My Pokey Project

[gumbudah]

Well Here goes.
I'm new to the 67-72 board, but looks like I've been missing a great resource! My project "Pokey" is a 70 1/2 ton 4x4 with a 67 front clip, and a bunch of other bells and whistles (at least it will have those bells and whistles when I'm done with it!!!).
I've been workin on it for a while (more than 1,2,5,10,13 years) because of this or that it's taken me that long (most likely associated with laziness and distractions, like college, marriage, children, and cancer) to get where I'm at. I started on the build as a 18 year old freshman at college. Wide eyed, I bought a truck thinking I'd work on it through college. yeah that was a great idea.
Here it is, as I brought it home in 1993.

I've done a lot of work (over and over) since then. But for it's bedtime now. I'll post more tomorrow or so.

[IvelDesigns]

you tease!! no sleep for you until you post more pics

[GBC10]

Good to see another Wisconsinite.

[71lowboy]

yes pics please

[gumbudah]

Not to spoil the supprise, but I havn't gotten very far on the truck....
Here are a few more pics of the day I brought It home.





So, again having big eyes and no budget, I figured I would just pick away at the truck and eventually have a nice rig. That plan sucked. One thing I've learned, don't take on a project until you have a plan for the finances.

Anyway, I bought the rig from a fella in Dairyland Wisconsin, who had gotten it on a mechanics lean. It's a 3/4 ton with a 350 in it at this point. Looking back now at the pics, it needed a repaired transfer case (rockwell timkin 221) and a battery. After that it might have fired... oh well, I'll never know.

[bw4sale]

Looks like a '67 bed and cab, too. Are you sure it's a 70? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.

[1956cameo]

1967 is the only year in the 67-72 body style that had the small back window cab. Definately looks like a 67 truck to me as well. It also has the 67-68 chrome all the way down the body and accross the tailgate, and it has 67-68 door panels, and it has a 67 steering wheel, plus the chrome custom bezel on the top of the doors is only found on 67 and 68 model trucks.

[gumbudah]

Yall are absolutely right. This is a 67.
Sooo After towing it home, I began disassembling it, getting rid of all of the parts I didn't need. I stripped it right down to the cab.





Not a terrible start, but again... no money to finish what I started.... I was buying 1 part at a time, one little step by step. The above pics are from about 1994.
Oh, and along the way, I bought a 1953 Chevy 1 ton stake bed bosh beer truck.


That truck is another story.... I sold it 10 years ago or so for $150 or so. Anyway, more to come later.

[1956cameo]

The 67 looks like it is a solid project. Hopefully it is still as solid as it was in the pictures taken back in the mid 90s. Wish I could get a solid 54 chevy truck like the one you sold for $150. I am really needing a solid 54 parts truck to help me restore a rusty yet complete 54 suburban. Those 1 and a half year only items like the grille and front fender makes finding one hard!

[gumbudah]

Soooo, how about a 10 year jump or so!!!! (this is kinda fun by the way... diggin through all my older photos)
Sooo, I scrapped the bed, and somewhere along the line, I picked up a new cab. Here are a couple pics circa 2004.... Keep in mind there is not yet any big finally... its still in pieces.






This was kind of a big step, getting the new cab on and starting to strip it.

[nuke1]

wow, that is along project, i bet it is still soothing through all those years thou to just go outside and sit in the garage with it, that looked like a nice strait truck to start with.

[gumbudah]

Well, next after I got the tranny and engine mounted, I cleaned up the frame. Many will tell me I went too far in pulling the frame completely apart.







I then put it all back together, and dropped in the engine and tranny. This was 2006-2007 timeframe. As you can tell, I've let this thing sit a lot, however in the last month, I've picked the project up again, and put a lot of work into it. I'll be posting that stuff before too long here... Don't want to go too quick on these thing you know!!!!

[1956cameo]

Wow!! I have seen many frame off restorations but never like that. How did you put it back together since most of it was riveted from the factory? That is definately further than 99.9% of people normally go on a resto. Looking good.

[Jtrux]

Awesome, never seen a frame disassembled like that before.

[gumbudah]

The thought of rust keeps me up at night! (If you search my other posts you will see that that is a common theme) That's the biggest reason I blew the frame apart that far, just to be able to get a good blast and coating on all (repeat that A L L) surfaces of the chassis (now that I think about it, I didn't take the spring packs appart :P). And to be honest it's one of those things that maybe cost an extra $50 to do, but has/is/was providing me the ability to sleep at night. Pretty much it only took my time to blow it apart and coat it as opposed to just blasting and coating as is.
As for the method to put it all back together, I used all grade 8 yellow zinc bolts (I like the look, and can't help but to think the strength won't hurt), washers, and aircraft style nuts (got all that from Fastenal).
I've heard some concerns in discussions about the frame not being aligned once It's all back together, I havn't really had my mind made up on that one yet, as I havn't gotten the body tightened down yet, and certainly havn't drivin it yet... I'll report on that one in about a year.

[gumbudah]

One advantage I forgot to mention, is taking the frame apart gave me the ability to become intimately familiar with it, which I think helped find a couple small cracks and some corrosion pits I wouldn't have found if I hadn't taken it appart.

[gumbudah]

So in the process, the cab I bought was a 2wd cab, sooo I had to put a high hump in it.... Also, becuase I used the tranny and transfer case out of the 87, my floor had to come up a bit to clear the transfer case. I didn't want to raise the body as I already have a 4" lift in the suspension.



After that all happened, we are now up to just a month ago. I put an add on craigslist looking for a box. I suprisingly I found one shortly after that is in nearly great shape.



Here's the bummer of it... The right side had a nice dent put in it.







Meanwhile I had hired a fella to do some body work for me, who brought it back to life:



So now it's looking pretty good, but there's still a bunch left to do on it.

[gumbudah]

So, a straight on of how the tail light section looks:


Got some new sheet metal for the front



The reare window has given me a bunch of problems with rust... Sooo I've blasted it and welded it up. Good thing is this will be behind a gasket, so I'm going to just POR 15 it.





The passenger cab corner needed replacing... so I replaced it.. Problem is, the bottom got a bit out of wack, so I thought it would be uuugly. So I had the body man I mentioned earlier attemt to fix it. Only by coincidence did I push the box up to where it would normally sit, and found that the box would have covered it great. However, it was too late, he already had it bent up, and was at the point where he indicated he needed to take it off to fix it. I then ordered a new cab corner, but havn't put it on yet.



I've recently been working on getting the doors cleaned up, which is about 20% of the way done.... I need to fix a couple of holse, and replace a panel or two, then blast and variprime them. Hopefully in the next week or so.

[gumbudah]

Not to be a threadhog buuuut it is my thread :P
I thought I'd start a "build sheet" for the truck. Soooo here goes:

Chassis
Stock Front and Rear axles
Trailmaster 4" suspension lift kit
Stock frame-Frame has been taken appart, sandblasted, and coated with POR 15
Stock cab mounts
Energy Suspension body mount kit
Wheels and tires TBD
Braided Steel Flex hoses to fit 4" lift from Classic Industries

Driveline
1971 Chevy 350 Block
1973 heads
Edelbrock performer intake
Holly 600 CFM electric choke
HEI distributor
Mallory (maybe it's MSD) cap
Accel Wires
Sheep horn manifolds
Power steering pump from same vingtage truck all though I'm not sure of year
700r4 Stock tranny from an 87 blazer
New Process 208 Transfer Case from 87 blazer
Custom driveshafts

Cab
2wd cab converted to 4wd
Van tilt column from approx 1975-Column will be pushed forward a bit, which fits just right with my belly.
Overdrive indicator from Brothers
Kugel Komponents shift linkage setup
Speaker filled kick panels from LMC
Speaker filled headliner from LMC Truck
Bucket seats and console from 80s vintage Ford Bronco (hey they were free!)
Black carpet
Standard guage cluster
New front glass from Classic Industries
New rear slider glass from Classic Industries
New cab rubber kit from Classic Industries

Front Clip
67 fenders from Classic Industries
67 inner fenders from Classic Industries
67 Core Support from Classic Industries
67 grille-oem
67 hood-oem
71 front bumper
Body Fasteners-Stainless works stainless steel bolt kit for enire body

Box
Under bed mounted fuel tank relocation kit from LMC
Stock 8' fleetside
LED taillights purchased from Brothers mfg by United Pacific
Filler nozzle within driver side taillight

I guess that's enough for now. Hopefully I will be able to edit this to update it!