project 65/66 C30 sanford & Son's

[BMERDOC]

Do you plan on blasting the new cab? Nice welder! That thing should do the trick.

[enonz65c30]

Originally Posted by BMERDOC

Do you plan on blasting the new cab? Nice welder! That thing should do the trick.

Thanks Nick, I cant wait to try out the welder.

I did not get much done yesterday. I was able to clean the shop up a bit and get the cab on a cart so I can roll it around with out the use of the tractor. I was going to build a cart that used the factory body mount locations and raise it up off the ground higher, But after looking at my front floor supports I realized that they needed to be replaced as well. so I decided to keep it low and make the cart so I can hinge the cab on its nose to make it eayser to get to the bottom of the cab. I plan on extending the cart a little so it will be stable I figure I can crib up the firewall when its on its nose so all the weight is not on the two front brackets. I have a long way to go before this cab is ready to hit the frame, but I think its worth the effort on the big window considering I was looking at doing the same amount of work to the smaller window cab.




Im glad I already have about 75% of the patch panels I need from topbanna

[enonz65c30]

......progress I am about 3 weeks behind on updating this thread due to working and other obligations I have also only worked on the truck for about 3 days in the last 3 weeks. So my first order of business was to brace up the cab and get started on the rust repair. When I removed my passenger side rocker this is what I found.....(WARNING:I have never attempted body work/rust repair before, I am learning as I go...)


Yes the outer rocker and the outer floor came out as one part

[enonz65c30]

So that last update was for day off #1, So after I saw that I really needed to replace both the lower A and B pillar and after a little online shopping at topbanna I had the parts I needed to move forward on day off #2. I have read here that most people start from the inside and work out. But my thought was that since my lower posts were pretty much toast I did not really have anything to go by, so I took the approach of working from the outside in. I have found that since I have a little air compressor an air powered cutoff wheel is slow and time consuming, I then tried an electric cutoff wheel from harbor freight($25) and it works well, but does have a duty cycle. so finally I arrived at using a 4in grinder with the proper cutoff wheel and man this is the ticket! fast and clean I started with the A Pillar....



Then I moved on to the B pillar...I don't really have any good shots of this part because I got on a roll and totally forgot to take pictures

The scrap pile is starting to grow

[enonz65c30]

And finally day off #3 this is where I stand as of today(3/23/14) After getting the A and B pillars taken care of, I went on to tackle the outer floor section. I got this part as well from topbanna and it was very nice to have one large piece knocked out. I will say that the only problem I had with this part was that the holes were miss drilled so I had to weld them up and redrill so that everything would line up. I is very exciting to see it starting to come together, I do have a lot more to do to make it solid. on my next day off I am going to tackle the floor supports....I am sure that will be tons of fun....any tips?






the scrap pile is still growing

[2manyprojects]

Nice job. Its good to see my old junk being fixed. Ive never replaced floor supports but I'm thinking it would probably be easier than what you've done so far.

[enonz65c30]

Originally Posted by 2manyprojects

Nice job. Its good to see my old junk being fixed. Ive never replaced floor supports but I'm thinking it would probably be easier than what you've done so far.

Thanks Richard. look at it this way....I will make all the mistakes on my truck, so if you ever need any help on one of yours I can give you a hand and kinda know what I'm doing

So its been slow going on the rust repair. I did manage to get the new front support in place and I started looking at the rear. I keep looking at the new rear support and at photos on the forum and I am thinking that I am going to have to trim off some of the flanges to make it fit. It will not fit the way it is at all. so after I got tired of messing with the rear support(which is still not in) I decided to try and make some forward progress and start cleaning up the floor. As I was cleaning on the passenger side I started seeing more and more daylight right infront of where the seat mountsso after I thought about it for awhile and not wanting to buy another patch panel, I decided to make my own from the SBW 66 cab floor.

The Rust



here I am about to cut my patch out of the SBW parts cab


atleast the frame looks good


I then cut the area to be patched out of the BBW cab and did a test fit, I just had to grind down a couple of areas for a good fit



this is where I finished up before I had to shutdown for the night and head off to dinner with some friends. on my next day off I will get it welded in and then get back to tackling that dam rear support

[enonz65c30]

The other day I was messing around on craigslist looking for a newer seat. I had seen on here where other members had gotten seats from early 2000's GMC and Chevy extended cab trucks to get the 3 point seat belts. I ran across an ad for a front seat out of a 2001 Dodge quad cab. I had to work sat (gotta love the car business) so my dad, mom, and my buddy Brent helped me out and went and got it for me while I was at work. they were able to pull it out of the guys truck in one part which is pretty impressive. I think it was a good deal at $85. now I just gotta score some 19.5 wheels.......back to craigslist I cant wait to see this in the cab. its kinda dirty and there is one warn spot on one of the seams....but I know a guy.

[rusty76]

Good work friend. Keep it up. I'll be following along.

[Jeff La]

For never having done this stuff your doing a great job.

[enonz65c30]

Originally Posted by Jeff La

For never having done this stuff your doing a great job.

thanks for the complements guys, I have rebuild some antique tractors before but this is my first full on rusty project. I redid a 1973 land rover a while back but those bodies are aluminum so no rust

[TJ's Chevy]

Nice work on the patch panels! Its giving me an idea of how to do it when I put patch panels in my cab.

[enonz65c30]

Originally Posted by T.J. MCCAULEY

Nice work on the patch panels! Its giving me an idea of how to do it when I put patch panels in my cab.

thanks, so what are you thinking as far as the patch panels? I have the whole drivers side to do.

Well I did not get much done on the truck today. I had quite afew things to take care of, but I was able to get some help from a friend to move the seat out of the trailer and into the 66 cab for storage. All of you know what that means.......I had to test it out. I probably drove 100,000 miles with out leaving my garage I think I am going to need to do a tilt column at some point for ease of entry(I'm 6'4) as far as it just "bolting up" it looks like I will need to make a spacer for the center support near the trans hump. but other than that it looks like it will just be blowing holes and making backing plates. heck I think its even a good color match just a recap this is out of a 2001 dodge 1500 quad cab. man I just wanna drive this truck...

here is a shot with the center console up

the console down clears the shifter perfectly and makes a really nice arm rest



the 3 point belt fits great and I just had to pose for a photo...small victory



if you look by the trans tunnel you can see the gap that I will have to fab a bracket or make a spacer for, other than that its pretty much a bolt in

[RANDY COX]

Wow just looked through your build, Seems like a lot of these trucks were green, must have been a popular color, it's the original color of mine also, in that one picture looking at the back cab the red one I thought I was looking at mine LOL.. I think your doing an awesome job on those patch repair panels to be your first time doing... keep up the good work..

[Jeff La]

Originally Posted by enonz65c30

thanks for the complements guys, I have rebuild some antique tractors before but this is my first full on rusty project. I redid a 1973 land rover a while back but those bodies are aluminum so no rust

I'm in the process of doing a tractor for a friend of mine right now. Can't wait to finish it so I can start on my shop.

[enonz65c30]

Happy Christmas eve my fellow forum members, I have not really had a chance to work on the truck sence my last post in April due to work and warmer weather eating up all my free time with gardening and cutting grass. Now that it is cold again I can finally get back to work on the truck. One of the big things that I have been working on over the summer/this fall is figuring out what drive train I wanted to go with. I had origionaly wanted to run a SBC 350 and the SM420 nice and easy swap. I was going to have to do a light rebuild on my 350 and was talking to a friend about helping me with the motor work sence he used sbc in all of his old track cars. he brought up the idea of going big block......and just so happened he had a 1985 Fleetwood southwind motor home he was trying to get rid of that just so happened to have a 454 big block. after many months of back and forth we worked out a deal.

here it is when it arrived at the house. it was driven 20 miles and no sign of smoke or funny noises 63k on the odo.

[enonz65c30]

Now it took about 3 days to blow this thing apart, but I am finding lots of good parts that I should be able to use, like the tilt van column, gas filler neck, electric fuel pump, e-brake set up. oh and of course the 454/th400

[enonz65c30]

Now on to the motor. once I got it out of the motorhome I wanted to go ahead and drop it in the truck for mock up.



The front crossmember came out of a 1983 C30 with a 454.....so I figure that the frame stands (73-86) should work. I used the donor frame to make measurements and then measured my frame and did a little trimming.


Then it was time to shoehorn it in the engine bay motor and trans, I need to get the trans crossmember and some new motor mount rubbers to help locate and make sure this thing is not off center. 3 factory holes line up on the drivers side but it seems to be not strait in the frame

[2manyprojects]

Sweet deal, That should be a great combination. If your still interested in that push bumper let me know.

[66Submarine]

Neat. I also bought an old motorhome a while back for the 454 + misc stuff.

What's your plan for the HD motorhome suspension?

[62 Barnfind]

Nice score on the parts and good job on the metal work!

[RANDY COX]

Any updates If you visit the cookout in Fairlawn look up across from Long John Silvers and you'll see my truck..stop by and visit...