It's ALIVE!

[Seke69]

[hi guys] First post to this board, I've been lurking around for about three weeks trying to get some info and whatnot, and finally decided to register.

I need help.

I'm still taking the truck apart, trying to figure out what work it NEEDS. here's a VIN cs149j845065.
nothing has really been done to it aside from some very poor body repairs and the seats were replaced.

Anyway. my first question, I'm trying to figure out what two of the original options from back of the glove box door sticker are (they've had some stuff spilled on them). where can I look this up? or does anyone know what 4Z52AA and 4525AA are, one of them (I think) is the original seat.

Next question, the bed (fleetside standard) is... crap. when I bought the truck it had some plywood over the wood bed floor which was covered in dirt, then a layer of pine needles with some gravel and snow added in for flavor, when I finally got all that stuff cleaned out, I was sweeping the bed out and found myself standing with one foot on the garage floor! WTF? the wood was rotted through and the cross-members are rusted through (frame's okay though). I guess my question is: once I take the bed parts off, what are my options? can I get a stepside bed from the junkyard and have it fit? do I have to stick with the fleetside? what about something with a steel bed floor?

I found a junkyard with a stepside w/ some dents not too far from here (I'm in St Paul,MN)and at a fair price, I'm okay with dents 'cause that's just hammer and dolly work... so, will it work?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Southpa]

Howdy and welcome to the board! The part of your seat option Z52 just says "full depth foam seat". I guess the stock option is less foam, so yours must have been comfy, .
If you want the options lists you can dl them from my pic page. Very handy, but best viewed when magnified.

http://groups.msn.com/Alsplac/options.msnw?albumlist=2

Your VIN says the truck is a 2wd, 6 cyl., 1/2 ton, 1969 pickup assembled in Janesville, Wi.

In regards to your wood bed, if the bedsides, bulkhead, tailgate etc. are still in good shape you could just replace the deck. Kits are available from most 67-72 vendors and I'm sure you could get the crossmembers. I remember pulling my deck apart and found one really bad cossmember. I tossed it and am still one short.

But if money is an issue, you could always go the cheaper, more temporary route until you have the funds and the energy later on. I bolted in 3/4" plywood. And the crossmembers are no more than flared U-channel, hell, the same stuff they use to hold up stop signs! lol, just kidding. The plywood has lasted a long time because I usually have a cap covering the deck. But one of these days I'll build a nice deck. Heres the specs thanks to GMCPaul (you da man Paul!)

http://www.gmcpauls.com/47-72%20BedWood%20Info.htm

I have no experience with stepsides. The shortbox stepsides seem to be desirable while lots of people consider the longbox stepside ugly. But there is no mention of whether or not yours is a long or short. I'm assuming you could replace a fleetside box w/ a stepside as long as they are the same length. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Seke69]

sorry, I forgot to mention that my box is the short version, which also happens to be where 90% of the funky repairs took place... so I'll need to replace the bed. I thought I'd be able to use some patch panels to fix what I thought were much smaller crap repairs, but after digging into it a bit more thoroughly I see that the patches wouldn't help much.

I'll have to check out that options list from home (I'm at work right now), proxies are evil...



merci beaucoup!

[Palf70Step]

Welcom to the board from South Mississippi. Shoirt Steps are great. It'll take some mods, but you can use the bedsides and front panel from the 73-87 short steps. Few welding mods to get our fenders on them. Working on it myself now. Seems the more you dig...the more you find that needs fixed.

[OregonLonghorn]

Welcome to the board. My wood is almost the same condition and I have done the temporary plywood thing for now too. I know a guy who has his own homemade sawmill and swears he can cut what I need. We'll see.