The Phoenix - Pierre's Build Thread

[WWPierre]

Hi All,

I was on the chat line the other night, and someone asked me if I had a build thread going, and I promised I would start one, and I am a man of my word, so here it is. I went to the welcome area, and copied my first post:

Peter Legere is my name, and I live with my family on half a block at the south end of Squamish B.C. We have the facilities on site to build or repair almost anything. If you enter 37700 Second Avenue, Squamish B.C. into Google Earth, the marker stops on the street just left of a big oblong blob which is my white roof, and there are a few air photos if my little empire. Edit 2010: We now have high definition and street view in Google Earth.

Note to any assholes reading this: One of my tenants is a security company, and they keep HD digital records of everyone who enters the property.

My stepson Jens works for CN, keeping their decripit equipment running. He and I believe that the '72 GM pickup represents the zenith of North American pickup truck development. He knows them and understands them to a molecular level. Needless to say, he knows the condition of every one within 200 miles.

20 years or so ago a particularly cherry one became available, and Jens and his brother Ole, (their mother, Hanne, is Danish) promised to build it up for me if I bought it. It was almost ready for paint and reassembly when it burnt up with Ole's shop, except for the cab and chassis, which Ole managed to roll out before the fire really took hold. He had hit a small welding fire with a fire extinguisher and blew it all over the shop.

Over the years, they have been saving the best parts they have come across for the resurection. A year or so ago, I bought a rotten diesel pickup that had been recently re-engined with a 6.2 and as soon as Jens finished his Acadian, we (well, mostly) he got to work on the pickup.

Most of it is at the body shop for tiddling and paint now, and we should be assembling next weekend.

The only big job left is the box floor. We have two old floors to make into one. We will do as nice a job as we can, but this will be a working truck, and the bed will be coated with some miracle plastic, so whatever we end up with will be good enough. It would be interesting to know, though, how much a new one would be, or even if they are available. I did spring for a new tailgate. 35 year old tailgates in good shape are hard to come by.

Another question is about the box sides. One of ours was a bit started in the middle, but with a porta-power and a jilpoke to the beam above, and judicious tapping, we got it to a slight curve with about a 3/16" to 1/8" light showing on the middle. I wanted to overstres it to make it perfect, but Jens didn't want to risk a catastrophic failure. The body man told us they are all bowed a bit. Is this true?

It's getting past my bedtime, so I'll just see if I can dig up a pic of Jens and his Acadian and post it.

[WWPierre]

Well, that first post was written a couple of months ago, and, while there has been progress, the above estimate has proven to be optimistic, in the extreme.

We have this annual silliness around here called the Birken Ralley. Guys build the toughest trucks they can and then they get together every year around this time to get drunk and wreck them.

For the two weeks before the event, every mechanic and body man in town is fixing the trucks that got wrecked last year and have been put away filled with mud from last year's event, so that is what my body man has been working on, instead of finishing my truck.

He may have been finished before the silliness started, but for the fact that the driver's door didn't fit, and the rocker panel needed to be replaced.

Here are some pics:

The first one is the yard pickup we are replacing. It is on its last legs.

Pic 2 is the build truck.

Pic 3 is the wheels

Pic 4 is the nice doors for the two fuel tanks under the box.

Pic 5 is our hawthorne in bloom today.

[GREASEMONKEY72]

welcome to the board and thats a nice car

looks like youve got some work ahead of you, got potential though

[WWPierre]

I suppose it's not very interesting looking at a door that don't fit, but you can see the roof's been painted.

[lpaine]

It's good to see another B.C. member on here, good luck with your truck and welcome to the madness. Lew

[WinDancer]

Gonna be a nice truck- that color on the wheels an roof is where you are going?
I like!

[Bishops Trucks]

Looking good so far. Keep the pics coming.

[N2TRUX]

Welcome to the forum. Keep us posted on your progress.

[WWPierre]

Originally Posted by WinDancer

Gonna be a nice truck- that color on the wheels an roof is where you are going?
I like!

The main body color will be gun-metal grey metallic. with burgandy roof, wheels and some kind of stripe (maybe).

Here are some more pics I took today.

Jens getting his friend John's yellow monster ready for next weekend's Birken silliness.

Chevrything: Jens' entry from years ago.

Chevrything's front-end geometry, and why it is so called.

Some of our old iron: The pickup for the scrap heap as soon as a few more parts get removed, (as in after the Birken Rally). The '47 one ton cab on the Blazer frame will be plowing snow next winter. The pretty good front clip in the background against the hedge, and Mitch, 1962 Michigan front-end loader, the prime mover around here.

Last pic, some of our parts stash.

[WWPierre]

Since we are installing under the box fuel tanks, Jens modified the behind-the-seat gas tank into a storage bin. Will post a pic of it installed as soon as I see it again.

[WWPierre]

Parts started arriving back today. I wish the color were a bit darker. Oh well...

Driver's box side
tailgate
fuel door

[sodak69c10]

nice color, and i wish i had as many spare parts as you

[WWPierre]

Some more progress pics. I spent the day on the back corner of the box floor while Jens worked on the front. I am doing most of the fitting and Jens is welding.

First pic is new/old front panel. You can see the rot we need to get rid of along the front.

Second pic is replacement panel ready for final fitting.

Third pic shows rot at right rear corner. Left side was maybe a bit worse.

Fourth pic shows repair to back cross member and the patch for the raised "stripe" (there must be a word for these things) which narrows in way of the back corner post.

Fifth pic is finished "stripe" ready for fitting the big patch.

I made the stock from a box floor front we had and bent the back edge down on a pan brake, which was pretty well pushed beyond it's capacity.

[70stroker]

Looking good so far. keep up the great work

[RACINJASON22]

Love the color well colors and Nice build all around.

Keep up the GR8 work and keep us posted.

You have some other pretty nice iron in the stable also that I would not mind calling my own.

RJ22...

[WWPierre]

The parts have all arrived back from the body shop.

[WWPierre]

Still slogging away on the box floor. I will have replaced about 80% before I am finished. Last photo shows last patch. Anybody volunteer to come up here grind the welds for me?

I am sure glad I didn't hire someone to do this. It is pretty satisfying, though. Next time??? maybe I'll buy some new parts.

Last pic is the last patch, ready to fit.

[manimal]

Lookin REALLY good.
-Lance

[72BlckButy]

Excellent craftsmanship! Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see this thing come together.

[WWPierre]

Originally Posted by 72BlckButy

Excellent craftsmanship! Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see this thing come together.

Thanks, but really, this is a work truck, so there is a strong "good enough" factor.

[WWPierre]

Last patch got fitted in the bed today. Jens is welding it now, so we should be able to turn it tonight for the welding on the bottom. Then about 50 feet of weld to grind fair, the greater part across the channels.

Your window of opportunity is closing, if nobody shows up here before tomorrow afternoon, I'll have to do it myself.

[WWPierre]

Some more progress. The box bed is ground as fair as it needs to be. Tomorrow we dry fit the box sides so we can fit the fuel tanks.

As you can see, we have removed the Custom 10 emblems from the old truck, which means the clip gets installed on the new one very soon.

I will be giving seminars on grinding this summer. Sign up now.

[WWPierre]

Some more progress. Looks like we might make the Show and Shine on Aug. 4.

Jens and I haven't been on speaking terms for a few days. He thinks he is Boyd Cottington. He told me to mount the L/R fuel tank switch on the flat part of the dash to the LEFT of the dash cluster, and I misunderstood and mounted it on the right. I admit that down on the left would have been a better place, but I only remember seeing them mounted beside the radio, and I hardly think such a mistake "undermines the integrety of the project" Jeez!

He is pissed at something else too. I had to cut back the bed a bit in way of the fuel filler pipes, eliminating one of the carriage bolts connecting the bed to the box side, which meant we needed little covers projecting into the box about 2". With the ridges in the bed, and and a little step in the inside box side panel, this meant a bit of complicated fabricating in metal, maybe most of a day's work, with the tools available and my metalworking experience. I made up a couple out of wood in about half an hour, and fastened them through the inside box liner with a couple of 10x24 bolts with the nuts reachable through the fuel filler door. He turned up his nose at that. His argument was that the Rhino Liner wouldn't stick to wood. When I pointed out that Rhino seems to stick to paint, and paint sticks to wood, he had to back off a bit. Then he tells me that because we have eliminated one of the mounting holes, the box will have a weak spot. I drilled new holes in the bed and made corresponding square holes in the box side flange, so his engineering argument is now full of crap.

In any case, if he wants to replace them with metal before the box gets the Rhino liner, he is free to do that. I'll point that out to him if we are ever on speaking terms again.

Man, you can sure tell the kid has his mother's genes!

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant.

Here are the latest progress pics. I have also included a pic of our pretty solid one ton dumptruck. Don't know the exact vintage. It's not licensed, we just use it here on the claim.

[WWPierre]

Not much left to do. Looks like we gonna make the show and shine.

I am looking around for a good place to photograph her after we give her her first wash.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Looks great!