1970 VA Longbed Project

[70k52wd]

When your done with the exhaust, I'll be needing the same treatment. Looks like a dirty job.
Are you going to use some 3in round stock to finish it off with? Lookin good!!

[VA72C10]

Originally Posted by brian69longbed

the first picture looks like your making room for exhaust in you factory trailing arm crossmemer
the second your beginning stages of smoothing the cowl
the third you need to wash your hairy arm or leg...
ha ha ha

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner...updates and explainations to follow..

Originally Posted by nuke1

she is really coming along, looks great and the new list is even better, sorry about the rim situation, that just plain sucks. things will work out. later

Thanks man...yeah, like they say, when deals are too good to be true.....

[VA72C10]

Well, I came over the other night to work on the truck and a nice suprise waited for me. He had finished shaving the cowl. Fast forward a few days and it's skim coated and smooth as a baby's bottom...

[VA72C10]

I have been working hard on the frame and also paid a little attention to the cab and cleaned up the area where the weatherstrip mounts. It had like three layers of adhesive and took a while to scrape/grind/sand it all off.

[VA72C10]

The main work has been the continued disassembly and cleaning of the frame.

This is me after a 14 hour day (about 6 of that working on the truck, the rest spent fixing my wife's van's A/C and doing general yard cleanup)...

I was ready for a shower but my wife wanted a picture....The bathroom was a recently completed project of mine. Hope the truck turns out as nice

Note my hands where I was wearing gloves...that was the picture I posted above...




So after the powerwashing and grinding off all the unneccessary stuff and most of the dirt (I thought) we rolled the frame inside



Started taking everything else off
These had been heated once and had to be torched to get them out as they had bonded to the spring perches due to the heat last time.


Got the front crossmember off


And the rear

[VA72C10]

Originally Posted by 70k52wd

When your done with the exhaust, I'll be needing the same treatment. Looks like a dirty job.
Are you going to use some 3in round stock to finish it off with? Lookin good!!

I actually got 5" round tube and got creative with it. I am VERY happy with how it's turning out. We heated the round tube and hit it with a hammer to bend it. He did a great job getting them both the same. And it is very nice to have a plasma to use on the cuts. Makes them much quicker and easier. Went with ovals to match the center oval of the crossmember. We're holding them out the same 3/8" the center hole is. I really like the look of it (and it's not welded yet)


All cleaned up and waiting on the welds...you'll note the carrier bearing is gone for now...

The oval came out pretty good, huh???


The crazy thing is that the picture above was the two stacked on top of each other...they came out identical being formed by heat and hammer...pretty awesome if you as me

[VA72C10]

Next up on the plan was part prep. Got the steering box, rear, and trailing arms cleaned up. Used a rust converter on the trailing arms because a little scale was wanting to form in between. They are still in great shape, I just want to make sure that no more rust will form. I will be painting them tomorrow in a hammered finish. I have an idea for how I want to paint the frame and undercarriage but will try it out and post the completed pictures if I like it

Grinding on the axle and pumpkin to make it look pretty (still a long way to go)

Grinding the trailing arms

Trailing arms painted with rust converter

Steering gear before

Steering gear after

[VA72C10]

Next up was the D-notch. We decided to weld the notch on instead of bolting it on. I am very happy with how it fit knowing how much these frames can differ. Only had to fill weld a little on the driver's side and enlarge two holes to line up for the bags (which will be made even bigger once I get the fittings on anyways)

Jason (the fabricator helping me with the build) using the plasma

Notch done

Cleaned up

Test fitting notches...very happy with the fit

Driver's side needed a little fill weld in the center

Passenger side fit amazingly well

Inside of notch

[VA72C10]

Welding shot on the D-notch (From CPP)

Finished up...looks good to me!

Note we filled the bolt holes for strength and looks. I'll smooth them before painting the frame but the welds don't need smoothing.

Inside welded too

From underneath this is how they look



Now I'm laying frame

[VA72C10]

Mentioned the carrier bearing....on long bed trucks at or over 6-7" or more of drop, you run into issues with driveshaft angles. Since I'm bagging my truck, I am going to flip the carrier bearing. Got the idea from IvelDesigns. It's off now but it will be welded on...Here's the way it sits normally


And the way it will look flipped

[VA72C10]

Getting ready to head over there now...going to do some more grinding on the frame and get it hopefully all prepped for paint tomorrow.

Bad news though....my truck just ate Jason's (the fabricator helping me) welder......10 yr old welder he wanted to upgrade anyways but not a good time....gonna swing by depot and see if the clearance one they had is still there. If not, he's online searching craigslist as I type this...

[brn agn]

That looks like good progress! It appears that your truck's original color is close to the color of the truck I bought from you...

[VA72C10]

Originally Posted by brn agn

That looks like good progress! It appears that your truck's original color is close to the color of the truck I bought from you...

Yeah, I finally feel that I am making progress. I think the color is the same or similar than the shortbed you bought.

[VA72C10]

WARNING: Post contains no pictures.


I figure I gave you enough pictures today already (actually forgot my camera) I'll take pictures of tonight's progress in the morning and then hopefully have pictures of a painted frame tomorrow as well.


Good news: I forgot he still had a tig welder so he used that tonight. Went ahead and finished up welding the underside of the D-notches. He got the carrier bearing welded up as well as the custom exhaust ovals through that crossmember tonight.

I basically grind everything down to clean metal and prep the areas and he comes in and welds. In between times and while he's welding I am cleaning the frame or working on the cab or laying things out for the next weld. It works well and is really moving things along now that I've put some decent time into the truck lately.

We also got a rear bracket made to hold my air tank. It is going right at the rear of the truck behind where the gas tank will mount in that last crossmember. We used angle iron and notched it for clearance of the bumper brackets.

I also grinded off the last three old exhaust hangers ( I think there were two complete sets welded on from two old systems)

And I wire wheeled/grinded the underside and most of the inside of the frame. Have a small section to finish in the morning. Then I will be drilling holes for the air tank, Viar air compressors, and stainless drop down battery box. Then I'll be done with drilling/welding on the frame and will be able to paint it

[72BlckButy]

Awesome progress this weekend!

[VA72C10]

Thanks. I'm getting excited!!! Almost through with the dirty work. Still have to clean off the underside of the cab and bed. After that I'll just have bondo dust to deal with

[brian69longbed]

you've made a ton of progress. hopefully i'll post more pics tomorrow.

[70k52wd]

I'm extremely impressed with the speed you are getting this done.
I need somebody to push me.
Really looking good!!

[nuke1]

truck is really coming along nice. Everything is getting there, have you thought of welding up the trailing arms to help with streh=nght at all, just a question, on a side note, the bathroom looks impressive, and the sink looks really familiar to one i installed in out bathroom after i just finished it also.

[VA72C10]

Originally Posted by brian69longbed

you've made a ton of progress. hopefully i'll post more pics tomorrow.

Thanks for the encouragement. I am pleased with the progress and want to keep it rolling. Work takes me out of town way too often and I still have to work in more family time than truck time, but my wife is very understanding and the good thing about my job is when I am in town, my office is in my house so I see more of them than most others can.

Originally Posted by 70k52wd

I'm extremely impressed with the speed you are getting this done.
I need somebody to push me.
Really looking good!!

Thanks Charlie. I would never be able to do as much without the help of Jason who is doing the welding and helping with all the fab work. He's also there to help flip the frame, move things around that require two people, and help me out when I need a second opinion or get in a bind with a question.


Now get out there and get that engine running as good as your blazer looks

Originally Posted by nuke1

truck is really coming along nice. Everything is getting there, have you thought of welding up the trailing arms to help with streh=nght at all, just a question, on a side note, the bathroom looks impressive, and the sink looks really familiar to one i installed in out bathroom after i just finished it also.

I did think of welding the trailing arms up, but they looked good and I pay for the welding. Really they've lasted for 40 years and have done well and I know people running drag trucks with factory unwelded arms with no issues so I feel comfortable with them. After the rust converter and the hammered paint they look really good. Your build was inspiring to read and I will probably do something similar to what you did. I am going to go ahead and paint mine, but I will be doing more upgrades at a later date. I just have too many ideas and things I want to do and not enough time or money to do them all at once. I don't want to finance any of the project so that makes it harder.

[jlaird]

Lots of hard work here that I can really appreciate! Looks great. Doing all that cleaning is no fun, at least for me.

I did the same thing with my carrier bearing mount. Should work out just fine.

[VA72C10]

Originally Posted by jlaird

Lots of hard work here that I can really appreciate! Looks great. Doing all that cleaning is no fun, at least for me.

I did the same thing with my carrier bearing mount. Should work out just fine.

Thanks, it was hard work but well worth it when I stepped back and saw how the frame looked painted. I got it smoothed almost everywhere before paint and it looks very good.

[VA72C10]

I'll start with the pictures that bring us up to date from Yesterday. Another dirty day cleaning the frame. If I had the extra money in the budget I would have gotten it sandblasted, but $10 for wire wheels and grinding discs is better than a few hundred for blasting. A lot of time was also spent removing old brackets and grinding things which would still have to be done if the frame was blasted.

Tools I used:




All clean and smooth. Note the dirt on the floor. This is after pressure washing, three days grinding on it outside and two days inside BEFORE I did this. Amazing how many nooks and crannies there were for dirt to hide...

[VA72C10]

You might have noticed the trailing arm crossmember in the pictures. I am thrilled with how that turned out...
Closeup of one of the oval exhaust ports.

View from the back of the truck

The view from the front of the truck

Looking down on the top of one of the ovals we added

[brian69longbed]

was there like an undercoating on your frame? almost tar like and not full frame. it was on mine and im pretty sure its factory