1968 C40 to K40 pickup project BlueMule

[too much stuff]

You have skills! Looking good.

[CKfan]

Subscribed!

[Old_Green]

Originally Posted by too much stuff

You have skills! Looking good.

Thank you, I appreciate the comment. However, we shall see over the course of this project. I am having fun with it, and hopefully I'm not making a huge mess that I have to haul off to the scrap yard. Either way, I'm learning a lot along the way.
BTW, that's an impressive list of vehicles in your Signature.

Originally Posted by CKfan

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Welcome!

[Old_Green]

Been a little while since I posted but I have been working on the doors.
I took a bunch of video of the door skin stretch and re-assembly, so I may to post that to YouTube and will post a link if so.
I finished up the passenger door skin, cleaned up the welds as best I could and reassembled the door. Re-bending the hem material of the skin back onto the door was a pain. The 1968 panel (blue) I had only bent 30 to 45 degrees, but it split in several places when bending back down, so I had to weld the door edge after I got it all back together. I didn't have any issues with the 1972 panels, even where I had to bend them up to 90 degrees to get the panel back on the frame.
I then used a surface conditioning tool to remove all the old vinyl sign material. You can see on the last post that the doors had some magnetic signs on them over the old vinyl too, so there is some rust that got between the magnet and the door. I wanted to expose all of that, and get it cleaned up and treated. I also took the rest of the paint off the skin. Then I test fit the door onto the cab.
It will need a little work on the drip edge gap.

[Old_Green]

So, once again it has been a while since my last update. there has been progress, but not as much time to document it as I had.

A couple months ago, I placed the cab and bed back on the frame to be able to get measurements so I can shorten the frame, as well as double check the clearances for engine to cab, radiator etc...
I also put the bed in place on spacers so it would be the correct height, and centered the wheel openings over the axle. Once that was done, I was able to determine that I would need to shorten the frame 23 1/2 inches.

Since it was so close to looking complete, I also put all the body panels back on to kind of get a feel for how it would all look together.

[Old_Green]

After testing all the fit and getting the frame measurements, I pulled the body back off the frame and put it on the cart, and the bed on another cart.
Using another cart, I welded some cross braces to support the frame rails in front and behind the proposed cut lines. I'm finding I get to focused on the project and dont take enough pictures as I am working. The first frame picture below is after all 4 cuts and the gap closed up and clamped. The last picture is the weld completed from the outside.

[Old_Green]

The sections that were cut out of the frame each had a one inch section cut out of the middle, and then they were welded back into the frame as a fish plates. Once the frame is painted, it will be nearly invisible from the outside.

[G-749]

Good job . Looked at entire thread. Wish mine looked that good.
Good luck on all your projects. 😆

[Old_Green]

Thank you, I enjoy it, but I wish it was moving along quicker.

[Old_Green]

Another catching up post.

I pulled both axles out, and set the frame on the 14 bolt rear axle and Dana 60 front axle from the sleeper truck. Now, I'm working out U-bolts and mounting angles.

[Campbel45]

Incredible work! And thank you for the documentation - gives me some motivation and encouragement to do some repairs on my C50. Keep up the good progress!

[loudchevy]

This is a sweet build! Sub'd to follow the progress.

[goldenburb]

finally some good reading.

[Old_Green]

Life has kept me busy, and even though I cant believe it, its been another 9 months since my last post. I have still been working on the truck when I can, I just haven't been posting updates like I should.

Back in early spring, I spent some time working on shock arrangement.
First pic is the shocks clamped in with the original mounting block from the other frame. I ended up lowering the bottom mounting position and placing the top mount under the frame rail. Brackets tacked in place in 2nd and 3rd pics.

I also took a piece of 3/8 angle to make travel hard stops. I will probably gusset them before mounting.

[Old_Green]

I also used the old shocks to make front mounts sunken into the frame to match the style and placement of the original frame.

[Old_Green]

I started in last month with some sand blasting and wire wheeling the frame and axles so I could bolt the engine / transmission / transfer case into place. I had also cleaned and painted the engine. I picked up a set of block hugger ceramic coated Sanderson headers at Firebird raceway spring swap meet. I also had the 4L80e transmission gone thru by Clarks Transmission in Nampa ID.

Since my wife and I have decided to move to a new place, I figured I better get the truck assembled as best I can for the move. Better to move it as 1 unit than 75 boxes of parts.
The last 2 pics are starting to show what it is going to look like.

These pictures of it as a rolling assembly highlight some things that I think will need addressing.
I'm liking the look overall, but the 32" tires are definitely too small. I think the wheel openings look need 36 to 38" tires. I just have to figure out if I can do that and keep running dually, or if I will have to go to single wheel.
Another issue is the fender flare extensions need to be shortened, and I need to figure out what I'm going to do between the extensions, running boards or nerf bar, or ???

[350TacoZilla]

Truck is looking great


I think tire height for dually will depend on what wheels you want to run. If you are ok with aftermarket wheels there are companies that make dually wheels with extra offset for a bit wider tire and you can run something like a 37x11.50R20 or get into the military take offs. Other common choice is 10 lug semi truck adapters and almost every common 22.5 tire is 36-41" tall and you can go dually or single with steel or aluminum wheels available in multiple back spaces and widths.

[jerry moss]

THAT BEAST IS LOOKING GREAT