Cora the Custom Camper down in Louisiana

[codyon35s]

Just dropping in after registering to say hello. I've been looking for a decent truck to partially restore for the past several years. The first vehicle I ever pushed the gas pedal in was my old man's '71 Chevy dubbed Whitety Bob. I took a liking to these old trucks as a kid and after attending Cruising the Coast last October, I got the itch and really started looking. I found this ole '68 GMC 3/4 ton on CL and had to have her. All I've done so far is cleaned her up, got everything working as it should, replaced some seals, weather stripping, gaskets, and lights, and enjoyed the heck out of driving her around every chance I get. I don't plan to do too much to stray from factory. I would like to achieve a nice, near level stance, completely restore the interior as close to factory as possible, install some Detroit Steel Wheels "Steelies" when they release the 8 luggers, and preserve the rest of the awesomeness that GM had going for them back then. I'd like to say thanks to the contributing folks here for the tons of helpful information. I've referred to plenty of it and I'm sure I'll need a lot more help in the future. Good to be a part of the club.

[snycal]

It's going to be awesomesauce! Keep up with progress pics Lisa

[tommys72]

Nice truck

[codyon35s]

Hasn't been much change with the ole truck. I did change the name to Sailor after catching flak for Cora being short for Coral and the truck is light blue/seafoam. I think Sailor fits better anyway. I was driving the truck around here and there. Decided it was time to start working on her to get ready for Cruisin this October. That was back in January. I cut off the huge, homemade hitch, took out the seat and floormat and thoroughly cleaned the inside of the cab, pulled the front bumper to try and straighten it up a little, and dropped the saddle tanks to clean them out. The bumper is in the bed and both saddle tanks had pinholes in them. Work got busy and postponed me getting much done and I'm now the proud owner of a 68 Chevy suburban (Mermaid) so Sailor has kind of been put on the back burner. I'll get back to her when I get time and room. I'll post some pics of the monstrous hitch I cut off, the cleaning of the cab, and the old saddle tanks coming out.

[codyon35s]

Pictures of the hitch job coming off. I don't have a torch at the house so I had to utilize an angle grinder and a cut off wheel. Kinda sketchy but I got it done and kept most of my beard hair.

[codyon35s]

Under the seat looked like a rats nest. Dust and a lot of the material that has fallen off the old worn out seat along with a little trash and misc. other stuff. Pulled the seat and floormat along with the padded cushion underneath and cleaned the hell out of everything. There was a small piece of wood on each side under the mounts at the back of the seat. Wonder what they were installed for? Weren't thick enough to move the seat up so I'm kind of curious. I did find an old Frito Lay cracker wrapper that had an expiration date the same as my birthday. 12/2/1986! That was really cool.

[codyon35s]

I had to cut the brackets to drop the saddle tanks cause the hardware was rusted and froze up. The tanks themselves had a lot of big debris and rust in them which was expected. But they both also had pinholes so they found a new home in the scrap pile. I'll probably have some aluminum ones made.