"The Smell of Victory" 1972 Cheyenne Super

[kingstrider]

Well I posted about my truck when I bought it a few months ago but figured I'd start a dedicated thread about it here. Not a true ground-up "build" per-se but I figured this would be a good place to document the things done to the truck to make it my own. The interesting thing is that this is not only my first ever Chevrolet, but my first truck as well!

I'll get to the name eventually but I was born in the late 60s so have liked the 67-72 generation trucks since I was a kid when they were relatively new and everywhere you looked. Like anything else made during that time though, I have seen fewer and fewer of them over the years and have been watching prices steadily going up as a result. I always wanted to get one made in my birth year but used to have a neighbor that would let me borrow his 72 long bed for the occasional run to Lowe's and have been hooked on that body style ever since.

Anyway after owning a number of vintage and newer Mustangs over the years, I decided to part with my 2014 GT and buy a vintage swb Chevy truck instead. My wife thought I was crazy to go back to an old vehicle but it was a garage queen and was only driven on nice days so wasn't exactly useful. Besides, I like to tinker in the garage and got tired of replacing new parts with more expensive new parts just to be able to work on it. She was partial to the Mustang only because we found it during an anniversary trip the year before but she couldn't drive it anyway due to the manual transmission.

So with the car gone and space in the garage, I started looking for a replacement. I contacted friends in various states to aid in my search including my old neighbor who recommended that I spend more for a nice truck vs. less for a rusty one. I actually wanted a well optioned 71-72 step side and looked nationwide for several months before I found this fleetside 1972 Cheyenne Super on Craigslist just a couple hours away in a neighboring state:


Looking at the photo I could tell it had newer Blazer wheels and a slightly lowered suspension but the owner told me it was in really good shape and worth a look. Due to weather, it took about a week to make the drive to see it but I was impressed by the overall condition and how little rust the truck had underneath compared to some of the rust buckets I've owned. Like many old vehicles, there were some flaws in regards to originality, but the SPID showed a number of factory options including power steering and brakes, air conditioning, tilt steering wheel as well as a 402 big block.


Unfortunately one of the PO's had swapped the original engine with a "built" 400 small block that was purportedly bored out to a 406. It also had a serpentine setup off a late-model vehicle with some speed shop parts to make it look faster. The air conditioning was of the later orfice type system instead of the usual POV type normally found in this year. It was also missing the compressor and hoses but everything else appeared to be there. The owner told me it had hot start issues due to the headers but that he only used it for cruise-ins so would just prop the hood to show the motor off so it didn't seem bother him. True to word, once the engine got hot, it wouldn't start until it had cooled off for a while.


Looking at the interior, I noticed aftermarket gauges which had been drilled into the original cluster. These included a tach, as well as oil pressure and water temperature gauges. The center A/C louver was missing and someone had installed an aftermarket cassette radio. Otherwise everything else appeared original including the tilt column. The steering wheel was in good shape compared to most trucks I looked at but the horn didn't work and the shifter wasn't very tight. I also found the gas gauge didn't work and that the odometer was stuck.




As for rust, there were a few areas that I knew would require attention. The worst was the truck bed, though much of this was hidden by the plastic bedliner that probably trapped water and caused most of the damage in the first place. Lifting the rear of the liner I figured a patch panel might be sufficient as it appeared confined to the back end by the tailgate. Next was a small section on the driver's side door jamb which appeared to be surface rust only:


Finally were the doors themselves which showed stress cracks and rust around the window frames but were surprisingly nice at the bottoms. I knew that oem replacements can be expensive and that aftermarket parts often have fitment issues but didn't see this as a deal-breaker. Otherwise the truck looked pretty solid from top to bottom.



Moving to the back, I noticed the tailgate had not had the center section painted white to match the truck as well as missing chrome trim. I suspected an aftermarket tailgate but didn't realize until later that the color combo was wrong and that the truck would have originally been all-orange with white on the roof only. The clear coat was peeling in a few places but showed well with the parchment interior. Regardless, Tangier Orange is my favorite color and the truck appeared largely unmolested and a great candidate for future restoration.


I already knew my wife wouldn't like the color but once I drove the truck I knew it was the one so negotiated a price and put a deposit down. As luck would have it, my wife and I were passing through the area the following week for yet another anniversary trip so arranged to pick it up on the way home. She was a little sore about having to follow me home but it ran well and without any complications. The horn didn't work but the exhaust was so loud that a quick rev of the engine was able to get the attention of a couple of motorists along the way. Once home it quickly became known to the family as "The Beast". To this day, I am told there will be no more car/truck/other purchases during anniversary weekends or trips haha.

Because it is a major safety issue, the first thing to do was to fix the horn. Using the search function I quickly found a couple of threads about this and had the horn button working in no time. Unfortunately I found one of the horns didn't work so bought a used replacement from another member (thanks specialtyretail!). With one working horn I figured that was good enough to take a road trip and set out the next weekend to get a new mattress for my son. Again this is my first truck but I was already hooked on the utility and knew from this point forward that I would always own one:


Once I got home, my wife was up in arms about how bad the garage and the adjacent room, the library, smelled after I left. The conversation went as follows:
Wife: "You have to do something about that truck!"
Me: "Why, what's wrong with it?"
Wife: "It smells. It stunk up the garage and the library when I went to the grocery. Why does it smell like that?"
Me: "Because it doesn't have catalytic converters. That's the way these old cars usually smell."
Wife: "Well, what are you going to do about it?"
Me: "Absolutely nothing, that is the smell of victory!"

Haha I guess you had to be there but the reference is from a funny kid's animated movie called "Sherman and Mr. Peabody". Since then, the truck has become known as Victory, or Victor for short. Funny since all my other classic cars always had women's names, go figure. Well again this is a thread about stuff I have done and will do to the truck over the time so enjoy.

[kingstrider]

A week or two before I even looked at the truck, I went to the spring Carlisle show and bought an instrument cluster with the factory tach. I reckoned that since most of the trucks I looked at didn't have a tach that this would come in handy down the road. This was from a bigger series truck with the air pressure gauge but the price was too good to pass up. Plus I figured if I ever installed air bags it would be cool to somehow utilize the air gauge.


After I bought the truck I pulled the original cluster and removed the aftermarket Auto Meter gauges. I kept the water temp and oil pressure gauges but sold the tachometer on eBay.


I decided to move the water temp and oil pressure gauges to under the dash so modified the existing wiring as needed.


Here's what it looked like when I was finished. Obviously the black camera case finish didn't match the Cheyenne Super woodgrain trim so I ordered an aftermarket woodgrain overlay and patiently waited for it to come. On the plus side, everything worked when I hooked it back up including the fuel gauge!


When I received the new woodgrain overlay, I was quite disappointed to find it didn't fit right. It was actually so far off that I couldn't use it so I removed the overlay from my original cluster and installed it instead. It still doesn't fit the reproduction bezel as well as I would like but will do until I can find a reasonably priced original.


Finally, I wound up mounting the water temperature and oil pressure gauges under the dashboard as planned. Sure its not original but these are big and easy to keep an eye on. Plus I didn't want to convert the oil pressure gauge back to a pneumatic sensor.

[kingstrider]

So I knew there was some rust in the bed but I wanted to know just how much. Four screws later and I was able to pull the plastic bedliner to look.


As suspected, this was a bit more extensive than I had originally thought but was greatest closest to the tailgate. Initially I thought I could fix this using one of those patch panels before I read about poor fitment issues. Then I realized I would probably have to replace the entire floor.



The front of the bed looks a little better but my biggest concern is the damage to the flanges along the inner fenders and wheel wells. The wheel wells are easy enough to replace but I want to keep the original fenders. I was thinking of possibly welding in some L-channel and blend that in where needed but if there's a better way I'm all ears. On the plus side, I bought a new Miller welder earlier in the year in anticipation of another project.



Alternately I may look into a wood bed in the future but for now I just put the bedliner back in place since the truck is garaged and I don't drive it in the rain. Plus I don't have to look at it lol.

[kingstrider]

After I replaced the broken horn, I was able to start using the truck for hauling stuff to the post office, goodwill etc. At this point we were getting ready for a move to another state so the truck was really coming in handy.






By now I was really loving the truck but didn't care at all for the old Blazer wheels. I wound up buying a staggered set of vintage Western Wheels Cyclone II rims on Craigslist in 15x8 and 15x10 sizes but couldn't commit to polishing them, let alone buying tires to fit them. I wound up reselling them later when I moved to South Carolina.

[kingstrider]

A few weeks before the move, I found a set of 16x8 American Racing Torq Thrust II wheels with new tires on Craigslist. Apparently the guy had bought them new for a late model Camaro but didn't realize the bolt pattern was wrong so was just trying to get rid of them. The price was decent but I didn't want to move the Blazer wheels in addition to the truck so let it go. A couple weeks later I came back to the ad and shot the guy a lowball offer just to see if he would bite. He countered at what I thought was a really good price and he even offered to drive 2 hours to deliver them to me. This was a deal I couldn't pass them up so I bought them and installed them the next day.




For the record these wheels are model 505-6873 and measure 16x8 with 4" backspacing and -11mm offset. I think these are possibly the best style of wheels on these old trucks but don't like the small P225/60R16 tires. I may buy some taller tires but am considering selling these and going with staggered 18" TTIIs instead. For now it can wait since I want to lower the truck some more first.

[kingstrider]

After owning the truck for a little while I found the little small block can get quite hot and would take hours to cool to the touch. From the very beginning, one of the things that bothered me the most was the rubber fuel line which ran from the fuel pump, behind the water pump and to a fuel filter as shown:


I considered the rubber fuel line a major fire hazard and found it really restricted my use of the truck during the first few weeks. To solve this problem I bought some 3/8" steel brake line along with a cheap bender and flaring tool. About $30 and an hour later and I had a new steel fuel line:


It's not pretty but I've felt much better by having that steel line in between the water pump and timing cover. I wound up keeping the in-line fuel filter but plan to replace it too at some point.

[Advanced Design]

Really nice truck and thoughtful improvements so you can keep enjoying it...rather than having it in a bunch of pieces and getting burned out on it. Have fun!

[kingstrider]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Really nice truck and thoughtful improvements so you can keep enjoying it...rather than having it in a bunch of pieces and getting burned out on it. Have fun!

Thanks Advanced Design, having a good time so far. I checked out some of your builds, nice work! This site is dangerous as it keeps giving me more ideas for future projects haha.

[kingstrider]

After only 3 years in Maryland I took a new job in South Carolina. Like the previous move I rented a U-Haul and an auto transporter to move the truck as well as the stuff the movers wouldn't take. Overall the trip was uneventful but took much longer than anticipated. I did get quite a few thumbs-up along the way though.



This reminded me of my previous move where I hauled this 1968 S-code GT convertible from Kentucky to Maryland:


My daughter insisted on riding with me the entire trip which took about 11 hours. Thankfully the U-Haul had a comfy cab with a radio.


Once at the new house, I spent several days in a hot garage unpacking boxes and trying to make room for the vehicles. The previous resident used the garage for storage and never parked his cars in there so there was an overgrown tree by the door that I had to trim just to get my truck in. Off to the dump it went!


This photo shows some of the wild Muscovy ducks that roam the neighborhood and sometimes roost on our roof. I don't really mind them but try to keep them out of the garage since they tend to poop wherever they go. This house is a bit smaller than our last one so we had to resort to a storage unit and the truck was useful in moving stuff there until I can figure out what to do with it. My only complaint is the garage is much smaller which has been a major adjustment.


After just a week in the new house I packed my bags and flew back to Maryland to prepare for my boards exams. After a few weeks in Maryland, I flew to St. Louis to take my exams and once that was finished, celebrated with a buddy by hitting the town and going to see a Cardinals game. Yeah that's me with the Nationals shirt haha.






Several weeks later I was back for good in SC and decided to cut down the tree by the garage. Easy work for the chainsaw and my son helped me haul it to the dump. It sure is handy having a classic old truck around the house!

[kingstrider]

From the very beginning I had hot start issues with the truck which really limited how much I could use it. It already had a good mini starter but I wanted to solve the problem for good so ordered a starter blanket, custom 1 awg cables and a NOS AC Delco remote relay.


While I was waiting for the parts to arrive I started looking at how goofy the wiring was at the front end. I'm still scratching my head over this but someone had spliced two different colored lines to solid home electrical wire. It took a few days but I was able to get the wiring all sorted out and cleaned up.




I know its not original and that the purists won't like it but I put the remote starter solenoid exactly where Ford intended it to go, on the inner passenger fender. At least I used a genuine Delco part haha. These mods completely eliminated my hot start issues and now I can use the truck as needed and not have to wait an hour for the engine to cool before I can restart it.

[bs46488]

Great looking truck!

My wife and I had the same "Smell of Victory" conversation for my 1970 Nova. However, my response to "what are you going to do about it?" was to do an LS swap for the Nova and then I bought an old project C10 to use as a stand for the smelly old carbed motor.

You got any details on the paint colors or codes? I want to paint my truck orange and I like this color. Your SPID says 546, but I can't find anything. You said "Tangier Orange" but that wasn't offered in 1972. Any details?

[Katrina/10]

Enjoyed your story, keep up the good work!

[kingstrider]

Originally Posted by bs46488

Great looking truck!

My wife and I had the same "Smell of Victory" conversation for my 1970 Nova. However, my response to "what are you going to do about it?" was to do an LS swap for the Nova and then I bought an old project C10 to use as a stand for the smelly old carbed motor.

You got any details on the paint colors or codes? I want to paint my truck orange and I like this color. Your SPID says 546, but I can't find anything. You said "Tangier Orange" but that wasn't offered in 1972. Any details?

Hey bs46488, thanks for the compliment! Actually Tangier Orange was offered in 1972 as shown in the catalog below:




This was a completely different color than Hugger Orange which was actually renamed Firebolt Orange for that year. The catalog doesn't list the actual codes but they are shown in the 72 Truck Data Book:


In addition to the 516 (solid orange) and 546 (white roof with orange body) color schemes, there was also the Deluxe two-tone color scheme which I think was paint code 594. This had the white roof, orange body and white stripe between the upper and lower body moldings that extended to the tailgate. This scheme is also known as white/orange/white/orange and was how mine was painted. Well, sort of, even the white on the roof is wrong since the upper door frames and A pillars should be white. It is a popular scheme though and will do until I repaint it the original colors some day. For now I'm planning to paint the tailgate to match once I find a place to do it.

Originally Posted by Katrina/10

Enjoyed your story, keep up the good work!

Thanks Katrina/10! My plan is to restore this truck one day, well at least to do a thorough "resto-mod" with a 402 big block.

[Advanced Design]

Great story Kingstrider! How did you do on the board examinations and what where they for? If you prefer to not say, way ok. Just curious about an exam all the way back in St. Louis.

[kingstrider]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Great story Kingstrider! How did you do on the board examinations and what where they for? If you prefer to not say, way ok. Just curious about an exam all the way back in St. Louis.

Thanks Advanced Design! I'm a dentist and those exams were for my specialty so you have to fly to wherever they are held. I had to go to Chicago earlier this year for the same reason. I passed so am all done with boards and the 16-18 hour workdays I've been pulling for the last 3 years while in residency. Now I'm back to living a normal life and enjoying free time to do stuff like tinker with the truck.

[Advanced Design]

Originally Posted by kingstrider

Thanks Advanced Design! I'm a dentist and those exams were for my specialty so you have to fly to wherever they are held. I had to go to Chicago earlier this year for the same reason. I passed so am all done with boards and the 16-18 hour workdays I've been pulling for the last 3 years while in residency. Now I'm back to living a normal life and enjoying free time to do stuff like tinker with the truck.

Congratulations! Now hopefully you can begin to enjoy the results of all your effort and investment. Several members here are in your field.

[kingstrider]

When I bought the truck I found the key to the door locks didn't work. I wound up buying a set of keyed-alike door and ignition locks. These were pretty easy to install and the hardest part was removing the window and door handles. I didn't have a dedicated tool so used the rag trick I picked up here. At least now I can finally lock my doors and the same key turns the ignition on. While I was at it I also replaced the worn ignition lock bezil using a dedicated tool. I figure I may only use it a few times but it works better than scratching up the new bezil using a screwdriver.




Unfortunately I came home one day and found my Battery Tender had died. It had a strong burned electrical smell so I suspect a lightning strike. Anybody else ever have this happen? I bought a replacement and wound up repurposing this little fan to keep it cool while charging.


On the plus side, I found a really cool sticker that I couldn't pass up:


While I was at it, I added a front vanity plate, in this case a stamped polished aluminum Chevy bowtie with year specific frame:

[moggey01]

Cool to see original paint chips in your thread.

[kingstrider]

As mentioned previously, the original 402 bbc had been replaced at some point with a 400 sbc with a late model serpentine drive belt setup. The original big block fan shroud was present but had been modified at the bottom to clear the mechanical fan and there was a big gap at the top. This worked okay when on the road but was inefficient at slower speeds and tended to overheat at idle. And due to the previous hot start issues, I couldn't simply stop the truck when making a run to the dump etc.

Since I wanted to get the air conditioning working again, I decided to go with an electric fan and to do away with the mechanical fan altogether. After some searching I found a couple of threads where folks were using a Grand Cherokee radiator fan. I figured I would give it a shot and bought this one new for about $52 shipped to my door:


I had hoped to re-use my big block shroud but was disappointed to find the opening was too big for the 19" fan. I put a want ad in the classifieds and wound up buying a nice small block fan shroud from another member (thanks Todd68Chevy!) along with some used radiator mounts. It had a small chip in the mounting tab but otherwise looked like new once it was cleaned up.



I bought a relay kit from one of the online retailers which had a 3/8 npt sensor and 1/2 npt adaptor to fit my intake manifold. I wanted to get a stainless sensor but couldn't justify the extra cost so settled for brass. I also opted for a sensor designed to turn on at 185ºF and off at 175ºF.


The instructions forbid the use of teflon tape or pipe sealant around the temperature sensor and said all kinds of bad things would happen if I used it, the least of which was a poor connection or inoperable sensor. Despite intuition, I gave it a shot and soon noticed coolant leaking around the fitting, duh. A little teflon tape solved this problem and tested fine with the multimeter so I threw the crappy instructions away and sourced a wiring diagram online instead.



I wanted to keep the relay close to the fan but in a place that was easy to service if needed. I noticed a small rectangular recess on the inner fender which seemed ideal for the relay base so put it there. The 30 amp circuit breaker was then mounted between the fan relay and remote starter relay and wired together.


As for the fan, this was mounted by cutting a C-shaped slot on the bottom of the shroud which was centered from front to back. This was done by drilling small pilot holes then cutting it with a saber saw using a fine blade. Finally, holes were drilled on either side and the fan was mounted using two bolts. I suppose one could add a bolt to the bottom but if you saw the setup you would realize that lower tab is not going anywhere.


Initially I was disappointed to find the new fan housing was touching the bolts on the water pump pulley. I wound up having to go back and shim the fan away from the motor using fender washers as well as eliminate the washers and lock nuts on the pulley. In the end I wound up with 1/4" of clearance which is just enough.



The original radiator mounting brackets looked as though someone had beaten them into submission with a hammer. I wound up repainting the used replacements I got with the shroud but was short a couple bolts so had to settle for some allen screws for now.



Finally, here's another shot of the bottom of the fan shroud to show the C-shaped slot from the front. In case you missed it, note the huge hole in the front cross brace that some moron cut with a torch to fit a couple of small transmission oil cooler lines. Eventually I will replace the whole crossmember but I'm amazed at how stupid some people are.


While I'm at it, here's a shot showing where the right frame was cut in order to clear an exhaust header. Thankfully this was confined to the right side and can be easily fixed but this kind of thing seems to be all too common to old vehicles. Thankfully this is about the worst of the damage and at this point you have seen nearly all the ugly warts this old Beast has.


In the end, this was a good modification as it keeps the engine much cooler at idle, typically around 180ºF. Before, it would easily reach 200ºF if I let it sit for too long. The fan also kicks on and off at or near the purported temperatures judging by the water temperature gauge. I wired it to the ignition switch so it only runs when the key is on. For giggles one time I stopped the engine but left the ignition on and found it ran for 6-7 minutes before it shut off. Once I get the air conditioning working again my plan is to override the temperature sensor so that the fan runs whenever the A/C is on so stay tuned..

[sduckworth13]

Wow your wiring skills look so clean. I won't even show you my bird nest fan relay. I used that same fan for my install too. Nice work on the truck and congrats on passing your boards.

[Katrina/10]

Nice work on the fan, I'm sure you'll get all that other stuff taken care of. Does it still not want to start when hot?

[Advanced Design]

Clean install on the fan. Much more interesting and resourceful than buying a packaged kit. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[72 tigger]

Doing a great job!

[kingstrider]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Wow your wiring skills look so clean. I won't even show you my bird nest fan relay. I used that same fan for my install too. Nice work on the truck and congrats on passing your boards.

Originally Posted by Katrina/10

Nice work on the fan, I'm sure you'll get all that other stuff taken care of. Does it still not want to start when hot?

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Clean install on the fan. Much more interesting and resourceful than buying a packaged kit. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

Doing a great job!

Thanks guys! I was an electrician in a former life so appreciate clean electrical components as well as safe wiring. There's a lot of great minds here and I really appreciate all the ideas and advice. Katrina/10, the remote starter relay cured my hot start issues but I'm preparing to re-install the air conditioning so wanted to make sure the cooling system was up to the job.

[kingstrider]

One of the little things that annoyed me were the black aftermarket wiper blades with the goofy red plastic tips that came with the truck.


I don't really use the wipers much but wanted it to look right so bought a pair of repop wiper blades from another board member (thanks specialtyretail!). These are not exact reproductions and are actually painted a dark silver color instead of bare stainless but look good enough for me. Sometimes its the little things, you know?



I also wanted an owner's manual for the glove box and found this original 1972 copy with emissions manual and protect-o-plate on eBay for less than the cost of a new reproduction manual. Obviously the protect-o-plate is not original to the truck but looks cool anyway. These were put in one of the reproduction plastic sleeves to complete the look.