Irish's 1966 LWB Fleetside

[irish1966]

I finally decided it was time to share my progress with you guys. Here is my 66 LWB Fleetside after a 120 mile drive back from Springfield, OR to Hillsboro, OR. I had been looking for a project truck and finally got the opportunity to buy one. Got this one off CL for $1,000. It came with a 74 350 and a tired TH350. I found how tired the tranny was on the drive home, when the speedometer was reading 90mph and the truck was travelling at 55ish.

[irish1966]

Looked good from the outside, but yes, you guessed it. Lurking inside the cab was some nice rust holes.

[irish1966]

More pics of the rusty cab.......

[irish1966]

More pics of the inital findings....

[irish1966]

More pics of what I was starting with.....

[irish1966]

So, that was about sept '09. I wasn't exactly sure as to how to go about the build, so I took it slow for a while and the cold weather didn't help too much. So, when I found this site, I got the courage and determination to get stuck in.......It was on to stripping her down to the bare essentials. lol

[irish1966]

Here are the parts that came with the truck. Because I had better fenders in the pile, I wasn't too gentle in taking the old ones off. lol. I couldn't believe the rust and dirt that fell out of the hole in the fender.

[irish1966]

I wasn't looking fwd to the patching of the rust in the cab, and in talking to the guy who I had bought the truck from, turned out that the guy who sold it to him had a cab already fixed up and ready to go in. So, it was back down to Springfield with a trailer and tie downs, for this beauty......

[irish1966]

On to the removal of the major body parts............Unbolted the bed and raised it enough to get it ready for removal. Then the weather got better and I had to do some DIY home improvements, in the form of a pole removal. LOL. The owner of the property had put the pole in as a support coz the header appeared to be sagging. Well, that was just something I had to remedy so I could get her in and out of the garage with ease.

[irish1966]

Now the fun stuff....Bare in mind that I am living alone, with only a Lab to help me lift stuff, and lets face it, she doesn't know her left from her right. LOL. So I got very inventive when it came to lifting heavy objects and manipulating them. And working with a limited budget, I may add. So forgive my crude approach. I was pretty sure, that I wasn't going to use the original cab, so I managed with some levering techniques, to slide it off one side of the frame without breaking anything.

[irish1966]

The frame/motor was soaked with degreaser and Mr. Clean and power washed. This step was repeated about 4/5 times. I then drafted in some help. My buddy moved down from Alaska to give me a dig out. Thats him in the prev pics.

[irish1966]

Pulled the motor and tranny. Tested motor compression with very good results, I decided to clean it up and set the rockers and add some poly-locks.

[irish1966]

Using the original valve covers and after cleaning up the block and oil pan, the motor got a fresh coat of paint and all new seals. At this point I was anxiously awaiting the portland swap meet. When it did arrive, I was in heaven. I managed to pick up an Edelbrock perfmer manifold for the motor for $10. Among other tasy treats. I'll add pics to support the flow of the build.....

[irish1966]

On to the manifold......my buddy Tom, had some really cool rat rod ideas and hence the colors on the motor. Due to the tight budget, I really liked how the motor went together. I did put the good seals and all the newer parts were the good stuff......Oh, and a $10 Rochester Quadrajet Carb. (this one, Tom is a master at blueprinting and tuning.

[198plus]

Nice progress, looking good !!!!!!!

[Alan's Classic]

Originally Posted by 198plus

Nice progress, looking good !!!!!!!

and welcome aboard

[irish1966]

Thx lads. It's gonna be a lot of work, but I haven't quit yet.

[irish1966]

Time is short after a 12hr shift but I got most of the firewall cleaned up and the diff cover painted. I'll post the rest of the pics tomorrow.

[irish1966]

Here's a couple of pics of the frame with and without the motor and tranny. The next step was sandblasting....

[irish1966]

Here's some of the frame during the sandblasting....

[irish1966]

Before and after painting the frame

[irish1966]

more of the frame

[irish1966]

Here's what did after work last night. I didn't get as much done, as I would have liked, coz it was late and the neighbours wouldn't have put up with the noise of the angle grinder for too much longer.

[irish1966]

Back to the build. I destroyed my rad support taking it off, so after looking around on CL, i found this one for $40 and cleaned it up and gave it a fresh coat of paint. Doesn't look too bad and it is in good condition. No rust in the usual spot under the battery tray.

[irish1966]

I also had an issue with the gauge bezel when removing it from the original cab. I managed to get frustrated and bend it beyond repair where the cigarette lighter was, so I looked around at the swap meet and got another gauge cluster for $2. It had the idiot lights and was in rough shape, but the bezel was perfect. SO i swapped it out and cleaned up my gauges. I'll probably go with aftermarket gauges, but for now it's all cleaned up.