Alright you guys are a bad influence!!(long winded)

[slammed1]

I finally got a little ahead with a few projects and honey do's and finally had a nice day here to get some work done. after reading and seeing so many badass projects/rides here i couldnt take it any longer and went to start getting my truck ready to be put back in the garage again for some more work. I had taken it out of the garage almost 2 years ago to get some projects taken care of and start a few like a kitchen remodel and other things.

Today I started removing parts from the bed and placing parts for later use in the storage building and getting the chassis/cab ready to move to the garage after I make a temporary stand for the bed so it can be removed.



I plan on getting the rolling chassis back in the garage and placed on rolling plates and remove the cab once I build a stand for it so I can get a little work done on it while its off the chassis. About 4 years ago I started new body work on the cab and doors as well as frt fenders then I started on the bed sides and come to a stop.

As driven with for a while with home brew drop and 408 with 68 frt clip.


After some body work and suspension mods with engine removed
This is not the 5-8 drop shown on the truck.




and pictures from today after a little parts removal and sweeping of the interior.
Here is part of my door mods,door latch conversion,latch conversion(dodge part),and a upper half spliced drivers inner door because of a huge dent on the inside upper part (dont know how it was dented). For those who cant tell in the door jamb area how much work was done by changing the striker and latch set up,look at your stock set up to compare.

[slammed1]

Outer door handles from a Dodge grafted on(will be body color).






Pics of the floor, (corner is seam sealer crap not rust)




Pic of the way I did my seat mount (have seen some others done different)

[slammed1]

Pic of filled in firewall and mirror image of drivers side



Pic of booster mounted on the firewall (originally mounted the master cylinder damn near touched the altenator)


Pics of the rear c-notch and boxed frame( painted so it wouldnt rust,still needs so me dressing)




Pics of rad support sectioned in lower part

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Pics of bed floor which is from a long bed 85 Chevy trimmed down,still has alot of work to finish,and a mod at the upper rear corner bedside so that a flush tonneau can be built and of the filled in stake pocket.





Pics of misc views

[slammed1]

sorry about the pictures of the surface rust parts,I should be ashamed of myself for placing it outside for so long unprotected.

The camaro beside the truck is a 1980 My dad got from his sister that she bought new,and is damn near original with 68K miles except for the headers,dual exhaust,wheels/tires i put on after I inheritied it. Stock 305 under the hood looks untouched except the headers I installed and it fires up with a touch of the key.

[slammed1]

a few arrows and circles showing some mods or work done



heres the floor corner,it looks like rust but the cab is solid.

[chevy one]

It could be worse. You are not the only one that has projects on the back burner. This may help you feel better. I have a 68 Camaro that I disassembled almost 20 " yes that is 2+18" years ago. Since that time I have had 2 more children the youngest is now 15, gone through a divorce, remarried for 9, built a new house and 30’ by 48’ shop. I now have a 66 Chevelle SS that needs a ton of work, two Chevy II and a 67 C10 that is my current focus and yes still the camaro waits.

[slammed1]

I bought this truck in 89 after a bad mistake 69 SWB purchase about 6 months earlier. I was young,wanted a SWB and went at nite which is a NONO. The 69 was a bad bad bucket of crap and the bed wasnt even worth trying to salvage much less the cab or fenders,and it had a GMC frt clip. I found the 72 and got it with no motor/no tranny which I prefer anyway. Its seen various stages,multiple cabs,different engines,and a divorce also during the time I have owned it. I plan on getting it to a stage of completion real soon so I can actually enjoy it alot longer.

[slammed1]

Should I have posted this in the build threads instead of here??

[chevy one]

I like the door handles you have installed. I just take it a day at a time and keep on pushing slowly forward. Glad you’re back in the saddle again
I ALSO COME HERE TO GET MY MOTAVATION GOING AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!

[slammed1]

Thanks for the comments on the door handles. I had seen other trucks with 88-98 handles installed but it seemed they were mounted too low on the door in the flatter area for them to work.

I opened the door and made a cardboard template of the curvature of the door and marked an area I wanted the door handle to be placed so it would look like it belonged there. I took that template to quite a few salvage yards and tried to open as many doors on later model cars to compare the location with the curvature. I ended up finding a malibu that would have worked but the shop didnt want to cut up those doors for me so I looked more. I found a rear door off of a 4 door neon and the curve was perfect and had the handle in the location on the curve for a nice fit,and they had 2 of them wrecked in different areas so they allowed me to get what I needed off the 2 rear doors.

The section I removed was about a 10x12 around the handle and I was able to trim it down to fit real nice on the doors in the place I wanted them. I used inner latches from a Dodge ram that have the elec hookups for door lock feature,mounted decently clean in the jamb and the hardest link/rod to get to work was the one from the handle to the latch. i finally got both doors to work with the rods from the handle to the latch and took a deep breath thinking to myself that now the rod from the latch to the inside handle was going to give as much trouble.........believe it or not it fit right in the latch and worked the first time with no work at all. So now the latch opens from the inside and outside perfect.

I have only seen one other truck with the same handles and it was a finished truck that was in a magazine but I had already done mine so I didnt feel like I copied anyone but was disappointing another truck had the same handles.

The handles will eventually be body color and I eally like the way you can look down the side of the body and not see that big bulky door handle sticking out anymore. I am not a fan of shaved door handles myself even though many do them,I just like taking something stock and making subtle changes to it for my own personal features.
Yes the gas tank is soon going to be moved to the rear with an aluminum one so I can finish the cab finally.

[ChevLoRay]

So, you think Ft. Smith has a monopoly on procrastination? I have been "going to start" on my truck ever since I got it nine years ago. At this time is is somewhat disassembled, but still runs and I could drive it but the cops wouldn't be too happy.

Nice touches on your truck. It looks like it will be a clean ride when you are done. Keep us posted.

[slammed1]

Im a procrastinator alright,just seems I have to many projects and not enough money or time.......I can occasionally come up with more time,its the money that dont come so easy.Seems I am always working on others trucks/cars to ever get mine back on the road.

[Hart_Rod]

Nice project, look forward to seeing more.

R

[EC7Five]

Wow, the doors look really nice and smooth with those handles, nice work. How do you unlock them from the outside though, is it by remote or something?

[AuggieStyle]

nice job on the handles i got some civic handles i was gonna put on my truck but i have decided to stay with chrome.
looking forward to more pics.
the camaro is bad a$$ ttops too, my sister used to have a white one with red interior and ttops i used to beg her to give me a ride to school in it everyday..........

[matthufham]

i can already tell, it's gonna be awesome when you're done. keep up the good work!!

[72BlckButy]

Great looking project! Can't wait to see more...

[slammed1]

Ok,going to bump this thread with a little info.

I was talking to my other gearhead brother the other nite and he wants me to get a vehicle back on the street/strip badly,so we started talking options. I have the 1980 Camaro that I got from my Dad when he passed which he got from his sister who bought it brand new. It has 68K original miles and is un-molested except the headers/duals and wheels/tires I put on. I have a fresh machines 1978 350 standard bore and polished crank that needs built,along with a 1970 400 small short block that needs tore down and inspected. I had a 1968 Nova I built and dragraced with a serious budget years ago that got sold after a backhalve job and divorce which made me not even be able to drive it after the chassis work.....yes I miss that car. I really wanted to find a late 70's early 80's malibu or another 68-72 Nova but since I already have the Camaro and its a running car,he suggested building it in a way that wont butcher it up and still be restoreable some day.




Now heres what we have planned..........pull the stock 305/th350 running combo from the Camaro and clean it up and place a cam in it at least(gt to have a little thump!) and put the 305 in the 72 truck I am starting back on. i said to him thats a great idea since I can work on the truck with a running engine and build the camaro while I have time. After seeing what shape the 400 is in will determine which engine combo I stick on the camaro. I actually hope the 400 is buildable since I am a big fan of 400's and had a really stout one not long ago. I am seeing a 406 or 408 at first with aluminum heads and a full roller valvetrain wwith around a .650 cam,single plane intake,with my 8" 4500 stall convertor I kept from the Nova,along with gears and posi for the 10 bolt to get me running. I already have 15x3.5 frt Welds with 15x8 rear Welds and have already started fixing some rusty floors.

After talking with him I started getting excited I might have my truck back on the road sooner and have a little play toy I can run on the street and strip again. He has a 1968 Impala with a 14-1 aluminum headed bigblock(originally a 427 that ran 7.0's in the 1/8th) and is currently replacing the .698 roller cam with a .775 roller so we can make PINKS ALL OUT in Shreveport this month. The car is street legal and goes to cruises and car shows all the time and walks away a winner also.

This is a real butt kicker for me as I needed more motivation and didnt want to have to build two engines but now can just do a small swap and have a running truck real soon.

Anyway this is my plan,hoping to stick with it and start with getting the truck ready to be driven again so that the camaro can spend some time in the garage. I have long waited to get a thumping street car to drive again and a fast race car also. I will still keep an eye out for a Nova or Malibu but for now the Camaro will be built and taken care of to carry on Dads passion of racing.

We had at one tim e4 drag cars between 2 other brothers and a sister of mine (her husband had one) with a 68 Nova(mine),68 Impala(lil bros) 68 camaro 9sisters hubby) and a 1978 Plymouth Volare' (older bros). The Nova and the Volare were sold but now the older brother has the 68 Camaro which his oldest son bracket races and the 68 Impala which lil bro still owns.

I will post up a build thread soon as I can move the truck in and get the camaros engine/tranny out so stay tuned.

Here are a few pics of the cars..........

[brendonak]

updates?

[dubdeuce80]

lovin' those handles, might have to steal that idea from you...

[Palf70Step]

I really like the door handles also. You have any more pictures of when you were grafting things together?

[Sinisterspeed]

I wanted to do that with my handles for along time. Same reason I am not the shaved handle type. I really wanted to do exactly what you have done then to make them body color to blend in but look like they belong there. Nice work. I skipped it and stuck with the stockers. I have enough subtle mods to make it not so subtle anymore already. Nice work keep it up.

[IvelDesigns]

nice build. get it back in the garage and show it some love.

[ChevLoRay]

The Dodge handles look like they'd be better in the long run than the '88-98 handles. You're right about the contours working with the Dodge handles, compared to the later GM handles.

Keep us informed. I'm jealous of your firewall, but I'm gonna keep my stock HVAC system.