LFD's project white lightning -- 1968 fleetside "basically stock"

[Rokcrln]

LFD's

Project white lightning

1968 fleetside "basically stock"

A fellow board member 1971short4x4 got a hold of me a few months ago with an interesting project and wanted to know if I would help him out. It is a 68 SWB BB truck that he has had almost 20 years and is in very good shape but has some standard rust issues in the cab starting at the drip rail and working down to who knows were. What made this interesting is he lives past down by San Diego and I am several hundred miles up North so logistics would play a big part in the build. Also 1971Short4x4 still is driving his truck to local shows and gatherings so he did not want the truck to be down for 8 months or more while work was being done. So what we ended deciding on was to use a 69 cab that I had been keeping because of how clean it was and get it all ready for body and paint so when the time came he could just swap this cab out for his old one and be back on the road in a matter of weeks not months.

I wish I could say the cab I had was "Rust Free" but I have done enough rust repair on rust free vehicles to know better than that. What I did know was this cab was one of the cleaner ones I have seen and that is why I was keeping it for a future project. One thing 1971short4x4 wanted was as little filler to be needed as possible, this meant if a small dent could easily be filled or spend a few hours working it out to almost perfect he opted for spending the time and money to get it almost perfect.

So this build started off back in September when he drove up from the LA area with a clean passenger door he had been saving for about 15yrs and with NOS rockers that he wanted used on the build. The rockers on this cab looked perfect but we know how that can be a bit deceiving. So anyways he got here around 10am with a car load of parts and we started in the tear down of the complete cab. After about 4 hours time, a good lunch next door and we had the cab that was down to an empty shell. Then out came the cut off wheel to open up the rockers since we were going to replace them regardless of how good they looked. Yep their was rust just like we thought, but as we all know, I know a guy who knows a guy who can fix this kind or problem.

But first step was to take it all to the blasters to see just what we had. When it all came back the only surprises was a little bit more damage in the cab corners from the top of the bed hitting the cab and being filled during a previous paint job. Their also had been trim that was removed and filled before that paint job as well. So the first thing I did once it al came back was to soak everything down with Gibb's brand oil and let it sit for about a week so it really would soak in to the metal. Gibb's is not like other oils, it can be painted right over if you want or in our case it is their to keep flash rust from starting or finger prints from leaving marks in the fresh bare metal. Then once all the work is done and 1971short4x4 comes back up to look everything over and approve it, I will wipe the metal down with a prep wash then epoxy coat everything. Of course as needed I will cover or treat any areas that will be covered ( like rockers, A-pillars and wire rail) by any work that we are doing before the finished product can be sealed up.


Ok so now that you have some back ground on what we are doing lets see some PIC's!

Kevin
LFD Inc.

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