Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Hell of a job so far. You guys are really getting after it! Looks like a good score on the cab, Wish I could have started with one that nice. Neat project to do with your son, that's great.
Ps, nice jimmy!

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

thanks its a big project but we are moving along pretty good.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

awesome build thread man. love how many pictures you post. making it look easy

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Didn't get a lot done Saturday on the truck. Did do some welding on the center hump trying to fill in the messy torched cut hole that was put in for a manual transmission. I did put some new headlights on my farm truck with 260,000 miles the headlights were shot.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

We were in spokane this last week and came across this killer truck.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Picture 1 a couple holes that looked like a bullet blasted thru, now welded smooth.
Pictures 2-5 old holes from after market a/c plugged and welded.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Today took a break from working the cab and started to repair the driver's side fender.
Picture 1 bondo filled rust
picture 2 pile of rust after removing skin.
picture 3 -5 sub frame had some rot so made a replacement for the rusted pice all ready to weld in.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

I'm guessing bullet holes from road hunting with the safety off...

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

You do know he has a build thread here right? Trucks name is Drill Sargent.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Yes that is were i seen the truck at his shop.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Photo # 1- 2 welded in the structure patch
Photo # 3 - 4 made the patch for the outer skin
Photo # 5 fit check the new patch looks like this will work.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Bryce is doing the grinding and I get to do the welding. Nothing better learning how to weld by grinding a lot of welds. Patch is all welded in and ready to go.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

We also did a little bit on the cab Bryce welded up some more of the little holes around the back window. We also took out the front windshield.

Anyone got a good way to remove all the sticky tar/glue from around the frame??

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Bryce and I messed around a bit and decided to air out the inner cowling and this is what we got out, a lot more than i expected.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

After cleaning out the inner cowling I noticed the passenger side lower door hinge mount only had 1 nut showing photo 1.
Decided to cut into the lower part of the hinge post to find out the nut assembly spun out of the mount. With a little help with the punch and hammer we got it back into the mount and all is good.
While the hinge post was cut open we sprayed rust encapsulate into the opening. now we have the cut out prepped and ready to weld up.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Nice fix! Must be nice having a helper in the build too.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Got a few more pieces primed with epoxy primmer then primed with high build primer.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

New photo of the chassis with rails temp attached and radiator core support temp. attached. Starting to look more like a truck

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Got some sand blasting done on the cab today.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

making good progress. :metal: always cool to see a GMC getting a little love. :gmc2:

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Well sense it has been raining the last two day's i decided to bring in a bed side to work on. We welded up all the trim holes and made a patch to cover the old gas door.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Did a skim coat of bondo to fill in a few little low spots:metal:

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

this has been one of my favorite ground-up restos to follow. you guys are doing awesome work. giving me a lot of good ideas. that boy is loving helping you, you can tell. he's a good helper. reminds me of mine when he was that age.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Thanks Lpoole we are having a fun time working on this truck.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Ok, it looks like your able to get about 1/4" long weld beads on sheetmetal, curious what kind of wire, brand/gauge and heat/feed settings your using? Also assuming 25/75 gas mix??

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

The wire is L-56 it is .025" and i have my temp and feed set at A for temp and 4 for speed. And yes i am using 25/75 mix. I was pushing my luck with the longer welds i did get a little warp that i worked out.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

More cab sand blasting today getting closer to finishing the blasting.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Great work. Loving this thread. Keep it up! :metal:

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

What type media are you using? i keep hearing stories of warpage due to blasting.?

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

I have been buying media from Mclendon's and it has white sand and glass. haven't had any warping issues so far plus i try not to stand in one area to long.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Thanks, i bought some stuff at Tractor Supply in Puyallup on River Rd, they carry fine and medium grits.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/stor...ing-grit-50-lb

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Another place that has all kinds of media is Kleen Blast in the Tacoma tide flats.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Spent the weekend on the Oregon coast and on the way home came across a fenced off parking lot full of old cars.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Did a little work today, I rebuilt the heater box. All i need now is a new heater core and it's ready for install.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Nice project! It's gonna look great once its done.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Well took Tuesday off work and spent it building a rotisserie for the cab. It did work but will move the engine stand plate towards the firewall more due to the weight in the front is more than the back, I didn't even think about that when i put it together. Here are some pictures. After i rotated the cab i sandblasted the bottom until my last tip blew a hole in the side.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

More pictures. I did find a bunch of pinholes in the passenger side rocker panel and back corner of the cab once i got a better view. So i guess i will be replacing those.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Wow! With the engine stands upright post being at a slight angle i didn't think 2 of them would allow for the ability to turn, you proved me wrong..

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

Saturday I Cut off and moved the engine stands 3" closer to the front of the truck so now i can roll it with out help. Today i cut off the right side rocker panel due to the holes in the bottom and found a rusted out lower door pillar. temp clamped in the new rocker panel fits pretty good will have to do some fine tuning later.

Re: 1968 Gmc ground up restoration
 

More pictures, Turned the cab onto its side made it easy to drill out the bottom spot welds