68 Stepside Shorty - Canadian Build GMC 910

[Jason7121]

Bought a new bed myself. On the chrome trim for taillights did you have to drill holes and if so what was your method. Great work on the truck btw.

[Island Medic]

Jason, not sure what you are referring to. I think you post was a mistake.?

Well I have been making really good progress and haven't bumped up anything that stumped me. Today was a different story. It took me two days of work but I was able to make two good fenders out of four. Thanks to a member I was able to source two chev 69 fenders. I know they are different, but the parts that I needed were the same. So I played Dr. Frankenstein and made it work.

A little history. the original truck got into a accident. I bent the frame from the drivers side to the passenger side. I hit a guard rail just on the inside of the passenger side frame rail and pulled it all that way. Back in the day I bought a donor truck and did a frame swap. I didn't bother with alignment as it was just to get the truck back on the road. Nothing else seemed to be bent.

I think the rad support is tweaked because I have to pull the top out to get the front top fender bolts in. The bottom of the support has been cross measured for squareness to the cab. The cab has also been checked for squareness.

As you can see from the pictures, the pass fender has a good 1/4" gap at the top but then widens out to 3/4" at the bottom. On the driver side it goes from 1/4" to 1/2" at the bottom.

I did replace the bottom part on the passenger fender and make sure it was in a straight line along the edge with the rest of the fender.

I have installed poly bushings on all mounts, cab and rad support.

The door has great equal gaps all around. How do I proceed from here to make these fenders gap out properly? My thinking is that the rad support is to high and is keeping the fenders from coming down. I know you can tell me what exactly to do but I am looking for some hard won experience to throw out some ideas.

[Island Medic]

In the instructions for the body mounts, in position two they talk about a factory washer ,"square" to reuse. Is it the two washers that I am showing in the picture? Not sure why this would be needed.

I am pretty sure that the next picture the items are body shims. I didn't take care when pulling the fenders off so I am not sure where these go. Can someone help?

[Jason7121]

You're right I saw a picture of a Fleetside on your previous page and was asking about that one but I realize it's not yours.

[Island Medic]

I managed to solve the issue. By putting a 1/8" shim under the front cab mounts I was able to gain the adjustment I needed. I also welded a 1/8 rod to the edge of the lower fender and that made all the difference in the world. Sorry no pic today. I am happy with how things are aligning. Now to finish the cab corner and rocker panel.

[Island Medic]

Been working on the inner fenders. I had 3 left and 2 right and was able to make one good one for each side.

[bhemingson]

Nice work. I went to high school in Parksville eons ago. My mom is still in Qualicum.

[Island Medic]

So didn't have much time wanted to do something. I want my truck to be as stock as possible so I am going to keep the voltage regulator. I read in another post that someone just gutted the regulator and did the jumpering in side of it. So here is a could of pics. I will have to put a note on the back of it so someone looking at it in the future won't be confused. I used hot glue to keep things from corroding and not shorting out in any way. I guess my warranty is now void

[Island Medic]

i have been avoiding welding in the rocker for fear of it not lining up properly. Today I decided to go for it to today. It all went in well welding wise. I reinstalled the door and it was well just ok. I am not 100% happy with how it all turned out but it is good enough for the scope of the project that I have planned. The door closes and the gaps are ok. The biggest issue is that the the floor is too high. It is hard to explain but I think that the door seal and the floor trim should hide it. When I cut the inner rocker away from the floor the floor sprung up and I didn't correct that before I welded in the new piece.

Will start on diver side tomorrow.

[Island Medic]

Today I started on the driver side. The rust is worse in some places and better in others. I learned alot doing the passenger side. I wish I could go back and do it again. Oh well. I think the key is to go slow and take things apart slowly and really study what is going on and how you are going to put it all back together. I took the outer rocker off and then got the new one and tried to fit it before I took anything else apart. So the plan is to leave the front alone and just work on the back and the cab corner. Get it all done then move to the front. Here is some pictures of the progress today.

[Island Medic]

I got the cab support all welded in and painted up. The floor also had some issues hidden by filler. It is amazing what you find when you start picking. I had to rebuild the seat mount and weld it to the frame support underneath. I will have to reinstall the seat to locate the mounting hole and drill it out. I rebuilt the floor section from scratch. Tomorrow I get that welded in and then work on the cab corner and I will be done that part.

[Island Medic]

I learned a really important lesson this week. I really struggled with the passenger side repair of the floor rot etc. It was really hard to get everything to line up again. I spent a great deal of time thinking about how to do it different on the drivers side. I used the rocker panel to keep the location correct for the pillars. So I took apart the rear cab corner first and left the front alone. That way I can us it as my reference point for the rocker location.

So the moral of my story is go slow, cut very little at a time and just enough to put in the replacement panel. Then work slowly forward. Will have some pictures tomorrow.

[Island Medic]

Well I got the cab corner buttoned up and it looks awesome. Learned alot and now I wished I had practiced on another truck before I did mine. All good.

[Island Medic]

Need to give my knees a brake so I am gonna work on the drivers side door. This way I can sit on a chair and get it done.