The 72' is under construction...Again.

[Brento]

I've been working on this truck for a while then stopped, and now it's back on again. Here's the story and the pics to bring the project to it's current state. Bought it in 04' and started on the mechanicals to make it a safe driver. Did brakes, lines, and a power conversion, cab mounts, steering rebuild, static lowering suspension, all wearable components replace throughout the suspension and steering. Drove it breifly and had a deployment so it went into storage. Got back, bought a house, took it to get aligned (truck not house) and needed spacers or new arms to get the camber correct. Ordered upper arms and decided to fix the leaking valve covers. This is where I went a little crazy.

[thirdstreettito]

Nice truck! Now all you need is 67-72 rear fenders.

[Brento]

I must have had a little OCD kick in. Here's the train of thought..."The valve covers have leaked everywhere in the engine compartment...I'll also clean the frame in the front...Pressure washing would be easier with the front clip off and only a few bolts hold it on...no biggie." Well I worked a whole weekend and the "only a few bolts hold it on" continued as that weekends theme and i ended up with a bare chassis. Restomod had commenced. Over the next few months I completely disassembled the frame, sandblasted, replaced crossmembers, put the correct engine mounts in, painted, re-assembled. I c-notched with a bolt in kit, re-located the tank, built the stainless fuel line, refurbished the diff, rear brakes, and etc. Had the tranny rebuilt, got a crate engine after getting butned on a "fresh re-build. Then threw my old engine in a 56' I bought as an abandoned project and worked on it a couple of months before I turned it out. Then came another deployment.

[Brento]

Here are a few more pics before I stopped working on it for 2 years. The next update will be this weekend after i've hopefull got the floor in and a couple of the odd-ball patch panels made. Doing the full floor and fixing the PO's poor repairs. This includes corners, rockers, kick panels, and front pillars.

[72BlckButy]

Great looking project, good luck with the rebuild!

By the way...

to the board from Mid-MO!!!

Be sure to mark you calendar for the Midwest All Truck Nat's in Riverside, MO (September 11-13).

And the Midwest Board Meet in Kirksville, MO (May 30-31)

[Spray-Bomb]

Cool

[LEEVON]

and welcome from Arkansas. That frame looks great, can't wait to see thre rest!

[Brento]

Thanks for the greetings and polite comments. I cleaned and better organized the garage this evening for tomorrows patch panel fabrication. If I'm lucky, and have enough sawzall blades, I'll rough cut all the old steel that's still in my way for the floor replacement. The goal is to get the lower firewall and lower cab-back patches in so I can at least cleco the floor in by end of day Saturday. I've got 75% of the spotweld areas cleaned up, plenty of degreaser, weld through primer, and plenty of propane for the heater so I have no excuses not to have some pictures posted tomorrow evening. Appearantly ya'll just gotta have pics and i need to document the work anyway. Also, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing but don't hesitate to drop a BS flag on me before I go and screw something up. Here are some pics of what has been accomplished over the past couple of weeks.

[nuke1]

i see great air conditioning you have there in your cab, looking great so far.

[Brento]

Here is what i accomplished this weekend. Made and installed the patch panels for the lower firewall corners and a spot on the back of the cab bottom. Also cleaned up the firewall brace i had patched a couple days ago. Here are some patch pictures. The firewall brace was rusted through so i cut a piece from the floorpan and butt welded it in. I made the firewall corners from 20 ga. Choppin them to fit was time consuming but it worked out ok.

[Brento]

I got the patches welded in and then cleaned and ground the mating areas for the floor pan. Did some hammer and dolly work to straighten everything out but some of it got all dicked up while putting the floor in. All fixable though. That little patch took a bit more time than I anticipated. I also hate grinding, would rather block sand a RV than grind welds but you gotta do what you gotta do. Today I etched and primed where the panels weld in and got the floor ready.

[Brento]

Getting the floor in place was a bear. Once i got it close i had to keep cutting ould metal out for it to get in. The PO had done some wonderful welding and patches that were not supposed to be where they were. The firewall braces are off a little too. The replacement panel also doesn't have all the dips cut out around the braces so I had to do some finessing, bending and banging to get it in square and centered. After about 3 hours I got everything straightened enough to put in some cleco's and ready to weld in sometime this week. .

[Brento]

Here is part of the reason I started this project and why it was tough to get the floor in. If you checkout the earlier pics closely you can see that the body line is off. They installed the rockers and cab corners with the door off on the passenger side. It's off about 3/4 an inch and the door rides the rocker. Must have figured it out for the drivers sidesince it lines up, but the repair area is getting rust and was a poor quality job.

[brossow]

Great build thread! Subscribed.

[Brento]

Ok, back on the 72 once more. The past year kicked my butt with work travel and i haven't posted in quite a while. Looks like my membership expired also since I'm pink again. Work on the truck has been minimal although I did get the passenger side metal work nearly completed and basic door alignment set. Pics of the progress will be up once i get them sized. Great to see that the site is still going strong.

[Redbone One]

You have a great project! I am impressed with your work. Please keep your progress photo's coming.