My 1st 68 panel

[richard2717]

more pics of the floor area

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[richard2717]

and some more. It had to have taken longer and cost more to do this vs doing it right.

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[richard2717]

But it ended up cleaning up pretty decent so I can see what I have. I have a real nice floor that I cut out of another truck I parted that has not sold so i am going to bring it over and cut out the sections I need to make this stuff right. This panel originally had Utility buckets in it but I am going to install the 68' Suburban Buddy buckets I scored a while back. I already bought new foams from Truckseats but have held off buying covers until I can decide on a final color. So far that has been the hardest part, trying to decide color. I am 75% sure I am going to stay with solid color and not do a metallic, but if I did the metallic I would most likely do the burgandy to match the Harley. I guess I should not hang the grenade from the rear view mirror though, Some flake may call the law then I would get shot for not hearing their commands to get out of the truck.

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[richard2717]

Could not resist setting them in to see what they will look like. Also pulled the carpet back on the rear floor section and can only hope the rest of it looks this nice. If so I will leave it just like that. The front carpet was real nasty faded. I am assuming it was originally black.

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[richard2717]

New rear springs showed up today.

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[HO455]

It's hard to believe the (hard to get replacement panels for) step up behind the seats looks to be in good shape. Maybe the lack of rear windows kept it dry or it was always parked on a slope with the back higher. Those buddies look good in there. Will they slide forward enough to get in the back from the front doors? If I remember correctly the backs are fixed. Good to see you're making progress.

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by HO455

It's hard to believe the (hard to get replacement panels for) step up behind the seats looks to be in good shape. Maybe the lack of rear windows kept it dry or it was always parked on a slope with the back higher. Those buddies look good in there. Will they slide forward enough to get in the back from the front doors? If I remember correctly the backs are fixed. Good to see you're making progress.

It is weird with this thing, all the outer lower panels all the way around were totally rotted with gobs of filler yet underneath the truck other than surface rust there is no rot in any of the cross sills and supports short of one front cab mount. I was going to use the aftermarket floor panels that I have sitting around here but the fit is so poor I am going to cut up this decent original for exact patches. It has a few holes in it but everywhere I need for this job is in good shape. Should save some time.

As far a the seat, I have not done anything with it other than putting it in for a picture and was trying to figure out what shifter handle I will need to order from Hurst to get rid of the Herman Munster deal. Since it is just me and the wife now, I had no really given much thought to rear access other than thru the rear doors. After looking closer at the existing handle I may try my luck at cutting it down and re-threading it for a new handle that I got from Harlow a while back. All the new handles I have found so far have been $100 plus so I figure I got nothing to lose by trying to modify this one.

[CG]

Did you find the two inch drop rear springs you had been searching for?

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by CG

Did you find the two inch drop rear springs you had been searching for?

No i gave up on that and found a new set of stock springs for $70 that will save a lot of time on cleanup. It appears the rear end is a little lower than the front right now anyway so I am hoping I can get everything balanced out just in new tire sizes (when I get that far) Been too hot to mess with it last few days. Heat index is supposed to be 106 today. Yesterday I was on the roof of a local WalMart most of the day wiring up one of the new "Pickup" signs in 103 index heat. Ended up going to shop and get my pop up tent to get the sun off of me. LOL but got the job done.

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[richard2717]

Not much been happening here. Work has been crazy coupled with the heat and humidity. The only thing I have done is come up with my back up horn if needed

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[Travisarmenta]

Originally Posted by richard2717

Could not resist setting them in to see what they will look like. Also pulled the carpet back on the rear floor section and can only hope the rest of it looks this nice. If so I will leave it just like that. The front carpet was real nasty faded. I am assuming it was originally black.

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The buckets are gonna look killer in there.

[richard2717]

Been slow going with a lot going on at work as well as a few health issues but got one side of the exhaust mocked up

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[68panelman]

Looks good Richard, might get some noxious fumes at first, but it won't rust!

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by richard2717

Been slow going with a lot going on at work as well as a few health issues but got one side of the exhaust mocked up

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Heh, heh, Redneck Rydes for shore....

LockDoc

[richard2717]

Have been super busy at work and not had time to work on it lately. I was trolling thru Ebay the other night and came across a set of buddy bucket covers from Ricks Upholstery that really caught my eye. Went ahead and pulled the trigger on them last night and they are supposed to be here Monday. Still debating whether to try doing them myself or take everything over to the local shop and have them install them. I have never messed with seats before. I have all new foam for them as well. I am going to disassemble here and make sure there are no issues with the frame or hardware and get all that cleaned up and painted 1st.

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[pwdcougar]

Originally Posted by richard2717

Have been super busy at work and not had time to work on it lately. I was trolling thru Ebay the other night and came across a set of buddy bucket covers from Ricks Upholstery that really caught my eye. Went ahead and pulled the trigger on them last night and they are supposed to be here Monday. Still debating whether to try doing them myself or take everything over to the local shop and have them install them. I have never messed with seats before. I have all new foam for them as well. I am going to disassemble here and make sure there are no issues with the frame or hardware and get all that cleaned up and painted 1st.

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Nice score on the seat covers. They look cool. Seats aren't that tough to recover. I did the high back buckets on my 69 Cougar. There were a zillion hog rings. If you do do them yourself spend the money on a decent set of hog ring pliers!

Paul

[richard2717]

All I can say is that GM never intended for the foam to come back off of these seats. Holy mama, I did not think i would ever get to the finish line. It is like they sprayed them on then took a hot knife to actually shape them in place. Thankfully there is no metal repair needed to the frames. Only issue I found in the whole setup is a messed up mounting stud on one of the slider tracks. I put a post up looking for a correct one but if I cant find one soon I will just get a regular carriage bolt and modify the head to fit in the track. Next step will be to get the blaster set up on the next decent day and get everything cleaned up then get them primed and painted along with the floor frame and brackets. I might even check on cost to get them powder coated but I am not a real big fan of the powder.

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[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by richard2717

All I can say is that GM never intended for the foam to come back off of these seats. Holy mama, I did not think i would ever get to the finish line. It is like they sprayed them on then took a hot knife to actually shape them in place. Thankfully there is no metal repair needed to the frames. Only issue I found in the whole setup is a messed up mounting stud on one of the slider tracks. I put a post up looking for a correct one but if I cant find one soon I will just get a regular carriage bolt and modify the head to fit in the track. Next step will be to get the blaster set up on the next decent day and get everything cleaned up then get them primed and painted along with the floor frame and brackets. I might even check on cost to get them powder coated but I am not a real big fan of the powder.

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I just took my buddies to the upholstery shop Thursday. Luckily My foams were usable with some minor patching. It looked like they were stuck to the frames pretty good. Glad I didn't have to mess with them.

I would think a carriage bolt with the head ground down would work OK if there is enough length on the square to peen it a little bit to hold it in the frame. If not you may have to tack weld it.

LockDoc

[richard2717]

I ordered a couple bolts along with a few other items I needed from Mcmaster so I hope to get the track repaired later this week. I finally got some time to work all weekend on this thing and started mocking up the new stainless brake & gas lines. I also contacted a local powdercoater to see what it would cost to get them to blast and powdercoat all the buddy bucket metal work. The frame work won't fit in my blast cabinet and it is just too wet still to even think about setting up the lil HF pot outside.

As far as tires go on the rear, I think I have decided on 295/65/15. My SIL has some that he let me borrow long enough to see how they fit & I think they will be better than the 50 series.

So much left to do to this thing it is hard to stay focused some times so i have been keeping a written list of things done, things needing done and things I think i want done.

Spent the better part of this afternoon fixing my blasting cabinet and blasting small parts I need in order to get some of the things put back together on the truck. The cabinet has been driving me nuts for a while now not flowing the sand out right. It would work fine for about 30 seconds then I would find myself shaking and kneeing the cabinet to keep flow going. Took time to empty the glass out of it figuring something was clogging it but could not find anything at 1st. Got the beads all back in and it was a tiny bit better lasting maybe a minute. Shut it down again and started taking things apart again. I finally found a pc of chrome that had blistered off from somewhere was stuck in the feed pipe and I assume every time I pulled the trigger it was getting crossways in the pipe blocking the flow. Got that all cleaned out and put it back together, now it works like a champ again.

I ordered a plastic gas tank a while back and did not order the fuel sender with it for some reason. I lucked out and found an NOS one for $75 shipped so got that put in today as well. I have to get some pipe plugs tomorrow to cap off the un needed extra vents in the tank and need to get the OG straps coated so I can get it back up under the truck.

[richard2717]

Old bolt finally out



New stainless bolt head ground to fit



Inserted in the track



Peened with punch on square shoulder to hold in the track hole

[LockDoc]

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Looks good! No reason that shouldn't work.....

LockDoc

[Getter-Done]

Nice job.
Have you decided to paint or Powercoat?

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Nice job.
Have you decided to paint or Powercoat?

Dwayne
I am going to paint. They wanted $600 to blast and powder coat the frames and I just don't see it. My neighbor has a large blasting rig and he is going to blast them for me for $100. I will paint them with Urethane single stage satin black and they should be fine.

Richard

[pwdcougar]

Nice fabrication work!

[GMCPaul]

Originally Posted by richard2717

I ordered a plastic gas tank a while back and did not order the fuel sender with it for some reason. I lucked out and found an NOS one for $75 shipped so got that put in today as well. I have to get some pipe plugs tomorrow to cap off the un needed extra vents in the tank and need to get the OG straps coated so I can get it back up under the truck.

You'll want to vent those additional vents as you'll find that if you plug them the tank will be EXTREMELY hard to fill due to air pressure building up while fueling through the 1 1/4" causing it to spit the gas out filler neck opening.
Paul Jr @ GMCPauls