68 GMC to a 2003 Tahoe chassis

[75Dually]

Tonight the mosquito's were trying to carry me away! So I had to stay on the move all night, can't wait until they all die off for the rest of the year!!!

However I did get a lot done. I got the rest of the gaps down to 1/16" and then mocked it all up and measured for square, and I was right on the money the first time! So happy for that result!!

After that I got to grinding off all the old paint so I could start tack welding all the cuts. As you can see I got the drivers side front tacked up. I did the easiest one first. The rest of the are just as straight forward, ok except the passenger side front, that one will be a bit more difficult. Speaking of that, I got the panel pulled out where the big dent was and then started body working the entire area. I still have the lower portion by the wheel well to finish, but that is for tomorrow and the weekend.

I should be done tacking everything up by tomorrow night, and then I can start doing all the finish welding.

Stay tuned...

[75Dually]

Got so more work done tonight. I got all the tach welding done on the passenger side. Still need to do some hammer and dolly work on the front lower portion of the wheel well, but all in all it is coming along.

Tomorrow I will try and get the balance of the drivers side finished up. Might even get both sides welded up so I can move on to other parts of this build. That would be very nice in my book...

Stay tuned!

[75Dually]

Well I did get the drivers side rear cut all tached up today. So now I have a short bed! Forgot to take any pics, but it was not that exciting... You've seen one tach, you seen them all...

So next is a little bit of body work on the seams. I've been thinking about running a thin coat of body filler and then blending it in with some paint work to match the rest of the bed sides. At first I was going to leave the seams alone and just etch prime them or something lame like that. However I think it would be good fun to try and make it look like the short bed was originally that way. This is still all in the air, so it has a good chance to change...

Stay tuned!

[75Dually]

So while I let the, now short bed, sit for a while I pulled the doors into the shop. Both of them are in good shape. However they both in need of an extensive going through. Thanks to my good friend Cody Anderson I have all the replacement felts, rubber, and vent window parts. Super big thanks Cody!

I am going to tear down both doors and all the small parts. Both of them are chocked with Lubbock dust, and it has gotten every where. The lock actions, the window regulators, and the door handles are just gummed up with the stuff. This is one portion of a build that most folks don't like, but I think of it as a challenge. I will be cleaning and restoring all of the parts so they work like new. Some of it might need to be replaced, but we will cross that bridge when it comes.

One of the other things that I really like about these doors is the place where the previous owner had their business name plaque. I plan on doing something with that white area like a hot rod shop name or something like that. I'm sure that I will find something cool to do with it, but first this ride is going to have to be close to finished before I do anything with a door sign.

Stay tuned!

[72 tigger]

The doors look very solid- you're making good progress!

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

The doors look very solid- you're making good progress!

Trying too! See the below post on taking them apart. They were nasty!

[75Dually]

So I got the drivers doors apart tonight. Thank goodness for YouTube! This was my first time taking a 68 door assembly apart, and there were some steps that needed some assistance from the video. In the end it all came apart, and yes there was 50 plus years of Lubbock dust caked in the bottom! Cough!!

There was one quarter sized rust hole that will need to be cut out and filled, but that is an easy job. So my assumption of a cancer free truck is no longer in place, but hey what I have found so far is not going to take long to fix.

As far as the components go, all of them just need a good soak with some penetration fluid and then a full restore on each part. The good part is that for the most part they are all in decent shape and just need time and attention. That's what I'm here for!

Stay tuned!

[75Dually]

So I got the bad metal cut out and a patch panel put in place where the cancer was. I put some body filler over the repair and will get it sanded down tomorrow evening.

I also got the door hardware sitting in a vinegar bath to take off the rust. I watched some really good videos and the results were amazing. So I going to give it a try. The bucket had tiny bubbles coming up already tonight. So I'm going to leave them in it for a couple of days and then give them a good scrubbing. I'll show the results when they are done.

Brother's Trucks got some of my hard earned dough today. I ordered a bunch of small parts for the doors like new handles, lock pulls, and other minor items. I also got my new LED tail lights along with some new side markers. So I can't wait for that box to show up.

Stay tuned!

[75Dually]

Got the bottom of the door finished up and sanded. I then I shot a coat of etch primer on the entire door bottom. Not even worth a pic, but just know that the door bottom is now a very nice shade of olive drab!

Tomorrow I plan on getting the other door torn down and then getting both of them and the door panel cleaned up for paint.

BTW I checked on the parts that are sitting in the vinegar bath and they are doing really great. Lots of bubbles coming up which means that the rust is being dissolved. I'll take them out in a couple of days and check the real progress and report back.

Stay tuned...

[builtbyKane]

Great idea with the bath. I need to do the same for my door parts.

[75Dually]

A really good day in the shop. My wife and I went and saw my youngest perform in a band competition this morning, and then when I got home I got to spend the rest of the day working in the shop. Life is good!

First I want to give an update on the parts soaking in the vinegar solution. I pulled the parts out and they just needed a quick brushing which knocked all the remaining rust off. They were super clean after the brushing. Go back up and check out the original pic of when I pulled it out of the door and compare it to the pic below. A VERY IMPORTANT POINT! Glad I now have your attention! This process takes the parts all the way down to the base metal, which means they will start to rust very quickly if you don't get a good coat of WD40 or something similar on them ASAP. You can see some slight rust on the big gear portion of the window mechanism in the below pic. That part started to rust right after I got it cleaned off, so make sure you coat your soaked parts right after you take them out of the solution. The solution BTW is 1 gallon of vinegar and 1 cup of sugar. That's it. Super simple, but I have not ever found anything that takes so little work to get rid of all that rust so easily. I recommend it! The passenger door parts are soaking in it now.

I got the passenger door all torn down today too. I coated the bottom of the door like I did the drivers side with some etch primer after I sanded everything down. I do have some body work to do on lower portion of the kick panel where years and years of feet striking it have taken there toll. Other than that I will have the doors in paint fairly soon. I will be doing the interior of the doors in white. They should look really nice when completed and reassembled.

The interior door panels for both doors got sanded down and a coat of etch primer was laid down. They should be dry by morning, and when I get back from church I will spray them in silver.

Thanks for checking in on my build!

Stay tuned...

[75Dually]

Today after church I got the door panels painted. As you can see the color is now silver, to more exact Case IH silver. From what they started out as they look a whole lot better.

I also started the body work on the lower kick panel on the passenger door. There were just a bunch of small dents and dings from 50 year of abuse. I could have left them and just painted over it, but no my OCD kicked in and I know that I would have seen them every time I opened the door, so yeah I started the body work on them...

[thetucks]

so what are your plans for the tahoe? What all are you keeping? Is it 4x4?

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by thetucks

so what are your plans for the tahoe? What all are you keeping? Is it 4x4?

So that's a really good question. First it is a 2X4 which is perfect for what I want to do. I hope to lay the pinch on the shop floor when it is all done.

As far as the plans for the Tahoe go, this is going to be a long list... Basically I'm going to be pulling the body off the frame and using the chassis of the Tahoe and putting the GMC on that running gear. I will be trying to use most of the firewall and about 4 feet of the floor pan from the Tahoe and replacing the GMC firewall and floor plan. The reason for this is so that I don't have to make all the mounting points and figure out all the stuff GM spent millions of dollars perfecting. I will retain the GMC wipers and upper cowl (I was doing a lot of measurements today!) and possibly the stock GMC dash, but the jury is still out on that for now. I might use the Tahoe dash, but it is 6" wider than the GMC dash, so something somewhere will have to give in order to make that happen.

At the beginning of this post I showed the seats I would like to use, but I might use the rear leather seats out of the second row in the Tahoe (I cleaned them up this weekend and they are in decent shape, yes they need some leather dye in some spots but all in all they are in really good shape).

I would like to use the dual zone AC from the Tahoe, but I have heard from other guys who have done this swap and they say the unit is huge and takes up all the under dash room, so I might have to buy a Vintage air system and forgo that.

So far that is my main list. There is going to be a hundred more things that I need to figure out and come up with solutions on, but those are the challenges I really like.

Hope that gives a clearer idea of what I plan for this project.

[72 tigger]

Nice progress and planning! Staying tuned in

[75Dually]

So not much got done over the past couple of days except I finished up the body work on the passenger door and got it primed tonight.

I did get a shipment of parts from Brothers Trucks Parts yesterday. New door handles, side marker lamps, the back up lamp lenses, and cool LED tail lamps. So the wallet is lighter....

Should have a lot more done this weekend.

[75Dually]

Happy Halloween! We were getting ready for all the kids on Tuesday night and I decided to drop the 75Dually on that old witch and that cowboy that were messing around in the driveway today. Serves them right! LOL!!!

In between all the honey do's today I got the doors all painted up on the interior. So all I have to do now is wait for them to dry and then reassemble all the components.

After that I will start taking apart the Tahoe. I want to have the chassis in the shop as quickly as possible so I can get started on the fitment of the GMC body. Then I will start on the suspension components.

Stay tuned..

[75Dually]

Vent windows! I tore apart the vent windows tonight, and cleaned them up. The black paint is now drying, and tomorrow night I will do the assembly. I will take some pics of that work and post them tomorrow. On the work tonight I did not take any pics because really once you have seen a dusty, rusty, and dirty set of old vent windows you seen them all...

One thing that I was super fortunate on was the bottom bolt that tensions the window came off with ease on both sides. Every once and a while I catch a break! Those bolts can be a real bugger to get off, and I understand a lot of them break off. If they do break off then you have a much larger issue on your hands. So thankful!!

I should have them back together tomorrow evening. I got all the correct rivets, and even the stepped rivets for the hinge. Can't wait for these to be completed so I can get the doors back together and move on to bigger things.

Stay tuned!

[darkhorse970]

I’m in

[darkhorse970]

I’m in

[75Dually]

Originally Posted by darkhorse970

I’m in

Right on!

[mywifestruck]

Cool! I'll follow along.

[75Dually]

Vent Windows! So much fun there should be books written about it!!... Not!

So after all the Trick-or-treater's left I got a chance to go into the shop and get one of the vent windows finished up. That was not that bad in some respects, and in other ways it tested my patience a bit. Really the hardest part was getting the big 'L' shaped rubber piece to the channel. One trick in case you ever do this your self is use some silicone spray on just the part that snaps into the channel. It made that job a lot easier, and the rubber won't fight you so much. I'm still struggling with getting the corner squeezed into place perfectly. Tomorrow I will warm it up and that should help me stretch it into the channel. However for now the passenger side is done.

If you ever want to attempt this, and I suggest you do, check out this video on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZOiHmcb_w

People make this out to be harder than it really is. I also suggest you get the rivet kit from Brothers Trucks or LMC. It comes with the rivets and the proper tool to flare the rivets in place. Those kits take the guess work out of what you need, and they come with the special stepped rivets too.

Also you will see we had some very special first responders to our accident scene tonight. Unfortunately the witch and the cowboy did not make it, but the candy was good! Happy Halloween everyone!

Stay tuned...

[75Dually]

I was in the shop until late last night. I was working on assembling the drivers door. You talk about a puzzle! I guess I'm lucky because I have torn apart several doors over the years and I know that it takes a lot of patience, and no doubt you will take everything apart several times. Because just when you think that you got it all in you will forget something, and then that was the part that actually had to go in before all the other parts go in... Also it is good to have 3 hands, yes you will have to hold 3 things at once, maybe more, but that's what the patience is for...

I have enclosed a pic of some mirror arms I have been saving. They are made for 61-66 Chevy trucks, but they are really cool looking. I'm not sure if I am going to use them or not, but I will mock them up and see how they are going to look. I think they have the right look for this build.

I should be able to post some pics of the door assembled tonight. It looks really good so far.

Stay tuned!

[notsolo]

If you survived the vent window rebuild you can do anything! Mine turned out so so, rivet tool is also a 3 handed affair. I ended up using a small flat head machine screw, to join them back together because I could not get the rivet to pull tight. Doors are Looking good... Time out with the kids for Halloween is time we'll spent.