Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by Vic1947
I'm determined to use it as a daily driver and not over restore it like my other truck. My goal is to address the safety and reliability issues as well as the sheetmetal shortcomings. I doubt it will get anything other than a good coat of epoxy primer and I currently have no plans to convert it to discs or 5 lugs.

Originally Posted by RatRod68

Guess that went out the window huh?

Ahh, man it's been a long time since I have been on here, and I am never disappointed with your build Vic. The amount of attention to detail in your builds is nothing short of spectacular.

From what I can decipher, it looks as though you are going to a fleetside bed on this one?

Yep, fleetside it is ...more room to haul gravel. As for the DD goal, it's still the plan. I just happened to find more "safety and reliability" issues than I'd envisioned.

[Vic1947]

Well, the fix is in (almost). Removed the wheel well attachment area from the old bedside, cleaned it up and traced a cut line on the new bedside. Took a deep breath and sliced that malformed sucker out of the brand new piece. Trimmed the edges and mocked up the patch. Not too shabby. The lip that tacks to the outer wheel opening was a bit out of whack due to the damage to that panel behind the wheel opening. Marked where the formed OEM break was originally located and dollied the lip down. It still needs a little bit more but the line is crisper and it's laying down better.

[Vic1947]

These photos don't tell the full story, but the center to center dimensions for the holes are now where they should be. It will really be obvious when I set the panel and wheel well on the floor. I'll do that before any welding to make sure everything lines up correctly. Then it will be time for welding, grinding and hopefully just a tiny bit of filler.

[mattfranklin]

I'm really enjoying this build: great craftsmanship, great descriptions, and great pictures. Definitely subscribed.

[RatRod68]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Yep, fleetside it is ...more room to haul gravel. As for the DD goal, it's still the plan. I just happened to find more "safety and reliability" issues than I'd envisioned.

Going to definitely be one of the nicest trucks on the road. Looking forward to following along a little closer

[Xeen]

I'm glad to hear you were able to make a small adjustment and make it work.

[Low Elco]

Much better! Nice work!

[swamp rat]

You sir are a brave man!~ Its only about $335 that you just cut up. Glad its working for you!

[Vic1947]

Had to spend the night out of town yesterday in order to take my Dad in for cataract surgery this morning. While I was in Sedalia, stopped by best bud Steve Smith's shop and picked up the air/fuel ratio gauge faces he modified for me. I wanted them to match the rest of the gauges from Classic, so he did the artwork, got them printed on vinyl and then transferred the decal to the spare gauge face they ship with the AEM units. When my old school engine finally fires, I'll be rockin' the caveman version of an ECM. Below is before, after and side by side comparison with the tach.

[mcbassin]

That is some crazy stuff about the holes being that far off on the bed sides. Looks like you have it back on track.

Very nice gauges too.

[jeh]

Neat work on the gauges...

[jlsanborn]

Nice work on the wheel tub relocate job! The AFR gauge face is a really nice touch too.

[Low Elco]

Gage looks good!

[Milo's 72]

Nice truck I have a 71 chevy halfton long bed.it has a 250 six banger and powerglide if it don't run good it has a rebuilt 350 waiting.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

That is some crazy stuff about the holes being that far off on the bed sides. Looks like you have it back on track.
Very nice gauges too.

Originally Posted by jeh

Neat work on the gauges...

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Nice work on the wheel tub relocate job! The AFR gauge face is a really nice touch too.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Gage looks good!

Originally Posted by Milo's 72

Nice truck I have a 71 chevy halfton long bed.it has a 250 six banger and powerglide if it don't run good it has a rebuilt 350 waiting.

Thanks, guys ...stay tuned.

[Vic1947]

After fitting up the wheelwell patch, I spotwelded some sheetmetal angles to help both stiffen up the long runs where the weld might distort the flat areas and provide a lip for the patch to set on. An added advantage to doing this is not having to worry about pinholes in the welds after grinding. Tacked the wheelwell patch in place and then attached the wheel tub and installed the bedside on the floor. Put several stovebolts in to locate things and tacked the grafted in piece to the outer wheelwell lip. Had to do this last in order to get the outer skin to line up correctly.

With the new bedside semi-under control, I moved over to the driver side to massage the seams. Started on the front since I knew it would be easiest. I ended up using several butt clamps inside and out, but where the seam was too tight for the clamps, I just used rare earth magnets to hold the sheetmetal in alignment. It's a pretty good fit for having removed 12" of bed length. With the front seam ready for tack welds, I was forced to finally address the more difficult end.

[jeh]

Glad to see things working out for you. It's going to be a nice job when your done. Vic, I'm still amazed with your patience.

[Vic1947]

The rear seam turned out to be much easier than I anticipated. I made sure when I final ground the edges to leave enough gap to be able to fit butt clamps up and down the entire length. When I drew up the clamps, the mismatched areas fell into near perfect alignment. The very minor discontinuities are easily tweaked with a thin blade screwdriver. Even the bottom section pulled up very nicely. There's about 3/4" of excess metal that I'll trim off after welding it all out, but the body lines matched and everything. There's a small amount of bow along the inner edge from front to back, so I plan to release the C-clamps holding the 1" square tubing and insert a piece of angle iron to see if it will remove some of that. I'm not real concerned, as the new bedside has the same bow, although not quite as much. Will post pics when I get the chance. Meanwhile, here are some shots of the rear seam and how I fixtured it.

Hint: I was able to position the butt clamps in the tight space between inner and outer panels by assembling them loosely at the bottom of the seam where I could reach easily. Holding light pressure against the bar I then scooted the clamp up to where it needed to be. Tighten it up and you're good to go. To remove them, I'll loosen the wingnuts and tap the flat blade forward to take the pressure off the square bar. I can then slip a thin ruler up in the wall space and tap the bar out of the blade and remove it.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jeh

Glad to see things working out for you. It's going to be a nice job when your done. Vic, I'm still amazed with your patience.

Thanks, Jason. When you're an old retired f@rt, you have the time to be patient.

[jeh]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Thanks, Jason. When you're an old retired f@rt, you have the time to be patient.

I hear ya. After getting the "C/10" fever I'm never going to be able to retire. If I were rich I would have a big garage a bunch of 67-72's in every flavor.

[sduckworth13]

Nice work Vic, bedsides look like you got it to line up pretty good.

[swamp rat]

I'm impressed!

Back on post 752 where you sliced out the bad part and mocked up the repair, the entire repair made from the old panel correct? do you know if there is replacement patches available of the area is rusted out? Did you buy the smaller support pieces in post 766? or bend then yourself? Thanks!

[Xeen]

Looks great Vic, I can't wait to see what it looks like after it's all welded together and the welds are knocked down.

[Elliot949]

Wow... I can't wait until this is welded and you post those pics... nice work on lining it up...

[Low Elco]

The fun part of this is gonna be: One of these bedsides is brand new. One is welded together out of about 87 pieces. You guess which is which!

Looks impeccable as always, Vic. Can't wait to see the finish work.