Irish's 1966 LWB Fleetside

[irish1966]

I only realized that these trucks came with pretty trick bottle holders. Can you say "open container law?"

[irish1966]

Even I knew, this wasn't good.....

[irish1966]

A couple of new additions to the tool arsenal and I cleaned up the ram horns. Then I realized that I couldn't get the old studs out, so off they went to the machine shop for some TLC and a couple of helicoils.

[irish1966]

my first job with the arc was to fix an axle for a friends BF after he went OFF road in his toyota. I thought they designed them for that??? Guess they don't make em like they used to. My Da is a welder, so I have to apologize for the bead da.

[irish1966]

I really liked the wheels that came with the truck and they sat really nice on it even without a drop, so I decided to stick with the 6 lug setup and drums all round. So, when uncle sam gave me some sheckles back, I rebuilt all of the brakes. New bearings, pads, cylinders, springs and drums. The works. I also realized that both of the parking cables were siezed. Just an FYI, NAPA has the exact cables and they're plastic coated and look really nice when changed out. $16 a piece. The old ones are in the pics below.

[irish1966]

Here's a pic of the cable installed and the Napa part number, in case anyone is interested.

[irish1966]

All new brake hoses

[irish1966]

Re-installed the shocks. The rear shocks are air shocks and it took me a bit to figure out why there was a air valve screwed into the rear cross member. Duh!! I released some air after driving it home and the truck squatted nicely. I was definitely keeping that setup. And all the shocks were good and looked fairly new. So, being me, I sandblasted em and painted em. LOL

[irish1966]

Got off work last night and cleaned up the Diff cover and the bolts and changed out the gasket. Fresh new gear oil too....

[irish1966]

Here are some pics of te cab I am working on now.....

[irish1966]

More of the rust I have to cut and patch....

[irish1966]

It's amazing what u find when u sand these old trucks.....

[Captainfab]

You're doing some nice work on your truck Yeah it's amazing what some people 'hide' with body filler

And thanks for the part number on the cables.

[irish1966]

Thx Captainfab!! I'm still new to this but man am I learning a lot. Hey, I'm gonna need an adapter plate pretty soon if u have one?

[fryer1979]

Originally Posted by irish1966

I only realized that these trucks came with pretty trick bottle holders. Can you say "open container law?"

MMMMMMMMMMMM Newcastle,

Oh, and the truck is coming along quite well. Hey we all have our vices, dark beer has always been one of mine.

[irish1966]

I guess they were stuck for some sheet metal when they patched the floor the last time...LMAO. The funny part is when I removed the cali plate, there were more holes from pop riveting the plate on than there was rust holes in the floor.

[irish1966]

I have the firewall almost cleaned up enough to primer.

[irish1966]

I got most of the bed cleaned up and one of the rear wheel wells. I have never painted before, but I have the guns and the compressor setup to do it, so I will post pics of my first attempt.

[irish1966]

Grinder 1 David's Finger 0

And I was wearing a glove.

[irish1966]

I am going to cut the cab section from the blue cab and weld it into the bad section on the grey one. I figure, I can just patch the filler hole too and make it nice and without the inch of bondo that's on it.

[irish1966]

That's pretty much all I got done this weekend. I spent all day Sunday trying to figure out a brake problem on a 96 Tahoe for my Ex. Turns out the ABS controller was bad. So, the 66 is put back to bed until I get off work next Sunday. I'm hoping to order the power steering adapter plate and the rear mount fuel cell when I get paid and then put the grey cab on to the frame.

[LILRED66]

Nice project and build thread. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

P.S. - When working alone, this worked for me!

[irish1966]

Thx Lilred. I will be using that setup when putting the bed back on.

[irish1966]

So, I had my first patch attempt the other day. U can see from the pics they had cut a hole in the tunnel for a shifter. I'm planning on going with the column shift, so I decided to attempt a quick patch. It worked out ok and I am just getting used to the wire feed so it was a learning experience. I realized very quickly that the patch should be pretty close to the exact size of the hole (maybe even slightly bigger). Three sides of the patch were fine but one was slitghtly short and had a gap that didn't want to weld. So after reading Markeb01's thread on using JBWELD for no warp hole filling, I did just that. I figure the best part of the truck to practice on is the floor of te cab, seen as it is not going to be seen. Weel here are the pics...

[irish1966]

Yeah Fryer. I am partial to drinkin the dark stuff (Guinness) but the Newcastle is a nice alternative. If you have a chance try BODDINGTONS. It's an English cream ale. It's not dark but it is Rocket Fuel. lol