My 69 Find

[Hellbent]

Next- on to prep for the suicide door conversion. After digging around I realized the PO had glassed the Rocker area to the pillars. Knowing this is not cool, I started knocking it out and opened a real can of worms...



Now onto cutting out all the rot and welding in new steel.

[Hellbent]

Cut out all the bad and proceeded to cut, fit and weld new steel.



What you don't see, is I had to rebuild the cab to inner rocker supports(both front and rear). I thought I had snapped pics of that process but I cannot locate them. I bought repros but they were waaaaaayyyyy off. I had to heavily modify the front in order to use and ended up fabbing my own for the rear, the repro was JUNK. Small patches on the floor board to the kick and used a repro kick. Also note: I had to cut the fresh air, it was mush...

[Hellbent]

Rebuilt the swiss cheese fresh air box. Hand fabricated this one out of door skin.



Wheww. Time to take a break.

[72blueshark]

work looks great! i am afraid of body cancer.

[Hellbent]

Yes- be afraid...be very afraid!

[72blueshark]

i lucked out, my truck has one bad front fender, everything else is surface patches and dust, (AZ for ya) but the front passenger fender and battery tray are eaten pretty bad.

[Hellbent]

Made progress today. After a flash fire I decided to patch the hole in the hump.

Rebuilt the fresh air vents.

Shaved the passenger side drip rails.

And finished welding on the custom dash.

[Hellbent]

Here is the dash in black primer.

Dash turned out better than expected. Matches the curve of the shifter nice. and I made it longer to cover more of the eye sore under the dash. Looks real smooth. I'm thinking VDO gauges and heat control set in polished stainless inset through the center. Next up- Polished steering column.

[Jimbabwe]

What is the height/length of that Lokar shifter?

[Hellbent]

It's the 23" nostalgia.

[Jimbabwe]

Cool, thanks! Looks great!

[RCbowtie69]

Just checking up on your build & i can say you've made some progress from the last time i check your build.Keep up the work & keep the pictures coming,keep on truckin'.

[k5hart]

Very nice work! It's looking great.

[Hellbent]

My last post was Sept 2012? Where did the time go? I'm getting my ass in gear.

[Hellbent]

Update: like many others before me, life takes hold and posts fall to the wayside. The next thing I know it's three years later. This project has never had a completion date. ... That's okay, that's just what I wanted. It's my hobby, something to occupy my mind at rest and enjoy. I have been a single Dad for 8 years now and all the while secretly hoping that my son, now 12 would find interest in this old truck. And so I wait for him... Taking my time, lil here lil there. Now I wonder, has this truck become a fixture for him? Something that he has grown to view as parts taking up space in the garage. After all, I'm sure he has no recollection of life before the truck! I'll never forget the first ride we took together, that was 5-6 years ago! That loud, vibrating, squeaking, smelly old truck and that big ole grin on his face. Now, I am getting anxious to do it again and I hope he is too.

[Hellbent]

So here it goes. I left off with rust repair and a custom dash. Since then I junked the cab considered this as practice and found a donor and replaced all the lower sheet metal. New floor boards, cab corners, kick panels and rockers. I also rebuilt the fresh air boxes and cleaned up the firewall filling all the unnecessary holes. A little more body work and it will be ready for paint.

[Hellbent]

This is the new cab and some of the rust ahead of me.

[Hellbent]

I have replaced the Floor boards, inner and out rockers, cab corners and supports on this donor cab. Luckily this one doesn't have the firewall and kick panel rot that the original cab had. I did have to replace the bottoms of the fresh air boxes.

[Hellbent]

Working on my custom dash- It just continues to evolve. I have no idea how it will end up. Got the lokar pedals mounted and the Flaming river S/S tilt column fitted. I actually bought the mill finish column and polished it myself, saved a few bucks!

[Hellbent]

Grabbed a set of Dodge Ram seats from the salvage yard and got to work on upholstery. I covered them in Modern Black Leather with embossed flames. I did a foam overlay on the center jump seat. Still not sure if the jump seat will end up in the truck or if I'm going to build a console.

[Hellbent]

Pulled and freshened up the motor with some new old goodies. Much of these parts I have been stockpiling for years (hello billet). Here is the before and after.

[Hellbent]

And on to the chassis! Cleaned and painted everything. So, I rebuilt the front end including CCP spindles, new ball joints, rotors, calipers, S/S brake lines. Cut and welded rings into the cross member for exhaust pass through. C-notched the frame at the rear axel, relocated the shock mounts, added the offset heavy duty track bar, rebuilt the trailing arms, Oh and I bagged the front and rear and lowered shocks. Ran a new fuel line to prep for rear mounted tank.

[Hellbent]

I had my buddy at Cameron Metalworks down in Savannah, GA build me a custom S/S tank. Here is a pic of the test fit. It will be undermounted but you get the idea. If your in the area and need welding or metal work done. Give them a shout, they have a website if you want to google them.

[tommys72]

Looks good! Whole lotta transforming there!

[Hellbent]

And final post for the day.... I have finally made headway on the suicide doors! I have been working on this for what seems to be years. I have spent a tremendous amount of time and money attempting to get this to work. I recently found a post on another forum where this dude used 67-72 Ford truck door hinges with success. I tried it, and finally got it to work out. Here are some progress pics. While I was working on the door, I fit the brothers one piece window conversion. I needed to make sure the hinges and supports that I added to the door would allow room for the windows. I don't think the tint is legal...