68 K20 Panel truck, ex. civil defence vehicle

[K20chevy]

Hello Everyone,

after aquiring this 68 K20 4x4 panel from member Fishbone, I decided to start a build thread. Not too much going on as of now. I´m still collecting parts, but I will post the progress here.

The trucks was put into service in 1968 in Hamilton, AL for the Hamilton Rescue Service. It was first a civil defence truck, white and blue in color and was later changed to red and used for the Hamilton fire department.

It is a really solid truck with only 24000 original miles. The only rust is in the left rocker panel, which I´ll have to replace. The rest is all solid.

It has a 307 V8 with a 4 speed manual and a Rockwell T-case. No power steering or power brakes. I will change these two as the only deviation to the original to make it more drivable.

It has a Ramsey PTO winch with a step on winch bumper. Hickey front auxiliary coil over shocks, is missing the custom rear bumper (will have to build one from scratch), is missing the custom roof rack (also have to build that) and missing the siren and beacons. If anyone can lend info on what siren and beacons these are and where to get them, I´d appreciate it a lot!

First orders are getting power steering and power brakes and drive it to see if everything works. Then I´ll build the roof rack and rear bumper, before the body goes to the bodyshop. I might start a stainless stell exhaust too before taking it back apart.

So here is a picture of what it looks like in the shop now:





And here are some vintage pic from the truck when it was put into service for the CD:




And later for the fire department:




Big thanks to the Hamilton Fire Department for providing these pictures!!!

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks like a cool truck. Are you going the civil defense colors or the red fire dept colors? Either way it'll be sharp. Sorry no knowledge of the beacons or siren.

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Looks like a cool truck. Are you going the civil defense colors or the red fire dept colors? Either way it'll be sharp. Sorry no knowledge of the beacons or siren.

Thanks. It will go back to the white and blue civil defence color sceme with all the signs and lettering airbrushed below the clear coat.

Sure the red and the gold lettering look sweet, but I like the idea putting it back to the way it was put into service.
I hope I can get some more civil defence pictures off it somewhere!

[Juiced06GTO]

Good luck with the build. I just got my 69 Suburban out of Berwick, ME. It was also a fire rescue vehicle in Texas, small world!!

[Joesjunk]

Glad to see it went to a good home. Very rare and cool truck. Looking forward to your build.

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Juiced06GTO

Good luck with the build. I just got my 69 Suburban out of Berwick, ME. It was also a fire rescue vehicle in Texas, small world!!

Thank you! Yes really small world. Gotta love the well maintained fire and rescue trucks!

Originally Posted by Joesjunk

Glad to see it went to a good home. Very rare and cool truck. Looking forward to your build.

Thanks! It´ll be a while though as I will just do that on the side. But I´ll post Progress of what I´ve done to it...

[Justin@EntropyRad]

sweet!

[68SWB4x4]

In for this

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Justin@EntropyRad

sweet!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 68SWB4x4

In for this

Just be patient, not a lot of time lately!

[Waynecar53]

Hey K20, I have been following your post on your "68 with great interest. That is such a very unique vehicle and I was glad to hear that you plan on taking it back to its "original" OCD blue and white. While the government bought hundreds of CD trucks over the years very few remain and most that I have seen are REO's or Internationals.

I too have a restored ambulance, a 1969 GMC that is here on the board. It can be found under "mylatesttoy". Since changing my modem and wireless router a little over a month ago I have been unable to log in to the forums. Therefore I had to get a new account. I previously logged in as smfdco1.

You had asked several questions about the emergency lighting on your truck. Maybe this will be of some help to you. As originally delivered the truck would have been equipped with a single siren light combo. The base that is still on the roof indicates it to have been a Federal WLR. I have also seen older units with Sterling Juniors but they would not have used that base that you have. The two clear lights on the back above the rear doors made by Unity are also I believe original to the truck as are the two "A" post spotlights.

The beacon light which looks to be a Federal model 17 was I'm sure added by the fire department as were the two Whelen Roto-beams on the rear roof corners. I have never seen a OCD truck so equipped when delivered. That was a time when the government was a little more frugal.

I hope that this is of some help to you and I really look forward to following your restoration.... Wayne

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Waynecar53

Hey K20, I have been following your post on your "68 with great interest. That is such a very unique vehicle and I was glad to hear that you plan on taking it back to its "original" OCD blue and white. While the government bought hundreds of CD trucks over the years very few remain and most that I have seen are REO's or Internationals.

I too have a restored ambulance, a 1969 GMC that is here on the board. It can be found under "mylatesttoy". Since changing my modem and wireless router a little over a month ago I have been unable to log in to the forums. Therefore I had to get a new account. I previously logged in as smfdco1.

You had asked several questions about the emergency lighting on your truck. Maybe this will be of some help to you. As originally delivered the truck would have been equipped with a single siren light combo. The base that is still on the roof indicates it to have been a Federal WLR. I have also seen older units with Sterling Juniors but they would not have used that base that you have. The two clear lights on the back above the rear doors made by Unity are also I believe original to the truck as are the two "A" post spotlights.

The beacon light which looks to be a Federal model 17 was I'm sure added by the fire department as were the two Whelen Roto-beams on the rear roof corners. I have never seen a OCD truck so equipped when delivered. That was a time when the government was a little more frugal.

I hope that this is of some help to you and I really look forward to following your restoration.... Wayne

Thank you so much for the help with the emergency lighting. If you zoom in on the orifinal CD picture, it also shows the large beacon in the middle and the smaller ones on the rear corners and actually two more on the fron corners of the roof.

The truck, when it rolled off the assembly line was actually light blue. Now that all the beacons are gone, you can see thet below the 4 "corner roto-beacons" the paint is light blue, so they must have been put on before the truck was painted CD colors. The large beacon in the back has withe paint on it, so it must have been added later, after the truck was painted.

I´ll have to see if i can come up with the siren and lights sometime. I´d like to try them out before stripping it all for body work and paint.

I´ll have to check your 69 out as well!

[DeadheadNM]

Nice!! I'm on board.

[Waynecar53]

K20, that just goes to prove that no two trucks are ever built alike. The original department may have requested the additional lights as the siren light combo provided very little in the way of warning. You may want to check the site "elightbars" for your Federal siren light. Another is "Dcaptain" who is a small collector who sells a few items. I see that you are also a member of "PCS" board who may also be a source. Then of course there is ebay where you will pay 5 times what it is worth but I've done that too when there was no other option.

Anyway, I'm glad it will remain a part of history. I may have an extra set of Radiological Monitors stored away somewhere. A few years ago I would also have had all of the lights that you need but I got out of that... Sorry.

Thanks for replying back to my post and have a great day. Wayne

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Nice!! I'm on board.

Originally Posted by Waynecar53

K20, that just goes to prove that no two trucks are ever built alike. The original department may have requested the additional lights as the siren light combo provided very little in the way of warning. You may want to check the site "elightbars" for your Federal siren light. Another is "Dcaptain" who is a small collector who sells a few items. I see that you are also a member of "PCS" board who may also be a source. Then of course there is ebay where you will pay 5 times what it is worth but I've done that too when there was no other option.

Anyway, I'm glad it will remain a part of history. I may have an extra set of Radiological Monitors stored away somewhere. A few years ago I would also have had all of the lights that you need but I got out of that... Sorry.

Thanks for replying back to my post and have a great day. Wayne

Hi Wayne,

thanks for all the info. Now that I know what lights I need, it should be possible to get them within reasonable time. My only real problem is, that I have no picture from the back in the CD trim and no original interior pics. Therefore I have no idea what was inside, as it was all empty when I bought it. The only Thing I can see/tell is, that there seemed to be some kind of small table behind the drivers seat. That is all I can see.

Sad is, that the roof rack and custom rear bumper are missing, that means I´ll have to re-make them just ba the pictures.

Not sure where to get the rescue basket that used to be on the rack.

But it´ll be a long time, before I get this far. First the mechanics and the body/paint need to be done.

Ralf

[Waynecar53]

As I recall the back doors were lettered either FIRE RESCUE or RESCUE SERVICE depending on the age of the truck and all carried the round CD logo. I might be able to get you a pic of the roof rack that is on an International, they were all basically the same. The rescue basket you refer to is called a "Stokes Basket" and I have one if you cant find one closer to you. The roof racks were simple angle iron and the bumpers were just diamond plate steel with a step across the bottom. I'm sure that you have already but if not Google "Civil Defense truck" and there are several photos of the "contents" that was carried displayed outside on a tarp. A member over on the PCS board from Ca. has reproduced the CD logos but any good sign shop could do those for you. Looking forward to following this project...Wayne

[Waynecar53]

I forgot to mention... check out the Civil Defense Museum sitr. There is a list of the equipment carried on light duty (yours) medium and heavy duty trucks plus some great photos....

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Waynecar53

As I recall the back doors were lettered either FIRE RESCUE or RESCUE SERVICE depending on the age of the truck and all carried the round CD logo. I might be able to get you a pic of the roof rack that is on an International, they were all basically the same. The rescue basket you refer to is called a "Stokes Basket" and I have one if you cant find one closer to you. The roof racks were simple angle iron and the bumpers were just diamond plate steel with a step across the bottom. I'm sure that you have already but if not Google "Civil Defense truck" and there are several photos of the "contents" that was carried displayed outside on a tarp. A member over on the PCS board from Ca. has reproduced the CD logos but any good sign shop could do those for you. Looking forward to following this project...Wayne

Hi Wayne, it would be great if you could get a picutre or two off of that international truck with the roof rack. I´ll have to get the mechanical and the Body work done first, but if I can´t come up with a stokes basked, I´ll get back to you for that. Thanks for the offer. I did locate a siren and the large beacon and have someone look for the small beacons.

The rear bumper on this truck was a Little different, they had 3 compartments in the bumper, I assume for ropes or stuff like that. So it´ll be a Little more difficult to recreate that from scratch!

Originally Posted by Waynecar53

I forgot to mention... check out the Civil Defense Museum sitr. There is a list of the equipment carried on light duty (yours) medium and heavy duty trucks plus some great photos....

Thanks I did and already saved the Pictures, so I can go on the hunt for parts once the truck gets done.

Ralf

[Waynecar53]

Ralf, I can't help you much on the bumper. I'll see what I can do on the roof rack but it may take me a few weeks as the truck is not near where I live. I just got back from the big antique car meet in Hershey Pa. and while I found a few things on my wish list I could have brought home a bunch more. If you have never been you have to go there once. Fortunately most everything that you need to outfit the back of your truck is either still made or available from the local hardware store. Wayne

[K20chevy]

Originally Posted by Waynecar53

Ralf, I can't help you much on the bumper. I'll see what I can do on the roof rack but it may take me a few weeks as the truck is not near where I live. I just got back from the big antique car meet in Hershey Pa. and while I found a few things on my wish list I could have brought home a bunch more. If you have never been you have to go there once. Fortunately most everything that you need to outfit the back of your truck is either still made or available from the local hardware store. Wayne

Hi Wayne, I just found some Pictures of other 67-72 chevy/GMC ambulances with similar rear bumpers. So I guess it might not have been custom after all, could be that it was made by a Company back then. I wish i could find out who made it, so I could look for one, instead of trying to reproduce it myself.

No rush, take your time. I have all winter to work on the rood rack. I have never been to this antique car meet, but it sounds great.

I am sure i can find most things, but the most difficult is that rear bumper, maybe the Roof rack and to get the lettering correct as I want that airbrushed below the clear coat, to make it last.

First Thing for now is getting the old and cracked tires off, have the wheels blasted and repainted, get new tubes and new tires installed.

Ralf

[K20chevy]

So finally I did find time to start working on the Panel truck again.

Parts started to collect...



I did take the brakes off to rebuild the axles.









I guess these are pretty rare! Hope I can restore them.



I also got the split rims dismounted from the old tires, sent them out to have them sandblasted...









and now back from the powder coater! First parts in the future colors!

[scotto0609]

i am so into this build!

[DeadheadNM]

Looks great - thanks for the update.

[Green 1959]

Really cool! I just acquired a 69 GMC Burb but I don't think it has had the rich history yours has.

[68panelman]

Can't believe how nice the inner rim is!!!, especially on splits!!!
You own my unicorn truck!!!

[K20chevy]

here are a couple of videos...

Engine still starts and runs great.



And the so cool aquired sirene!