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You are here: Home My Truck Projects The '68 Choptop Page 04
Back to My '68 Choptop Project Index
Page 04
Getting Started...and Getting Some Bad News

January 01, 2007  -   This is the first of the new year, so I figured I'd start the first page of the new choptop truck project. I spent the day at the shop today getting started on what could prove to be an interesting time.

After much consideration, I've decided that this is going to be my 'rat rod' truck. I'm not going to make this one pretty or do a restoration on it, but instead will put it back together with all the spare parts I have from my parts trucks. My '67 SWB project is kinda on hold for the time being, since I'm basically at the stage where I need to start painting it, but it's too cold now to do that. So I decided that I'd spent the winter thrashing (as much as I can anyway) on the choptop, and see if I can't have it re-assembled and running by springtime. When I bought this truck it came with a 460/C6 which at first I was going to go ahead and install in the choptop, but since the project has a time limit, and since I have a complete assembled (but used) 390 on the shop floor, I've decided to just install the 390 in the choptop instead. I'll just steam-clean the heck out of it and bolt it in. The 460, therefore, will be installed in the '67 daily driver.

ven though this truck is going to be 'ratty-looking by design', I still wanted to make sure the bottom side of the cab and box were stripped and sealed, so the first thing on today's agenda was to get started stripping down the bottom of the cab. The guy I bought the truck from had done a lot of rust repair, replacing the floorpans, front cab mounts and rear cab corners. He sealed up all the joints with what appears to be tar, and while it probably would have been OK as is, I decided I wanted to get all that tar stripped off, get the bottom side cleaned down to bare metal, and then seal it off with POR-15.

First I had to remove the front sheetmetal (Fig. 01), which was an easy 30-minute job, since most of it was barely attached several months ago for it's trip from Michigan. Removing the box was just as easy (Fig. 02), as it was only held on with two bolts. I laid some carpet down on the shop floor and flipped the bed up on end behind the truck. The cab wasn't bolted down at all, so I simply had to lay down some plywood on the rear frame and flip the cab up on it's back. I then spent a few minutes just checking out the underside and putting together a plan of attack....and taking some 'before' shots.


Fig. 01 - Spent a few minutes stripping the front sheetmetal off...


Fig. 02 - ...and then I got the box removed and setting up on end, to make way for the cab to be rolled on it's back.
 

Fig. 03 - One last look before flipping the cab back. In the foreground is the 390 that'll go in this truck and the junkyard tilt column that will also be used

Fig. 04 - Got the cab flipped back, ready to get the bottom side cleaned up. The previous owner had stripped and painted the frame, after sitting outside for a while it's looking ratty....perfect.

Fig. 05 - Here's the right-side floorpan area. You can see the replaced floorpan and cab mount, and the tar he used to seal the seams, which he then primered over.

Fig. 06 - When the front cab mounts were replaced, a large washer was welded over the mounting hole to coincide with the bolt size. He did the same modification to the cab's frame mount.

Fig. 07 - Here's a view of the front side of the rear cab corners. The PO fabricated some flat sheetmetal which looks fairly good.

Fig. 08 - The transmission hump has been butchered, but I was planning on cutting it out and installing a bolt-on hump anyway.


Fig. 09 - Yeah, it got pretty dusty in the shop while sanding...good thing I was using a respirator!


Fig. 10 - After the dust settled a bit, I took this shot, showing the afternoon's progress.

I attached a knotted-wire wheel to the angle grinder and went to work stripping out the tar sealer...and let me tell you, it was a dirty job! I alternated between the wire wheel and the 3M composite stripping wheel to get the floorpans down to bare metal. I worked pretty steadily for most of the afternoon, getting the bottom side not quite half done, and at this point I decided to take a smoke break. (Yeah, I know....doesn't make a whole lot of sense to remove the respirator, which is designed to protect my lungs, and then light up a cigarette, right? Oh well...)

Anyway, while I was enjoying my break I was walking around the truck checking things out, and noticed some bubbling under the primer on the driver's door (Fig. 11). I had the 3M stripper disc in the grinder and hit it to the bubble, knowing that I'd probably find rust....but still hopeful it was minor. No such luck. Not only was it rusted through in that spot (and I had to get through nearly 1/2" of body filler to get to it!), but continuing to strip down this door I found that the whole lower half of the door, everything below the bump, is rusted out and beat to hell. I have no idea why the previous owner took such great care chopping the top and doors, only to then use a gallon of filler on a rusted-out door.

Fig. 11 - I noticed this bubbling under the primer on the driver's door and my heart sunk, knowing what it meant....RUST!

Fig. 12 - I hit the stripper wheel to the bubble, and after getting through 1/2" of body filler, I found this.

Fig. 13 - I continued with the stripper wheel only to find that the lower skin of this door is almost virtually trashed!

Fig. 14 - Here's a view of the stripped-down door. You can see that it's pretty bad under all the body filler.

Fig. 15 - Here's the lower rear corner of the door. It appears he brazed in a partial patch panel, but then just slapped 1/2" of filler over the top of the rest! WTF??

Fig. 16 - I started cutting the skin off along the front edge of the door, leaving about 7/16" of lip to attach the patch panel to. Then I ran some tape along the bump to use as a straight-edge for cutting that section.

Anyway, not only is the lower part of the skin rusted out, but the front and rear corners are toast, and the whole bottom 10" and rear 10" of the door looks like a relief map of the Rocky Mountains. Basically, it means this door will need a whole lower skin, everything from the top of the bump down to the bottom lip.

Well, I only allowed myself about 10 minutes of bitchin' and cussin' before I decided to just deal with it....and I fired up the air compressor and cut-off tool. I figured I might as well as started getting the old skin off so that I could survey the damage underneath. I decided to leave myself about a 7/16" lip around the skin perimeter, leaving the very edges of the door alone. The inner door skin lip is about 1", so I've got something to weld the new outer skin to.


Fig. 17 - Here's a shot of the removed skin. It took about 30 minutes of careful cutting to get this removed from the door. It never ceases to amaze me why the factory didn't apply some form of rust protectant to the inner door.

I've got a pair of '67 doors with good skins (I believe) to use for the rust repair, so my next day at the shop will consist of cutting one of them up for the patch panel. Unfortunately, I'll probably have to spend the entire day getting the patch panel cut and fitted properly, before I can even start welding. And since I now have easy access to the inner door, I'll be sandblasting as much as I can reach and then coating it all with POR-15 prior to welding in the patch panel. It's definitely going to be an interesting experience! Stay tuned for more updates!

 

You are here: Home My Truck Projects The '68 Choptop Page 04


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