1967 Custom Sport Shop Truck

[67ChevyRedneck]

So you're probably thinking, how the hell did he close that big ugly gap? Slowly and with lots and lots of melted wire!

You can also see I "made" a new rolled edge. At least I learned a lot of ways not to do things Good news is I didn't warp the **** out of anything... yet...

[67ChevyRedneck]

To end the day I did the final sand on the lower areas, epoxy, then filler, then block, then filler, then block, then more block... I forgot how much block sanding blows.

I put two layers of filler on the fender cup and it all sanded back off, which kinda felt good. The back area is just a skim coat.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I welded up the old mirror holes on the door and looked them over for a plan of attack.

I think my goal is to fix the corners and replace a couple areas on the bottoms where the fold looks bubbly, and replace the speaker hole areas with metal. When that big area is cut out I'm going to clean, rust kill, paint, and seam seal the crap out of the bottoms so the water can only go out of the drain holes. Can you believe I bought repop doors because of this? SOOOO glad I kept these around the past 10+ years.

Probably can't tell in the pic, but the corner of the tab that holds the door started to crack, typical for these trucks. Hopefully I can weld it and not just burn through it.

I guess the last pic is the handle difference everyone talks about for 67 only trucks? Little pissed at myself, I had a decent set of handles with minimal pitting and I think I tossed them. Now I have to find a set of decent OEM ones I can get rechromed.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Last project I started before calling it quits. When it comes to welding, I've found it's helpful to have multiple projects at once so you have something to do while another panel is cooling. I want the NV3500 to have plenty of room so I'm converting to a high hump floor. However, the shifter hole will be way at the back, not the front. In addition to the bend, the top curves, so I'm making it in two pieces.

[flashed]

I should have given you those 2 extra doors I have under my shed when you were here for extra metal .Lookinh good Jesse .

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks! My thought is to get my complete bed, doors, fenders, hood, and crate engine near 100% "ready to go" before I ever touch the truck. That way, she's hopefully only down for months instead of a couple years.

I bought one lower outer skin which should easily cover what I need for the corners and I bought each lower door complete repair section, which I was going to just do the whole thing, but side by side they look like crap compared to the original's, I'm going to cut and paste. They're also wider than my doors. It's amazing how far off some of the repo stuff is.

[knomadd]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Thanks! My thought is to get my complete bed, doors, fenders, hood, and crate engine near 100% "ready to go" before I ever touch the truck. That way, she's hopefully only down for months instead of a couple years.
...It's amazing how far off some of the repo stuff is.

Be careful with this. If you aren't checking fit against the cab and other panels bolted together, you may need to do more work to get it all lined up and fitting properly. What you are doing is not a bad idea, just be cautious and don't expect everything to bolt on and go. If it does, then Just don't EXPECT it.

Your work looks pretty good so far. Keep it up!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by knomadd

Be careful with this. If you aren't checking fit against the cab and other panels bolted together, you may need to do more work to get it all lined up and fitting properly. What you are doing is not a bad idea, just be cautious and don't expect everything to bolt on and go. If it does, then Just don't EXPECT it.

Your work looks pretty good so far. Keep it up!

Thanks! Oh yes, see my build from 2006. I spent an entire weekend just lining up the aftermarket doors/fenders/hood. I hope to have an even better fit this time. It was stupid to cut the brace and fender skin at the same time, but I didn't know what to do at that point and I couldn't pull the fender off my running truck. Using the door and repop rocker seemed to have worked. The DS fender looks to only need a skin patch so hopefully that will go smoother.

Pics of door/fender/hood fitment from 2006:









Edit: Some days I hate looking at the old pics. She looked so good in 2006.

[67ChevyRedneck]

The doors are the original to the truck factory doors I pulled off in 2006. From what I remember, they fit the cab very well.

I only plan to strip the doors and fenders and work over any weld repair areas. I will also clean/seal/paint the backsides and insides.

The bed I do plan to fully assemble, square up, block/prime/paint off the truck. I just don't have the time/space to do a bed swap back and forth and keep a running truck and have room to keep my 65 Mustang in the garage (insurance requirement). I would think the bed would be fine, it's only going to be a flat blue shop truck

[67ChevyRedneck]

So why am I going through the trouble to save all of this OEM stuff?

To me, it's simple. After years and years of looking at these trucks I'm getting to where I can spot aftermarket panels almost immediately, even on high end show trucks. The doors are by far the easiest. Every factory door ever made has a "rolled edge" at the front of the door for approximately an inch, and it's quite noticeable after you've finally "seen it" for the first time. This was so the door could slip behind the fender easier when opened (the front edge of a fleet bed has a similar appearance). On an aftermarket door this area is 100% straight across.

There's also other little things that bother me. The inner bottoms don't look right, they're thinner gauge, the body lines are all a bit off here and there... it just all adds up to OEM is better to me. I have an older set of repop doors on my truck and they're definitely thin. They did revise the doors a couple years ago and now the skin is a lot better, but now there's a lot more fitment issues popping up... anyway, pics of what I mean about the front door edge. I do have repop fenders as well, and they seem to fit the best of aftermarket parts, but since I'm going through all the trouble... I want to keep her GM this time around.

[67ChevyRedneck]

I cut the bottom skin off as close as I could to the bodyline to hopefully have a stronger area to weld to later that's less prone to move around on me. I also made templates of the doors before they were cut and checked these to the cab and fender (I cut them out after pic).

Good GOD look at that rust. I really don't want to know what inside of my cab roof looks like. This was on a set of relatively rust free doors. I would have never guessed there was that much pitted rust hiding.

[67ChevyRedneck]

So, the inner door bottoms are crap too

I mean, come on, the curves aren't even remotely the same.. the bump out on the bottom is supposed to be flat then into a nice bump out... the aftermarket just sort of angles up into a curve... sigh... I was really hoping I could use them and get rid of the speaker door holes and rust all at once. Looks like I'll be doing it all in phases

So far every patch I've used has been key parts, which are supposed to be pretty good. The fender cup, door bottoms, and the door skin I bought to use pieces of.

[67ChevyRedneck]

So, repairs will go in phases... Really, only the sides and one corner were bad. I brushed on rust killer in every area I was able to reach with a brush. There was also pinholes forming at spots along the bottom edge. I drilled them out slightly larger and filled them back in and ground 'em down.

I also got rid of a bunch of dents on the inside edge they accumulated over the years. Much easier when you can hammer/dolly them without the door skin on!

I also took advantage of the existing bottom edge to keep everything straight.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Put on too much rust killer. Damn it. It takes forever to dry when I do that...

My plan is to scuff and clean the inside of the entire door and brush on rust killer while I can reach it. Put the outer skin back on, then cut out the speaker areas to replace. When that's open I'll probably rust encapsulate the door bottom.

That's pretty much it, a factory door bottom saved.

[67ChevyRedneck]

...and a BIG box of goodies came from Summit today... mostly stuff to assemble the 350, but I couldn't help but set one new part on...

[rusty76]

Everything looks good. Digging the work.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thanks! I think I'm trying to do everything the longest and hardest way possible

And of course, I'm good at causing more work for myself. Like when I got over confident and lost the warp battle on a patch. I watched a couple videos on heat shrinking with a torch and wet rag. I actually had it pretty close, but then I ended up trying to go to far to make it perfect. Ooops...

[67ChevyRedneck]

So I quit on that side and moved to the other. It was easy to weld on the fenders because they're thick metal with curves everywhere. Not so easy on long gently curved door panels, so I adjusted my method. Instead of spot welding the entire thing in and then skipping around to fill in all of those areas, I work one edge at a time, using hammer/dolly to adjust as I went. I think welding in the patch with all 4 sides at once caused warpage that couldn't be controlled. You might not be able to tell in the pics, but all of my warpage was adjacent to the patch. By only doing one side at a time and allowing the patch to move helped a lot (I think).

In the last pic this is the front of the door, so the dip on the right edge was supposed to be there

[67ChevyRedneck]

I also began some more engine assembly.

I had to trim the edges of the intake to clear the new valve covers (after some google, apparently a common issue) so I painted the intake and fuel pump.

Fuel rod, plate, and pump installed. Water pump and motor mounts on. The intake is also permanently installed now. I ordered the wrong balancer. I wanted an 8" for appearance and accidentally ordered a 6.75. It got sent back on Wed, new one should be here soon.

I also found all of my factory power steering stuff I took off my grandpa's 72 C10. It looks like it should work with everything I already have on my truck (DS alternator, etc.)

[67ChevyRedneck]

I finished the weekend cutting out my eff up from earlier. I didn't get terribly far.

I was hoping to have the door done this weekend. Oh well.

I love the first pic, it's overtop of a +/-6" weld with damn near zero warpage.

I also have another aftermarket part rant. I showed you guys how crappy the inner door bottom was, the outer skin was no better.

When I cut out the patches and placed them on top of a GM door skin, the aftermarket skin was damn near flat and the door skin is nowhere near flat. I had to work it just to get it to fit the contour. If it was one piece it would have been a ***** to get to curve over the door bottom.

[67ChevyRedneck]

More boring door clean up. I found a few more mirror holes that had been filled in with mud. I don't think I ever did it, so they've been hidden a looooong time. I also found a couple more lower down later. I think I got them all now, it's all I could see from the inside.

Of course this little booger was starting to crack, so I laid a bead along both edges and hit the center a couple more times. I'm going to add a screw like the 1972 doors too...

...and I cut the crap out of my hands scuffing up all the rust on the inside of the door.

[67ChevyRedneck]

This was supposed to be my triumphant "look at how awesome they look now" pic but my phone decided they would look just as before. The rust converter turned everything black but the camera picked it up as looking rusty still

[67ChevyRedneck]

That was Friday night. I coated the inside of the door with rust encapsulator on Saturday. After it was dry I scuff and coated the edges with weld through primer and started the process of welding over 3'!

After watching a bunch more videos I worked from the center out, releasing the clamps on the bottom and readjusting after every couple inches of seam. Seems to have worked really well. I think it also helped being so close to the upper curve.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Progress was a little slow. I actually had to mow my yard for the first time (wtf, it's the first week of March?!?!?) and repair some wind damage to my shed doors from a couple weeks ago when some idiot (me) left them open.

I played with the motor a bit more, balancer is on, and after a lot of debate I chose my final oil and water connections for the Dakota Digital electric connections. I kept the oil pressure behind the intake at the top of the block (but had to shave the damn edelbrock intake... again...) and the water on the DS head.

I also had to do some maintenance. The original 1971 GMC booster finally gave out. I took EVERYTHING suspension and brake related off a 71 GMC in a junkyard about 14 years ago! I even took the brake lines they were so clean, the truck took a pretty hard hit on the DS rear and was stripped pretty clean by the time I got to it except for the disc brake stuff.

Actually, it's been hissing off and on for months now... I cleaned up the MC for the heck of it too.

I also added a touch to the edelbrock intake. I was touching up the paint on the bolts and thought what the heck. I used to build tons of models and was pretty good at detail painting the trim.

...and I finally got my plates back from powdercoat! They look awesome. "H" is the correct designation for a pickup in SC in 1967

[GR8-68]

Looking good Jesse, I like the tag. Did they powder coat it to be reflective ?