Project "BumbleBee"

[KrazyKevin]

I had the chance to watch my dad restore two Chevy trucks when I was a kid. The first was a mid 50's and the second one was a early to mid 60's model. I don't quiet remember the exact year models, but I'll find out and try to get some pics. At 7 or 8 yrs old all I could do was hand dad some welding rods and tools as he needed. I'm sure I helped sand a little here and there also. On top of this my grandpa was a body man. I remember spending all my summers and countless days with him in his shop fixing up wrecked cars. Thinking back at the things he did is just fascinating now. I got to shoot some primer ever now and then and help mask off and sand some cars, but that was about it. I watched him cut out patch panels out of old hoods and braze them in place. Then once I was old enough to actually pick up the art of doing body work, or course I wasn't interested. What a waste!!! My grandpa has since pasted away and all I can do is think back to all that I could have picked up from him.

Here we are now and I'm in my early 30's. I've been thinking about fixing up an old truck for a while now. My son Michael is 7 years old and I hope to spend lots of time in the garage with him like I got to do with my dad. So after much talking about it and looking around I took the dive. I was looking for a 72 swb fleetside and one popped up on ebay. i drove all the way from Liberty, Tx (Houston) to Northwest Alabama. And so the journey begins.

Without this forum I would still be staring at the truck wondering where in the heck do I begin. But I've found so much help here it is unbelievable. So sit back and get ready. Project Bumblebee has begun.

This project got its name from of course the transformers. My son originally wanted to call the truck Jazz. But after I told him of my plans to paint the truck yellow, and with a little nudging, we agreed on Bumblebee. It's neat that I grew up watching the Transformer cartoons 20 years ago and they dropped off the face of the earth. Then just a few years ago, out of know where here they are again. Enough rambling, let the show begin.

[KrazyKevin]

Well here he is in all his glory in Killen, Alabama. This is my canvas:

[KrazyKevin]

And a few from the garage back home:

[bad6772]

Looks like a pretty good start IMO.....Good luck with your build..........

[67-72crazy]

good starting point. good luck with your project.

[72hotrodder]

killen alabama is about 5 mins down the road from me

[KrazyKevin]

I bought it from board member JQ72. Couldn't find any swb around my area. So it turned out to be a nice weekend trip for my dad and I. Got to see some nice country side also. A big change from the flattttttt Texas coast line. I'll have more pics up later today.

[thirdstreettito]

Aw, I thought you were gonna paint it yellow and black...

[KrazyKevin]

Sorry for the delay between updates but I work shift work. I finally got all my sheetmetal in and decided to start on my cab first. My plan is to fix all the rust spots, which is mainly the rocker area on both sides. But after I took my floor liner out I reallized the drivers side was pretty bad. So since this was my first restoration, decided to start with the passenger side. I have to replace the outer cab floor, inner and outer rocker, kick panel, cab corner, and both A and B pillars:

[KrazyKevin]

Once my parts were in the dismantling begin. Off came the fenders, doors, and the bed. I'm kinda let down by the bed. The outside of the bed is in great shape, but the inside is just totally destroyed. I'll have to start shopping around.

















And the little helper in on the action

[KrazyKevin]

Once I got it dismantled I started cutting out the rusted parts. The pillars, rockers, outer cab floor, and kick panel had to go.

[KrazyKevin]

Out with the old and in with the new. The outer cab piece went in fairly easy. The only issue I had was where it mated up with the firewall piece up front. The cab piece I had kinda tapers off instead of following the firewall on out to the kick panel. But thanks to someone on the board, I pie cut and and a scrap piece of sheet metal and we were all good.

[KrazyKevin]

After the fit looked ok, I welded it on up. Everything fit pretty good so far. Atleast without a door hanging. The two major features of the floor lined up almost perfectly with my repop outer cab piece. That made me feel pretty good.

[KrazyKevin]

Now I'm trying to put it all together. Trying to align the door and get the outer rocker set into place. If you want to see someones but get kicked by a 72 model passenger door, come on down to Liberty, Tx. I finally got my cab corner tacked in and I'm really having a time. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow of the cab corner and B pillar. The outer rocker has about a 1" gap between it and the B pillar. So my two issues at this moment are my outer rocker alignment and the gap at the cab corner and the door. I'll let the pics do the talking tomorrow.

[nuke1]

yah, that sounds pretty normal for aftermarket stuff, just take your time and and it will eventually come, patience is key, or walk away for 10 minutes and come back.

[phipp13]

very nice slice and dice job. all your weld seams looked spot-on too. good to see that your passing your knowledge to the next generation of chevy truckers.good luck with your build but from here it does'nt look like you need it.v/r phipp

[my67chevytruck]

looking good. keep at it.

[KrazyKevin]

Thanks guy for the praise. Had a family Christmas day today, so I'll get started back Sunday. Again, thanks for all the support. I've really learned a lot from the forum already.

Kevin

[northern 85]

Nice work!

[KrazyKevin]

Wow. How fast a year goes by. Ever year I get older, time just gets faster and faster. I got overwhelmed a lil and life threw a few jabs at me so I dogged off for a long while. Just one of those thangs. But, I'm back, and hard at it. Didn't touch it for almost a year!!!!!!!!

After the passenger side rocker, I set in on the cab corner. It went pretty good for the most part. Still have some welds to make but I just got sick of welding!!!









These are some old pics. I had some filling to do to make the gap look good at the door. Everything is spot welded in place and looking good. I've since moved on to the drivers side.

[KrazyKevin]

Next I got started on the drivers side floorboard. When I peeled the flooring back, I found lots mo rust than I thought I had. Where the heal of the foot is located while on the gas pedal, it was rusted all the way through. So, I decided to go ahead and replace the whole piece.






This is my little bro getting in on the action.




This piece fit pretty well. The only issue is the bolt whole for the cab mount isn't aligned. I'll have to do some cuttin!!



I'm doing the best I can, but the good thing is all of this is covered by carpet!!!!!

[KrazyKevin]

I'll get some updated sheet metal pics next week. But like I said earlier, I can only take so much welding at one time. Most of the pics shown earlier were from last winter. This year, about two weeks ago, when I started back, I started on the rear end. I took off the rear axle, springs, and drive shaft and got to cleaning.

I wire brushed, wire wheeled, sandpapered and flapperwheeled all that I could get to. Sorry, I didn't take any pics of the cleaned up frame. My dad and I changed out the pinion seal and diff gasket, and poured in some fresh oil for the rear diff. After that I cleaned the rear axle assembly, springs, and spring clamps and gave them all a fresh paint job.

Before:





And after:

[KrazyKevin]

The back 1/3rd of the frame is still in Rustoleum Heavy Rust Primer. The trailing arms and axle is painted with heavy rust primer and then a couple of coats of rustoleum gloss black. I thought about other options but this one fit the bill. The springs are also shot with Rustoleum gloss yellow.

After the back 1/3rd turned out so good, my dad talked me into bringing the truck over to his house so we could remove the motor/trans and the cab and go ahead and sandblast the rest of the frame. Might as well do a complete frame off since the cab is only held on by four bolts.

Current plans are to get the truck to his house next week. We'll pull the motor, trans, and cab. A little power washing, cleaning, and paint, and we'll be good to go. I'll prob put the cab back on the frame, load him up, and bring him back home to complete the cab work. From there, I'm kinda undecided. I'll have to think about it all. I'm already getting a little ahead of myself.

[OARNGESI]

That frame looks really good

[KrazyKevin]

Finally got the truck over to my dads a few days ago. Got it put in the shop and out came the motor. Sorry for the quality. They were taking with my cell phone and it was getting kinda dark. Plus it was a nasty day.









For the most part everything went fine. I don't know if you can see it in the pictures but we put a hole in the heater core cover. Oh, well. It happens.