1968 redo

[Dude68]

After a couple of pressure washings, some light sanding, and wiping down the firewall we applied 2 coats of 507 blue!!!!! Still working on the blower motor hole. I have learned a lot. If I had to do this over, I would have removed the firewall and outer cowl and patch with panels welded in. I think I could do this after this refresher. I forgot how much I know about these trucks. I knew my 67 inside and out when I was 18, but life happened and I moved on, not having a place nor time to spend working on vehicles.

[Dude68]

I got a head of FB marketplace. They guy said he bought it for a 230 he was fixing up and it had a valve job done by the previous owner just before he bought it. Good news so far, the machine shop looked at the head and could tell it had had a valve job done, new seals are visible. But, they said it was not cleaned and the spring keepers needed to be different. I have lifters and push rods that have been in a box for 30 years removed from the cracked head. They have some light surface rust, don't know if I should use them or not. Any thoughts?
I had planned on keeping this as original as possible, like my grandpa had it. I have ran into a kink. There are zero radiator shops in my area that service these old radiators. It looks like I am gonna have to purchase a aluminum radiator as well as a heater core since I cannot find anyone to work on them. Anyone know of a radiator shop in the central Arkansas area that does this?
I broke my heater control switch, had to order one from Brothers. It is on backorder. Anybody have a spare?

[68Gold/white]

I bought and installed a new control panel w/ switch and cables in my friends 71. Got all the parts from LMC.

Paint looks great!!! I like that color. A friend of mine had a 67 with the medium 67 blue color. The pickup was in pristine condition. paint was perfect. It drew attention where ever he went.
I need to find the pictures I took of it...

[clay68c10]

Looking good.
You can get the levers and switches from GMC Pauls or any of the parts suppliers that frequent this site.
I got my radiator from Advance/CarQuest. Its a plastic tank rad like everything has these days. I'm sure it'll be fine like they've been since the 90's
It does require 4-core hold downs since the tanks are wide.

[Dude68]

Finished repair in firewall. After some time consuming brushing with the wire wheel the inner cowl and firewall seams got a good coat of seam sealer and sprayed with Eastwood's.

[Dude68]

Sprayed the firewall and cowl area. Waiting on the blower and other gaskets.
Had planned on doing the passenger side fender today. Gonna hold off on that until the doors are ready. Need to do a little body work on passenger door, so it's gonna stay on the truck until we can pull a little dent out and get it finished for paint. Driver door will need to be removed to finish rust repair on kick panel.

[Dude68]

Radiator came in. I decided to buy a new one since all the radiator shops around here only tested radiators but did not repair if they found a leak. I found one shop that said they would work in it if it needed anything, but it would take 3-4 months for them to get to it. I purchased a new heater core as well. This radiator appears to be built well. We confirmed it is going to fit with a little engineering. It is a half inch shorter from top to bottom. I'm gonna take the old one to the place that can fix it if it needs to be fixed. I'll have a spare if needed, or one for a future project.

[Dude68]

Yesterday, we removed all of the rubber flooring and pressure washed the inside of the cab. The dash is still in place. Both doors are off. Driver side rocker is good. Used grinder on the areas of rust in floor. Started sanding floor. Passenger side rocker will take some work. It is solid on the bottom. The top sill has rust that will require patching or replacing the rocker. Both cab corners are solid as well.
I removed my buddy bucket seats from the frame. Seats and transmission will be going to shop on Monday.

[68Gold/white]

Did you make a final decision on the engine direction? Just curious.....

[Dude68]

Going with the 250. I had it checked out. Cylinders are good, crank is good, got a head in machine shop. Transmission going to shop Monday.

[Dude68]

Tore into the passenger rocker today. Oh my! Gonna be replacing. It was rusted on top, not the bottom. Used the air chisel to get it out then ground the spot welds down. Driver side rocker is solid. One hole on top in rear corner. Will patch this and move on. Also did a lot of work on driver side kick panel and foot well. New vents are coming. Weather stripping and window channels/felt/etc. ordered.

[Dude68]

Chiseled the top and sides and the rocker just fell out. This had zero spot welds on the bottom of the rocker. I took some pics. Looks like someone dropped the ball on the assembly line. The driver side has spot welds every inch or so at the bottom.

[Dude68]

Looking to trade this tach dash for a refurbished tach dash for 6 cylinder. Here is a pic. There is also a pic of my existing dash. I will still be running a choke. Need lights and wipers on left.

[pjmoreland]

That's a clean factory tach cluster!

[pjmoreland]

I tried to send you a private message, but I received the following error message:

The following errors occurred with your submission:

Dude68 has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.

If you are trying to send this message to multiple recipients, remove Dude68 from the recipient list and send the message again.

Here's the message I was trying to send:
That's a nice truck you've got there. It's going to be a real challenge to find a 6-cylinder tach. They come up on the parts board every once in a while. That 8-cylinder tach cluster you've got is one of the cleaner originals I've seen. It's worth some good money. It would clean up nicely if you just painted the needles, polished the lens, and maybe replaced or repainted the bezel. If I stumble onto a 6-cylinder tach, I'll certainly let you know! It would just bolt right into that tach cluster you've already got.

[Dude68]

Sorry bout that. I adjusted my settings. Thanks for looking out for the 6 cyl tach.

[pjmoreland]

Here's an old thread where a guy says he can recalibrate a V8 tach to work with a 6 cylinder engine. You might want to reach out to him to see if he is still offering that service.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=124934

[Dude68]

Bummer, he does not accept private messages.

[pjmoreland]

Maybe he will get back to you if you post a comment on that discussion thread.

[Dude68]

Thanks PJ, I reached out through that thread.

[Dude68]

I have been having some wiper motor woes. I have both gaskets, but the wiper motor mount hold is rusted out pretty bad. I submitted a distress post on here and Ironhorse came to my rescue. Wiper motor brackets are not sold anywhere that I could find aftermarket. They are spot welded to the firewall.
On the inside looking in:



Outside looking in:

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by Dude68

Thanks PJ, I reached out through that thread.

Hopefully Necromancer chimes in. He hasn't logged into this site in a little over a year.

Another option is to buy one of these replacement tach PCBs and install it in your tach. I contacted the seller, and he said that he can calibrate it to convert your V8 tach into a 6 cylinder tach if you request it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/143180072737

[Dude68]

Put out a WTB for the windshield wiper motor mount and Ironhorse hooked me up. He had a donor truck with rust free wiper motor mount. I gave him some measurements, he marked them and sent a pic for my approval. The part is cut out and packaged coming to Hot Springs, Arkansas.


Donor part marked for removal:



And out it came:



Thanks again Ironhorse!!!!

[Dude68]

Took a break. Went to Canton TX flea market. Picked up some flap grinding discs there for
$2 each.
Came home, loaded the buddy buckets and transmission up to take to the shop. Transmission will be a couple months, and buddy buckets will be done in February. I think I selected a good upholstery shop, they were very nice and do a lot of buddy buckets. This truck may be rolling with the original seat with a cover on it before those buddy buckets are finished.

[Dude68]

The passenger side rockers are fixed. These rockers were given to me back in the 90s. They are not quite as long as todays rockers. FYI, I suck at welding with MIG. It was not pretty but it is solid. Brazing may have looked better. Just need to weld a patch in the driver side corner of the outer rocker then that will be complete. I believe the missed spot welds from the factory on the passenger side saved the inner rocker. A hole just below the windshield kept the water out of the driver side rocker. The water from the cowl came into the cab and rusted a small hole out in the floor. The water ran out of this hold and saved the rockers. Patched that hold in the floor.
Half of the rebuild team has a couple of kidney stones, so the project has moved slower last week and will be held up this week as well.
Picking up some glazing putty this morning to finish some body work in the cab. More to follow....