Worth Restoring- Dad's old truck

[100gold]

My Dad bought this truck in 1984 or so, it had 45,000 miles on it. It lived a pretty good life other than the ol' man was a bit of a pig when it came to the cosmetics. Mechanically though he was a fanatic. It had to drive right and run strong.

It's high point was the fall it headed down to Arizona for the winter with a Roadking in the bed and a 1975 Airstream 31 foot overlander hooked onto the hitch. In helwigs we trust! Can you imagine that pile of true American iron and aluminum? Brings tears to a guys eyes!

The truck is a 72 Cheyenne Super SWB with 350/350 showing on the SPID. Black exterior with the parchment interior.

We found a tach dash in the late 80's and a tilt wheel from the same truck and added both items.

The early 90's brought about a motor and tranny swap to replace the well worn original drivetrain.

Pops was an old hotrodder from way back so when he built the new drivetrain he made it so it'd run. It had a little 425 hp 350 running on a Holley fuel injection system and a hell for stout 700r4 to give it some legs.

He ran that setup for about 12 years or so and then got into a tangle with a horse trailer with no tail lights taking a left in front of him and the little black truck went for a ride out through the borrow pit.

The truck got parked and the drivetrain came out of it for a 28 model A pickup hotrod project.

In 08 the ol' man with some help from the big C decided to lay down and dry up. He left this truck to his best friend and mechanic. The mechanic, with a little prodding from me and my cousin decided he wouldn't have the time nor money to play with it so he sold it back to us.

So, it begins. The rebuild what's going to be the second life of a neat little truck. I'll try and be diligent on keeping you guys updated on the progress but bear with me if I get busy and miss a few weeks.

Here's some pics as she sat in the shed.

[100gold]

The next few pics are of the mockup. Fitting of new doors and hood and after pulling the slightly bent pass. side a pillar straight.

[100gold]

The next ones are up to today. In these you can get an idea as to how straight this truck really is. My builder is ecstatic in regards to how little time it's going to take to get it to the paint booth.

The bed floor is clean. Some of the more time consuming issues include all the old snap rivets that a PO had put in the bed for a soft tonneau cover. It'll take a day just to do the hole repairs.

We went through 800 lbs of sand for this phase.

Ya' can't be a guy and not appreciate that sandblaster/aircompressor rig. Sweetness!

[nuke1]

Good story and glad you got your dads truck back

[LEEVON]

Cool story but why did the mechanic make you buy it back if he was your dad's best bud?

[100gold]

Leevon,
That's an interesting question. I guess it's because he needed the money.

To be truthful with you, he was real stubborn for quite awhile. Then last christmas I saw in the paper where he'd gotten a dui. I waited a few weeks and I guess you could say I caught him at a time of need.

Anyways, it helped him out when he needed it and everyone was happy.

[72BlckButy]

That is going to make one nice build, best of luck with the project!

[woodridge]

Glad you got it back. Looks like you are making good progress. And I really like the Compressor set up.

[my67chevytruck]

Glad you have the truck now! looks like she's cleaning up real good. Best of luck with your build.

[VA72C10]

Will be following along. Looks like an excellent starting point.

[100gold]

I cannot believe the amount of time I've got into researching parts prices and quality.

I'm at the point where I'm starting to believe that this site is just confusing me more.

It's simple really. I want the best quality and I don't mind paying for that. I wish places like LMC and Brothers etc. would rate the quality of the parts that they offer.

HVAC hose replacement kit for example, one's 49.95 and one's 79.95. Is it suppose to be self evident that the more expensive one is better? How about telling us what the thickness of the material is or something?

On a side note, Dad had enough forethought to buy all nos upper and lower molding. It's been sitting around now for 20 years but it's still in the packages.

More pics coming this weekend.

[100gold]

I've been working on the interior this week. Doing research on availability of the door panels and trim I realized I'd better take a very close look at what I had.

Hopefully you can see in the pics how dirty every thing was.

Everything I've read screams "use your original door panels if you can".

The wood insert panels are toast but thankfully those are available. The chrome moldings have to be saved though, as they are unavailable as far as I can tell.

Some degreaser and neverdull saved the chrome pieces and I think that I got the panels themselves clean enough to repaint with colorbond. Has anyone had experience with colorbond interior paint? How close does it match?

The sunvisors were a bear! The pass. side cleaned up pretty easily but on the drivers side.....well Dad was a 4 pack a day smoker.....you can imagine.

A good scrubbrush and they look great, or at least good enough that I think a light coat of colorbond will make them look fine.

The brackets on the sunvisors are also the parchment color. They could use a freshening up. Can I use the same colorbond for them also?

When I refer to colorbond I'm talking about the stuff that LMC offers in their catalog.

The headliner cleaned up well also. Again a light coat of the colorbond is in order here but more importantly it needs a new backing to give it better rigidity. My plan there is to take it to the upholsterer that is redoing the bench seat and have him reback it if it's cost effective. The chrome trim for the head liner is toast so it's on the parts list.....150 smackers for that ouch!

So a few pics next and comments and sage advice are welcome and appreciated!

[100gold]

Just posting some update pics here. Lots of progress and a few snags. I went with all Bell Tech for the suspension. 3 inch spindle drop with stock springs and the pro form coils for the rear with the 1 inch spacers for adjustability.

Here's some pics men, enjoy!

[100gold]

More

[msgross]

nice project, great history...

did you put an entire floor in because of a few little rust spots?

of course, NOS is your best bet for parts but that's a given... everything else is average to crap... but my sheetmetal except doors is aftermarket due to my fear of rust and budget..

[100gold]

More.....

[100gold]

More.......comin' along huh?

[100gold]

You're tired of these I know....just kidding, we're such pic mongers here eh?

[100gold]

This should be the last for awhile. I picked up the paint last week and with the chassis ready we'll jump off that and get some paint on her. I went with ppg concept single stage. Paint code 500, of course! Stay tuned.

[100gold]

Msgross,
No new floor, just had to replace the right front cab support. The black color is smooth spray on bedliner material. After being primed and painted of course. Trying to quiet the cab down and fix any future corrosion issues. We'll also do the inside of the cab floor the same way.

Thanks for the look!

[msgross]

looks like new then.. what brand of liner did you go with?

[tcb-1]

wow, wow, wow! nice buildup. nothing prettier than a fresh rolling chassis!

[desertrat]

Originally Posted by tcb-1

wow, wow, wow! nice buildup. nothing prettier than a fresh rolling chassis!

[71swb4x4]

Duramat inside the cab will also help with reducing road noise.

Use board vendors for parts when you can. Most of those are smaller companies and when you call them you will usually get a real "truck guy". Customer service is usally great. There are a couple board vendors in Washington, and maybe one in Oregon too.

[100gold]

Thanks guys.

The liner we're using is a simple rattle can product from NAPA. As a matter of fact, almost all of the chassis finishes are purchased at NAPA. I wanted a truck that I could refreshen easily.

I'm not sure what Duromat is. I was going to go with lizardskin and ran out of budget. That's easily done in the future though if deemed needed.


As far as vendors go. I tried a small one down in texas for the first 2700.00 on interior parts and woodgrain restoration. 5 months later and I still don't have all of my parts order that I prepaid him for. He won't return e mails etc. so I'm going to have to order the next 3000.00 through someone else. I'm going to order from someone in the northwest and see if I can save on shipping somehow. Things like grille shells and inserts add up fast!

Should see some blackness splattered on 'er soon!