the front next


Truck wasn't a great handler to begin with but this may have been some of the terribleness


Truck has a 73+ steering wheel from the PO but it had a GMC horn button


then the front suspension went in (again no pics must have been to busy/excited to stop and snap some)




Bolted in the exhaust and made some new brackets and cut up the tail pips to create a dumps. Also made some brackets to mount the tank and the compressor




Then we drove it!


after we drove around the block with no issues I tossed a fender on it and let all the air out!


That pretty much gets you caught up. I plan on trying to get the cab ready for sealer and primer this weekend depending on the amount of time I have might even Spray some color!

[Sac]

Awesome! I'm in..

[hewittca]

Looking great so far! I'm planning on doing a lot of the same mods to mine, so I'll be following closely. One question though, why do you have so much front camber? I'm not sure if it's the angle of the pics or what, but it appears to be more than what I see on other trucks. What suspension mods did you do to the front?

[Hartje]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Looking great so far! I'm planning on doing a lot of the same mods to mine, so I'll be following closely. One question though, why do you have so much front camber? I'm not sure if it's the angle of the pics or what, but it appears to be more than what I see on other trucks. What suspension mods did you do to the front?

Sorry for the delayed response. Mods on the front are upper and lower control arms from Porterbuilt. Its their stage II deluxe kit to be exact. Still running the stock gear box and tie rod setup, albeit new tie rods but stock replacements.

As for the camber - at ride height the camber goes away, and as the truck drops the camber becomes more severe, it will help avoid the inner fender bolts when its aired out. At any rate it will need an alignment!

[Hartje]

okay didn't get as much as I hoped to accomplish over the weekend but it was still quite a bit of progress, but not much of it was picture worthy. I was able to finish up the wiring for the air compressor, which means it can now go up and down WITHOUT the assist of the garage unit. Still chasing down a leak I thought I had it whipped but must be a fitting on a bag... some b!tch!!!!

Started Saturday morning with sand paper and finished Saturday evening with more sand paper. Truck is going to be rough but that's the way its going to be; I don't have time to do the serious body work.... We got the cab, fenders and cowl into sealer on Sunday afternoon. and that's where it will be for the next week as i'll be traveling; so next update the cab will be blue!

[crazycrew]

Nice progress. Just gave you a follow on IG

[Hartje]

I guess a month can go by pretty quickly...

UPDATE!

Got it Primed




Then Got it Painted







Here's a pic of my buddy Davey shooting the fender - my arm needed a rest!

[Hartje]

I let the paint dry for a couple days then got to work hanging the fenders, cowl and hood. Didn't really take any pictures of that progress....

but here a shot from right after we pulled the masking off!


I'm sure some of you are sitting there shaking your heads at the half a$$ness that went into this paint job, but let me assure that some day when I have more time i'll do it the right way! plus I think I already want to lay the frame so it'll all be reworked someday.

anyway back to pictures!

Got the cab mostly back together






then after discovering that I hooked the wiper linkage in upside down (corrected my errors) I installed a 69 nova mirror (cuz I had 1 laying around) and installed Wipers! Hung the front bumper and finished up the cab!!!!

following pics are of both my nova and c10 it was a fun photo op!

[Hartje]

I hope these pictures are coming through... photobucket seems to be all kinds of wrong right now. let me know if these pictures aren't showing up and i'll figure out something else!

[Hartje]

last post for this dump update.

lowered the bed out of the rafters - it was filthy from several months of collecting dust.



Then sprayed the bed with primer and hit with paint! installed the wood my dad cut last year and it looks so good!
Couldn't be any more pleased with the results.






Going to try and get the bed installed on the truck this week keep an eye on my instagram for real time updates might be a couple weeks before I find the time to update here.

BLAKEHARTJE <-- intsa handle

[flashed]

Truck is looking nice ,the bed wood is beautiful too.

[Hartje]

Things came together faster than expected!

Bed is on, waiting on a tail light harness then I can finally drive it again!

[88Stanger]

damn fine job!

[RRR18]

Damn nice truck. Mine is very similar air ride setup to yours. I'm not near as far so can you tell me how the clearance is aired out with the rear end and the bedwood?

[swamp rat]

X2^^ Or 3..

[Hartje]

Originally Posted by 88Stanger

damn fine job!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by swamp rat

X2^^ Or 3..

Thank you!

Originally Posted by RRR18

Damn nice truck. Mine is very similar air ride setup to yours. I'm not near as far so can you tell me how the clearance is aired out with the rear end and the bedwood?

Thanks! As for the clearance to the wood i'll try to snap a picture for ya, but when it was aired all the way out without the bump stops it would clash.
this picture shows the frame sitting on the axel tubes and as you can see the housing is above the frame rails. I haven't checked to see but I think the wood gets awfully close to the c-notch bolts. Moral of the story 1.5" bump stops equals no clash. (again i'll try and snap a photo.


Its been a heck of a project and came together pretty quickly. So thank you for the compliments!

[Hartje]

Originally Posted by RRR18

Damn nice truck. Mine is very similar air ride setup to yours. I'm not near as far so can you tell me how the clearance is aired out with the rear end and the bedwood?

As you can see there is a half inch until it hits the brake lines bracket. About an inch if you don't have a bracket mounted on top of the pumpkin. Again this is on the bump stops wichitasoftball@gmail.com are about 1.5" tall. If the bump stops were absent it'd hit when aired out.

Hope it helps or shines some light on your truck. I'm happy with the results and an unmolested bed floor!

[RRR18]

Thanks. Exactly what I wanted to know and see.