Green Gus the 68 shortbed convert

[Bennett68C10]

Nice job on the wheels, love the deep dish on rears! I think you made the right choice on the white, matches the grill and bumpers nicely

[hewittca]

Yesterday was a big day for my build. After a few scheduling conflicts I've had to push back painting the sides; so, I finally decided to just put the truck back together because I've been anxious to see how it all fits. This was the first time I've had the short bed or wheels on the truck since shortening the frame.

Here it is after getting the sides back on and aligned. Since I had the bed mocked up before the frame was shortened, there really were no surprises here. The nice thing, however, was to see that the body lines matched up perfectly after shortening the frame 12" and raising it 2.5".




After taking in the first view of my truck as a shortbed for a few minutes, I moved on to the next step, bolting on the wheels! This was the part I was most worried about. I chose to go with a 4" backspace on a 9" wheel with the stock rearend, even though all recommendations I read were no less than 4.5". Since I removed the outer half of the inner fender, I figured I had the room so I went with 4" and it paid off! Even with that BS, I still have about 1" of clearance to the outer fender and have plenty of room to go lower if I want. It was almost comical seeing the difference in size between the new setup and the old setup, but after getting used to it for a few minutes it looked right.






All that was left was to bolt on the fronts and sit back and enjoy the view.





Of course, it still looks a little goofy because I don't have the stance where I want it yet. All four corners have been lowered about 2" thanks to heated springs by the PO and the rear has an additional 2.5" by raising the frame during the shortening process. Ideally, I'd like to swap out the springs to 4" rear and 3" fronts with 2" blocks in rear and 3" spindles up front. That will get it down to where the top of the wheel just meets the fender. That's a project for down the road though, so for now I'll just have to enjoy it like this.

[Bennett68C10]

[Graham57a]

So sweet!! Do you plan on running the clips for the hubcaps?

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by Graham57a

So sweet!! Do you plan on running the clips for the hubcaps?

I sure do, prsgtrman was kind enough to give me a good deal on an extra set he had. I do actually like the look without caps though, so I'm sure they will be off and on frequently.

[GR8-68]

Looks great Corey, mine has 3" 4" springs with 3" drop spindles and 2" drop blocks
I hope to have my front sitting on wheels tonight so I can see the true stance, really need the motor sitting in it though

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by GR8-68

Looks great Corey, mine has 3" 4" springs with 3" drop spindles and 2" drop blocks
I hope to have my front sitting on wheels tonight so I can see the true stance, really need the motor sitting in it though

I didn't realize that. What 3" spindles did you go with? I'm still undecided because I like the convenience of the 2.5" spindle/disk conversion kits but haven't found one that includes 3" spindles. Plus I need to keep it 6 lug so that also narrows my possibilities.

[rusty76]

I like how you attach the hubcaps. Lol

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by rusty76

I like how you attach the hubcaps. Lol

I like to innovate. Not very effective at speed though.

[hewittca]

Since having the truck back at home, I've been working on a few small things at night, trying to work out a few bugs since doing the shortbed conversion. Surprisingly, the only "issue" I had as a result of the whole shortening process was a squeaky carrier bearing/bushing. One other aesthetic thing I wanted to take care of was the rear step bumper position. I kind of like this simple step bumper over the idea of replacing it with a sport bumper, but I never really liked how low it was. This became even more evident after raising the floor that opened up a gap below the tailgate.



So, after raising the frame 2.5", I thought instead of dropping the bumper to compensate for this, I would just raise the bumper up with the frame. Now the bumper is tucked up as high as it will go (without interfering with the tailgate operation). I think it looks much cleaner this way.



After taking care of the bumper, I had a chance to take it out for another drive and snap a few new photos. It's still not done yet but it's fun to take some pics, especially when my son is so excited to go out driving and play in the truck once we find a dirt road to stop on.

[1970Chevrolet]

Loving this truck. Can't wait to see the bed painted.

[GR8-68]

Looking great Corey, I bet it feels great to sit in the seat again

[Low Elco]

Great Job! I'm diggin' the look!

[rusty76]

Like it.

[Bennett68C10]

Very nice, I do like the way the caps look on the wheels.

[hewittca]

I haven't had much time to work on the truck lately, so I wanted to throw together a few extra photos and info I haven't posted yet. This is just a quick look at the progression of my truck so far. When I bought my truck, the current owner only had the truck for several months and never even transferred the title to his name! He still had the title from the previous owner who had the truck since 2000. Since it was that title that I had to transfer to my name, I got the address of the previous previous owner and decided to look it up on Google maps. Since I didn't have any history on the truck, I was hoping I could at least get an older photo of it, and sure enough, there it was parked out front of his house! From the date of the photos, it appears the truck was sitting since at least 2007.




The guy I bought the truck from basically took it from the state above and cleaned it up, got it running, and put the 15x8s on it.



I liked the background of the previous photo so I'm trying to use that as my backdrop for all the progression photos from now on for consistency. Here is the truck in it's current state.



On the way home from taking the above photo, I ran across a cool spot to stop and take a few quick photos of the truck. This day, it was my daughter's turn to tag along in the truck and she was thrilled.





I am currently in the process of doing the body work on the bedsides and getting the hubcaps mounted. My goal is to have those steps done within the next month or so since I would like to have this stage completed before cruise in season starts.

[wolfsden]

Really digging how this build is going, you've done an incredible job so far!

[zicc1835]

https://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/pts/5996577550.html
take look at this

[hewittca]

Originally Posted by zicc1835

https://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/pts/5996577550.html
take look at this

That sure is a nice tailgate, too nice for my truck I think!

[MMcMasters]

I love the transformation

[1971 for fun]

Enjoying your thread, the pictures are great.

[webberjames95]

one of the better threads on this site

[hewittca]

I finally got around to painting and mounting my original caps. At first, I had repainted my caps in the '67 red/white scheme, but after testing them with the white wheels I decided it was too much white. So, I stripped the caps again and repainted them in the original '68 black/argent silver scheme. I also tried to age them a bit so they don't look so new.




To mount the caps, I ended up using the MobSteel cap clips that I got from prsgtrman. I drilled/tapped the wheels to mount the clips. So far I have not lost a cap, but to be honest I'm not thrilled with how loose the cap seats. I've tried readjusting the clips but there's only so much spring tension you can get out of these before they just start bending. I also used a trick found on old VW caps and added a small hole to the cap and made a cap removal tool. With the ridge on the transit wheels, it makes it difficult to remove the cap without this tool.





After getting the caps mounted, I took the truck out for a test drive and a "truck party". All through winter, my son was talking about having a truck party, so with the freakishly warm weather, we loaded up all my son's trucks in the bed and found some dead end gravel road to play in.




At this point, I actually started doubting the transit wheel look. I'm not in love with how they look on the truck at the current ride height. I do plan on lowering it several more inches, but that's not going to happen for at least a year. So, I decided to throw on the spare original wheel I have and see if it was worth picking up an old set of 15x6s to mount until I can get the suspension where I want it.



Although I do really like the look of the 15x6 at this height, I decided to just save my $ and stick with the transits for now after doing yet another photoshop of my end goal (I should have included "photoshops" in my original title). I did, however, discover that I like the original argent silver wheel color over the white, so I plan on eventually repainting my wheels. This really should be the final look of my truck. Photoshopped here is the painted bed, argent silver wheels, and about ~3" more drop.

[Graham57a]

Originally Posted by hewittca

I finally got around to painting and mounting my original caps. At first, I had repainted my caps in the '67 red/white scheme, but after testing them with the white wheels I decided it was too much white. So, I stripped the caps again and repainted them in the original '68 black/argent silver scheme. I also tried to age them a bit so they don't look so new.




To mount the caps, I ended up using the MobSteel cap clips that I got from prsgtrman. I drilled/tapped the wheels to mount the clips. So far I have not lost a cap, but to be honest I'm not thrilled with how loose the cap seats. I've tried readjusting the clips but there's only so much spring tension you can get out of these before they just start bending. I also used a trick found on old VW caps and added a small hole to the cap and made a cap removal tool. With the ridge on the transit wheels, it makes it difficult to remove the cap without this tool.





After getting the caps mounted, I took the truck out for a test drive and a "truck party". All through winter, my son was talking about having a truck party, so with the freakishly warm weather, we loaded up all my son's trucks in the bed and found some dead end gravel road to play in.




At this point, I actually started doubting the transit wheel look. I'm not in love with how they look on the truck at the current ride height. I do plan on lowering it several more inches, but that's not going to happen for at least a year. So, I decided to throw on the spare original wheel I have and see if it was worth picking up an old set of 15x6s to mount until I can get the suspension where I want it.



Although I do really like the look of the 15x6 at this height, I decided to just save my $ and stick with the transits for now after doing yet another photoshop of my end goal (I should have included "photoshops" in my original title). I did, however, discover that I like the original argent silver wheel color over the white, so I plan on eventually repainting my wheels. This really should be the final look of my truck. Photoshopped here is the painted bed, argent silver wheels, and about ~3" more drop.

So killer good call on the silver caps, looks way better with the green. You're getting close man

[GR8-68]

Looking good Corey, I also like the silver much better.