My '74 Cheyenne Project Thread

[clemsoncrewman]

So a bit of an intro to myself and my current project.
I don't think I've ever posted on here, but have used this site and many of its threads as reference for my projects and I thought it was time to contribute and track my progress of this truck for posterity!

I've basically had a Squarebody since I could drive (this '74 being my 4th and the oldest and most under powered). They've always been my daily as I've worked on older hot rod projects as my "hobby".

First car was a '60 Studebaker Lark I bought when I was 13 with paper route money. Got it running around the yard, then started a complete tear down for resto, mods, etc. Family moved 3 times while apart and it's still apart and a back-burner project as it's stored at my dad's warehouse.

We got a '77 C-10 long bed when I was 16 and I drove it stock with intentions of lowering, etc., but threw a rod through the block soon before that started. Started tearing it down for motor swap and rust repair/replacement and a deal on a short bed came up. Dad took over the '77 and I bought the '85 short wide.

The '85 was black, had a new-ish Goodwrench 350, 2" drop front and rear, 8" rally's. First thing I did was run true duals with glass packs that dumped in front of the rear end. Drove that truck as my daily from early '04 until December of '10. An unknown gas leak at the Q-jet during its morning warm-up was the demise of that truck. Still makes me sick. It was the first day of my final exams before graduating college and the plan was to swap the carb and full tune-up the weekend following exams as the Q-jet was worn out. Wrapping up school had taken priority and I ended up paying the price with the truck. Still have a few odds and ends from it, but was basically a complete loss after the fire. Luckily it was outside in the driveway instead of the garage...

A year or so later, an older friend of mine from work that had a '79 short wide heavy half Silverado with a 454 and 700R4 decided that he was ready to let it go. I'd called first dibs if he ever decided to sell it and I ended up with it. I was a fun truck and my daily for almost 5 years. It got to the point where it needed about everything and the body had more rust in it that I wanted to deal with. Work at the time set me up with a truck allowance, so I let the '79 go to a guy looking for a candidate for an LS swap. The '79 fit the bill and I put the proceeds toward finishing up my '58 Chevy truck project.

During school (I think it was '08 or '09), I started a '58 Chevy truck build that I finished up last summer to the point where it was soundly on the road. Still working on details, but have logged a couple thousand miles on it, so naturally I've been looking for the next project.

I wanted something that was either already on the road or didn't take much to get it there. The '58 was a complete nut and bolt, from the ground up, touch and inspect and redo every nook and cranny project, and I didn't want to get into that again just yet. Naturally, I started looking at Squarebodies as I'm familiar with them, they can still be had for a relatively low price (though they've gone up quite a bit lately), parts are cheap, and I still have several parts that I was going to use on the '79. I've kind of regretted selling the '79 since it left the driveway, so I've kept an eye out for a round headlight Squarebody.

I had a little cash from a few piles of parts I sold lately, and it was getting hot in my pocket...one might say it was starting to burn a hole. I was cruising my local Atlanta Craigslist Tuesday evening last week and this '74 popped up. I called the guy on it the next day and arranged for me to come by on Thursday after work. He said he'd had many calls on it and that was understandable. He had it priced decently and you don't see many '73-'74's at any price. This one looked to be relatively solid, straight, and complete. He threw out some numbers over the phone and I knew if it checked out, a deal could be made. *Note: We didn't haggle on the phone as I avoid that at all costs and hate "what's your bottom dollar?" lines with a passion. He offered up some pricing info unprompted. The ad said "OBO" so I knew it was up for negotiation in person*

Turns out the guys lives less than 4 miles from my house and couldn't have been nicer. We'll definitely be staying in touch. He and his son bought it as a father/son project to flip as they'd had luck on a couple other trucks, the last being a '69. The son moved north for school or work and he wanted to finish up his MG project as it is close to being on the road and his wife would rather cruise in the sharp little convertible for the spring/summer than the truck.

Short story long, the truck was what it was advertised as. Some typical '73-'74 rust in the nose of the hood, drivers fender front and rear quarters, and various parts of the bed. Bed floor is rough as it probably had a bed mat and maybe a leaky camper cover on it for a while at some point in it's life. Also rear lower bed quarters pretty shot and thin tailgate. The cab, however, is super solid! Floors, rockers, corners, etc. are as solid as I've seen on any year. Drivers door is good and only a lower skin issue on the passenger door. Passenger front fender is good. Door troughs are good. Frame is good. Grille is driver quality and not busted or cracked even. The interior is super clean. Only a few cracks in the driver side seat bottom and a couple typical cracks on the dash. Looks to be original paint. All the trim is there and in decent shape. 82k miles. 250 straight 6 with a TH350. Not sure on the rear gears yet. Buick rally's that have nice center caps. Last registered in '08. Has a title (which is rare in GA for something of this age) and a bunch of the original paperwork. Came out of TN near Chattanooga.
We met a price quickly and he held it until I could line up a trailer and the weather broke enough to load it without getting completely soaked.

Plan for now is to get it running and tuned up and run exhaust as it's rusted. Then do the brakes complete front and rear. Then lower it with drop spindles and springs in front, flip kit and hangers in the rear. New bushings on everything front and rear. Detail the engine bay with the 6 and see how it plays out. My hot rod side wants to swap it out for some power immediately, but I have a friend with a 250 in his that has a gazillion miles on it and is his most reliable means of transportation. Need to get it running, driving, stopping, and sitting right before I address that.

Body-wise, I've found or already have rust free panels for basically everything that's rusty on this truck, but I'd have to paint it. I dig the current "patina" and am going to clean it up and buff it out for the time being. Plan is for the bodywork to be last priority at this point as it all matches and is straight. Nothing at this point is so rusty that it can't be used. I can put something over the bed floor for the time being as it can't get much worse between now and the time I do something and I'm not hauling anything huge with it anyway.

All that said, below are the pics of when it came home Saturday. I'll post progress pics and/or video as it comes along. Holler if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer. I may have some questions along the way as well that I need help on.

Thanks,
Joseph

[RedBed]

Welcome. Looks like a cool project!

[Bandit130]

[D13]

Congratulations. Pretty uplevel truck for being 250 powered.
Every 250 1/2 ton I've seen is 2.73 or 3.08 gears.

[flashed]

Nice old truck ,welcome .

[clemsoncrewman]

Originally Posted by D13

Congratulations. Pretty uplevel truck for being 250 powered.
Every 250 1/2 ton I've seen is 2.73 or 3.08 gears.

I was thinking the same thing on the trim level and drive train. I haven't checked the rear-end yet...gonna try and do that today.

I got the 250 running this week. On the fence about pulling it for the small block I have on the stand in the garage. It's a stock rebuild, so there shouldn't be any reason the trans and rear shouldn't hold up to it. We'll see.