my 71 chevy 4x4 work thread lots of pic's

[dboyzalter]

well I figured I would post some pictures and leave a little trail of progress on the 71 chevy 4x4... its slow going and I also have to work on a 69 fastback at the same time so I try to spend = time on them both.. although the truck is going to be a driver... and the mustang is going to be a weekend joy rider... the truck needs a little love before I can drive it on the road... the mustang is my brothers and he has always wanted a 69 fastback so thats the story behind that... anyways...

I picked the truck up about 2 weeks ago and when I got it home and started ripping it apart and getting some better looks at it I discovered the frame is shot... wich sucks...
also the cab was getto fixed with patch panals... something I learned today... and the dude painted right over rust to make it look good for the sale...

O well though stuff happens and its my loss that the last owner was and with the sale I kinda got

so the is going to be my progress thread and I will try to keep it somewhat updated with the things I get done when I get them done...

so without further adu here is some pictures of what got done.....

when I purchased the truck.... yes it was an ebay find...


got it home... took the bed off


kick in the balls

temporary fix till I can get a new frame...

inside looks ok

[dboyzalter]

inside looks not so ok

woo hoo more rust...

and yeah that needs some work too... supposibly the original 350... untill I looked up my code and discovered my truck was a original 6 cylinder... O well I will run the #'s on it and probably find out its a ****ty 307... I'll keep you posted..

so as you can see I have my work ahead of me... and I will keep you all posted... any feedback or words of wisdom will be not be over looked... I am not new to the 67-72 chevy GMC truck thing this is #3 in my 23 years... and this one is in better shape then my first one and worse then my second... so we shall see how it goes...

[TugOwar]

The truck has potential, don't get discouraged. But WTF happened to that frame? Never seen anything like that. Actually I have too, an old lowboy trailer that sat on the beach in Corpus Cristy for a couple years. It looked quite a bit like that.

[shelby987]

Orange exterior with green interior it doesn't get any better than that (see sig. for why that is funny). Unless you tear these trucks down, or are completely familiar with them (likely more than 3 under your belt) you are bound to overlook things/things you just can't see until you tear into it. My truck had some holes in the floor that I didn't initially see....and poorly repaired rockers that I should have used a little more to my advantage during the haggling for the purchase price.....but it happens, if you look at your truck and see what it will be, and not what it was when you tore it down, don't forget that feeling....could be worse, you could have bought the 69 camaro I bought 4 years ago! (lol, we all make mistakes.....still have the car and big dreams!)

[dboyzalter]

haha my old 72 GMC 4x4 took 4 trucks to make one good one... then I joined the AF and my brother in law purchased it for $1500... 4 years later got out of the Air Force and my brother in law wants $6000 for it... so it was time to start again... this time a year older in the chevy variaty... I will hang in there and I know it will be looking good in no time...

thanks for all the kind words... I will keep progress posted...

[Kager67]

Yep, it official. Everybody has a set of slots except me. Looks like a good project. Let's see, started as a six, now its a small eight, seems to me only one more step up to go.:

[LUV2XCLR8]

It's a good start and has potential, hang in there

[vtblazer]

One step at a time.

Believe me, we've all had those same kinda surprises.

I bought one once that I thought 'only' needed a passenger side outter rocker...

[silvertonguedevil]

Wow! WTF is up with those frame patch panels??
On a positive note though. It is a good looking truck and anything is fixable. Plus, it's a shortbox 4x4!! That should make you happy right?

[dboyzalter]

more work today... I spend all day working but mostly on the mustang... I did manage to take out the tank the inned front fender wells and some of the other not so important inside things...

also sandblasted one of the front fenders...

going to finsh taking everything out of the cab tomorrow and hopefully get it blasted and good to go in the next couple weeks...

as of now I am going to try and make the cab as mint as possible so it is all ready for whatever doner frame I come across first...

[dboyzalter]

so I have decided tonight at about 3 am that I am going to keep and repair my current messed up frame... stay posted it should be interesting...

[dboyzalter]

yes I worked on the truck today... long long hours... fist full day of quality chevy work... anyways from the pictures you can pretty much see what I was up too all day...

the A team does not have anything on me....

[dboyzalter]

O yeah sandblasted and primed the center part of the frame too... want to put the cab back on asap so it looks like a real truck again...

[dboyzalter]

A little update if anyone is paying attention to this wonderful build up... I was sick yesterday so got a little bit of work done on the frame... a little bit of sand blasting... a entire spool of welding wire... a tank of argon C02 and its starting to look not so bad... I got a sheet of 14 gage sheet metal and cut it to fit into the frame... I then welded it in... and por-15'ed the entire thing... here are some pics... enjoy...

is that what I think it is...


hmmm looks sketchy...


and here is the preview of things to come... it started raining so this was the best pic I came up with... more to come...

[68_GMC]

Wow that looks like alot of work... But its looking good....

[dboyzalter]

OK another sick day... did not do a lot basically cleaned it up and sealed everything so no water can get in any unhappy places... still no leaf spring mounts and I recoated it with por-15 so that is not the final coat... top coat will be semi flat black... but hey its looking a lot better then it was....

[GMC71k20]

awesome progress. cant wait to see it all completed, what part of mass are you from?

[dboyzalter]

live in western Mass... springfield area...

thanks I am trying to get it drivable for winter duty... completed... who knows when...

I think the 4 inch lift is getting ordered tomorrow....

[GMC71k20]

i go to school at WNEC, and have a apartment in wilbraham, i may have my truck out there this fall

[special-K]

I just bought a CT`71 Short Fleet K/10.I`m hoping my frame`s better than yours was.So,the p.o. had just shot that paint to sell it,eh?That sucks.All that work and you`re throwing it back into the salt?You`re more of a man than me.Here`s the one I bought.I won`t have it here`til later this month:

[dirtboydel]

if I had to guess... this would be what the truck looked like now...

[GMC71k20]

what kind of springs did you go with? looks like your gonna need really big cab corner patch panels ha

[dirtboydel]

Originally Posted by GMC71k20

what kind of springs did you go with? looks like your gonna need really big cab corner patch panels ha

yeah cab corners are in... I put them on last week... I was cutting them out and it started raining on me... it sucked... anyways went with black diomond- superlift springs all the way around...the kit ran about $600 with shocks... was thinking 35's but now I might go with some 34 inch LTB's because they are skinny and should be better for snow duty... only time will tell though... started up like a chanp a few days ago... once I get some breaks in and some other major issues out of the way hopefully It will be road worthy...

[Metallicamaro]

So how did you get the cab off? Couple of guys? With a 30 pk of cold beverages?

[dirtboydel]

Originally Posted by Metallicamaro

So how did you get the cab off? Couple of guys? With a 30 pk of cold beverages?

Me and my brother... to put it back on it was just me and a couple of pieces of wood... I knew after I got the springs and axles back on I would never be able to lift it that high...