Grandpa's 72 restoration

[Advanced Design]

Great history on the truck! I appreciate those family farm connections and look forward to the rest of the build.

Nice work on the floor repair. Does your fil restore for a living?

[68Gold/white]

Originally Posted by Snake72

Thanks 68!

Floor pan was a Triplus, bought from GMC Pauls if I remember right. $500 shipped but worth every penny.

Im in eastern Iowa, near Iowa City. Truck is 2 hours away in northern Iowa at my FIL's shop, he tinkers with it when he can and I get up there about once a month for the weekend. Thus the slow process. Now that deer season is over, my weekends are a little more open

Cool!
I lived in Center Point till I was in 6th grade (1970ish), moved to La Porte City for 2 years, then we moved to Fort Dodge, till 1976, then moved To Oklahoma. Was a blessing, energy producing states all had job opportunities after 76, the rest of the country was having a tough time.
I have a 67 and 68, following your progress. I have been welding some patches in the floorboard of my brothers 73 Camaro, still learning on that deal...welding thin sheet metal is a different deal from joining two chunks of steel together.
Replacing the whole floor was a good decision, my opinion.

[Snake72]

Advanced Design, yes the family farm history is great on this truck. Spent most its life in a 5 mile radius. But no, my FIL does not restore for a living. He used to own a body shop in the 70's so he has the knowledge but this is new for both of us.

68Gold/White, I've been through all those towns many times. It's fun to meet other Iowans. Too bad our Iowa trucks are usually so rough. Replacing the floor pan was the best decision we made, great replacement piece.

[Snake72]

Weekend plans include stripping frame for sandblasting, tear down of the 350 and possibly get the TH350 off to the rebuilder. Still waiting on a door skin from my supplier. If any Iowa guys need body panels/metal, check out Jensen Camaro in Tipton. I've ordered most of my body parts through him and he takes 10% off catalog price and then I pick them up. Will probably save me over 1k in shipping alone

[72_swb]

Awesome work man. Keep it up. Just my opinion glad you didn't cut it up or put the ls motor in there.

[Snake72]

So this past weekend was pretty good, drug the frame out of the snow and into the shop and got the bed taken off. Had to torch most of the 8 bolts. Lifted bed off with the hoist and got the front bed panel off. It needs to get straightened out but we can use it. I'm trying to save the crossrails, front panel and rear sill. The original bed wood is actually really solid but somewhat warped and cracked. I'd love to try and get the wood out in one piece and restore it just because you never see original bedwood in these trucks. If not, I'll pick up some old Iowa barn timbers and have them milled into boards. Great character in that old wood. Something different. Already have new tubs, will need new bedsides and probably tailgate.

The frame is in very solid condition. Torched off old farm bumper and trailer hitch. Degreased and pressure washed the frame a few times. The very front crossmember is bent to crap, looks like the truck got stuck and pulled out with a chain and tractor. Got a new porterbuilt tubular crossmember that bolts between the core support mounts. Couldn't find an original or repop crossmember. It appears the porterbuilt one I got had one flange welded in upside down and does not fit the bolt pattern. Have to cut and reweld that. Truck has original ball joints and possibly even the shocks and front end components. Everything actually seems solid and tight but will probably replace all of it anyway. One rear leaf pack has a broken bottom leaf. Someone shoved another leaf in on top of it so that has to be fixed right. As well as all leaf bushings etc. The rear end is a 12 bolt 3:73 open diff, will clean it up and reseal everything.

Question for you guys. Frame is getting blasted in a week or two hopefully. I have a quote to powdercoat for 600-800. Or we could blast and epoxy prime and paint it. Or we could blast and use KBS rust seal and blacktop top coat/POR 15 for much cheaper. Blasting the frame will be 200, KBS kit with everything is 90. What would you guys do??

Cant wait to get the frame all shiny black and suspension/front end all rebuilt. Then we get finish motor and trans, get them set in and put the cab on. I'd like to get all this done before June when our twins are due. Lots to do!!

And here are some pics

[72_swb]

Just imo. That's the one thing I wished I would have done. Is powder coat my frame. Nothing is tougher that that. I used semi expensive vht frame paint. And still doesn't hold up like powder coat. Hard to go back and redue that once the body is on lol.

[Advanced Design]

Powder coat is nice and often price competitive with paint. Before going that route, please be sure you have all fitting and fabrication work completed. Don't want to have to mess up nice coatings for more fab work.

[Orange67]

Awesome story, nice truck, and great work! I'm in.

[Snake72]

Little change in plans, instead of sending out for blasting my FIL bought a blasting cabinet and good pressure pot. There is so much stuff we're finding that needs to be blasted we decided to invest and do it ourselves. Spent a saturday blasting the frame, amazing how clean that nasty old rusty metal gets with blasting. Used black blast coal slag, you can get it at menards, works awesome. Frame came out great, brushed on POR 15 and looks brand new. The rear end was also cleaned up and painted with POR. I ordered new leaf springs and shackles as old ones were completely shot. Bought the new springs from General Spring, by far the cheapest I found them, easy to order and shipped same day. Delivered in 2 days, excellent customer service.

This week I took 2 days off work and hope to have a rolling frame again with cab set on. Lots to get put back together but I feel good that its the turning point in the restoration, all clean painted and new parts going back together.

[Joesjunk]

Great job, and Great story! Also glad you're keeping it stock and leaving it a long bed.
I would re do the factory paint stripe, pretty uncommon option, and you never see it on a re painted truck. White wheels and dog dish caps are the only way to go.
Here is an original paint stripe truck I have, I think it's pretty cool.

[Snake72]

Thanks for the input Joe, the truck in your avatar was actually a deciding factor to keep mine all factory. I hope the finished truck comes out half as nice as your trucks!

I did decide to keep the pinstripe. The original price sheet has it listed as a $13 option haha. I'm glad my grandma was so organized and kept all this cool old stuff. Also keeping white bumpers and white wheels. Picked up some chrome caps from a local guy. He also had white caps but I prefer the chrome. Repainted the black already but need to paint the bowtie blue yet.

Here are some pics of the new springs, original documents, and caps

[Snake72]

Got a good long weekend of work done. Rear brakes, differential resealed, new leaf springs and shocks installed, blasted and painted control arms and coils, new ball joints, upper and lower cross shafts, shocks, etc. Then only issue was the lower ball joint boots would NOT fit on the ball joints, ended up opening 50 boxes of other ball joints to find a boot that would fit correctly. Also used the loader tractor bucket to apply down pressure on the frame with a jack under the lower control arm to install the coils, worked great.

[Snake72]

Engine is at the machine shop, trans should be done with rebuild today. Will likely build 350 into a 383, plan on keeping the stock heads but will go with 2.02 valves, roller tipped rockers to help it breath better. Engine will look stock, no place for shiny stuff in this build!

Also straightened out the stock trim and polished. What a chore. Instead of painting the black, I had my local sign guy cut satin black car wrap material into strips. Worked great. $80 in wrap material, we'll see how it holds up.

And had original white wheels blasted, sitting in primer right now waiting for paint and those pretty hubcaps

[cericd]

Moving along nicely. Great progress! The trim looks terrific.

[Snake72]

A little update: engine and trans are now both back from machine shop. Engine bored and stroked to 383, stock heads enlarged to 2.02 and 1.60 with stainless valves, Z28 springs, cam is a clay smith 274. Will probably stick with stock intake and exhaust manifolds to keep original look and engine builder said I probably wouldnt notice much performance difference vs aluminum intake and headers for my intended driving. Should have a nice torque upgrade over factory. Trans is Th350 with some better internals. Rear diff is 373 and all resealed.

[cericd]

Engine and tranny look great. This one's gonna be nice!

[NewType72]

Trim looks amazing! Very curious to see how it holds up but I see no problem with the wrap at all. Great idea!

[Elliot949]

I love it when people have the opportunity to restore their families trucks... Rock On Buddy... looking good...

[68Gold/white]

Look'n very good in the Iowa neighborhood!!!!
Go Hawkeyes!!!

[Snake72]

Thanks guys! I think the wrap on the trim will hold up pretty well, the truck will always be garaged and wont see any more Iowa winters so it shouldn't die from "exposure" again. If trim fades or peels, ill simply pull the wrap off and put new strips on, have a bunch left over.

So motor question...anyone have experience using the repo corvette exhaust manifolds? They're 2.5" at collector instead of the truck 2", supposed to flow nearly as good as headers and they're pretty cheap. I dont want to choke out this engine with restrictive exhaust but I wont use headers.

Also, planning on running stock intake manifold but still may put on edelbrock performer and paint orange for factory appearance. Not supposed to be a huge improvement over stock but again, I want the engine to breath and be efficient. What would you guys do???

[NewType72]

A decent performer intake from edelbrock isn't too out of question I have a pair of truck with the performer intake and 1606 electric choke carbs and they run much smoother opposed to the third truck that has a factory intake on it. Always have trouble with vacuum leaks on that one. But alas one mans issues can't speak for the entire population.

[68Gold/white]

Nothing wrong with the stock intake. It might have 2 holes in the carb mounting surface that connect to the exhaust cross over under the intake. Tap and plug them, they are just a pain and not needed,, the holes were discontinued around time your truck was made.

The performer is slightly more performance oriented, you will not be able to tell difference.

I hope you plan to use a Quadrajet carb.

THe Corvette over sized manifolds point straight down, unlike the stock manifolds that curve back at a 45 degree angle. Your stock exh, manifolds will be just fine, even with 383 cubes.

[Snake72]

Thanks guys, that confirms what the engine builder advised doing. Will be sticking with cast intake, yes the quadrajet, and stock manifolds unless I find a crack when blasting them. I saw some guys were able to run the vette exh manifolds with 2wd cross members but the downpipe was tricky to run. I'd rather not use those unless I was choking the 383.

Will be running duals with H or X pipe and a 40 series or similar type muffler.

[68Gold/white]

X pipe is supposed to be better, but from experiences, the "H" pipe is quieter.

IF you find a crack in an exhaust manifold, I wonder if new stock ones are available...?surely yes...

www.cliffshighperformance.com is THE place to get your carb kit and parts. Deluxe kit is $80.00 (worth every penny!) but has parts that nobody else includes. Need to contact by email at first. Tell him your exact engine specs, purpose for vehicle and carb number. Cliff can send you the EXACT parts that you will need, such as jets and metering rods. Todays gasoline is a different deal from even 10 years ago, tune is different. AND his parts are ethanol resistant!